Words left unspoken..

Chapter 3

        Sooner I came to know that there was more than one horse. But at least three or four of them. Without giving us time to do anything a horse appeared over a dune.

           Mounted on the horse was a man with a beard all over his face. The man wore a wraparound garment and was topless. Undoubtedly an archaic costume. Once he saw the two of us he pulled the reins of the horse. The horse stopped abruptly in front of us.

"What are you doing here?" He roared. 

        Dumbfounded I stared at him. At that moment other horses also came to a halt near us. There were four of them. All the riders wore the same outlandish costume.

        From what I saw and heard, I understood that I had landed in a different territory. But how was that possible? A thought occurred that they might be a cast crew from a film shooting nearby. But my gut feeling told me they weren't. It's true that they spoke our language, but that was certainly an ancient dialect.

"Where are you from? And what are you wearing?" I didn't miss the sneering in his voice.

He asked it like we were wearing some stone age clothes. I meant like dead skins and leaves.

"We have got lost in here" Jade retorted pointing out the woods.

"Who wants to believe them? They are lying. Look at their fancy clothes." One of them shouted in disbelief.

        I was highly offended. "We are not. We don't remember being here before. Where are we?" I inquired.All of them laughed in unison as if it was amusing.

"You can find out at once you set foot in the castle." one with the bushy beard said as he signaled to the others.

"Come on! Get on to this horse" A bald man shouted.

"We did nothing wrong." Jade protested.

"What?? Huh..! mayhap! But you are strangers and that's enough. After all it's our duty to report every single suspect to the chief. What else do you think we are patrolling for?" he seemed contented.

"But we are not suspects. We are innocent. You don't have the right to charge us." I cried out of despair. The idea of taking us to be judged made me sick.

"ENOUGH!! Will you get on the horse or not? You can say whatever you want to the chief." He sounded outraged.

So I climbed on the brown one with the bald man and Jade went with the one with a bushy beard.