Dried Lilies, Withered Hearts And A Lonely Path

•Chapter-6• dawn convenes night.

The last thing she saw were the four men grinning down at her misery as her consciousness slowly coalesced with darkness.

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The storms of the night before haven't stalled yet but a little storm had never stopped Sid from racing through these wonderful woods. Squinting through the falling droplets of the rain, ducking, dodging, and jumping over fallen and swinging trees alike. With a flying jump, he broke through the forest line and on the sandy secluded beach.

He sprinted easily on his long athlete's legs. Rain droplets rolled off the tip of her nose and submerged him in the earthly scents. He'd been out running even before the violent storm turned into a soft drizzle, his feet flying, his heart pumping in a furious attempt to erase from his mind the events of the night before. It had all been fine. It had all been going fine. It had been so well. And then it had all unraveled.

He shook his head as if to shake free of the memory. He lengthened his strides and quickened his pace, pushing his body as fast as it would go. Fast, fluent, invincible. That's what he had always been, that's what he needed to be. The constant. 

The sudden cackling overhead as a blinding light split the sky in two, followed by a thunderous deafening sound. The sea roared to life, a humongous wave washing over his running form. Nature was in upheaval and from his point, he couldn't differentiate between the darkness of sea and sky. The line where the sky meets the sea seemed to have blurred. There was no way someone could differentiate between the stormy blue of the sky or the sea. 

Something was very wrong. 

Siddhant decided turning away from the angry roaring sea, wailing sky, and howling winds. Breaking into another sprint towards his home, stepping into the shadows of the sal trees. 

Dr. Siddhant,recently appointed govt. doctor of Salabari was the most loved and adored being in the reserve as well as in the villages around. And for as long as Siddhant could remember he had been running around the forests whether it was the Chandaka forest, Kanchenjunga or the Rajhamsa island it didn't matter. Running has been the only constant in his life.

Something that never changed.

He was back under the protection of the dense forest, listening to the chortles of Mahanadi following nearby when a sudden violent stance of blood assaulted his senses. Fresh blood. Worried he changed his tracks and sprinted towards the smell of blood tainting the earthly stances. 

"Narayana," He heard himself speak almost involuntarily. 

It was not a pretty sight. There was a body in front of him. A female mud and blood-covered body. He couldn't actually differentiate the blood from the mud. It was an odd mixture. The brown of mud, the red of blood mixing and clashing against each other. Even with the violent rains overhead. The face with blood spilling and painting her lips a vivid dark scarlet amid the dark monochromatic hues of nature. The scene in front of him was truly a bloody and muddy mess and the clothes that used to cover her body once were ripped to shreds. Surrounding her like flowers spread around dead. 

He was almost afraid of touching her. He didn't want to tarnish her essence more than it already had been but he needed to check whether she was really dead or not? Even if the scene in front of him made it seem highly unlikely for her to be alive. He still needed too. The healer in him won't rest until he checked. Gently his fingers glided over her vitals and to his utter surprise, there was a pulse.

He hadn't truly expected her to be alive. It didn't seem possible yet she was and draining fast. 

Discarding every thought about possibilities and miracles. He scooped her in his arms and darted towards his abode. He might save her or it might be truly too late. But he had to try. He really had too with that in his heart he sprinted full speed towards his wood and stone mansion.