Chapter 9
Chapter 9: The Meeting Abhay's P.O.V
Since I had gotten up well before sunrise, I decided to first clean up and then quickly changed into some loose fitting pants and a T-shirt and pack up my camera so I could head to the desert for some shots of the sunrise. I brushed on my way out and caught a motor van ride into the desert along with some other men and women who were heading to Jaipur. I was also able to get a cup of piping hot tea on the way along with some biscuits that I enjoyed in the cool morning breeze as the motor van left the cemented town road and entered the bumpy desert road.
I found a suitable place to get off and waved the other passengers goodbye as I hoisted my backpack over one shoulder and headed toward the desert to find a suitable spot for taking pictures.
Once I'd found a spot, I set my backpack down and began taking pictures of the sun as it rose above the dunes at first with an orangish-pink hue and then slowly turned bright yellow. It was a magnificent view and thankfully, a herd of camels decided to pass by me at the same time and I asked the man in charge to help pose with his camels for a shot or two.
By the time I was done taking photographs, it was almost eight in the morning and the heat had began to rise. I wiped some sweat from my brows. and took out my water canteen to take a few sips of water before I headed back. But when I finally packed up my backpack and looked around, all I saw was sand dunes for miles on end without a single trace of a camel or a van to help me get back to the village.
“Oh, shit!” I slapped my palm against my forehead in dismay. I might have gotten here easy but I hadn't even thought about how I'd get back to the village without any help. As far as I remembered, I wasn’t that far out of that village. maybe a couple kilometers at best...but in which direction was it again? The sand was confusing my sense of direction and I hadn't even bothered to bring my compass with me!
Wait a minute! I still had my phone! Fishing it out of my pocket, I flipped it open and called the hotel I was staying in, but no one picked up the phone. Just my goddamned luck!
“Wait, jiji!
My head snapped up at the direction of the voice. There was someone else here! Awoman, most probably two. They could help me find my way back! Or maybe they have a camel or something that I could ride? I didn’t want to get my hopes up but when I heard that voice again, I was sure that I wasn't alone. Someone was coming from behind one of the sand dunes and by the direction of the voice, I could tell that they were heading towards me. So I stayed put and hoped for the best.
Her hair came into sight first but no one would be able to tell by the way they blended so beautifully with the white sands in front of her. Today, she was wearing a ghagra choli in deep blur and sky. The glass embroidery work in her ghagra caught the light of the sun and reflected it on the sand making it look like the sand around her was glowing. For a second my heart stopped as her icy blue eyes scanned the area around her and then finally landed on me.
The temperature dropped by several degrees and I felt like I was back inside my dream in that snow covered landscape, looking back at the white wolf with the same blue eyes. Something passed between the two of us right then and there, something I had no clue about. But I felt it to my bones. the connection, the attraction and the tension. And by the way her eyes stared me down; I knew she felt it too.
“Jiji, why do you always-huh? Who are you?”This is from NôvelDrama.Org.
The trance was broken and I shook my head to dear it. When I looked back at the duo, I found the black ~ haired waman looking at me withe> open ifitérest. I cleared my threat befaré'I answered. "Hi...L..Umin...m Abkay Rathore.” I waved atthem awkwardly. “And I think..{m lost.”
“Oh?” The dark haired woman looked surprised. “You look familiar, have we met before? “N-no.” I shook my head and cursed myself for stammering. “But I was in the dhaba yesterday...in the afternoon.
“Ah! That's why I thought I'd seen you before.” She clapped her hands together. “Well Abhay, you're in luck. We're headed back to town ourselves. You can tag along if you want to.”
“Ruksaar!” The silver haired woman spoke for the first time since I’d seen her and her words sounded like a melody from some faraway place to my ears, although the warning was clear in her voice.
“Oh, come on, jiji!” Ruksaar, now I finally had a name to one of the faces, batted her long eyelashes at the silver haired woman. “You certainly won't say no to a lost traveler? Besides, we're heading to the village anyway.
“Fine,” the silver haired woman rolled her eyes in disinterest. “He can tag along.”
I blinked at her in surprise. “Hey! You have a Indian accent!” The words were out before I could stop myself. Damnit! I wasn’t normally this shy around women but being near these two was really intimidating. Why did I feel so intimidated by them anyway?
“Why wouldn't she?” Ruksaar looked at me as if I was some kind of a weird specimen. “She is Indian.”
I looked at them both in surprise once again. She was Indian? How? She had bright silver hair and her > eyes weté blue, not to mention her skin color was really light, just like foreigners. But she did have an Indian accent..maybe soméone in Hét family had married aforeigner?
“Come on, then, let's get back already. I’m starving.” Ruksaar spoke to me as the duo descended down the dune and began moving west. in the direction of the village.
“Sure.” So the followed behind the women back to the village.
We walked the rest of the way to the village in silence. Both Ruksaar and her sister were really fast, I could hardly keep up with them despite the long strides, but it was an experienced itself walking with . them. I dent know how they could: walk safast despite wearing such heavyémbroidered clothing but'they somehow managed it. At one point, tbe winds picked up, scattering sand everywhere and I had to Gover my eyes so as to block the particles from entering my eyes, but since I was standing right behind Ruksaar’s sister, I got a whiff of her scent. The strange thing was, it wasn't a scent I'd ever smelled before and yet I could tell what that scent was even though I knew such a thing didn't have any scent, and it took me right back to my nightmare.
Because that scent...it was the scent of snow.