"I have a request. Please don't get me wrong. Can you please check if there is a girl inside the washroom? She is my friend. She wasn't feeling too well when she went in so I just wanted to see if she is alright," Vidyut cajoled the woman who was looking at him with suspicious eyes.
Unfortunately, she was the only woman around at the moment. After waiting for about twenty minutes, he had become anxious and gone to stand outside the washroom, contemplating whether he should go inside or not. It was then that this woman had found him standing there and given him a nasty look.
She was back within a few seconds and shook her head in negative.
"There is no one inside. A pile of dirty clothes is kept in a corner. Now stop lurking around here. I need to use the utilities," she told him sternly.
Vidyut went back to the tea stall and paid for the now cold tea. Picking up his belongings, he walked towards his waiting horse cart.
"I hope that she is alright," he thought to himself restlessly, before heading back to the lodge where he was staying with his family.
It was dawn by the time an exhausted, dehydrated Mriga made it back to the lodge. After walking on the initially taken path for more than half hour, she had realised that it was the wrong one. She went down a few more wrong tracks before eventually identifying a landmark from the previous day. Struggling to stay awake, she sent up a prayer of gratitude when that dilapidated structure came into sight.
She staggered in through the creaking door only to collapse into Shaurya's waiting arms.
"Where the hell have you been?" His voice was starkly different from the usual cold, composed one but Mriga's tired mind was too far gone to register it.
Worried lines marred his forehead as he picked her up and gently laid her on the uncomfortable cot. Her eyes were shut and her face had a sickly pallor. Placing his palm on her forehead, he found it burning. Why was her hair wet? Her clothes…
"Can you hear me? If so, just nod your head slightly," he said gently crouching next to her.
"Water… I need water," she croaked.
Shaurya had returned half hour ago and spent all that time looking for her in a worried frenzy. He had gone running next to the water stream at the off chance that she was there. He had shouted her name standing on the porch thinking that she might have wandered to someplace nearby. Now, he had been about to head out to look for her when she came tumbling in, that too without Devvrat.
Pouring water in a cup from the surahi*, he slipped his hand beneath the back of her head to raise it a little and help her drink.
Mriga greedily slurped without caring that some water was dribling down her mouth. Though it had been dark while she had been on the road, her throat was parched post the alcohol and with fear. Her head felt as if the slightest movement would cause it to shatter into a million shards. She tried opening her eyes but they felt so heavy.
Thankfully, a cool hand pressed gently on her eyelids and a whisper asked her to go to sleep.
Shaurya soaked a cloth with water and placed it on her head at continuous intervals. There was an acute sense of discomfort coursing through him at this moment.
It was all his FAULT!
He shouldn't have entrusted her safety to an incompetent near stranger, and that too in an alien environment. But the lure of getting his hands on a defecting spy from the other country had been too strong. By the time he had finished grilling the defector and handed him over to his Suraksha Chakra team, it was nearly dawn.
He had travelled back without stopping for even a small break due to an unexplained unease in his heart. That unease had turned into a mind-numbing worry during those thirty minutes which he spent waiting for her upon arriving back. After discovering that she was missing, he had held himself back from running out immediately to look for her because he had absolutely no idea where to go!
Her head seemed less hot now than it had been fifteen minutes ago. Getting up from the crouching position, he let his gaze run critically over Mrignayani more than once. Apart from the change of clothes which seemed to belong to a guy, she seemed unharmed. Touching the sleeve of the kurta which she was wearing, he frowned at the soft, expensive looking material. These couldn't have been Devvrat's clothes. Also, it hadn't rained in the night so why was her hair wet?
Clenching his jaw, he told himself to get a grip. As long as she was back unharmed, all was ok. There would be enough time for him to ask her about the details.
Yes, he needed to calm down lest he accidentally killed her for causing him a cartful of worry.
Mriga's mouth felt as if it had cotton stuffed inside it. She squinted against the harsh sun rays which were piercing her eyes through the window in front of the cot on which she lay. She sat up slowly with a groan and looked around. The place was empty and that was a relief. She knew that while drifting in and out of sleep, she had seen a fierce looking Shaurya peering down at her. Her heart was palpitating over the dressing down which awaited her.
Sitting up on the rough cot, she raised her hands above her head and stretched her sore muscles.
"I must have walked enough miles to run two marathons," she thought woefully.
The door creaked open and her heart sank. She hurriedly stood up. Damn, she hadn't imagined that black scowl on his face!
"I am s.. so sorry. I am sorry to have worried you," she preempted his scolding and started speaking with her head bowed.
Without responding, he went past her and placed the water filled surahi on the rickety stool which stood in the opposite corner of the room.
Pivoting, he asked in a quiet voice, "what happened last night once you left with Devvrat? I want every single detail. Do NOT dare leave anything out."
*Surahi - Earthen pot with a narrow opening, used to store drinking water.