There is no way home!
After Noah and Grace woke up, we all set off towards the path Luca mentioned. We expected to find people. A civilization. What we found is not what we expected.
Oh, there are houses of stone but there are no people. It's as if there was a village here for a long time but it was abandoned due to some reason.
We all set in different directions checking each house. Suddenly a scream pierces through the air.
I run towards the direction of the voice to find Anya running out of a house screaming her pretty head off.
"Calm down, rabbit." I say in a soothing voice as I catch her against my chest and wrap my arms around her.
"There..-there…" she stutters out.
I kiss her forehead and say,"Shh… it's alright." I murmur the same to her in Marathi.
Around us everyone one gathers. Confused as to what can terrify her so much, I nod towards Greg to go ahead and take a look when Anya refuses to release me.
A few moments later, Greg comes out looking a little green. I silently raise my eyebrow at him.
"It's a skeleton of the dead human body." He manages to say through his nausea.
"The person who wasn't afraid of major turbulence is afraid of a dead skeleton." Luca chuckles drly.
Gregor just glares at him.
I think I might have the same reaction as him. A plastic skeleton is one thing, a real one is another. Hell, we never had even attended a funeral before.
Anya has stopped shaking for a while and is sobbing quietly. I unconsciously rock her from side to side and try to comfort her. Grace comes up behind Anya and rubs her back.
I don't know why but it feels like someone is watching me. I carefully but swiftly turn my head around but notice nothing amiss.
"Maybe the natives of this area died due to an epidemic." Noah states.
"Might be. Who knows?" Gregor replies.
"I know." A voice growls behind.
Swiftly, us boys put the girls behind our back and form a shield around them and face the man who just spoke. Or better, the man who just growled.
"Easy, kids. I'm not going to hurt y'all. You can trust me." He says again in his rough and harsh voice as if he doesn't use his voice often.
"Famous last words." Gregor grunts.
"Who are you?" I ask, getting straight to the point.
"Me? I think I should be asking you that, since you are on my island." He growls again.
"Well it's not like we were here by our own choice." Grace snaps from behind us.
"Like I guessed. No one would be." He scoffs.
"I believe I asked you a question." I demand in a strong voice.
"Okay, lord child. I'm Harshachandra Sadaphuli." He finally replies looking bemused by my attitude.
He continues, "I'm the son of the chief of Sadaphuli Dweep. As you can see, you are on my island and you look a bit lost. Honestly, I bring no harm to you innocents, it's not in my blood. I was delighted to find some humans like me here so I rushed to greet you."
I still have my doubts about this man. He seems very fishy. Neither of us move or speak. We just keep eyeballing him.
"How about some food?" He asks after a tense silence.
"What do you have that we could eat?" Luca asks.
And we all just groan.