Suramya

Chapter 3- The forest.

Raina harshly snatches her backpack away from the twig it was stuck in. She looked around once again, in hopes of catching a glimpse of a road, or a somewhat similar structure.

Honestly, anything other than a forest would work.

After running away from her sister's wedding, Raina had caught a train to Assam (which was the place suggested by her sister to come to.) and travelled along for almost a day. She then walked pass a few places in hopes of... she didn't know what honestly. A place to work? A place to stay? But instead, she stumbled into a forest.

She had been walking around the forest for almost an hour and she had no idea where it was going. In short, she was lost.

Those trees were becoming a tired sight for her eyes.

Still, for the sake of her survival, Raina kept walking. She kept walking over dried leaves, green grasses, loose soil, dust, and broken twigs. It felt like she was walking over her last bits of hope everytime a twig snapped beneath her feet.

What was she even doing? She should probably go back to her house.

There was another snap of a twig.

But this time, it wasn't from beneath her foot.

Adrenaline shot through her body as she scanned the entire area of the woods. She watched carefully for any sign of movement and when she did not notice any, she kept her ears alert for another sound.

And there did come another sound. Somewhere from ahead of her. She walked towards the direction, slowly and cautiously.

Just a few metres away, there came another sound. But it was a man's.

"Just a second, little thing. You'll be fine," Said the voice.

Even though the voice was meant for someone else, even though the voice came from someone she didn't even know, even though the voice probably meant nothing, the softness in that said sentence made her feel the slightest bit relaxed. These words were the only ones she had been longing to hear since a long time. And there was no harm in pretending that those words were meant for her– just for a moment. She let herself be in the moment for a few more seconds before snapping out of the weird moment and continuing to walk towards the source of her voice, carefully.

"Just stay still," the voice spoke again.

Being in a defensive state, Raina continued in the direction.

And then she finally saw a figure of a man kneeled to the ground, faced towards a... tree? From where Raina was watching, it looked like the man was kissing the tree.

What the hell?

She walked toward him slowly and soon the view became clearer. And better. He was picking at some branches, not kissing them.

There was a sudden fluttering sound from the branches and Raina's hand fisted up in reflex. What was that?

She looked carefully and realised that there was a bird stuck in those branches, as it tried to break free and the man was helping it get out. Oh.

Now, she would've just sighed and walked away if it was a human. But animals are weaknesses for all.

She awkwardly stood there for a second, thinking of ways to offer a hand in this situation before she cleared her throat.

Kavi turned around, looking at the woman that stood in front of him, with furrowed eyebrows, hazel eyes and a somewhat-harsh expression.

"Let me." She said, before kneeling down on the grass and starting to help the little bird out of its cage. Kavi, without protesting, moved aside. No matter how harsh her expressions are, her intentions were just as much not. He smiled as he watched her helping the bird. He liked it when people were nice.