SHIDDAT

Chapter 8

Shakti immediately moved Toofan in the direction that voice came and she found princess Sonam sitting near a tree in crouching position, hiding her head under her arms.

"Princess, what are you doing here? How did you reach here? Are you okay? Are you hurt somewhere?" Shakti came down from Toofan and ran to Sonam as soon as she came in her sight. She bombarded with her questions.

"I am alright." Princess Sonam replied.

"How did you reach here?" Shakti asked because she was curious to know about how did she reached here in the middle of the forest.

"When I finished up of my work, I called for you but you didn't answered so I thought to walk by myself but I guess I chose the wrong direction and came deeper into the forest." Princess Sonam explained.

"It's okay. Everyone is fine now. Let's return back to the carriage." Shakti said making Princess Sonam mount on Toofan.

Now Nandini and Sonam was sitting on the Toofan and Shakti was walking with reign of Toofan in her hand.

They barely took 2 steps towards outside of the forest when they hear a crying sound which sounded like of a child.

Shakti tried to ignore it and continue her journey towards her carriage but had to stop it and started move towards the voice when Nandini insisted on finding the origin of the voice.

If Shakti was alone then she would have gone to look for voice but right now she has two royal princesses with her and their safety is her responsibility, she can't put them in danger but she also can't just ignore a child crying in the middle of the forest.

"Ok, I will take a look about what is happening but make sure to not to make any voice no matter what happens and tell me if you see or feel something. Okay?" Shakti instructed both princesses and they nodded.

They then started to slowly move in the direction in which the voice was coming. They started following the voice. After follow it for sometime, Shakti suddenly came to halt scaring both princesses.

"What happened?" Nandini asked in low tone but Shakti didn't say anything. She just motioned them to keep silent and look forward.

When the princesses looked forward they gasped because the view infront of them was bone shaking.

There was a child sitting on the top of the tree, crying loudly and there was tiger down the tree waiting for her to come down and devour her. Everything was okay, they could have waited for the morning because the child was safe at the tree and tiger can't reach there because the tree was pretty tall but the problem was that the branch that was stopping the child from falling was about to break anytime soon and if taht branch breaks then no one can stop the child from dying.

Both princesses were sitting on the Toofan. Shakti brought Toofan with her because he is a trained horse and if something went wrong then she can run back to the carriage with the princesses.

Shakti closed her eyes to sense the presence of other things because tigers normally move in group and if there are other tigers present here then it could be dangerous for her but thankfully this tiger was alone.

Shakti slowly unsheathed her sword silently and positioned herself to attack on the tiger's weak point which will not kill him but make him unconscious for hours.

Shakti's face was closed from her dark green coloured Chunni making her merge perfectly with the forest.

Shakti went behind the tiger as quietly as she could. But it seems like that the tiger sensed her, he suddenly stopped moving and his ears perked up which gave Shakti signal that the tiger is aware of her presence.

The tiger suddenly moved and started to run towards Shakti. Shakti positioned herself and attacked exactly at the point she aimed for and it was right at the centre of his forehead. A small cut at the vein from there will keep him unconscious for atleast 3 hours. The tiger fell on the ground unconscious, Shakti quietly went near him and put her hand to check his heartbeat, which was calm indicating that he was totally unconscious now.

She then climbed the ree and carefully brought the child down. At first, the girl child was too scared to even move but she then started to talk.

"What is your name?" Nandini asked.

"Preeti." The child replied in her cute voice which melted the princesses hearts.

"How did you get here?" Sonam asked.

"I was playing and got lost here." The child again replied in her cute voice.

"Then how did you reached at the top of tree?" Nandini asked curiously.

"I know how to climb the trees." The child replied.

The princesses were going to ask some more questions when Shakti signalled them to keep quiet. She sensed some more new presence around here.

The Toofan and the princesses were behind Shakti with the child. She steps forward with her sword in her hand, her face was still covered with her Chunni. Suddenly, a big man jumped infront of her and attacked on her.

Shakti didn't had anytime to understand anything. She just position her sword to defend herself which threw her 5 feet back because of the hard force of collision between the two swords.

The man started to move towards the princesses after Shakti was thrown away but Shakti couldn't let it happen. She hurriedly attacked on the man. He didn't saw Shakti and defended herself against her sudden attack which made his body fly behind.

The man stood up and he was staring at Shakti, even though Shakti couldn't see his eyes but she could feel his stares, his stares were like some beast which were giving her chills but Shakti was also not someone to back away just because of some stare.

They both attacked each other at the same time this time and all the princesses could hear was the sounds of the swords fighting with each other.