Suramya

Chapter 12- The realisation.

Denial came to them naturally. They didn't want their minds to walk down that track of thinking. Paranormal was not a world known to them. And they wanted to keep it that way. The air was now colder, but they assumed it was the January morning showing its colours.

"They must have gone somewhere around here. Maybe they went to gather food." Inara offered, trying her best to keep her voice from being too afraid.

Ruchya doubted they could have gone without them.

Kavi titled his head and looked around in the woods as if he would find the group lurking at the corner of the roads. As if he would spot them and go, 'Look here they are!'

But that didn't happen.

They waited for about 10 minutes, waiting for Mulchand to enter from nowhere. Only to be disappointed, again.

Inara had taken a seat next to the taken-out bonfire, hoping to get some heat from the ashes because the cold was now clinging to their skins eerily, threatening to strangle their throats. Inara hugged her knees to her chest, and pulled the shawl she was wearing tighter around herself.

Kavi huffed out a breath, as if he had made a firm decision. "I'm going to look around for them." And with that said, he lurched into the forest.

Ruchya wanted to follow, to make sure Kavi wouldn't get lost, but Inara had no intentions of moving from her place. He couldn't just leave her alone either. Fisting his hands, he kept his feet stuck to the ground, trying his best to keep an eye on Kavi which was quite difficult with the fog hanging in the air.

Kavi walked and turned multiple times. Nothing, absolutely nothing came in sight, except trees and fog and shadows. Had they abandoned them? But they couldn't abandon their luggage as well. What if they had?

These were the what-ifs he appreciated his head for making. But there were others, wicked ones, which he was afraid of becoming true.

But he felt his cage of mind shatter when he reached where he had started. The what-ifs rushed out, covering his entire skin, until there was much little of his reality.

In front of him stood Ruchya, pacing back and forth with his hands back like he was waiting for a long gone friend. Near the cold bonfire was Inara, rocking slightly— or maybe she was shaking— curled up like a furball.

Kavi felt as if he had let them down, as if he failed them. He shouldn't have felt that, right? Especially when none of this was in his hands.

A snap of twig beneath his weight as he approached the other two, and both turned their heads toward Kavi, hopeful eyes and anticipating lips. And when they saw the look on Kavi's face, the entire forest heard the shatter of hopes.

—🌠—

It was totally quiet. Inara had removed her jewellery at night, so even that wasn't a source of sound. The wind was too still, not howling at all. Did the forest know they were in trouble?

Suddenly, the silence broke. Some tic-tic-tic came to life. It echoed through the woods, confusing the three where it was coming from. They turned hastily, looking around trying to find something that made sense. Kavi scooped up closer to the two, standing in between them— just an inch in front of them— and Inara stood from her seat. Had they come back?

It sounded like a cane being hit on the ground again and again, and Ruchya could imagine a limp man walking towards them, using a cane as a support.

"Now, what a group of young children like yourselves are doing out in the forest?"

They turned to the old voice. Craning their necks behind, they saw a short man, very short, limp and barely wearing any clothes but enough to not be naked. He was walking on the support of a bamboo stick. In fashion with his way of walking, he looked old. A beard that reached down a few centimetres from his chin, and skin that had nearly drooped off of his face.