A Storm on the Mountain

CHAPTER II

"What did they say?" The shepherd whispered, even though there was nobody around to pry or ponder or eavesdrop. His voice was as faint as the cries of grasshoppers in thick grass, only a mild echo.

"They said I can have my time," Aanav replied, his voice cracked. He cleared his throat after.

Aanav then wilted within the embrace, turned around and looked outside the window. Gray was all that was visible to him. But there were snakes sleeping under huge stones, the ravine swooped with breeze- thin and clear. Clouds steeped to the level of the hilltop, very mildly blinding the surroundings. Agave grew around the rough slides of loose lands, mildly blue- and the rare Kingfisher flew around dazzlingly, sitting on a tree with small branches and looking around itself.

"Why did you leave? The city, why did you leave it in the first place?"

"I don't really know," he replied, "perhaps I chickened out." He sighed now, his eyes closed in memories that he didn't really remember. "I guess, I was tired of being jealous of people around me who enjoyed absolute freedom."

Hmp was all he heard before his ears was filled with adorable little snores.

"Can you tell me a little about your family?" Aanav asked now, in nothing more than a whisper, a little hesitant he was because he never wanted to force anyone to spill their emotions. It always has to be a choice.

"Umm... there's a lot to tell you about that, An. Why waste it so easily? We have piles and piles of time left." He said that and then kissed Aanav's hair and drifted off, as if into trance.

Aanav swiftly moved out of the embrace and put on his pants, walked out of the house and his dog jumped at him. He shut the door behind him and sat on the cane chair in the tiny veranda, his legs supported by the railings at his back heel, Butter spawning her legs almost above his crotch with a hanging tongue. He patted her lightly and then scratched beneath the thick, unbrushed hair and her eyes went gloomy.

For a moment, he seemed lost- the wind knocking the present out of his mind. His body shivered ever so slightly, and his eyes blinked more than twice.

The monsoon had enveloped the whole of the region in a murky bluish-gray haze, the low temperature feeling like a tinge of sharp needles pricking very mildly, elegantly. When it blew around, especially when the plains were dry with the lukewarm sun, sand and dust eroded from the hill stupendously. Except while it rained, it dusted down the steep valleys of the mountain, fertility flowing around as if a plumbing service provided by the nature itself.

It was at this peak where the winds crossed paths- mingling and rising, sending a dizzy pulse of moisture in the crowded sky. Mr. and Mrs. Katrakis from the town below hated the rains- they wore whatever they could to cover themselves and their daughter to make sure they didn't get drenched. But of course, they did. How could one escape a kiss from the sky? The insects made love soundly, hiding beneath the thick, sharp blades of deep green grass (they looked dark because they were almost always wet).

Aanav picked up a tiny white flower from the ground- unknown to him which, but it was wet on the outside. It must've flown in from the winds in the morning, he thought. He wiped the tiny grains of mud stuck wetly to the petals and emerald stem, getting it on his thumb and then throwing it away by clicking his index finger over it. Smelling it, he frowned very slightly, for it only emitted aroma of nothing- every ounce of nectar, oily perfume washed out of it vigorously.

Then, he plucked a petal very delicately, quietly, and threw it away in the air- and as if the petal rolling in the middle of nothing but cold, cold vacuum, spiralled that moment back to a couple days ago, falling into the very warm waters of a puddle in the city.

"Take your time, brother," Aarav's voice echoed. "As much as you please. But you're coming back one day. Yes, I know you will."

He was pulled into another embrace, lovingly, and this time he reciprocated. His hair was ruffled next, and then his back was patted twice, tap! tap! and then he was let go.

Aanav stood there with light purple, puffy eyes- his nose still pulling in air and making uncomfortably wet noises, his lungs beginning to settle. He looked at his Pa then, for a moment with no emotion in his honey-eyes, but then he walked towards the old man who had tears welling up, but was too willful to not let them slip away. Aanav knelt, his right knee touching the cold tiles beneath tight jeans, as if being knighted by a Royal. His hands vibrated a little, and the world for sure spun about three times, his head going about funny in all directions, because it was so surreal. He blinked a couple of times, and looked down at his father's old, dark brown, ill and weak feet, and he looked up at the man who raised him in the eyes.

"I love you Pa," he whispered. "and I miss you so much. And this time, I will keep visiting all of you. I want to see my neice too. I'll try to write faster, better, Pa. I'm a disciplined writer now. I write everyday. You will see, I will write, I will be respected one day."

And then, there was a very quick and brief hug, tight yes, but very brief- a moment full of untold emotions.

He left the house with a steel lunchbox filled with food. You're too skinny, Kate chided and timidly tapped his right cheek.

He left them with a promise.

In his sleep, the shepherd suddenly began to cry out, waking up Aanav whose eyes had fallen prey to the hypnotizing hour of the evening.

He could not wake the shepherd up, shaking him by the shoulders like the branches of a mango tree to plop them to the ground and eat them raw, calling out his name as if standing far away- with voices in the city echoing.

He woke up with a jolt, sweat leaking out of the minute pores on his body, his forehead drenched, startled and shivering. He complained about being cold and Aanav shut the door, shifted and adjusted the blanket on his lover- his naked body covered in thin wool. Butter slept below the bed, by their legs and soon began snoring already with her limbs in the air. Shepherd-boy slept back soon, as if unaware of what had happened, or what he'd seen in a sound sleep.

Aanav didn't sleep anymore, his body glued to the shepherd, in some peculiar type of a human-pretzel, a hybrid of something unnatural. Through the thick darkness- one like the mist in winter crawling over the deep green river, he watched his partner mildly snoring; even though he could see nothing but the outline of his body in the night.

When the light began cracking throughout the mildly deep blue sky, the clouds whitish blue, the birds flying around the freezing winds of the hills- Aanav could clearly see again. He watched slowly, when the sky and sea became one, the light slowly bringing into vision the man that laid beside him. At first, his sidelines shone bright- his head as if surrounded by a halo, but then his hair tingled out, every structure became visible; the cheekbones, the jawline, the mild scruff that drew Aanav crazy. He then watched the naked chest, where the nipples were almost purple due to the chill, rise and fall, releasing a loud sigh of appreciation. It reminded Aanav of the breeze wheezing it's way atop the trees, brushing and fondling the leaves and then reaching high up in the clouds to open up the sky wide.

An eagle, far away above the steep and dense valleys of the mountains kept drawing circles in mid-air, fishing for prey, it's screech was music. Aanav heard it but didn't move at all. All he did was look at the shepherd, in perhaps a very inhuman way, sensitive and intense- sinfully yet divine.