Chapter 5 : Stalker

It has been almost 5 days in the deserts, Laitza, Raiya and Shrey all taking turns with their luggage, still it was not enough. They didn’t know where they were going, whether they’d be welcome there or not. They just knew that they were going south, towards the Deccan plateau. The rulers of the Deccan were quite controversial; there were speculations of their assassinations, marriages and conquests, even in the north, they were celebrated as gods and goddesses, in fact they treated themselves as not very beneath the gods. Laitza was not aware of this fact, in fact she wasn’t even aware of the silence that enveloped the desert on their first day, she kept glancing behind her shoulders as Raiya and Shrey were quite unaware of the fact that they were being followed. It wasn’t until on the morning of the sixth day when she confronted them about something suspicious, about the anonymous follower she began to care about, about the food she used to leave for his or her purpose, they said it was fine and that it was ordinary. But the one thing that kept her on her toes all the time was the fact that whoever this person was, he or she was not coming forward, he or she just eats all the food, take their belongings for their own use and just doesn’t come forward, the seventh day Laitza decided it was enough, and she shouted into the oblivion of the night when both of the other travelers were still inside tents.

“What are you actually? Don’t you have the hearts to come forward?” darkness enveloped her as she gazed into the darkness trying to make a figure into the void but failed miserably. She shouted again-

“Oh you’re just going to eat the food I make, it’s easy that way, isn’t it?” the cracking of the footsteps was heard but it didn’t startle her because they were coming from the tent, but before those footsteps could come for her, another pace whispered behind her, slow and steady, making their way onto the sands, she was not foolish enough to turn her head, she was waiting for them to come out of the tent, then she would turn, the twin footsteps were coming closer but the single ones were faster, as she saw the flip of the curtain of the tent a hand covered her mouth and another hand belonging to that body slipped on her waist and carried her into the opposite side of their bonfire while she was kicking and elbow-ing him. Yes, it had to be a guy. He covered her mouth while she tried to shout back when Raiya and Shrey were calling her name frantically in the desert. She tried to bite his hand, but he was wearing gloves. He was still walking, taking her away and away from the bonfire. She didn’t know where she was going and she was well aware of the fact that she could not win this fight physically at least not without weapons and he was surely carrying some, she had felt a knife on the right side of his belt. So she gave up or she pretended to give up and she stopped fighting back steadily, he placed her on the ground, she tried to look at him but his face was covered with a khaki cloth that only presented his eyes, intimidating eyes, the rest of his body was covered in the khaki cloth, and she tried to run but she knew better, he stopped her with just using his only hand, she was not weak she tried telling herself that again, so she tugged and tugged until she felt that tug was at its breaking point, she dodged him until he lost himself in the sand that was obligated forcefully to help her, if she was best at one thing, it was running, so she ran and ran until she found the same saffron home and the bonfire in the centre of it and she stopped, no one was there, they probably went out to find her, then she heard muffled sound behind her

“Laitza” a broken voice she jumped at Shrey and he took her in his arms, Raiya came running behind him at jumped again at the two of them.

“Where were you? Are you completely mental? Why would you go somewhere without telling us? We were so scared, and now you’re not saying anything-“

“Will you let me talk, Raiya?” with that Raiya stopped talking and broke into sobs on her brother’s shoulders.

“I thought we lost you, after all you’ve been through I lost you again, I couldn’t…I…”

“I am here Raiya” she touched her cheek and Shrey smiled at her sister teary-eyed.

“She is not going to stop crying until you tell her the whole story” she looked around and could nowhere find that khaki demeanor so she began.

“Let’s go inside”

She told them all about that man, Raiya was furious, she could literally kill that man with her bare hands, Shrey wouldn’t mind that either, but he kept playing his role of keeping the tension down between all of them so he said.

“Maybe he saw you, and he liked you and decided to make you his wife so he kidnapped you.”

As soon as he said this Laitza smiled to herself because she knew she didn’t need to react to that comment as Raiya’s going to give her reaction in half-a-second. And that’s exactly what happened, she gave him her deadliest death stare and that grin faded from his mouth.

“Whoever this person is, he is alone so he attacked you alone and also we both look like warriors and you look extremely fragile, which he mistook you for. Also from now on, you’re not going anywhere alone until we reach the southern kingdom.” Raiya said

“Actually I escaped, if you don’t remember clearly.”

“I don’t care. Next time he is going to come with practice, this time he just underestimated you.”

“Okay.” but still one question kept going on in her mind.

“What does he even want? We don’t even have much money.”

“We don’t know what he wants, but it’s related to you.” Shrey muffled and Raiya nodded.

“You know despite my striking, ravishing and stopping-dead-in-tracks looks.” she waved her hand with a lock of her hair behind her shoulders “I have nothing.”

All of them could smell the sarcasm in her tone and looked at her rather deadly.

“Oh come on.”

“You just don’t get this, Laitza.” Raiya walked out of the tent with a shook of her head, Shrey looked at her and laughed.

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