The Ballad Of Nirvana

Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Agni's heart was thrumming an indistinct tune when the Princess lifted her gold speckled eyes at him. Her hair stuck to her neck and reached her waist around which he had his hand wrapped. He thought she was scared, but her eyes showed something way different. Something that he had never seen before, that thing made him feel her presence was like a necessity.

He couldn't speak as she looked at him, her hand was cool on his chest. It was like she was trying to heal a scar that could never heal. She was not trying to, she was healing a ghastly scar of his grotesque past. She was the only one who could. But why?

'No! Lack of sleep is what he was going through. She is not looking at you in any way. She is just afraid, she is not looking...' The Princess lifted her hand to his face and cupped it, her finger calloused his cheek bones.

"Agni...I...Uh.." Her voice was a whisper.

"Don't." He said softly.

"What? No, I was about to say that the stream is not deep enough for me to drown." She pulled away and Agni hated the way he felt cold due to her absence.

"Oh, yeah right." She took one step back. A whole one step back before...

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Agni clutched her wrist and pulled her close to him. She gasped nervously and shivered slightly.

"I will not, cannot let you go, Princess. But I cannot make you stay, I don't have the right. I don't deserve the right." He said as his voice broke.

"Agni," was all she could manage to say before he walked away.

'What if I said you did?' She thought to herself.

"I don't deserve you," he said, half turned as he picked his shirt up and put it back on.

"But Mekhala does?" She asked without meaning to.

"No, I don't deserve her as well, I am thankful that she was with me through thick and thin. I truly am and I do love her, as a friend." His voice turned hoarse.

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Bilvani Tamas was snoring like a bear in her cottage when the attack took place. Her body was bombarding with power. She set the entire village on fire while fighting the Makara and Mahishi demons. Unfortunately these demons were cold blooded and her power would only attract more of them. The vile Makara demons with dark blood and the stench of rotten flesh, were known for their bloodlust. These demons play with their prey, before feasting on them.

Bilvani was just buying the villagers some time to evacuate, she was blasting the monsters left, right and centre. She was sure she wouldn't be able to hold off longer but the last of the villagers had left and Bilvani was about to leave but she heard a cry from one of the cottages. A baby not more than an year old, she couldn't leave her, if she did she wouldn't be better than her cruel father who sought to kill a day-old baby girl.

So she dove and ducked under the fiery remnants of the cottage and grabbed the baby in her arms. She held her close to her chest protecting her from every particle of dust and fire. Bilvani couldn't breathe properly, she was suffocating and so was this baby in her hands, her lungs were filling up with smoke and she coughed. They wouldn't survive long here, they have to run, but what about the monsters that kept on coming? She realised there was no point in her living anymore, anyway. There was no one waiting for her at home, she didn't have a home.