Inspired from the Mahabharata: Aaron and Maithli

#12 Blows

.   .   .

They were deep inside a tropical forest and it was obvious that Aaron must have ran at a striking speed in his wolf form to reach so far away from the desert. Aaron had whisked some of her powers away and she had simply felt asleep.

The soil was so damp that the worms had surfaced to breathe and the crows fluttered over the grass with their inky wings, each of them eating at the sudden buffet. Aaron sat on a large humid rock, a few meters away from where he had laid Maithli down. He thought of the attacks. It perturbed him.

Some rain fell down the blades of grass into the already wet soil, the droplets pausing on the surface before being sucked into the dark particles but the luscious canopy above protected them both of the heavy fall. Aaron looked at the purple bottle essence in his hand, it glittered. The sound of the rain played the music it would play while falling on some corrugated iron sheet.

There was a river nearby, Aaron heard its flow before. It is primarily why he had stopped at this place. The sound of running water in the river was a relaxing, hypnotic quality. He heard a wince and a discomfort. She was no more lying cherubically down. She was upright and a hand up trying to hold her head. She eventually opened her eyes and looked around. "Pouah!" My disheveled dark curls were scattered. She tried to catch on her breathing again. She was a bit drowsy. 

Maithli looked around and suddenly a shock registered on her face as though realisation had just dawned.

"The attack?" Maithli hissed slowly, sincerely expecting an answer.

Aaron was not looking at her. He was busy picking up his dagger and placing it back in its sheath.

She was finally fully awake. She aggressively approached Aaron and put herself in front of him so that he had no other option than to give her his attention. "Where are we?" She was annoyed and crossed her arms.

Silence.

"We all exist in three forms, whichever one you are in right now know that I'm talking to you." Maithli spoke loudly this time. Aaron simply gave her his back and started to look for twigs here and there.

She sat down, clearly angered by the blank response. "We need to go back to Fatehpursikhri. Now!"

Minutes elapsed and Maithli, irritated went to be chirpy. "Fine! I don't know the way, would you at least care to tell me how I can go back?"

Maithli insisted and threw a tantrum. "Hello!" Maithli threw a ball of blue flux towards his feet, it didn't harm him though. That finally captured his attention. "I was talking to you all this while."

Aaron was exasperated. "The cub that has been fed vegetation against its nature never returns to its own tawny. You can't go back there. What pleasure is there in finding one's own kin stooping so low?"

Maithli gulped and furrowed her eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

Aaron was shaking. He was no longer calm. His hands closed in fists and his knuckles were almost white. He threw a punch on a nearby gigantic tree, and it moved, the impact causing it to topple over. 

Maithli choked a sudden fright. All that rage came out faster than magma and just as destructive. The rain found its way through the sudden hole that was drilled in the canopy and it fell down on him, wetting his hair and pouring down his figure. His eyes were closed and the rain streamed down his face. 

Maithli could swear she saw water vapourising off his seething anger. She didn't think twice, she barely even thought, she simply moved forward. Something in her needed to get close to him to calm him down, at least she felt she could do that. As she moved forward, the rain drenched her too. It was not that heavy that she couldn't keep her eyes open.