once in a blue moon (Completed✅)

31♥️

Happy reading guys!

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Lekha's P.O.V. continues......

I and Tatvika began bonding well, ofcourse it was new to me but they all think that I was born there and well known to them.

Strange!! I don't remember anything prior to the day I got out of water!

The place, the people, all seemed nice but I still couldn't process how I reached there. So my conscious mind continuously kept processing with so many permutations and combinations that had no definite answer leading me back to square one, right in front of those tribes which includes my parents too. But one thing was sure, I was actually enjoying my life as I was my parents only daughter. It was a fantasy world I was living in with my age being that from the time when I actually had active memories of my parents in the real world. This is what I had concluded after a prolonged calculations.

Anyways all that matters is that I am so happy in this fantasy world with my stupid, idiotic brother out of the picture!

I spent my time helping my mother in fetching water from the river nearby, while my father used to work in groups with other men who would venture out in the forest to hunt for food every morning. I only had hard time eating the meat that I was served. Somehow I convinced my mother to serve me fruits instead to which she agreed involuntarily.

They calculated a year by counting fifteen full moons and too began calculating accordingly. It was already twenty full moons which means almost close to two years in real world. I adapted to the living conditions which were somewhat difficult for me. Women in there woke up very early in the morning, they all used to walk in groups to a little far away in the dense forest to relieve themselves and used leaves to clean themselves, which was very odd and a huge discomfort for me.

do i have any other option....sometimes one has to let off some comforts to enjoy other things!

All appeared normal for me other than these nature calling difficulties; it was one evening I was sitting at the bank of that river where I daily went with my mother and other ladies to fetch water, waiting for Tatvika since she had some information to share with me which was a secret. She had some chores to finish and promised me to meet at the bank. I sat there on the ground that was filled with short grass. Touching the tips of the grass brought me intense happiness all of a sudden, the area was prestine, no noise of machines or engines except for birds chirping that just reached their nests. I suddenly heard a shrilled laugh somewhere close by that actually scared me, it felt like as if I was being watched or pryed on. I just gathered up my strength and ran home as fast as I could.

I seriously had a doubt if I must share this experience with my mother or not as I still could not forget the day I reached here, how people reacted including my parents. I kept quiet even when my mother asked me "What happened? you look like as if you've seen a ghost!"

"Nothing ma! Just very sleepy!" I said and lay on the floor in that tiny cottage. It was that night I for the very first time had this strangest dream of an evil person following me, I used to run away from him but he kept appearing wherever I went that made my sleep disappear; i sat most of the night in fear. One night it seems I was crying in my sleep which was heard by my mother, so she took me to Aatmaja the next morning.

"Don't worry at all my child! You are undergoing physical changes, this is pretty common for girls of your age! I will give you a dreamcatcher!" said Aatmaja and unearthed a box from the pile of rubbish of some sort which was hard to identify, she opened the box and handed over a small wood coloured dreamcatcher "Hang it over the place where you sleep. keep looking at it before closing you eyes, you will get all nice happy dreams"

"Wow Aatmaja this so beautiful!" I couldn't resist myself from praising the beauty.

"I know! This was made  by my grand mother when I too had this problem!" said Aatmaja carassing my head, "No go and search for a place to hang it!" she said to which I got up and stepped out while my mom was still seated on the floor inside. I wanted to know what she told my mother and evesdropped "You know that your daughter is a trouble maker, right?"

"Yes Aatmaja, I told her so many times not to venture out alone in the forest alone but she won't listen" Mom replied.

"Kanishka, you daughter now is being eyed by some evil power, so make sure to get her married off soon! It is the only solution for this problem" suggested Aatmaja.

"I am waiting for her to mature soon!" Mom said worriedly.

"Its not too far away, she has almost reached that stage in her life!" said Aatmaja whch I too must agree. I have noticed my body changing now but the main cause of concern for me was why did she say someone is prying on me, is it true or just a fear like how she reacted when I told them that I was not Dalaja and my name is Lekha.

have no clue! anyways I need to be more careful, that shrill laugh truly pierced my subconscious mind

I walked back home before my mother came out. Believing in what Aatmaja had said, I hanged at the corner of the room which I could see. A week passed by with the dreamcatcher in the home and to my surprise I was sleeping very well with just one dream daily of a man crossing the bridge wounded, lying in the middle of the forest with blood oozing out from his wounds, I was the one who nursed him and he was the one who propsed to marry me when he was fit. I could never really see his face, it was just his silhoutte, which actually made me happy and every morning I woke up with a smile thinking of that silhoutte figure in my dreams. I unknowingly was getting attracted to this man from my dream who was faceless and nameless.

Another week passed by with the same dream every night, and one morning when I woke up I was soaked in my menstrual blood which was not new to me but I had to pretend as if it was my first time experience and so I had screamed to draw my mother's attention. Within few minutes Aatmaja and other women gathered up at my home. They began chanting something which I could not understand, they made me wear a new tiger skin, covered me completely in sandal paste to cool my body down. I was serously told not to get out of the hut whole day.

i should not have screamed! may be they all got scared of it! what's the use, it's too late now!

I was given small cups made of dried leaves to tie around my waist that actually collected the menstrual blood, it was too disgusting though, left with no other option I requested my mother to help me out. She showed me how to wrap it around my waist and so on. Some how those five days passed by with much physical and emotional difficulty since I felt like the days were longers than usual and was so boring as I was only allowed to go out during the morning hours to free myself and was strictly prohibited from going near any waterbody as they felt that i would contaminate the water, so had to sit there alone in that tiny cottage. Once the bleeding stopped I saw the elders making some arrangements of some sort.

"What's going on Papa?" I asked 

"Some guests are going to visit us tomorrow!" he replied trying some leaves at the doorway.

do they have guests too from other part of the world?

little did I know that they were young men from other part of the forest with whom these tribes would make alliances for their daughter and vice-versa. The next morning I was made to wear another spotted skin around my body along with a flowers filled headgear, my face was decorated with sandal paste. I could never imagine how horrible I looked. By evening five men arrived by foot who too wore some animal skin and had headgears just like the men of this tribe. They were greeted by all the elders while I was seated on a small rock near my home. One by one, all five of them came to me, looked at me and left. I did not understand what they thought but within no time they all rejected me saying that I was dark skinned and was unfit for marriage which hurt me pretty badly.

why is this skin colour such a big issue for you guys? 

I thought with tears flowing out of my eyes, I couldn't tolerate their presence anymore. I just got up and ran towards the forest while my parents kept calling me from behind, "Come back Dalaja! It's not safe out there!" I did not care about anyone anymore, just ran deep into the forests. 

danger lurking the forest is much easier to handle than these guys!!

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