Koshilkoot
He stared at her retreating back, moving away from him yet she remained close to him in every possible way. It took so much from him to tear his eyes off from where she had disappeared out of his view. A part of him wished she would come back again like she did earlier. But wasn't it him who said no to her, she wouldn't come, he knew. Yet this was not how he planned his second trip to Kavish to end. Not on an emotionally broken note.
He had only wanted to stop the alliance but instead he moved closer to her to eventually drift further. There were no promises to return yet he gave her another precious thing of his. A symbolic promise to return, he may not find his way back to her any time soon but the void of the dagger will be a constant reminder of her.
'This too shall pass. This phase too shall pass' he reminded himself. Dhruva mounted on his horse and galloped away; Durja was waiting for him. There was no point in mourning for a part of him which he had lost for he had let go of it willingly. On the other side, he still had his list of royal duties to look after, domestic issues which he had left unattended and one which topped the list was the hunt for a lady.
The journey from Koshilkoot to Gajdant was fairly smooth, the weather had been kind to him to have shined for most of the days and chilly during the nights for a good rest. During the idle time of him riding his way back, Dhruva had fought with himself to keep his mind from steering away to what he had left back in Kavish. Although it had been a painstaking process, he had to do what was best for him and both the kingdoms.
Or disharmonious may follow...
Or so he thought.
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Gupagam Forest
"She's bleeding. Please help!" Janardan begged to the forest dwellers; tears brimmed in his eyes.
They stood with questions and doubts of Janardan and the wounded lady's intention, unsure if the emergency meant true or a trap. A man standing on the front most crouched down and examined the unconscious Nakshathra. Tipping her head to the left and right evaluating her wounds. It was only after he was satisfied with the blood trickling down her head was her own, he said. "We will try. Come with us."
The tall and gargantuan sized man scooped Nakshathra in his arms while another carried the other man, together they all marched deep inside the jungle. Although worried and panicked to have seen Nakshathra in such state, he did not fail to keep track with the way they were heading. He made sure he noted every little landmarks he could pick up from the thick jungle. It would help them trace their way back if need arise.
After a long and rapid travers through the jungle, the dwellers who were known as the Yamilva, came to a halt before an overgrown bush, tall as the fort wall and stretched as far as his eyes could see. As the only outsider walking into their settlement, he was privilege to see Yamilva's settlement unfold. One of the Yamilva marched close to the bush and whispered an incantation. Several seconds later the bushes begin to rustle to live, opening a path for the dwellers to enter.
Hidden in the plain sight, one would never know the existence of a townlet by passing through the forest nor can be seen from the top of the hill. Covered under the thick foliage, Yamilva's townlet lives with little amount of sunlight. Mesmerised at the display, Janardan was nudged by one of them to move.
Blown away in the first glance, he momentarily slowed down to take in the advanced inhabitancy of these forest dwellers. He was first greeted with a large patch of edible greens some of which he recognised were paddy field, lentils and snake gourd. Next to the greens patch were mud huts popped like mushrooms far till the other end of the bush wall.
At the centre of the settlement stood two huge trees, both as tall as the bush wall. Its trunks bore the colour of ash while its leaves were in an unexpected colour of the sea. Gaurang, the name of the trees stayed true to its meaning; bright and glowing with streaks of multi coloured luminescent lines twirling the tree in a never-ending cycle. Under the thick canopy of foliage where light could barely enter, Gaurang did the magic of lighting the entire settlement brighter than thousand oil lamps lit together.
"The tree of light," Janardan murmured as he lumbered closer to the centre of Yamilva's settlement. He recalled stories told to him in his childhood of the magical trees and the people of its kind. As much as he believed all of it to be a mere tale, one of them stood majestically before him as to authenticate many years old stories.
Janardan stretched his hand out to touch one of the large trunks only to be called out loud, "hey, warrior," amidst the busy townlet. He swirled around to find the source of the call and further to the east behind another Gaurang he spotted a man with his hand raised up.
The tree was relatively bigger compared to the other one. It was not only a tree emitting light but also housed an equally large sized three-story high house in the hollow space of the tree. The care centre of Yamilva called Svasthalaya, was made of natural coloured wood unlike the silvery Gaurang in the exterior.
The unplanned endeavour to Gupagam forest and into Yamilva's settlement has been bewildering him. Janardan had almost forgotten the reason he had asked those gigantic people's help amidst the magical townlet hidden in the deep forest.
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Nakshathra was made to lay on a raised mud platform. Above her hung, a thick piece of Gaurang to lit the interior of the room they were currently operating. Toisara, the head of Yamilva and administrator of Svasthalaya stood at the side of Nakshathra as he watched his assistant Anya cleaned the cuts on Nakshathra's face.
The bruises were all over her as Anya ran a quick check on Nakshathra. Large handprints were visible on her neck and arms, Toisara guessed the young lady must have struggled a little to escape certain threat. His gaze swept to the small weapon she held in her hand with traces of blood, stained on it. Toisara wondered if the traces of blood on her hand were hers or the attacker.
"Toisara." His assistant's call pulled his thoughts back to the room. "You want to try healing her?" she asked.
As a Yamilva from the mystic land, Kamakshya, they were known to possess talent of the earth—where nature tends to their call. They were people who evoke spirit of nature, control and manipulate the earth as per their convenience but not one who could do the healing. Healing was a specialisation of Varhinsa but lucky for the Yamilva, they were fortunate to have a hybrid of Yamilva and Varhinsa—him.
With his father the head of Yamilva and his mother a Varhinsa, the powers of two talents runs in his veins yet his father's talent dominated him especially his height and bulky size. The power of Varhinsa had slowly diminished for the lack of nurturing. Blame the missing of his mother ever since the hatred for the mystical communities surfaced in Kamakshya when he was fifteen and they had to flee.
With his little knowledge, Toisara had been helping their community by treating them for their fever to mild injuries and today he was about to test if he could bring the young lady out of her unconsciousness. He brought his long staff coiled with the Rhekkan tree root originated from Varmohin and tapped twice on the ground. The staff glowed in violet.
He left the staff to stand on its own and spread his hand over Nakshathra's bruised arm. Dust of violet glow fell out from his palms and worked on to fix her wounds where it was visible while in places invisible, the remaining magic would do their work in a steady speed internally. The most crucial part from Toisara was to bring her back to consciousness, his hands trembled, he had never done it before.
Toisara hovered his hand on her head focusing his concentration to find the spot she needed healing the most but what he found was traces of Varhinsa's magic in her. He dropped his hand and the violet glow slowly diffused. Is she a Varhinsa?
He turned to the man who had brought her in, "get the man who was with her," he ordered.
In the many years of living in the Gupagam forest, Toisara had cured many outsiders but he had never once encountered one with a healing dust coursing in them. Not many allowed them to heal these days, then how was it possible? He had two questions; one, is she a Varhinsa or was she treated by one? Two, what brought her here?
"How is she?" A man's voice rang with concern outside of the chamber.
Through the man's attire, one can guess he belongs to a palace; the leather shield and sheathed sword, scars on his arms and the almost stout expression were prominent enough to say he was a guard. Which kingdom? Toisara wasn't sure.
"Are you the one who accompanied her?" Toisara asked in a calm tone.
"Yes, how is she doing? Will she be all right?" He stepped in closer with his hand clenching the hilt of his sword tight.
"As for now, she is not in any danger but she had a concussion. It would take her awhile to regain her consciousness but I have question."
The guard bobbed his head and waited for Toisara to speak.
"Is the lady... um ... does she have... magic powers?" asked Toisara and immediately chided for he should have asked who they were first.
The man narrowed his brows as if Toisara had asked something he shouldn't. Although it wasn't really appropriate to ask if one has a talent or not, as the head of Yamilva, he needed to know.
"She does have royal powers as the princess of Kavish. As for magic powers I am afraid not, sire."
Kavish, the kingdom on the other side of the hill. "Has she been ever healed by someone from Kamakshya?" He threw in his second question.
"Kamakshya? I'm not certain if she had received any. I am only her guard, what happens inside the medical room most often never shared to us." The man emphasised on his role as a guard with a dip of his head.
"Have she gone into serious injuries before?"
The guard enlightened him of the fire incident which took place a few weeks ago. How she had caught her skirt in fire, how she been burnt and how she had miraculously healed with no traces of burn in a week.
Toisara's mind drifted away. Fire, created without a source nearby. Gamshoni? They are harming innocents now? Toisara scrunched his face at the thought of his other community committing such a deed. He shut his eyes for a moment, bringing himself to the present so, he could focus on the princess.
Soon after Janardan had shared the details, Toisara evaluated and concluded, the princess would have certainly received healing from a Varhinsa. The power seemed to be lingering in her due to the amount of energy used to heal the princess. She was technically burnt, of course, a Varhinsa would have used all of their power to the maximum. Using one's power at such an extend often meant the receiver doesn't need another round of healing from Varhinsa for a long while. The healing energy lingering in her would keep healing any future physical injuries until it gets worn out.
"What brought you both here? And who is the other man?" Toisara pointed at the other end where another care assistant attended to him.
"He is a victim and we came this side of the hill for him." The guard filled Toisara with the incident took place at the foothill and what compelled the princess to put herself at risk to safe the man.
Rage course through his veins when he learnt about the reason people had been using the place for, it disgusted him for their selfishness. The same human who paraded their communities of being harmful were dangerous themselves. All he wished was to crush them into the earth. The revelation enraged him as to how low they could stoop for their fancy.
"Heartless humans," he cursed under his breath.
"Everyone in Kavish thinks it's the doing of the King and Queen of Durja revenging for the death of the queen's father many years ago." Janardan accepted the medicinal potion offered to him in a terra cup. "It happened in Mount Gaja. But the truth was her father died of accident. Our then king did not intentionally fling his sword to him," he said softly.
"I was young but not so young to not understand the proceeding of a friendly sword fight. Maharaja Nagendran was a man of discipline and one who sticks to rules. There has been a foul play no one believed in me when I told them and I stopped talking about it," he trailed off.
The aftereffect of the attacks from the other kingdom must have triggered Janardan to blurt out for he could have avoided it. Toisara sat with him outside the Svasthalaya and listened to Janardan's outpour. Perhaps the disappearance has been too much to stay quiet anymore. The count of missing people in Kavish was said to have been increasing yet no one was able to find how it all happened. Until the princess decided to go after some rogues the day, she encountered one which she had suspected as a kidnap.
Toisara saw Nakshathra as a courageous lady and an eligible ruler in the time to come.
He vouch to offer them any kind of help they would need in the future.
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