A light brief snowflake fell on Pruthvi's palm. Hardik slowed down its speed as Pruthvi and Leena shivered to an extreme. The woolen jacket they were wearing wasn't sufficiently keeping them warm. Leena fell asleep on Pruthvi's shoulder and he pulled her closer to him trying to keep her warm.
The sun drowned in the horizon, its light rays glimmered between the ashen clouds. It's been almost an hour since they started their journey towards Paschimgarh and Pruthvi wondered still how far they still need to travel.
"Are you cold too, Hardik?" he whispered ludicrously, "I forgot. I know you are a thing and you cannot feel anything. But if you want, you can stop and rest for a while!"
The carpet didn't reduce its speed yet but Leena shifted in her sleep. He looked at her beautiful face. He smiled watching her and pulled away a strand of her silky hair that fell on her cheek. Shourya was after her this time. He knew sometime or later he would be back and try to take her away from him. But he might not know that she belonged to him and he promised he wouldn't let anything happen to her.
He then diverted his eyes to the surface of the ground. They were passing through the white coated mountains that lay like a spine on the land. Everything was covered with the rug of trees that weren't holding much leaves. Pruthvi was also able to see small ponds here and there between the mountains.
Suddenly the snow fall increased and the temperature dropped tremendously. Pruthvi covered his head up trying to escape from the cold weather. Leena, on the other hand, shifted again and the sudden rush of wind woke her up.
"Are we there yet?" she said yawning.
"I don't think so," he said, "Why don't you ask Hardik to stop for a while? I think it follows only your orders. We can resume our journey after the snow fall stops?"
"Are you sure?" she asked, "It might delay our plan."
"That's alright," he said smilingly, "It can wait for a while. Beside I think the weather is getting worse. We don't want to get ourselves exhausted even before we reach there."
She smiled at him and then turned down towards Hardik feeling its soft fur, "Hey Hardik, don't you want to rest? You can stop for some time now."
Pruthvi then felt the change in movement. Hardik reduced its speed and slowly started to glide down. Leena caught Pruthvi's hand tight. They were gliding down slowly but it was still too much of a speed for him. Pruthvi's eyes followed the way Hardik was going. There was a huge mountain ahead of them. His heart missed a beat and he doubted if they might crash and hurt themselves badly.
"Hay watch out!" cried Pruthvi when they were almost near to the mountain. But then even before he realized Hardik landed very gently before a large opening of a cave.
Pruthvi jumped down first and then helped Leena. Hardik at once folded itself into a roll and tumbled on the floor.
"Whoa! What is this place?" asked Leena looking around.
Pruthvi held Hardik into his fists and walked alongside Leena. Light was just enough to see anything. But it still felt very scary to look into the darkness. Pruthvi wondered how Hardik knew anything about this cave. How could it glide straight into the very cave? Before they can go inside to have a proper look, suddenly he heard footsteps coming closer. He was startled at first and then pulled Leena away from the opening of the cave.
"How can anyone live in this place?" whispered Leena sitting beside the huge rock that was in a position that, as Pruthvi presumed, was used to cover entrance of the cave.
"As Dananjay stated, there are many things we can't imagine exists," Pruthvi whispered looking at the falling snow, "Imagine this is one such thing."
Leena's eyes widened when the footsteps were coming closer. On hearing very keenly Pruthvi realized there were two people walking towards the outside of the entrance of the cave where they were standing. His heart hammered beneath his chest. He feared the possibility of getting caught for being uninvited guests but luckily the foot tapping sound suddenly stopped.
Leena let out a huge sigh in relief.
"Do you think we can ask them for help?" she asked, "May be they can be friendly."
"Or they can be men working for Shourya," he said, "No thank you. But we are better here. Let's wait till the snow stops and then...."
"Weather is worse today..."
Leena was interrupted. They just heard a man's voice speaking and that baffled both of them to the core.
"...guess winter is starting."
"When do we have summer anyway," said the second person, "I wish I could go to India. Its hot there but better than the blustery and freezing weather."
"You are right, man" said the first person, "By the way, is it just me or Shashi is calm today? Did any miracle happen that I didn't come across?"
"Shashi is not inside. He is out to explore Paramarashtra. He is finally enjoying the discovery."
Pruthvi and Leena frowned but not too much that they couldn't hear them speak.
"What do you mean?" said the second man and then his voice filled with curiosity, "Did he find her?"
"No, not for her," said the first man, "Shourya is the one searching for her and I think he mentioned visiting Rawat for some business."
"Then what discovery are you talking about?"
The first man said calmly, "I heard Shashi came to know about Holognome."
"So it's true?" asked the second one in quiet surprised tone, "It does exist?"
"Yeah, rumor doesn't pass easily unless there is some truth in it. Quinn was known for her astuteness. Only deities can figure out what all she could invent."
"Quinn?" whispered Leena, apprehensively, "As in Quinn Dimuro?"
"Sshhh," said Pruthvi. Did he find her?-was the only sentence that grabbed his attention. He inferred it should be about his sister.
"A gadget that can help us talk to a dead," said the second person, "Yeah right, as if we can actually do that."
Pruthvi, at once, remembered Dananjay telling them about the same rumor. A gadget that can help us talk to a dead-a Holognome. It does exist. Pruthvi couldn't show out now, but he was glad his dream of existing something in his mind has come true. If he could really find it, a lot of his uncertainties could be answered. Hardik, staying beside him jerked and so Pruthvi pulled it closer stopping it make a flapping sound.
"You never know. Quinn constructed many things we know nothing about."
"How did he find it?" asked the second man, "As far as I know only Quinn knew about it or else the one who started the rumor."
"No idea about it, man. Shashi has many contacts in almost every village in Paramarashtra. He could have found it from one of the sources. Or he could just have used his powers as he did to generate the virus."
Leena gasped. "Comalica virus? He started it?"
"Let's say Holognome does exist," said the second person, "Whom does he even want to talk to?"
"My money is on King Harsh."
"Rawat's kings? What good can he be now? He is dead."
"Shourya once told me that King Harsh death had been no good to Shashi. Adding, he couldn't win the throne as he expected and on top of it, King Harsh died with many secrets. One of the many is-Only he knew anything about how to kill the fire of Vengeance."
Pruthvi's mouth dropped and so did Leena's. They looked at each other. Fire of vengeance was the name given to Hayden, wasn't it? Who is Shashi really after- Is it Hayden or his sister? Isn't Shashi looking for all Samagraha's blood? Then why is he showing off to be interested in Hayden as a Samagraha only?
"Pruthvi, I am scared. Where are we?" said Leena, her tone full of dread, "They are talking about Hayden, aren't they?"
"This is Shashi's lair. This is where he lives," he said and looked down at Hardik, "Why did you really bring us here?"
Hardik didn't move an inch. But Pruthvi heart was beating as fast as it could. He swallowed heavily against the thickness of his throat. They shouldn't have stopped her. It was really a bad idea!
"Why doesn't he kill Breaking Samagraha first?" continued the second man, "That's should be the easiest way to start right?"
"You are new here, man. You must learn how Shashi works as soon as you can," said the first man, "He doesn't care about the weak. He starts with the strongest one first. That's why his focus is on fire of Vengeance."
Suddenly wind rustled strongly crunching the snow. Both of them shivered against it cuddling up into one. But Leena wasn't able to control and she sneezed loudly enough that the men stopped their conversation. Pruthvi grabbed her mouth to shut her.
"Who is there?" one of them shouted.
The footsteps resumed. Pruthvi wanted to use his stone but he didn't want to waste his energy on them. Before the men catch u on them, he quickly forced the red rolled flying carpet to open and waved it hard. Hardik pulled itself flat and stayed put on the air as if it was awaken from the sleep. Both of them jumped on it before Hardik flew quickly away from the cave.
A shiver ran down Pruthvi's spine. Henervously tried to look down at the cave, at Shashi's lair. Both the men werestanding near the rock, cursing them and throwing stones at them but Hardik wasalready flying so high up in the air passing in the most wanted relief to Pruthviand Leena.
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