I could have never imagined that crossing a Gate can sometimes be so difficult. It was nothing but a terrible sensation of jumping down a cliff, my leg although meeting the soft silky surface, I did not feel landing anywhere on the ground whatsoever. My consciousness was ebbing away and eyes becoming heavier. I sucked hard for some air to breathe. My body must be on fire since I was wasn't able to feel the extreme chilliness in the air.

Thick blood was flowing freely from the cut I received on my arm. No matter how much pressure I applied with my other uninjured hand, blood still gushed between my fingers and squirted down my hand. I hissed in pain. Vrischika's venom was spreading all through my body, and I literally feel it passing through my veins. It wasn't only my arm that was affected but I felt my whole body stung as if there was a hand squeezing every organ in my body. Unable to take a step I fell on my knees and waited till the fuzziness before my eyes cleared.   

I wished someone, anyone could wipe those tears out of my eyes away when Nazira leaned down beside me, trying my help me stand up. She was closer to me, almost in an embrace and I desperately blinked my heavy, droopy eyes to look at her.

"Just two more steps," she signaled, "Hut is right here."

I tried to smile at her but failed. Too difficult.

"Please, walk," she pleaded, signaling very quickly.    

I numbly nodded and watched her taking the step the opposite side, gently pulling me with her. My body was about to collapse and with every step I took, I felt the remaining of my strength diminishing. Nazira opened the door and let me stand leaned over against the wall. She rushed inside and dragged the chair towards to me. I was sincerely grateful to her for being thoughtful.

I sat down slowly and relaxed my throbbing muscles. I placed my wounded hand over the arm of the chair and wished for a miracle to happen to take this pain away. My stomach was hurting as well. I needed something to eat, but I didn't even have the strength to move the muscles in my face to chew the food. I turned my head aside to watch Nazira placing the new huge wooden basket, down on the floor and sat down on her knees beside my wounded arm.

She took a paper out of the basket and then signaled. "Can..can you take your shirt off?"

Unable to ask, I just kept looking her with my half opened eyes for an answer.

"So that I can fix the wound."

I couldn't understand what she was talking about. But I was mentally and physically too tired to think anything about it. I just did what she asked of me. I somehow managed to remove my outer blood-soaked shirt with my left arm and dropped it aside.

"Oh God!" Nazira's reaction was genuine when she and I both looked down at the frightful gash on arm, blood streaming down continuously and splattering on the floor.

She quickly skimmed through the paper once again for a few minutes, dig her hand into the basket to take out a vial and some cotton. I sighed softly looking up at the ceiling. I had no idea what was going on, and what she was about to do. I just gave away my hand to her and let her do whatever she wanted to do. I wouldn't have even minded if she could just cut my arm, that might be a little less painful.

Then came a wiping sensation over the tingling skin around my wound. Slowly turning my head aside, I found Nazira wiping my blood out of my hand leaning closer to me.

I was tired as hell, my eyes burdened with exhaustion and wanting to drift off into a deep sleep. But I didn't want to, not anymore. Having her so close to me for the first time, her beautiful face drove me to keep my eyes open, I just wanted to treasure this moment. I slowly dropped my eyes to look at her lips quivering as she kept wiping my blood. She tugged her hair behind her ear. That was the gesture I was waiting for, that always made my heart flutter.

She then placed a wet and cool cloth over my wound, that instantly shot up a sharp piercing pain. I hissed aloud, shrieked unable to bear the pain and rolled aside involuntarily.

"Sorry! Sorry!" She gasped and her voice was as if she was about to cry.

I inhaled heavily, settling back. The limited energy I had was now completely drained out of me. I wish she took that cloth out, the burning pain seared through my skin and for once I wished for my hand to be completely paralyzed. I just couldn't handle this burning sensation anymore.

"Are you okay?" she asked signaling, her eyes glistening.

I slightly nodded, and it was a lie. The pain was killing me. Giving me a few seconds to relax, she leaned over again, much much closer to me, probably as much as she has been only in my dreams.  

She didn't remove that cloth as I was expecting but tenderly began to tie it around my arm.

I could have sworn- if she wasn't so close to me right now, our breaths weren't in unison, my eyes would have given up already, I would have fallen unconscious to never to wake up. A hope flared in my heart. I wanted her to look back up at me. I so wanted to say it, the one thing I wanted to say since the day I met her. My heart inside my paralyzing body was bursting with ecstasy. I might or might not find this moment to have her in this close proximity, watch her delicate features, feel her warm breath.

"It's done," she said delightfully. Giving me an assuring smile, she raised her eyes and then locked them with mine.

She must have realized I was staring at her, or probably feeling uncomfortable for being too close to me, when she slowly moved back, dropping her eyes on the floor.

"You should sleep," she signaled, her voice more like a whisper.

She stood up to walk away from me but I didn't want to let my only chance go in vain. I was glad my fingers and my palm were still working. I took the opportunity and grabbed her hand, squeezed it tight as a gesture to request her to stay back with me.

Startled, she swiftly turned back, looked down at our clasped hand before she met my eyes, questioningly. Without making a delay, just before my eyelids closed, I said it from the bottom of my heart.

"Thank you!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My stomach snarled.

My eyes flicked opening and it took me several minutes for my dizzy brain to revert to present, to have a subtle awareness of where I was. I looked around batting my eyelids and on finding sitting in the chair placed abnormally near the door of the hut, I let out a satisfied sigh. As my other senses began to work gradually, a hard smell hit my nostrils and I felt my skin slimy. Looking down I felt my clothes drenched with sweat.

"What the..."

I was about to get up from my chair and my brain directed me towards my wounded hand which felt tied up to something. My mouth dropped and closed wordlessly, unable to understand when and how it has happened. My hand was entwined tightly with Nazira's. She was sleeping, a little distance away from the blood pool down on the floor. Her legs were crossed, her back against the wall, head slightly lolled aside. Vague images formed inside my mind. I still wasn't able to recollect how her hand landed in mine. Swallowing heavily, I released my hand and gently placed hers beside her leg.

I hated how she had to sleep down on the filthy floor because of my some stupid mistake. She seemed to be in a sound sleep that restrained me to wake her up. My mouth was dry and the smell coming out of body was nauseating. I wiped my sweat out of my forehead and stood up to walk away from her slightly angered.

I poured water from the jug into the copper glass and drank it as fast as I could. In the process, I noticed the white cloth around my arm. That made me realize how normal I was feeling, my arm and rest of my body wasn't hurting anymore. The fact that healing faster was an advantage of being a Samagraha, did not seem to be a rightful explanation that saved me from getting paralyzed. I didn't know, as usual, for how long I had slept but I wasn't feeling physically weak. I was surprisingly sweating tremendously as if I was standing underneath a waterfall, cool water dripping down my forehead and oozing out from every cell of my skin.

Turning my face aside, I watched Nazira waking up her, her eyelashes faintly batting against her lids. I constricted my heart. I still had no idea about what could have happened that had made us fall asleep hand in hand. My only concern was to not to blow this up. Because if I had to blow up, I didn't want it to happen this way.

Stifling a yawn and waking up entirely, she firstly sought for me in the chair. She sat straight, finding the chair empty and looked all over the room in search for me. Finally locating me standing beside the table, she stood up, her face filled with apparent concern.

"How are you feeling?" She signaled.

"Great," I replied, smiling nervously, "Do you know how?"

She nodded pointedly at the thing beside the chair. "This basket appeared with all the needful stuff before you returned from your challenge. It came with some instructions signed under Doctor's name."

"Oh!" I said, raising my eyebrows. I rubbed my clammy nape, trying not to think how in the world these imports were happening.

"You should change," she signaled, smiling amusingly at my face and outfits washed with sweat.

"Yeah, of course," I said placing the glass down on the table. Irritated by the crawling sensation, I shook my head and droplets sprinkled down on the floor,  "I am sweating like hell."

"That's the venom coming out of your body. You are going to sweat for a while."

"Does that paper say so?"

She nodded.

We kept looking at each other, wanting anyone of us to start the conversation, we both were avoiding.

"What happened?" I asked taking a couple of steps towards her, "Did I say something that I shouldn't have?"

To my utter shock, she nodded. I stood solidified like a robot commanded to stop. An image of Pruthvi dumping me a thousand miles deep beneath the earth flashed in my mind.

"I did?" I gasped, getting scared to death, and then I started blabbing not caring to make it accessible to let her read my lips, "I am so sorry, I didn't mean to say it that way. Whatever I said..."

"You don't have to thank me," she interrupted, "It's the least I could do for you."

I gaped at her. "Sorry?"

"You saved me twice, remember? What I did in the morning was nothing."

Oh crap! Really? She took it that way!

"So I thanked you, that's all?" I asked, "Nothing else?"

She shook her head.

"So it wasn't...I mean awkward, right?" I asked, just to see how she was going to react upon us holding hands.

But again, she simply shook bending her head down. "You ask weird questions."

I heard her saying that in my mind, her hands didn't move to signal. Forgetting I was pretending, I blurted it out. "I do, don't I?"

She frowned. "What?"

I looked away, guiltily and tried my best to cover it. "What, what?" I asked.

She burst out laughing watching my expression. "You do ask weird questions." She signaled this time without hesitating, and I was thankful she was getting diverted.

"I know," I said wiping my sweat that was about to enter my mouth, "My dad was a journalist. Maybe I have it in in my genes."

"Your dad was what?"

"Journ-a-list!" I said stressing on each syllable carefully, making it easier for her to understand, yet she couldn't catch it.

"What do they do?" she asked.

"They ask weird questions," I replied, smiling humorously.

She sniggered walking away from me to check in the basket. I sighed heavily in relief, widening my eyes. One of these days I was so going to get busted.

Be attentive, jerk!

Nazira mentioned later that evening about how, with each realm, the temperature was dropping. And I guess she was right. Maybe the temperature here was related to the month the Samagraha was born.

Even after having a cool shower bath, my sweat flow did not stop. Nazira needed the fireplace lit, I couldn't blame her, she was feeling cold. But all the excessive heat increased the amount the precipitation on my face and chest that made it unbearable for me to stay inside the hut anymore. When Nazira kept herself busy in painting, I, spent my time walking outside the hut and in a way to get a relief from my incessant sweating. It gave me an opportunity to check on the environment and to already build up an idea about my next challenge.

My eyes blazed wide open on watching this humongous picturesque realm covered with spotless whiteness all around. I was ambling over the thin layer of the powdery snow, that somehow made me feel as if I was back to Dakshinpur. In contrast to that of the place, the vast infinitely spread sky hovering above me was absolutely cloudless and azure blue. Sun rays were inclined to create a lengthened shadow of the holy tree of Vrindahina, grown tall, aligned in a series, located far away from the hut. Apparently, they looked different, their leaves covered with puffed snow, probably hiding its flowers underneath them. Now I understood why Nazira was so eager to paint.

Finally deciding to call it a day, I walked back inside the hut. Nazira was sitting down on the floor beside the fireplace, legs stretched out, crossed at ankles and sketching casually on the paper. I went ahead and boldly sat beside her.

"It's beautiful outside," I said, looking sideways at her, "You should come outside with me tomorrow, for a walk."

She nodded brightly. "When is your next challenge?"

"Exactly in two days, two freaking days! We have enough time to go back Florida...by walk."

She sniggered and then asked. "Do you like Florida?"

"Of course, I have been there all my life. Well, my parents never liked traveling, and now I know why. But yeah, Florida is the best. How about you?"

"I have been nowhere but the academy and I like the academy. It's lively. But..."

She hesitated, twisting her face as she always did whenever she needed a push.

"But?" I asked.

"Florida is so hot."

I chuckled looking at her expression. "I know. I can see you are accustomed to snow."

"I am!" she signaled, "Except in the month of the Fest, there is always snow in Paramarashtra. But did you know it wasn't like this twenty-five years ago?  It seems our country had a name for having a year-round pleasant atmosphere. Shourya told me."

"Hmm, so I have heard from Doctor once," I said nodding, watching her bug-eyed. Her expression was so unlike mine when I first came to know about it.

Paramarashtra is a crazy country, where anyone can do anything from anywhere. When will she come to know that?

There was a desperate question that suddenly raged in my mind and I figured, now that we were bonding quite well than before, maybe it was the right time to go for it. For a while, I pretended to watch her sketch when in reality I was looking for better words to frame my question.

I didn't know any other way to ask her for attention, and I dared to hold her hand as a gesture to look up at me. Thankfully she didn't mind but obliged.  

"Have you ever tried in any way to get out of your loneliness?" I asked, nervously, my heart beneath my chest beginning to drum.

She frowned at first and then signaled. "Technically I was never alone. Queen Premila was there for me dying all my childhood days and then Shourya did his best to be a good guardian, visiting me once in awhile. But yeah I wished to have a better company, all day, every day."

Do it! Do it now!

"Have you been asking for anyone's help?"

As soon as I asked the burning question that I always intended to ask her, the messages I have been hearing from her before I met her in person, rang in mind.

"Help me!"

"I am still waiting for you!"

"Will I ever see you?"

But the real Nazira, sitting in front of me was having such an incredulous expression I had never seen before, slack-mouthed and her faces grimaced probably thinking if I could be any crazier.

"Huh?" she asked.

"I mean...have you been waiting for anyone to come and save you?"

"Save me from what?"

"I don't know," I replied, which was the truth, "maybe from some kind of situation you didn't want to be a part of."

"I am not getting your question," she signaled, turning completely towards me, "Whom will I ask for help when it was totally impossible to meet anybody?"

I gaped at her for a few seconds. Honestly, I couldn't understand why she was finding the question so troublesome. Had I not been seeing her the way she reacted at the moment I used my stone? She must be asking for my help earlier, had she not if I had to compare those days with the way I was seeing her now?

I bit my lip and then tried to explain. "I know I ask weird question. But believe me, when I do, it really means something. And you are free to tell me anything unless you find it too difficult. Are you understanding what I am trying to say?"

I wished to have not brought the tabooed subject when I watched her drop her eyes, pressed them to shut and gently pushed the papers away out of her lap. But I wasn't trying to ask her about my grandmother, I wish she understood that.

"I wasn't asking for anyone's help," she signaled, "But I knew I have a brother. Queen Premila and Shourya, they both told me. I was just waiting to meet him someday. That's all."

I have seen glass shattering, breaking into minute gazillion number of pieces. That was exactly how I was feeling right now, heartbroken when she said she was just waiting for Pruthvi. Even though it was too obvious, even though she was right from her perspective, it was just difficult to cope with the fact that it wasn't some random person like me she was waiting for. I looked away to hide my grim expression that I thought was surfacing on my face. I ran my hand through my hair and down to my neck pretending to wipe my sweat.

"Did that answer your question?" she asked doubtfully, and that forced me to look at her.

"Er, Yeah," I said, hurriedly, and giving her a thin smile, "Yes, it did."

It certainly did.