Sometime in late January 2009.

Jai Kapadia

The winters this year surprisingly turned out to be a mild one. As I sat by the swing at the Jain's farm house with Mitali running about with my siblings, Naveen still seated with his eyebrows scrunched did I realized how long it had been the first time I had met Mitali.

The summers, the monsoon, the spring and now even winters are about to end, in fact a complete year had came to an end, but these seasons had given me so many new relations.

I shook my head to let go of the thought, standing up I walked towards Naveen and sat down beside him.

"These days those wrinkles on your forehead are increasing." I said, and though my intention was to lighten his mood, it seemed my jokes were quite poor for I didn't have any desired results.

"I am worried yes, it's been a month since Shakti and Rey have gone missing... and Veer" Naveen shook his head as he mentioned Veer's name.

We knew he had his own problems going on. Veer couldn't really share his things with us as freely as we would. The court matters and the Royal issues aren't to be discussed with commoners. And though I owned more than half of the countries industries I was a commoner in the eye of the royal protocols.

Sometimes I really agreed with what Mitali had to say about these things,.

'they all are those little things to keep their ego inflated.'

"I have come to realize that the two of you cared a lot for Shakti..."

"Shakti was no special person, it was just that we had a handful of people to whom we could call as ours and Shakti and Rey were the first of the people whom we came across."

Naveen had a small smile on his face as he thought about something, whereas I, my eyes followed the girl who had won my heart in its wee years.

The way she ran behind Vansh, her loud laugh and the glow on her face made me laugh as well. I didn't know what was it that made her laugh... but seeing the way she was laughing it made me smile.

I stood up from there and walked towards her and stood right in front of her. But it seemed rather than she getting surprised by my sudden presence it was me who was surprise.

The way her eyebrows shot up, her eyes went wide, dilating her pupils, her lips parted as she breath deep due the continuous running made me mesmerized.

I took hold of her hand and pulled her with me.

"Bhai, where are you taking her?" Vansh asked as the all of them kept on staring at our way rather shock.

But then, never had I ever done something as bold as this. Ignoring them I looked at a very flushed Mitali and asked,

"Will you come with me?" she stared at me for a moment and then nodded her head in acceptance; never had anything made me as happy as I was at that moment.

I quickly turned around and began walking, and thanks to my memory I did remember the way.

"You could have told me you wanted to come here, that drama was unnecessary." Mitali said, as I helped her to jump over a slightly big rock. The trail towards our destination was no less than a trekking track.

"I didn't cause a scene; I just wanted to get you alone with me." Dropping off a kiss on her forehead we walked ahead, her hand clasped in mine in a slightly firm grip.

As we inched closer and closer to the clearing all of a sudden Mitali asked, "What were you talking about with Naveen?"

"I thought you were busy with my brother and sister to even notice me?" I teased.

"I have two eyes, and when they see the two of you together, my heart freezes, I couldn't understand and even think of the kind of talks the two of you might be having." She made a shuddering gesture which only made me laugh.

"We weren't talking about you for a change..."

"That means the two of you gossip about me... how dare you Jai?' Mitali stopped all of a sudden and let go off my hand and took a threatening step towards me. Though she wasn't that scary or intimidating, but I found myself backing off with each step that she took.

"Mitali..."

"No, don't Mitali me...why am I here again, you should have got Naveen here." she turned around and was about to walk away as I took hold of her hand and pulled her towards me such that I was hugging her from the back.

"We always talk good things about you... and I would always prefer your company than your brothers."

"As if" she taunted but never struggled to get out of my embrace... and I, I loved being the way we were standing.

Soon the two of us began walking towards the river point and as soon as we reached there and sat down on one of the rocks, the two of us let out an involuntary chuckle.

"That day, now that I think of it was so hilarious." Mitali said, and all I could do was nod in agreement.

The day when we had first met, and I had confessed my feelings for her for the first time.

"These days I wish I had taken some other job... every time that I look at any of the paintings it reminds me about Daksh and Shakti."

"Mitali you had promised me you will not worry yourself about it." I warned her as I sat a bit closer to her, than pulling her towards me; I made her sit on my lap and wrapped my arms around her.

For a long while she didn't said anything, while I held her ... tightly, as if to remind her that I was there and everything would be alright.

"I like it when you hold me like this." She said and rested her head on my shoulder, I kissed the side of her head and said,

"And I also like the way your heart is beating right now."

I felt her laughing as she said, "even I love this."

Everything was perfect, it was just that now we had to get hold of Daksh, Shakti and Veer soon. The time was running off, and with that it was difficult to take Mitali's mind off these topics. With that kept in mind I was surely determined to make that Prince of Rajasthan a call as soon as we were to go back to the city.

*****

As the night came in we walked into the house only to find everyone seated in the leaving room with the smell of pakodas and tea filled around.

Mitali quickly let go off my hand and walked ahead of me towards everyone and sat down on the sofa with a piece of the snacks in her hand as the rest of them kept on looking at her and then at me.

Seeing it was surly going to be a difficult night I walked inside and sat beside her and let my eyes wander off towards everyone.

"What?" I asked, while I as well took hold of one piece and popped it into my mouth.

"Where were you guys?" Naveen asked, as he rested his back in the recliner with one of his hand holding the cup of tea and the other held the saucer.

"By the river bank... why?" I asked trying to be as casual as I could be.

With my answer the temperature in the room decreased even more as Mitali's dad came from one of the rooms and said, "We expected you to ask our permission before pulling up such a stunt."

The old man had never been as intimidating as he was right now. It wasn't as if we did something wrong... but still I felt a bit scared. But even before I could open my mouth to defend us Mitali spoke up.

"Dad, Naveen chill, we had went there because Jai wanted to have a few words with me. It's nothing to be worried about."

Mitali's dad kept on staring at me for a while and then nodded his head in agreement and then said, "If it is so, than lets go and have dinner."

The dinner wasn't easy, first because Mitali was made to sit right beside her brother, who all of a sudden had turned into that overprotective brother and no more my friend.

I sulked a bit but then soon rejoiced as I thought about the time we spent together; I liked it how we were slowly and steadily progressing towards sharing things with each other.

********

Mitali Jain

My eyes kept on staring at the date on the calendar as I sighed once again. This wasn't really helping me, each day that passed, rather than feeling slightly assured I was getting paranoid, sometimes even more worried. What if something would have happened to all of them?

No calls, no messages. Even the traditional methods of mails didn't work.

As the clock struck five times, I finally decided it was time to go home it seemed I wasn't that productive today. The weekend had been quite a pleasant one to get back kicking into the working mode.

Packing up my things I walked out of the office and let out a huge breath. Though it was a bit polluted, but seemed the chill in the air was good enough to have a happy evening.

Undecided what to do, I hailed up a cab and unconsciously drove off to the Khayali Kithabh, and once there I realized how wrong decision was it on my behalf to be here. It kept on reminding me of the beginning days, the days when Rey and Shakti were working hard on getting this done.

All the savings that they had counted up, the number of days they had gone pulling up all nighters to just perfect each of the plans ran in that old movie like manner.

The chill on my cheeks kept on increasing as once again a tear slipped from my eyes.

I missed my friends.

I missed Shakti and Rey!

*****

Veer Pratap Singh

"Rajkumar Sa..." the old voice of one of my trusted ministers rung through the door of my study as he stood there with his head hung low.

"Yes Rana sa, please come in." though my voice sounded low it was gruff, my throat felt itching, my body aching from the over excursion yet the sight of the old man made me even more worried.

It had been years that I have been in this... it was the air that I breathed but it was insignificant to even complain about the ifs and not's.

"What do you have?" I asked and for the first time I felt agitated, scared, I knew it was something which I had done... I was to be blamed for it, but I couldn't have it for her to be harmed... I couldn't afford it even to the exchange for my life.

"The Rajkumari is in her home town... she was seen there, the condition isn't good sir, I am worried what you had expected would finally happen." Rana sa said as he bowed down, his unspoken apology couldn't balm the guilt that I felt.

I knew how she was; I knew she would react... it was a low blow, yet I pushed her today where she was.

And though Mitali's, Jai's and Naveen's threat are there on my head... I am scared, not for myself... but for the first time I am scared for someone else.

And somewhere the court would be at a shame to know itis none other than Rajkumari Shakti. 

A/N 

Three POVs, three different situations And we make our entry into the third part of the story with Jai stuck into the midst of being a friend and a boyfriend, Mitali the guilty and lonely friend... and Veer, well his pov had been one interesting one, i wanted to write more about it but that would be so not fair on the part of maintaining a good suspense. 

Any which ways... how are you all doing? 

Is Navratri going well on you guys? I stopped Playing Dandia and garba long back when I was in 9th standard, though Mumbai has a lot of places now that organizes these functions, but I tend to stay in the northern part of Mumbai, technically sub- urban mumbai, and here its quite unsafe sometimes to walk about in the day light, be it a girl or Boy, then celebrations like Navratri and Holi... my parents and many refrain from sending their daughters out to enjoy and celebrate.

thats my sob story, but you guys can surely tell me what is it that you all are doing, i love to hear stories. tell us how is it that you all celebrate Diwali, Holi, Navratri at your place. 

and while you do so, do tell me what do you think might be up for you guys next week. Also please do tell me if you guys want a double update, I will try that may be alternate weeks, and if it is so do tell me the preferable day. 

also have you guys seen the new layout of Wattpad... isnt it so cool? 

Dont forget to Vote Comment and Share the story.

Happy reading