As they walked out the door at the back of the mansion, Nandini's eyes were drawn to the corner of the wooden veranda where they had stood just hours ago, engaged in a fierce argument that had spiralled into something much worse when he had broken her clip intentionally. The remains of the clip were gone, obviously swept away by a conscientious staff member.

She couldn't believe all of that had happened only today morning.

"Yeah...it feels like that happened years ago," Prithvi murmured as he gently led her towards the stairs.

She turned to him with surprise at the wry comment. 

"That's how it feels to you too?" she said in a hushed voice as they started to walk down the stairs.

He nodded, then muttered, "I'm sorry I reacted like that in front of the others."

The apology softened her heart – but only for a second. "But you're not sorry about overreacting in private with me," she asked with a crinkled forehead.

"It was not an overreaction," Prithvi said stonily. "If anything, it was a very restrained response to your... interesting choice in friendships," he said tetchily.

"He is not my friend," Nandini said exasperatedly, walking down the wooden stairway, one step behind him. "He never was, and he never will be. But apart from that one idiotic thing he did on the stage, he has never misbehaved with me."

"That's very impressive and touching." Prithvi said scathingly. "Let's try to get him an award for that."

"Why are you being so – so - stupid about this?" she asked, vexed.

"You're the one who doesn't mind talking to that ******* pervert, but yeah, I'm the one being stupid," he said bitingly. "I can't believe you could even stand to look at him."

Nandini stopped descending and irately yanked her hand out of his grip.

When he looked back at her with a frown, she tartly said, "You can't believe it because you were never taught to have any manners. And I'm telling you this right now...if I see him again, I will be polite to him," she added obstinately.

"Don't stop at that. I'll ask the staff to prepare picnic baskets for both of you," he said sarcastically.

Nandini regarded him in utter frustration. He looked exactly as he had all those years ago when they had the first fight on the same topic. 

All of a sudden, in his place, she saw that 19-year-old boy...terribly upset and angry with her, standing before a wooden cupboard, coldly demanding to know why Suvek had held her hand...

He had expected a furious reaction or at least a snarky retort, and so he was puzzled to see the irritation on her face slowly dissipating, and being replaced by what seemed to be amusement...

Nandini tried to stifle a laugh, but her lips started twitching, and then she couldn't help chuckle softly.

"What's so funny?" Prithvi asked in irked bewilderment, with a creased brow.

"I can't believe you're still so jealous of him," she laughed, shaking her head amusedly.

Flushed red, he snapped, "I'm not jealous."

"So you really wouldn't mind if I went for a picnic with him?" she asked impishly.

"Not at all....if you don't mind him being buried alive at your picnic spot," he said sourly.

"You're right. You don't sound jealous at all," she giggled, and when he scowled angrily at her, he looked so adorable that she wanted to kiss him...but she couldn't do that here...out in the open.

And then she remembered all those times when she had stopped herself from displaying any physical affection towards him. Countless beautiful moments had gone out of her grasp forever because she'd allowed her fears to restrain her from showing him just how passionately she loved him. Her fears of being seen by others...of being judged...of awakening something wilder and dangerous in him that she might not be able to deal with...

She put her arms around his neck and placed a quick but fervent kiss on his lips, and then overcome by shyness, she darted around him and almost skipped down the steps, her face crimson and hot...her heart lighter and happier...

Was this how it felt to simply follow one's heart without doubts or questions...

"You can be honest with me. I will not take any action against you."

She looked around to see him approaching her with a solemn air.

"Tell you what?" she asked hesitantly, her cheeks still aflame.

"Who are you really?" he asked seriously. "And what have you done with my wild cat?"

"Let's just say that nickname didn't suit me before, but it does now," she quipped flippantly while walking backwards with her nose up in the air, bravely trying to conceal her deep bashfulness.

He grinned, "I don't think your face has been told that yet."

She laughed shyly and turned away.

"But you're still going to have answer a question to confirm your identity," he insisted.
"What was the name of the college you were studying in when you fell for the most handsome and noble and decent man on earth?

Nandini swivelled around with a dramatic flair, horror on her face. "Who are you talking about? Are you accusing me of cheating on you?" she cried out, keeping her hands on her cheeks.

He looked at her testily, and she burst out laughing at his expression.

The delightful sight and sound brought a gorgeous smile to his face along with a twinge in his chest. This was one of the rare moments when he was seeing her as she had been once...before his mother had ruined both their lives...

With laughter fading, she looked at him with concern. "What happened? What were you thinking about?" she asked uneasily.

"Just wishing we were back in your room so I could prove how decent I still am," he said earnestly, his roguish gaze drifting lazily to her breasts and lower.

Her heart jumped to her throat. Her cheeks turning a finer shade of scarlet, she turned away hurriedly and walked towards the sturdy stone stairs.

But when he caught her left hand, she didn't pull away, and there was a happy lightness in their steps as they made their way to the gushing stream.

She cast him a swift glance. Some thought had certainly troubled him for a moment. But his reply had flustered her too much to ask him the question again now...

************************

Yamini took second helpings of the fragrant rice and tofu curry on her plate and walked back to the sofa where Garv was seated, engrossed in a sports magazine.

He had already taken his lunch earlier but was giving her company since she disliked eating alone.

They had not talked about the morning's drama yet. He had tried to speak to her about it when she had woken up but she had not been in the mood to discuss it, and that's how she continued to feel. She was a bit too overwhelmed by the whole incident, which was perplexing. With their shared love for adventures and trekking, their group had faced many situations that had been quite dangerous...even life threatening. And they had emerged from most of those tricky situations alive and relatively unscathed only because of Prithvi. In fact, it was those experiences that had cemented the friendship between them even though they were all so different from each other.

In comparison, today's happenings had not been too serious. But she was feeling knocked out, and she had no idea why.

The door opened and Anuj walked into the room. He looked unsurprised by their presence, and headed straight to the dining table. He piled a mountain of food onto his plate and then walked to his friends.

"Where is Prithvi? Is Nandini okay?" he mumbled as he sat down on the floor with his plate.

"I think so," Garv nodded.

There was silence for some minutes as Yamini and Anuj dug into their food with their minds elsewhere.

"Where's Grimes?" Anuj asked with a full mouth.

"In her room. I knocked but she didn't respond," Yamini muttered. As crazy as this morning had been for all of them, it would have been much more difficult for Grishma. But Anuj had no clue about Grishma's feelings for Prithvi, and Garv had not seemed very convinced of the depth of Grishma's one-sided attachment.

"Am I the only one who feels like someone whacked me on the head with a club or something?" Anuj said.

"No, I feel that too," Yamini said slowly. "I was sleeping like the dead, and woke up just a short time ago. I don't know why I'm feeling like this. It was a crazy thing to happen, yeah...but we have seen worse things, haven't we? This was just more...emotional. A lot more emotional," she added under her breath.

Garv agreed, "It was a bit too much for all of us."

Anuj kept silent. The events of the morning had shaken him. He had never seen anything as fearfully intense as the look on Nandini's face when she had stared at Prithvi while walking up to him. It had been frightening and also...in some mysterious way...beautiful. Akin to watching a thunderstorm's movement across land. And Prithvi's state when she had collapsed had been no less intense. This was the guy who had always been unmoved and fearless even in seriously dangerous situations... but he had nearly gone to pieces when Nandini had fainted...

The power of their emotions had felt unearthly...like a force of nature. It had been beyond his capacity to understand, but it had affected him badly.

"He knew she was going to hit him long before she did," Anuj said quietly. "And he could easily have stopped her. No one can hit him like that. No one," he emphasised. "But he didn't stop her."

"Everything about that whole scene was insane...but what I find most unbelievable is that he was stressed about her hand. I mean...the guy was worried she had hurt her hand after slapping him," Yamini said broodingly. "If anyone hit me like that, I would only be focussed on slicing their hands off." She looked at Garv, and demanded, "If I slapped you, would you be concerned about my hand?"

"I hope we never have to find out," Garv said fervently with folded hands.

Yamini rolled her eyes, while Anuj chortled.

Then Garv thoughtfully said, "I tried to ask Sumer Singh about them...about their past story. But he became very uncomfortable and mumbled something I didn't understand, and then he left quickly after giving me some excuse."

Then recalling his earlier conversation with Prithvi, he asked the others, "Did either of you hear Nandini calling out to Prithvi? When he disappeared from that point."

Yamini and Anuj thought about it for a few moments, then Yamini shook her head. "I don't remember if I heard her. I was too freaked out."

"Same here. I have no idea who called out and who didn't. I just remember yelling my head off," Anuj said sheepishly.

"Why are you asking?" Yamini asked Garv with curiosity.

Garv slowly said, "I don't think she said anything after he went missing. But Prithvi said he could hear her calling out to him...and hers was the only voice he heard."

"That's weird," Anuj said warily.

"He only heard her voice?" Yamini said, raising her eyebrows.

Garv nodded. He was thinking again about the look on her face that had frightened him badly. But he felt reluctant to share it. He would only speak to Prithvi about it...

After finishing the food on her plate, Yamini placed a piece of scrumptious black forest cake onto a fresh plate, and while eating small spoonfuls of the delicious dessert, she idly walked to the side of the room that overlooked the stream and forests at the back of the house.

Her spoon suddenly froze on the way to her mouth.

She stared in amazement at the sight of Prithvi reaching for Nandini's hand as they walked towards the steps leading to the stream.

She had seen innumerable girls try unsuccessfully to hold his hand over the years...this was the first time she had seen the reverse...

***********************

Nandini gazed at the pretty sights around her, a lovely smile on her lips. The beautiful stream with crystal clear water was gurgling sweetly as they walked alongside it through short, yellowed grass, and rocks and rounded pebbles in many sizes and various shades of white, grey and black, and thickets of wild flowers. At some distance away, a quaint looking wooden bridge spanned the width of the stream.

"You got those pretty stones from among these?" she asked Prithvi keenly, looking at the pebbles around her feet.

"I found them when I had gone to the other side to walk through those woods," he lied blatantly, indicating the dense woods across the stream that she could see from her room's balcony.

"That looked like a real forest," Nandini said uneasily.

"It's not, we have to go much deeper into these woods to get to the real part," Prithvi dismissed. "But there are thick forests on the outskirts of Taravan...beyond the main property. Those look like they might have wild animals," he said interestedly, and then realised she was regarding him with sharp, narrowed eyes. "Which is why I will never go close to them," he adjoined hastily.

"You better not," Nandini said severely, and then she hesitantly said, "What were you saying about Taravan earlier? It is nicer than this place?"

Prithvi nodded solemnly, concealing a victorious grin at the fact that the remark he had tossed casually but with a very serious intention had hit the mark.

"Yeah, it has beautiful woods and a lot of large fruit orchards like the ones you saw that day. There are streams like this one too. You can walk for hours within the property. Or you can just sit in the gardens and watch the tragic sight of the peacocks dancing."

She looked at him in bafflement. "Tragic? That sounds so beautiful," she said longingly.

"It is...but those poor males go crazy trying to impress the peahens, but the females hardly ever give them any attention. The whole scene is too painfully close to my real life," Prithvi sighed heavily, and then grinned as her face turned pink and she chuckled.

"You really like Taravan, don't you?" Nandini said warmly.

"I like any place where I can avoid seeing most of humanity," he replied dryly. He almost added that Aadyabhoomi was more beautiful than Taravan, with many landscapes and timelines melded into one. But he stopped himself in time. That was not a place either of them could recall without triggering emotions that were better avoided...

"Then you must really love that place in the mountains that you go to," Nandini said lightly, trying hard to keep burning curiosity out of her voice.

He glanced at her with an amusement that made her blush...and some other emotion that made her heart contract oddly...

"I do," he muttered.

She waited for him to say something more, but he remained silent. Instinct told her to keep quiet and let go of the subject, but the next question came out of her lips before she could stop it.

"Have your friends been there? To the cabin?" she asked tentatively.

Prithvi shook his head. "That place is only for me, no one else," he said mildly, and then looked at her directly, and answered the main question she'd wanted to ask. "Especially not you."

Nandini stopped walking and stared at him in anguished disbelief. And then, with an abrupt gush of hurt and anger, she asked, "Why not?"

"I have a bit of a reputation as a very eligible bachelor in all the villages," he said modestly. "And that means there is a stream of women coming to see me every day with a wide variety of delicious food to impress me. And they are very sharp at noticing things. If you come there, and those females see us together, they will realise they don't stand a chance, and then I'll have to start cooking for myself."

Nandini glared at him angrily. He was teasing her but she had the most infuriating feeling that he was not fully making it up.

"You won't believe the kinds of things they do to impress me," he reminisced solemnly. "I don't have to prepare even a cup of tea while I'm there."

"Wonderful! I hope one of your potential wives poisons you someday," she snapped coldly and started to turn away from him.

He grinned at her temper, but then his expression changed, and he muttered, "There is another reason."

Nandini looked back at him crossly, but the irritation in her lovely eyes turned to confusion on seeing that there was no amusement or laughter in his eyes, only an unusual sombreness. It frightened her a little.

"Someday soon, we will have to part ways again," Prithvi said quietly, gazing at her exquisitely beautiful face. "And I will go to those mountains to find some peace again. The last time you'd ended the relationship, that is the place that helped me put myself together," he said soberly. "And if I have any memories of you being in that space, I will lose the little relief that I find there...and it will become one more spot that I need to avoid for my sanity."

Shocked, Nandini stood motionless with an ashen face. Then her features wilted. Tears filled her eyes and her lips trembled. But he didn't move forward to soothe her, and neither did she rush to him to promise that things would be different this time.

The towering, excruciating grief of the past stood between them, solid and almost indestructible, whispering a promise that it would not stop haunting them so quickly or easily...

Prithvi looked away with a clouded gaze, unable to bear her distress but also feeling strangely incapable of comforting her.

"Tell me more about Taravan," Nandini said in a shaky voice, "What else do you like about it?"

He glanced at her quickly and was vastly relieved to see that she wasn't crying, though her face was still colourless and her eyes were damp.

She walked to him and wrapped her arm around his. They gazed at each other wordlessly for a long moment, and then they slowly resumed their stroll.

And after a few minutes, he began to talk about Taravan again. About the lush gardens and surrounding greenery. And the shadows of that painful moment slowly stepped back for the moment.

She listened to him with a sweet contentment...until he began talking of the wide open spaces where Uday Singh had made arrangements for him and the others to practice some of their favourite activities...such as horse riding and archery and tennis...

Nandini stopped walking and looked at him in alarm. She had not heard anything beyond the word 'horse', and now all she could see were images of scenes from movies in which characters fell down from horses and either died or were injured horribly.

"Horse riding?" she repeated, aghast. "That's dangerous."

"Not at all," he dismissed. "And what I like even more is archery on horseback," he added with enthusiasm.

"What? Why would you even want to do that?" she asked in horror.

"Because it's fun. It was one of my favourite sports in school," he reminisced fondly.

"They allowed you to do something so dangerous? What kind of a – a terrible school was this?" she cried out, appalled.

"It was a stupid one because they barred everyone from practicing it," he replied, scowling in memory of the injustice. "But I used to practice it in secret whenever I got the chance, and some boys joined me along the way. We got away with it for a long time. Then one idiot fell down from the horse and broke a few bones, and the teachers found out. I would have still continued with it...but Baba begged me not to try it again until I was much older."

"And then you grew up and became more sensible and realised you must never try it again?" she asked with hope, but only received a mischievous smile in return.

"No, no...don't tell me! I don't want to know," Nandini said quickly, shutting her eyes and shuddering.

"You're a wise woman," Prithvi grinned. But then he morosely said, "Anyway, there is no chance of any danger with the horses in Taravan. All of them are tame and obedient."

The statement didn't really comfort her as it should have, and also, she was mystified by his tone. "Isn't that a good thing?" she asked, bewildered.

"Not for me," Prithvi said glumly. "It's the wild and unpredictable ones that I like...it's just like my taste in women," he adjoined with a roguish grin.

She playfully jammed her elbow into him.

"See, there's the violent streak that I find so hot," he murmured.

She chuckled shyly.

But in the next moment, she abruptly felt a quiet sense of shock. He had not spoken to her like this about any of this before...about his school or childhood. She had learned most things about his past from others. But today, he had talked openly and spontaneously about a part of his life before they had met...

Before they had met as grown-ups...but what if they had never parted when they were children. How incredibly different her life would have been if he had continued to be part of her life if things had not gone wrong from the very start...if her father and his had not been snatched away by death...wasn't there a small chance that the families would have remained close? And if so, if she had known him since childhood...what kind of a relationship would that have been like...

She thought of him as he would have been in his teens, and it was too cute an image. She had not had any crushes in her adolescence. But if she had known him during those sensitive years, she deeply suspected she would have experienced the angst that most of her friends and classmates seemed to have gone through at that time.

"What's wrong?" he asked confusedly, noting the change on her face.

Startled out of her musings, Nandini shook her head bashfully.

"You can freely share all your dirty fantasies with me," he encouraged enthusiastically. "The dirtier the better!"

Nandini laughed while turning crimson. "Shup up! I was only thinking..." she paused and tried to frame her thoughts before speaking. "I was thinking how it would have been if your father and mine had not...if they had not...left," she muttered. "And if they had remained friends...we might have seen each other often while growing up. I was wondering how that would have been..." she mumbled.

As she was speaking, she seemed to see a faint glimpse of that make-believe world...and it caused a strangely beautiful, powerful ache in her heart...

Then she realised he was looking at her, and when she glanced up, her heart skipped several beats at the searing intensity of his gaze. And she knew then that he too was thinking of that life...that world in which they could have been together – even if it was in the smallest way - from the very beginning...

Then Prithvi thoughtfully said, "I don't think the friendship between the families would have survived for long."

Her brows knit in consternation, Nandini uncertainly asked, "Why? Because of...your mother?

"Surprisingly, no...I wasn't thinking of her. I think I would have been the cause for the rift," he answered seriously. "More specifically, my hormones. Because based on the stories that I've heard from your family and my mother, I had some unhealthy obsession with you before I even had a full set of teeth. And that would definitely have become much more dangerous in my teenaged phase," he said solemnly. "And your father would have beaten the crap out of me or even tried to gun me down at some point. And I think that might have soured the relations a little between the families," he said with a sheepish grin.

Nandini lapsed into blushing giggles.

The sun had gone behind the clouds, but there was a beautiful sunshine in her heart. She was almost afraid of the happiness within her. Every time she had touched joy in the last few weeks, something had gone wrong soon after. And the trauma of those moments in the morning was still alive and well within her...

Suddenly, the memory of her Friday ritual popped up in her head. She had thought about it in the morning too, and had decided to ask Sumer Singh about it, Nandini recalled, but she could ask Prithvi now. He would certainly not know anything about temples in the area but it would be a moment's work for him to ask any of the staff members, she mused.

After a few more seconds of pondering, Nandini tentatively said, "I want to visit a temple of the divine mother tomorrow morning. Could you find out if there are any such temples in this area?"

Prithvi glanced at her thoughtfully. Tomorrow was a Friday...and he remembered one other Friday morning when he had seen her walking barefoot on the road...and the red, bruised look of her feet later...

"I don't need to find out, I already know," he replied seriously. "There are no temples anywhere in this place."

Disappointed, Nandini's face fell, but then a suspicion arose in her mind. "How do you know for sure?" she asked him doubtfully.

"I am a deeply religious man," Prithvi said piously. "Whenever I go to any new place, the first thing I do is find out if there are any temples nearby."

Nandini chuckled at his saintly expression. "You're as religious as I'm an atheist." She should have known he would not be enthusiastic about helping her in this matter. She would stick with her original plan of asking Sumer Singh.

"Sumer Baba will tell you the same thing," Prithvi assured her, with his galling ability to read her thoughts.

"No, he will tell me the truth, because he respects my beliefs, unlike you," she said pleasantly.

He started to reply indignantly but paused when his phone started to buzz. He took the device out of his pocket with the intention to cut the call, but he hesitated when he saw that it was from Grishma.

He answered the call, and the faint hoarseness in her voice as she requested to meet him urgently told him that he had been right to pick up the phone.

"I'll be there in a short while," Prithvi said briefly.

Nandini looked at him uneasily, aware of the tension in his voice and shoulders.

"Is something wrong?" she asked him

"We have to get back. Grishma said she needs to talk to me," Prithvi said casually, turning around to head back to the house.

Nandini looked at him with a sudden misgiving and released his arm. "About what?" she asked with more harshness in her voice than she had intended.

He looked at her sharply with a slight frown at the action and the tone, but calmly lied, "I don't know."

"Is it very urgent? Can't we be here for some more time?" she asked with a touch of resentment even as she walked alongside him.

"It sounded urgent," Prithvi replied dispassionately. "We can come back here later in the evening." The conversation with Grishma was going to be unpleasant, but it was necessary. And it would be good to get it over with at the earliest.

"You don't have to do me any favour," Nandini said coolly, folding her arms tightly. "You can spend the rest of today with your friends."

He looked at her with a mild irritation but kept quiet as they walked back to the house. He knew what was bothering her, but he couldn't do anything about it for now. It would be easier to calm her down once he had gotten done with the prickly talk with Grishma...

**************************