(Book 2) Hayden Mackay and The Tears of the Maiden

9. At His Lair

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.