Blade of Vish |

25. Zeeva

Anshu and Karan decided that they were now going back towards the High Tower. Whatever they could have done, they nearly had. Nothing more was left. She was thinking about what she was gong to tell to Chitrakshi and Shoubdha. They helped her much till here. Karan did it too. But still... 

Hell lot of pain, still no gain. She thought. The person who said that 'No Pain No Gain' must have been a jerk! 

As if she wasn't sad enough, she couldn't remember who said these words. This made her even more mad than before. She didn't like it when she was unable to mark a detail. Brains were the only things that came handy to her. 

After a fair time of walking, she noticed that Karan was lagging behind. She turned around and noticed that he was atleast three yards away from her. He was walking slowly one foot at a time. Her subject of upmost attention shifted to his leg. The trauma around his left leg looked pretty bad. He was directly hit at the leg by the demon. He had wrapped the hankie she had given him around his leg but looking at the scale of damage, it wasn't enough. 

"You're okay?" She asked him as she backed her steps towards him. Actually she wanted to ask Can you (even) walk? But words wouldn't simply come out. 

"Absolutely. Sorry you would have to walk the whole distance on foot. If this wouldn't have happened, we would have been in the Kingdom by now." he said the last sentence in a slightly lower voice but Anshu heard it. 

"No that's not the matter of concern. I don't have any complaints. You people already have done enough for us...." her pitch seemed to fall with each succeeding word. 

"Whatever!" She said as she regained her usual tone. "At least I wouldn't have to use a capsule to travel. It smells fishy! And if you still want to give me a piggyback ride, you're gracefully welcomed." She said as she gave him a small smile. Karan replied back with one. 

At least she started to smile more. God! I thought she was all a book nerd! Karan thought. 

Anshu bent a little and gave him some support, taking some of his body weight on her shoulders. "You looked like a pirate back there... " She commented, "... except the eye patch." 

"Do you even know how to crack a decent joke?" Karan practically asked her. 

"I do." She hastily replied back. 

"You don't." he commented as he led a small giggle. He was trying to reduce the tension in the atmosphere around them. 

"Let's see, what will you call a dog with a hammer?" She asked. 

"Well, I see the creatures in this world are far less magical than in ours. In our world, dogs can't half a hammer so there's no question of they would do it here. So the question is wrong." 

"It isn't. At least make a guess." 

Karan thought about it for the next few minutes, the only few minutes in their journey so far in which he didn't utter a word. "I lost is that okay?" he accepted his defeat. 

"It's called a labraTHOR!" She answered as she led a laugh. But when she saw the expressionless face of Karan's she knew this fool didn't get a word of it. 

"Don't you know what's a Labrador?" She asked "Or Thor?" 

His face was still like he was he had just landed on earth from an alien planet, not knowing a shit about what she was talking. 

"Come on!" She said in a rather unsatisfied tone. "There's no way you don't know Thor." 

"So is this Thor a male?" he made a fool of himself by asking that.