Sands Of Time (Part 3)

But she could not move a muscle. This had been the first time she had had a close experience of being attacked. Rachit came over and got holdover of her arms and they both ran as fast as they could. Just within 100 meters there was a small lake and Rachit thought they will be safe on the other side so he jumped into the lake not realizing he was still holding Pratima. Somehow they swam across the other side with Pratima still in shock. And Rachit was right. There was no one on this side of the lake. At least it doesn’t look like it. They both lay on the grass grasping for breath.Pratima was almost unconsious.Her face shone in the full moon light. Rachit gazed at her for some time without realizing .My god she is breathtakingly beautiful. But he realized she was not breathing properly and more over they did not have any medical aid with them. Last chance was CPR, the mouth to mouth procedure. Rachit tried to remember on what he had been taught about it during his training days. The symptoms looked critical but he could not remember the procedure correctly. I guess I will have to take a chance. And he did it with perfection .Pratima was breathing properly and with in no time she resumed consiousness. But Rachit was so nervous about the procedure that he had forgotten to check on her and did not realized when she came back to consciousness.

While Pratima was back in Wanknaghat with Aryan, she felt Aryan kissing her. But just then she came back to consiousness and saw Rachit leaned over her and his lips locked with hers. She hurriedly sat up and shocked Rachit.

‘I am sorry, I did not realised you were conscious again’

Then she realised what happened, the fire, the lake, And Aryan who was kissing her in her dream. Then she realized Rachit was trying to save her life.

‘No no, please. Thank you for saving my life’. She said.”Twice’ with a pause.

Rachit could not say anything. He just smiled.

O so the cold hearted saved my life and now it turns out he smiles too, now that is a surprise. She thought and could not help smiling to herself.

It was like they it was meant to happen. These two were meant to be together. Because the army does not send a rescue mission till at least 24 hrs. After the person is reported missing and they were here on a 4 day trip, so technically it could take almost a week for the other forces to reach to them.

“We might have to stay here for a while, food and clean water should not be a problem, we have a lake around so there will be clean water and some edible plants around” said Rachit .Pratima just realized that he was thinking the same thing. But it only looks easy, how am I going to keep quiet for such a long time. This man hardly speaks.

“It is really late and I think we should get some rest” he said “Will you be OK??” he asked.

“Yeah yeah, do not worry about me please, I will b fine. Good Night”

“Good night”                                         

And so it was, Pratima was alone again thinking about Aryan of what he must be doing, what he might be thinking, how will he react when he gets to know about I ll have to spend a week with a stranger in this forest. With those thoughts she dozed off.

It was day now when Pratima woke up. But weird thing was that Rachit was nowhere to be seen. She almost panicked when she heard distant running. Her first thought was Rachit was either running towards something or he was running away from something. She hoped it should be the first case. But as the footsteps came closer, she realized they were fast, really fast. “I do not know how fit he is, but no man can run that fast” she said to herself. Soon the footsteps came really close and Pratima was really scared standing there alone. But then she heard a horse, she got confused on what a horse was doing in this jungle. When the sight was clear, she saw Rachit riding a white horse and was running towards her. He looked like a Greek god riding that beautiful horse. With him flexing his muscles and his hair flying in the air, Pratima was surely taken aback. She thought it was a live fairy tale running in front of her eyes. Just when Rachit was about to reach to her she heard a voice, a voice that sounded almost familiar to Rachit. But wait, he was not speaking. Just then it started raining. “What the hell is happening” she thought to herself.

Just then she woke up and realized it was just a dream. Rachit had been trying to wake her up and when nothing worked he sprinkled some water in her face. Pratima woke up embarrassed on what she was dreaming. And more importantly, about whom she was dreaming about such a thing. She was an engaged girl and to dream about some fairy tale fantasy about a guy she just met was off the charts. She apologized to Aryan in her mind a thousand times during that day.

They were directionless, foodless, waterless people lost in the middle of nowhere. Pratima once even thought about moving somewhere else but Rachit made her realize some important thing like they do not know exactly where they are, they do not have a compass, they might unknowingly walk much deeper inside the forest making it difficult for the other troops to find them and moreover he was not sure about the water and food resources inside the forest. So it was much better for both of them to stay at the same place.

It was night again and Pratima was still thinking about that dream. The white horse and Rachit riding it. She could not figure out why she had that kind of a dream for Rachit. She did not realized when she dozed off thinking about that dream. Moreover what she did not realized that this was the first time in weeks that she had slept without thinking about Aryan.

Next few days were really difficult for Pratima. She was confused about everything that was happening. Rachit was being so sweet and so gentle. A perfect gentleman. Someone Pratima had always dreamt off. But Aryan is the perfect guy for me.

If he was perfect then why are you thinking about someone else? She heard some voice coming from herself.

I don’t know. I love Aryan.

But then why are you falling in love with someone else?

She had no answer. The voice was right. Her inner self felt guilty about cheating on Aryan. But she won’t. From now onwards she won’t think about Rachit anymore. She had decided. Aryan is the guy for me.

She was just thinking about it when Rachit came to her.

“Ummmmmm…..Pratima I want to tell you about something”

“Yes?”

“It might sound weird. But these few days had been one of the best times of my life, and the main reason for that is you.”

“I could not get you”

“I mean this mission would have been like any other mission for me if it was not for you. I do not think I could have survived here without you.

When during that fire I saw you shocked, I totally forgot about everything that was going around and I just jumped there to save you, after that when we crossed that lake, when you were unconscious, I got scared because I could not let anything happen to you. The next morning, when I tried waking you up, and you were not responding, I again got scared of something might have happened to you that was the reason I used water to wake you up. In all these days, the only thing that kept me going was the fact that I was with you. I did everything for you.”

She was unable to say anything. She herself had been trying so hard to get him out of her mind and there for he, confessing his love to her. She just wished that he won’t say those three words.

“I love you Pratima”. He said.

“But……. I ……It is……ummmmm……………” was all she could get out of her. She wanted to reply, she wanted to say that she loved Aryan, she wanted to say that you can’t love me. But she couldn’t.

And before she could calm herself, they heard distant sirens. There search and rescue team was here. They were rescued. She wanted to talk to Rachit but she was unable to get anything out of her mouth.