Rudraksh

11 - From Ruling To Love ? ( Edited POV )

Since the Kollins Ball, Mister Vikram Franc Kollins had been a frequent guest at the mini Mansion shared by Mayank Kedar and Edward Kollins. He would write before visiting sometimes, sometimes would send in a messenger and most of the times he himself had been the messenger to announce his never ending visits. He would come by breakfast, lunch, dinner and mostly at evenings which specifically involved him and I taking evening walks across the evergreen meadows of Rockfether. Over the course of two weeks he had gotten even closer to me and I had no complaints. He made me feel like home, made me forget all my worries and made me laugh til my stomach ached.

Some days he would get horses along with him for us and we would gallop around the isolated areas of Venland. We would race and wager small things like me cooking Indian dishes and him singing native songs. I was happy after a long time and like everytime, for those amazing hours, I would forget the Shivanya Katyayani Kedar with mountains of worries on her shoulders. I would be just Shivanya. A Happy Shivanya, Shivanya who laughed around, made silly jokes with a good stranger.

Rudraksh had been in my mind all that time.

I never understood why.

No matter what I did, no matter how hard I tried, he would just be there watching me with those sinful chocolate brown eyes of his.

The hooded figure was long gone from my mind for I didn't want yet another thing for my tired mind to process. I had convinced myself that it was just a mere coincidence or better, a hallucination.

Silence fell and I watched the serenity from the window of the carriage. Occassionally Vikram would describe about the owners and purposes of those lands and promised to show me around their biggest winery. After another hour, we reached a small town and the carriage came to a halt in front of it's iron arch entrance. RANAAKA was written in big white letters and it looked as if a festival was going on.

"Where are we ?"

"Miss Kedar ? Welcome to Ranaaka Venland. I hope you are hungry." He gestured, with a broad smile, towards the town as if presenting it to me.

"Mister Kollins ? What is going on ?" I looked around, confused.

"You'll know. Now, come along." I followed him into Ranaaka and the first thing to hit me was the delicious smell of food. It was so strong, my mouth watered.

It looked like a carnival with a cluster of cottages decorated with lamps, ribbons and fresh flowers. Even the tress had lamps hanging from the branches that were wrapped in ribbons. Not far from where I stood, I caught a glimpse of shimmering waters. We were in some village by a lake where a small carnival was in action. I understood that much. People were laughing around, eating, drinking, buying things from the souvenir shops and there were also magicians, acrobats, tricksters amusing and entertaining the crowds in the hopes of securing some money.

I looked at Vikram, one brow raised.

"Weekly Ranaaka Carnival, The Grill. The Ranaaka Tribe holds it every week to thank the lake and their God for providing them with food and water." He explained.

So I had guessed it right. It felt amazing. Children were laughing, couples looked happy as they enjoyed shoot for a prize games and people in general were all together irrespective of their differences. They were unlike the fancy streets of Venland that seperated people by class and status. They were happy. A group of horse riders approached us and we moved to make way.

"I would've got horses but all the fun is when we walk by these stalls and taste all the food. I hope it's okay with you ? Miss Kedar ?"

"Of course it's fine."