Eklavya

Chapter XLVIII

Standing under the leafy bower of an old and gigantic tree, Eklavya awaited her arrival. He was in the orchard behind their Haveli.

The heavy foliage hid his strapping built from inquisitive eyes. He could hear the incessant shrills of cicadas' buzzing with an unmatched fervour.

Then there were squirrels and other birds with occasional may-awes of Peacocks that resided in this orchard with one frolicking in front of him. When suddenly it took flight, spreading its majestic and vibrant feathers in the sky only to perch up higher on a mango tree.

Leaning against the smooth trunk of the old tree, Eklavya folded his arms against his broad chest before muttering to himself impatiently, "Where is she?"

A sudden noise of leaves crunching under someone's feet caught his attention. Looking ahead he saw an outline of a person ambling towards him.

He smirked at her all too familiar approaching figure, but his smirk turned into a frown when he registered, she was heading towards him with her hands behind her back and her usual... cheerful smile.

"Was it not enough yesterday?" he mumbled to himself. 'Did he not rile her up enough last night, then why isn't she ticked off? And what exactly is the deal with that contagious smile? Should I try irking her some more?'

Eklavya was waist deep in his ingenious thoughts that he failed to notice her pulling out what looked like a branch of a tree, from behind. Anamika lunged at him with a ferocious scowl on her face.

Eklavya's eyes rounded in bewilderment, but he deftly dodged the sudden assault by moving sideways. "What the f**k?" he exclaimed, taking a few steps backwards while nimbly dodging her vicious strikes.

"Now why are you running away? Weren't you having quite the fun last night?" she seethed at him in unbridled fury.

Only Anamika knew that she was close to have a panic attack after the stunt he pulled. She swore she almost died of embarrassment due to this particular knucklehead.

"You just wait, I'll beat the shamelessness out of you today!" she promised him vehemently as he backed away more with her hot on his trail.

"Wait-wait! Stop!" he said holding up his hands.

Okay! This was so not what he envisaged. Eklavya thought she would only be cross with him for some time like she was on many occasions before. And he would wheedle her like always with sweet and coaxing words.

But this! This was so much more fun! He decided when her brown eyes were to spit fire at him with all their might.

"I'll teach you a lesson you won't forget for the rest of your life. Do you know how your siblings teased me after that?" she said, cheeks flushed red, jaw clenched as her chest heaved up and down due to fury.

"Teased you a lot, I guess. That's what I pay them for though!" he told her wisely and shrugged his shoulders, treating the incessant teasing done by his siblings a trivial affair.

Mouth agape at this sheer nonchalance, Anamika clenched the tender green branch she had picked from a tree on her way here, and raising it higher lunged at him once more.

But instead of merely dodging or deflecting it like before, Eklavya firmly held it in his hand. Brows knitted Anamika tried pulling on it but to no avail.

"Leave it..." she grunted as she put all her energy to win back her precious branch.

Eklavya clicked his tongue at her in an admonishing manner, then shaking his head said, "This much anger isn't good for health, Miss Rathore,"

"To hell with you and your advice. Now leave it! I still haven't beaten you to my heart's content," she grumbled and made several futile attempts to break free from his insanely strong hold.