Rain (The Quest Trilogy-Book Two) (18 page)

“Male ego’s!” she said, under her breath.

Heart looked at Rain, who nodded, and then scooped the old man into his arms.

The three of them ran as fast as they could to where the unicorns stood, tall and huge, like seven storey buildings. They stopped short a few feet away from the magnificent beasts, staring up at them in awe. Rain set Subodh down gently. The old man shuffled forward as soon as his feet touched the ground. There were three unicorns ahead of them, occasionally beating their great wings: One silver, one white, and one grey.

Their thick manes were shiny with large open curls that looked like clouds resting on their necks. Rainbow walked up to the white unicorn and patted its neck.

“Unicorns maintain peace and balance in the world. They used to freely roam the earth a long time ago but evil people started hunting them down for the magical properties possessed by their horns. So they flew up to the sky, where they now live … among the clouds. They come down extremely rarely.” She explained.

Subodh limped up to the white unicorn

“O magnificent unicorn… I, Subodh, humbly request you to grant me a few tears.” said Subodh, holding out a small glass vial. The great white unicorn bent its head and closed its enormous eyes, shedding a few pearl-like drops. Subodh hurried forward to collect them in his vial.

“Thank-you ever so much.” said Subodh, gratefully accepting the tears.

He put the vial to his lips and drank the tears in a single gulp.

“It has strong healing properties.” whispered Rainbow, to the Rain and Heart.

The silver unicorn then came towards Rain and touched its spiral horn to his shoulders. The scars left by Miti magically disappeared at its touch. Seeing this, Heart stepped forward eagerly and lifted his T-shirt to expose the scar in the middle of his chest. The unicorn touched Heart’s scar and it, too, disappeared.

“If you boys are done beautifying yourselves, can we please leave?” said Rainbow, tapping a foot impatiently.

“How do we climb up?” asked Rain. “They’re too huge.”

Rainbow turned to the white unicorn who bent down on its knees and spread its wings. Using the wings to support herself, Rainbow quickly climbed up the unicorn’s back.

Rain looked at the silver unicorn. It bent down and flattened its wings for him. Heart ran over to the grey unicorn and climbed astride too. The unicorns began to flap their wings, letting up a cloud of leaves and dust. Rainbow looked down at Subodh as they rose slowly into the air.

“Goodbye, Subodh!” she called, waving out to him. “We’ll see you later!”

The three unicorns zoomed off into the skies, flying high above the clouds at great speed. They alternately took over each other, so that sometimes Heart would be at the forefront and Rain and Rainbow at others.

Rain, who had never had a bigger adrenaline rush, was having the time of his life. The wind rushed through his hair, cold and hard, but wildly exhilarating. He whooped and hollered as the unicorns climbed up steeply, and then dived down into a spiral dip before taking a full three hundred and sixty degree turn.

Several times, Rain almost slipped off the unicorn’s smooth back, surviving only because he held on so tightly to the unicorn’s shiny silver mane.

The unicorn smelled of a sweet fragrance that Rain had never smelled before and Rain pressed himself closer to its body, wanting to be enveloped by the scent. They took another sharp dip and Rain saw dark, stormy clouds ahead.

“Uh oh. This flight is in for some turbulence.” said Rain, tightening his grip on the unicorn’s body.

But as they got closer, Rain saw that the grey clouds were simply a large cluster of dark grey colored unicorns running together, their manes flying rhythmically in the wind.

Shortly ahead, there was a rainbow. All three unicorns headed straight for it and landed smoothly on one band of color each. They glided down the sparkling slides of color, gently coming to a stop at the end of it. They spread out their wings to enable their riders to get off.

Rain reluctantly climbed off his unicorn, quickly breaking off a small strand of its silver mane to keep as a souvenir.

“Thank-you all!” said Rainbow, hugging her white unicorn before jumping off.

Once they were all safely on the ground, the unicorns rose into the air and disappeared into some clouds floating overhead.

“That was great, wasn’t it?” said Rainbow, twirling on the spot.

Rain and Heart exchanged a high five.

“The best!” they both agreed.

“I cannot thank you enough for inviting us to share the experience.” said Heart.

Rainbow bowed, graciously accepting their thanks. She turned to the rainbow in front of her and absorbed the beautiful bands of color into her palm.

“Shall we, gentlemen?” she said to Heart and Rain with a sweep of her hands.

They walked all the way back to the hut animatedly describing and discussing in detail the unicorn rides they had just had.

*****

In the days that followed, all of them showed a marked improvement in health but none more so than Subodh. The old healer no longer walked with a limp. And what’s more, he was growing new teeth where his old ones had fallen off.

“Well now, Subodh, it looks like we’ll soon have to get you a wife!” said Rain, ribbing the old healer good naturedly. Subodh’s walking stick came down on Rain’s head but Rain ducked it.

That seemed to be the only purpose of the stick now -to give the occasional blow- since Subodh no longer seemed to need its support while walking. Rain rubbed his palms together, still smiling, when he noticed some peculiar growth on Subodh’s shiny pate.

“Waitaminnit … Subodh, is that new hair you’re sprouting?!”

Subodh shuffled away, ignoring the question.

“Geez!” exclaimed Rain, “what next? A growth spurt?”

He hadn’t seen Subodh come behind him and therefore, wasn’t expecting the blow that came down on him, this time finding its mark.

“Yeow! You should stop doing that, you know? Especially now that you keep growing stronger by the day!” grumbled Rain, looking towards the others for support.

Nobody paid any attention to him.

“All right, fine. A guy knows when he’s wanted.” said Rain, getting up and heading towards the forest. “Going for a walk. Don’t wait for me if I’m late for lunch.” he called over his shoulder.

“Too much company can sometimes be a bad thing, too.” he grumbled to his Geeya sometime later.

“Only because they are not supporting you.” she noted sagely.

“Maybe … but still …” he argued, in no mood to listen to reasoning. He put his hand into his pocket and drew out the sword of Halion. It calmed him down instantly. He stared at its ornately carved hilt and the pale yellow color of its blade and then held it up proudly for his Geeya to observe. “I got one of my own.”

“You did well.”

“Thanks!”

“But keep your ego in check.”

“Aw, come on. Not you too? You know I do it all just for fun. I don’t seriously mean the things I say!”

“I know that, Rain. But prevention is better than cure.”

“Fine. I’ll take the advice … but only because it’s good.” said Rain, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. He lifted the sword and swung it around in the air. There was a deafening shriek and then a semi-transparent body fell near his feet, neatly sliced in two.

There was another scream a fraction of a second later, which Rain recognized as his own.

“What!? How?!” he gasped, looking wildly around himself.

There had been nobody here besides him and his Geeya. How had he managed to kill somebody in this much time?

“Calm down, Rain. Take a few deep breaths.” advised his Geeya.

Rain obeyed her without argument, taking deep breaths to calm himself.

“That is an undead.” explained his Geeya. “She had taken a fancy to you and had been following you for some days now.”

“What?!” said Rain, yelling because he could not keep his horror down. “Why didn’t you
say
anything about it to me earlier?”

“Because you never asked me to. Besides, she had only taken a fancy to you, and didn’t mean you any harm … as yet.”

“Oh, for …! Were you waiting for it to harm me and then inform me?!” said Rain, looking at her incredulously.

“Of course not!” said his Geeya, sounding offended. “I would not have let it harm you.”

“Look, will you please warn me the next time something like this follows me?” said Rain, trying to keep his voice even. The two halves of the undead’s body were beginning to disperse into the air like small particles of light.

“All right.” said his Geeya looking affronted.

“Thank-you.”

His Geeya turned up her nose. “You’re welcome.”

Rain laughed, his temper cooling off at her dainty sense of offence.

“What is an undead, by the way?”

“The undead are souls of people who have taken their own lives. They cannot join the naturally deceased, neither can they join the living again, for technically, their bodies are dead. So they roam the world … restless souls that have no place to go. They see and hear everybody, but nobody can see or hear them. Before long, frustration sets in, and they start making mischief … troubling people, haunting people …and things like that.”

“You’re starting to creep me out.” warned Rain. “People take their own lives here, in Quniverse too?”

“A lot.”

Rain fell silent, more disturbed by that piece of information than he could understand why. He looked down at his chain to find it glowing. “Oh, look …my chain’s glowing.”

The trees of the forest blended into one another as everything blurred past Rain.

It was time.

*****

CHAPTER 14

He was on a lonely stretch of open countryside. The path was rough, strewn with stones both big and small. Occasionally, he came across one or two dilapidated houses. “Looks like a deserted place.” said Rain.

His Geeya shot ahead at great speed and then returned.

“Not a soul for miles around.” she reported.

“Well then, I guess there’s nothing for me to do but keep walking.”

The sky was covered with clouds. There was a crack of thunder, and it began to rain.

“Great. Something to add spice to the Quest.” said Rain dryly.

He walked for hours in the pouring rain, with no sight of a single living soul. It was very late by now and Rain decided that it would be best to find a place of shelter for the night and continue searching for someone tomorrow.

“The next habitable place we find, we’re going in.” he announced to his Geeya. It was another soggy hour of walking before Rain finally came across a large house built on top of a hill. It, too, was very old. The windows were broken and the lawn was covered in weeds.

“Let’s go into that one.” said Rain, and ran up the hill.

As he neared the house he saw that there was a well on one side of it, beside a huge banyan tree. Next to the well stood an old man, pulling some water out of it. Rain was surprised some life out here.

“Hello.” he called out to the old man loudly.

The old man paused to look up at Rain.

“Is this your house?” said Rain, shouting to be heard above the thunder.

The old man waved at him. Rain waved back.

“Could I go in?” said Rain, pointing to the house. “I need shelter for the night.”

The old man nodded and waved Rain on.

“Thank-you.” said Rain, making a quick dash for the house.

The house from within, though dirty and dusty, was warm. At the centre of the large living room was an enormous fireplace where a fire burned brightly, cozying up the entire place. Rain sloshed his way over to it, dripping water all over the wooden floor. He slumped down next to the flames, exhausted. He sat there for a while, slowly warming and drying himself. More than an hour passed by but the man Rain had spotted outside did not come into the house. Rain began wondering what the old man could be doing out there in the rain for so long. Come to think of it, why was he pulling water of a well in the pouring rain? A short while later, Rain heard a loud splash.

“Wonder what’s happening out there. Should I go see?” he asked his Geeya, and then held up a hand to silence her before she could say anything. He thought he could hear footsteps but the sound he heard now was a dragging, scraping noise. A long shadow fell over the fireplace and Rain breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, his host was here.

Rain turned around to greet the old man, but found nobody standing behind. Confused, he turned back to the fireplace –the shadow was still there. He followed its trail back carefully.

Nothing.

Goosebumps rose on his flesh as Rain realized that there was only a shadow here with no physical owner.

Rain stood up and took a few steps back. The shadow moved forward with that same dragging noise. Rain saw a flight of stairs leading to an upper floor and made a run for it. He climbed up the stairs, taking two at a time. Behind him, the shadow followed with that same monotonous drag.

Rain entered a room, turned on the lights and slammed the door shut. From below the door, the darkness of the shadow emerged, growing in length as it entered the room fully. Rain stood up on the bed. The old wood gave way under his weight. He stopped moving and stood still. The shadow did the same. Then it raised a long hand and slowly brought a dark finger towards Rain.

Rain felt a piercing cold where the shadow touched him and jerked his hand away. A thin cut appeared on the side of his palm, like one given by paper.

“Wh… what are you?” stammered Rain.

The shadow came forward with that same dragging sound.

“I … am a fantôme.” came the soft, breathy reply.

“What do you want from me?”

“I cannot survive on my own. I need a body to attach myself to. I like your body. May I attach myself to it?” breathed the fantôme.

Rain looked at the closed door. “What happened to the old man I met outside? Where is he?”