Ravanan

Chapter -20

Ravanan chuckled back and got on his feet . He walked away to get some fresh air. The three brothers gathered near a small pond at the evening. The three brothers exchanged their words and laughed about the incidents. Their laughs filled the air and suddenly a stone smashed Ravanan's head.

It was Bindhu alive and well on her feet, angrily fired the stones at the three brothers. "Let go of me you dump heads ! Take me to my Ragav", Bindhu cried as she had been captured again by them.

"How did she escaped ? Did she break the rope again ! What a pain she is ", Kaali chatted with an annoyed face.

"Looks like her feet has healed completely", Raj commented with a surprise.

Ravanan saw her alive and well again. His mouth widened ear to ear even though blood rushed out of his injuried head. Some of the village women charged at Bindhu and pinned her down. Some woman tried to tie her actively moving hands . But Ravanan blocked them from doing it and asked them to let her free without tying her and asked them to give her proper cloth and food.

This baffled Bindhu and other women while Raj and Kaali grasped what his brother trying to do and left the place together with a naughty grin.Ravanan playfully smiled at Bindhu.

" What's going on here?", Devi playfully asked Ravanan.

** Near the second village **

"Someday I'm going to kill you monkey", Laksman shouted at Bala who was criticising his long, indecent belly and told him to stop calling him a police with the huge tank of Laksman.

Ragav and the rest of his crew were headed to the next village of Ravanan after investigating about him in his second village. Bala's wild laugh scared all the animals and killed the silence. Suddenly something fell in front of them and Ragav signaled Bala to pause his laugh with his broad hand.

Bala slowly silenced his mouth and glanced at the thing . It was a honey bee's nest and a large group of bees swarmed them in a second. The bees aggressively stabbed everyone with its sharp and venomous sting and generated a chaos. The officers tried to drive away them by swinging their hands in the air yet the wild bees dodged their hands like a piece of honey and continued to stab them mercilessly.

Bala took a tree trunk on his hands and lighted it by covering it with a waste cloth and fluctuated his hands around while covered everyone with the tent covers and grounded them . Many of his men were severely injured . Their chins, eyes and hands became red and swollen . Ragav ordered everyone to use their tent sheets to cover their body . The crew fought with the tiny rivals for an hour that gave them a hard time.

Ragav felt bad for his men who were screaming and rolling in the ground due to pain . He cleaned the swollen place with a cotton. Bala applied crushed some herbs with in his hands and squeezed the juice out of it. He carefully applied it all over the body without letting them to feel the pain .

Laksman scratched his face with his due to the itchiness and approached Ragav and said ," This must be the work of Ravanan's men. I heard some foot steps inside the woods when the chaos took place. We need to be more careful sir. "

"Boys! Don't push yourself too much . Let's take some rest and continue in the morning. Clean the leaves and plant a tent here before it gets dark" , Ragav told to his worn out men and sat down on the ground. He ordered Laksman and Bala to guard the place while everyone sleeps.

The three of them guarded the place with their wide open eyes. His mind were crowded with the thoughts of his injured men and his helpless fiance who was eagerly waiting for the arrival of him .

It's a full moon night.The platinum necklace of sky named moon was glistening like a wraith-silver disc hanging in the lonely sky. Lasers of moonlight, as bright as diamond-flame invaded the land and turned the sea of soil and tree into a glow like melted platinum. It was as if a scene from an old fable stepping off the page and I was beguiled by its beauty. Three of them witnessed the scenario and enjoyed the beautiful view of nature. The three of them lost their control over their sleep and closed their eyes for a moment.

"Aaaaah.... ". Ragav heard someone's screaming sound and the three of them rushed to the place and saw their men inside the tent in an unconscious state with a venomous cobra crawling inside his bed sheet.

Bala carefully pinned it's head in the ground with his finger and analysed what kind of variety it was in order to treat the poison with the appropriate herb.

"Don't worry sir . This fellow is a lucky one. It takes some time for this snake's poison to work. We can treat him before it takes effect", Bala laughed and looked at Ragav's face who was worrying about his men's fate and their sacrifices for him.

In the next morning , Ragav enquired about everyone's health condition and asked them whether they were ready to continue with him and the officers gave him back a cheerful smile as their reply. The team proceeded further and continued to walk .

Due the density of the forest they were unable to use their trucks and walked all the way in to the forest which made their legs numb.

Ragav with a few of his men went inside the forest to get something to eat while the other officers planted their tents at the evening. The sky appeared to be a black hole and the wind blew like a hurricane. Thanks to the dense and tall trees that reduced the force and speed of the wind and acted as a shade from the rain. Ragav came out of his tent and served them vegetable curry which was boiled in water with no chilly powder and salt.

"Have this everyone. I'm not great at cooking and just used the basic survival skill to make this curry which I learned in my training. We cannot have a banquet here. So just don't curse me at my back and adjust for a few days until we find my wife", Ragav convinced his men to endure it.

The poor looking officers ate the curry with no other options and filled half of their stomach with water. "Why are these people hesitating to eat freshly boiled vegetables? These are the present given by nature to the pathetic human beings. The junk food that taste great only make your tongue to be happy. But a healthy lifestyle food makes your intestine and entire body happy by serving you enormous amount of nutrients", Bala adviced the officers who were eating the food with an annoyed face.

"And sir I forgot to tell you that. we will reach the third village by tomorrow morning", Bala told to Ragav and he replied that they weren't going to the third village and insisted that he had other ideas to capture him .