Arhi FF: Jungle tales- Note on pg 63 - Page 24

From the Author's desk: Hello people, How is the second anniversary celebrations coming on? Hope all of you are buried in ArHi thoughts... here is the next update for this story... Hope you all will like it.. Love you all seriously... for all your comments for this story.. this hasnt even trodden into Arhi and Rabbeveys still and you people are so patient enough!

There was a long silence between the foursome, as the girls looked on, Jeanne stood staring after her departing son.

"What does he mean?" Khushi asked at last, breaking the silence.

Jeanne turned to look at the girls and then sighed.

"If my husband or any one else other than Shama wins, there will be a consummation ceremony" Jeanne told them as the girls opened their mouth to protest, she silenced them with her raised hand "hear me out" she told them before she continued "You have only one chance then if thats going to be the case"

"What should we do?" Payal asked her

"You have to let that man know that you are not virgins... Men of this clan do not touch woman who were previously touched another man..."

"Oh.. at last... we found one good practice of Mikobas... " Anjali chirped cheerfully as the other two glared at her, silencing her

"Then what happens? they would just let us go?"

"Then they would get angry... there would be a commotion and ... may be they will decide to ..."

"eat us up?" Anjali offered

"yes right" Jeanne told them

"charming!" she commented back

"but then, by that time, the sun would have set and they would have to wait for the entire night to kill you..." Jeanne pointed out

"So precisely thats how we will get time for escape" Payal concluded for all of them.

"yes..."

"But there is a big problem here" Khushi told jeanne and others "How do we let that person know we are not virgins... I mean we dont know their language and they won't understand ours"

"I know... That is the biggest challenge in this plan" Jeanne agreed

"thats not a problem... teach us how to tell them that we are not virgins in your language" Anjali asked Jeanne

"that wont work... They will know it was all planned... " Jeanne told them

"Hey Bhagwan" Anjali mumbled " here she gives an idea and says that it can't be actually followed"

"I didnt say that." Jeanne corrected Anjali "You might have to prove through your actions to put it across..." she told them all.

As the girls looked terrified at the suggestion, they all heard a cheerful commotion outside.

Jeanne opened one of windows a little and peeped outside.

"They are all getting ready for the fight... Dress up soon... I will come and fetch you later " Jeanne told as she closed the window again and left through the door

"But what do we do..." Khushi shouted to Jeanne as she saw her bending forward to pull the door to close it. " what do you mean by showing through actions?"

"Think what to do... I am leaving that to you" she said as she finally closed the door shut.

***

The girls started to change their dress in the privacy of their cottage after Jeanne left them alone.

"Thank god, Atleast we dont have to check for hidden cameras here" Anjali told them...

The other two looked at each other skeptically and then glared at her

"What?" she asked them

Payal started to say something but Khushi placed her hand on her shoulder to calm her.

"That's ok.. you can ask me anything,  I won't bite you" Anjali told them

"Why were you oogling at Shama?" Payal asked her

"He did have a nice body... Dont tell me that you didnt see that well built..." she started to say dreamily

"Shut up Anjali... Even at this situation... how can you..." Khushi started to say

"Oh my god! Khushi .. seriously all work and no play makes Khushi a mad girl" Anjali chuckled, Payal giggled

"You both are seriously unbelievable' How can you laugh and giggle now yaar? We are in soup and and'"

"we are not yet in soup Khushi' "Anjali corrected her "and that hunk is gonna save us from landing in soup' may be all my signals to him would give him extra power to fight his dadda' "

"unbelievable Anjali " Khushi muttered

"Don't let your brother hear about this.. He will get a heart attack! " Payal told Anjali jokingly. At the mention of Anjali's brother, Khushi looked a little tensed and disturbed. She turned to pick her costume, determined to stay out of the conversation.

"Oh my god... I can imagine what would happen if he gets to know that I have been line marroing a half american- half tribal... No... don't even think of telling him about this even for fun... I dont want him trying to fight Shama... oh my god that would look so funny... Arnav in tribal costume...But but...' he won't understand fun yaar.. Seriously' he can be more serious that our pyaari Khushi you know' sometimes I keep wondering how would a girl actually live with a kadoos like him.. He is loving and kind and all that' but still such a kadoos! Its so difficult to understand him ' but if a girl manages to get into his heart and then' she can rule him' if only a girl finds the key to his heart! I wonder who she would be ' "

As Anjali kept talking about her brother unwittingly' Khushi became more and more restless and she had thought that the girls had inadvertently brought in Arnav's topic' She turned to glance at her friends for a second, and noticed that while Anjali was infact being honestly unconscious and innocent about the topic, She saw Payal throwing a suspecting glance at her and quickly change her expressions when she noticed Khushi watching her.

Khushi gulped. She thought that nobody knew about what had happened between her and Arnav' But off late she noticed Payal giving her suspecting glances whenever Arnav's name was mentioned in their conversations or indirectly commenting about it' Does she know? Maybe she knows' Akaash is Arnav's friend ' He would have told her' But then, she noticed that Anjali still remained clueless about the entire matter ' she sighed ' "if only' "

"I wonder if Akaash knew about us missing'  I miss him so much' If we are going to die, I want to see him once atleast" Payal told them changing the topic for everyone's benefit

"Don't you want to see your parents for one last time Payal? You want to see only Akaash?" Khushi asked her friend

"When you fall in love Khushi, you will understand how this feels'" Payal told her pointedly

Both the girls looked at eachother exchanging glances which confirmed to Khushi that Payal indeed knew about her little secret

Khushi turned to look away.

"Everyone has different priorities in life, you can't measure up anyone with what you think is right according to you" She told noncommittally, confusing Payal.

Anjali who was not aware of these untold exchanges between her other two friends, sighed thoughtfully.

"May be they knew' May be they are searching for us' May be there is another chance for us to live" Anjali told them "I wish my brother would come and kill this leader of the clan' Jeanne will be free too "

 "How do we wear this?" Khushi asked changing the topic as Payal threw her another curious glance. "it's is very exposing'"

"Yeah I know, I can't wear it too' May be we can wear it on top of our slips' They won't find anything odd" Anjali suggested

The other two agreed. If the girls had suspected that they were up for the most dramatic experience of their life, it was nothing when compared to how dramatic it was about to get.

They were soon ushered into the open arena where all the members of the clan right from young babies to older jantas were assembled.  They looked around to find Shama and Jeanne' Though they could'nt spot Shama, they found Jeanne working her way and standing just behind them, giving them her silent support.

Soon some announcement was made followed by a loud cheer.

"What happened?" Khushi asked turning back to Jeanne

"They said they are happy to welcome you three as one of them" Jeanne told her'

As more announcements followed, they found Jeanne murmuring the translations behind them, in a low whisper that they almost missed most of what she told amidst the loud cheer that followed each announcement.

In short, they understood that the fight to win them was announced and some prospective men came forward to participate in it. Each time one of them stepped forward, there was a cheer from some part of the crowd.

"what is with these women? They actually cheer when their husbands intend to bring sauts " Anjali mused as the other two rolled their eyes.

 Shama came forward too' he was the one to have the least claps' "Not very popular I suppose" Anjali commented again

Anjali tried to cheer him by clapping for him as she felt a sharp kick on her legs again and her hands pulled down harshly by payal.

"Keep put, you will give our plan away" Khushi hissed at her.

"Hey come on' he needs some inspiration" Anjali replied back but kept quiet after that. But luckily her attempts to cheer for him went unnoticed as another seemingly popular man stepped up and the cheer went up.

Then at last, the clan leader whom they identified as Jeanne's husband stood up and descended his chair to come down to the dais as the crowd cheered the most for him and some of the competitors gasped.

A short announcement followed and most of the men left the dais. Jeanne told them that they were given a last chance to withdraw from the competition' Then the fights commenced. The girls were told by Jeanne that the fights always followed a hierarchy. Two Senior most people fought and the one who wins it fights with the next senior in line' They also noticed that the clan leader, Jeanne's husband was the fieriest of the lot and everyone who fought with him, finally landed up in their bleeding state inside a circle which was in one corner of the fighting arena.  There were boos when someone landed there.

Jeanne explained them that anyone who lands there actually degrades himself and wants to save his life and its actually a shame' but if anyone lands there, the other person won't kill him.

Finally it came to Shama and his father.  The girls to their horror found that Shama was not at all half good a match to his father. But though Shama didn't give up and tried his best, he didn't volunteer to go to that circle.

What followed was a highly nail biting phase of time for the girl when they wished that Shama would atleast save himself by landing there on the circle of shame. But he didn't, and horror stuck them as Shama lost his spear and in a swipe his father pushed him down and put his spear pointing close to his head.

Jeanne let out a scream, which sounded eerie amongst the others in the clan who was unnaturally quiet.

"Try and get to that circle, its very close to you'you can crawl" Khushi screamed.

"Oh my god" Payal gasped

"Hello you can't kill your own son' what kind of father are you?" Anjali shouted too.

In that state Shama turned to look at the girls and his mother. But then something unnatural happened after that' His father threw the spear away to the surprise of the entire clan.

He told something in their language and the crowd cheered.

"Whats it?" Khushi asked Jeanne who opened her eyes in relief

"Is it something like he is giving us to Shama?" Anjali asked Jeanne in hope

"No, he said that since this was the first time Shama decided to fight, showing symptoms that he is actually one amongst them, he made his father happy and he is letting him go"

"Oh shit'" the girls sighed.

Finally as it dawned that the fights were over and the clan leader had emerged a winner again, the clan cheered for their leader. The ceremonial dances and cheers started around the girls, who for the first time in their short span at the Mikoba clan's dwelling, started to realize the enormity of the danger they were in.

***

"Get me out of this hell hole" NK Shouted to his friends who stood not knowing what to do or how to take him out.

The trees filled pathway they took after the moss land, looked promising but it was all but that. They realized to their utter horror that it was filled with traps of all sorts that the humans had laid for intruders and wild animals coming their way.

Though they were discouraged at first, they derived strength from the fact the since these traps were laid in the stretch, it also meant that they were on the right track and they were nearing the clan's dwelling. Though they were mostly lucky in escaping many such traps, given that they were passing through the stretch in the dark with torch lights and a fire log to keep the wild animals away, NK finally fell into one of the holes which was dug to trap an animal and none of the other two were actually equipped with anything to get him out.

"Guys' Think something" NK called out from below.

"We are not standing here relishing your predicament Dammit'" Arnav shouted back at him "All that we wanted from you was a little cautiousness and there you go and fall into a shit hole' We are left with no torch'NO SWITCH IT OFF-YOU ARE BLARING IT ON MY FACE "

"WHAT DO I DO, you complain you don't have light and when I show you one you shout"

"That's why I asked you give the spare torches to me" Akaash complained.

"PLEASE GUYS DO SOMETHING' WE ARE WASTING TIME' " NK told them both exasperatedly

This seemed to put Arnav on wheels as he started looking around with the little light that he had with the fire log.

"Where are you going? Don't leave me alone here" Akaash said as he followed Arnav

"GUYS' Are you both leaving me to rot here?" NK shouted panicking if he had actually done wrong to remind his friends of their respective love, making them forget about him "I have been your friend for so long' its not fair to forget your friend for your love" NK kept shouting not knowing whether they could hear him or not' he stamped against a mass which looked like spoilt meat of some dead animal which had unfortunately fell in before him- probably days before and is rotting here' The smell getting to him making him puke, NK stood there not knowing what to do.

Finally after what seemed to be a long time for NK, he heard noises again.

"IS that you guys?"

Then he saw something intruding the moon light from the mouth of the hole. At first he thought it was another animal, but then realized it was just a branch that was being lowered by his friends.

"This is the longest we could find" Arnav shouted to his friend. "See if you can reach it and climb up"

It was as Arnav told - short for the length of the hole and NK was not able to reach it. Finally after some trying, NK tried to find some holds using the bones from the rotting meat which would let him reach the branch.

After trying for little over an hour they finally got him out successfully.

***

"Oh shit.. he looks ugly" Anjali said as she took a look at the lead man properly' "very difficult to believe that he is Shama's father' he is downright scary at close up' I cant even imagine how its going to be"

"Anjali please keep quiet for a while' please'" Payal begged her as Khushi turned to look at Jeanne.

"No no, I didn't mean to hurt you Jeanne' Its just that I don't find your husband attractive.. but that does not possibly mean that he is not handsome and all that " Anjali told Jeanne'

"Are you for real?" Khushi asked shutting her friend's mouth' "Jeanne' is this it?"

"This is it.." Jeanne told her' "I can't be there near you girls anymore' You will be on your own until they decide to kill you tomorrow morning' " Jeanne told very quickly noticing that she won't have time to explain in detail.

As the winning party proceeded to one of the decorated cottages, the girls found themselves being garlanded with curious flowers by some ladies as a way of inviting them inside their house.

The old man was beside them too' as they were being garlanded and he got the biggest chunk of it.

"Its not going to improve his looks anyhow' why do they try anyway?" Anjali spoke out again

The man looked at her and commented something that aroused giggles and laughter from the surrounding people

"What did he say?" Payal who was nearest to Jeanne asked her

"He says that she talks too much and he would like shut her up first"

"Meaning?" Khushi panicked

"He would lay her first"

"yucks' " Anjali gasped as other two girls clutched her in panic.

They were invited into a cottage and some songs were sung before the ladies started to vacate the cottage one by one' the old man had not entered yet.

"This should be their griha pravesh" Anjali noted. Payal was too dreadful to say anything. Khushi gave an exasperated grunt. "But these flowers smell good isn't it? I am trying to place which popular perfume has this scent'" she carried on, but Khushi didn't tell anything to put her off' She knew her friend' whenever situation was very grave, Anjali always tended to act cool and normal- just to get a grip of herself.

"We will be alright Anjali" Khushi murmured softly. Anjali turned to look at her friend.

"OH MY GOD KHUSHI" Anjali hushed back at her "you don't know how tensed I am ' I love you so much' and payal too'" she told in a shivering voice as she hugged both the girls.

"I love you too girls' Calm down Payal' we shall work this together" Khushi told them as she hugged them back. "we will" she assured herself, taking deep breathes to calm herself down

"Khushi.. How the hell are we going to tell him we are not virgins ' when we are actually one?" Payal asked her in a shaky voice. "Oh god, help us with some miracle ... How I wish it was with Akaash I did IT first..."

"You would still do IT with Akaash only Payal... Have hope" Khushi sighed as she noticed that the ladies have finally left the girls alone , Jeanne almost gave her apologetic look before she turned to leave the cottage too before that lead man would come in.

"So here we wait for that old goose who is our fiance- and he wants to lay me down first..." Anjali moaned' "Do any of you girls really have a plan or do you intend to bring Shama's step brothers into this world?"

Payal started to look around. "Maybe we could find something to hit him on the head and kill him?" she suggested, but then there was nothing which could help them with that mission.

Khushi stood there thinking hard' there should be a way out of this.. someway ' Devi Maiyya,Please help us'. She prayed hard.  "show us a way to get out of this crap situation"

To be continued'.

"So here we wait for that old goose who is our fiance- and he wants to lay me down first" Anjali moaned' "Do any of you girls really have a plan or do you intend to bring Shama's step brothers into this world?" 

How do you manage to write such funny lines? shama's step brothers 😆😆😆