GIR - chapter 8

GIR

Chapter 8 – Halka and Lochan, part 1

Halka lightly jumped off Rajkumar’s back as they reached the river Gahana to drink. She watched Rajkumar as he started to drink. He was silent as ever, and Kala was not saying much either, which was an unusual sight. Halka sauntered away from them to be alone. She wondered how much longer she could keep her identity a secret. Rajkumar had even been suspicious from the very first time they met.
    “You’re not going to tell them, right?”
She heard the small familiar voice of Lochan and saw him appear in front of her in his little winged tortoise form. He flew on to the ground and sat like a dog.
    “Devnath would kill us if you revealed yourself!” he shouted angrily at her. He was really hoping that Halka was not serious about it, because every action she took would have consequences for him as well.
    “He can’t kill us,” Halka laughed. “We’re not even alive.”
    “It’s just a figure of speech,” Lochan sulked and turned his head.
Halka’s smile frowned, she knew he was right. Devnath would definitely disapprove of revealing stuff from the afterlife, even to animals. She sat down and sighed. She gently closed her eyes and was remembered of her first meeting with Lochan:

    “Awesome, a guardian!”
Kala jumped high in the air in her so-called spirit form, a pale Caucasian girl with long black hair and clear yellow eyes, around 17 years old. She wore a white cotton undershirt and petticoat, which was usually only worn under big dresses, but Halka had never cared much for dresses. It was not her real form anyway, but it was still the one she preferred most.
    “Thank you Devnath,” she cried of joy. “I really appreciate it!”
She skipped over and hugged Devnath, god of the spirit world. His usual form was in the shape of a young Indian boy, no more than 10 years old. She had to get on her knees to hug him properly. He hugged back and patted her on the head.
    “Now now Halka, before you start we have to assign you an assistant,” he said with his little boyish voice and gave her a big smile. She ended the hug and gave him a startled look.
    “What?” she said confused. “But I don’t need an assistant.”
    “Oh, everybody needs an assistant,” Devnath claimed. “They are the ones who hold the key to the magic!”
    “But I have magic,” Halka said, still confused. “I can shapeshift.”
    “But only in this world,” he said seriously, but after a while giggled about it. “And I found the perfect match for you! Lochan come here!”
A tall young man appeared out of the blue beside Devnath. He was Caucasian as well, but not nearly as pale as Halka. His hair was thick and dark brown, and went all the way down to his shoulders, while his eyes were ocean blue.
    “It’s nice to meet you Halka,” he said with a smile and a calm slow voice. He wanted to shake hands with her, but she took a step back and gave him a doubtful look.
    “Um okay,” he said as his smile frowned. He turned to Devnath instead. “So who are we going to protect? Someone important right?”
    “Indeed,” Devnath confirmed him and stuck his right index finger in the air. “She is the unofficial future Neta of Gir Forest in India.”
    “An animal?” Halka said disappointedly with a strange look in her eyes.
    “My dear Halka,” Devnath sighed. Both Halka and Lochan thought it was weird hearing words like these coming from a little child. “Animals are the very hardest to protect!”
    “Yeah whatever,” Halka said carelessly and rolled her eyes. “Come Lochan, we got a lioness to protect.”
Full of disappointment, she grabbed Lochan’s wrist and dragged him out of the room with her, where she leaned against the doors and sighed. Devnath’s place almost looked like a palace, she thought to herself. They had entered what looked like a great hallway, with tons of candles lightening the light pink room. Thick golden poles were holding up the ceiling which had been painted like a big cloudy sky and a long red carpet led to the exit door, which was well over a thousand feet away from them. After a moment of silence, she turned to look at Lochan.
    “Look Lo-Chan…”
    “Um,” Lochan uttered before she could say anything else. “It’s pronounced as Lokan.”
    “I really couldn’t care less,” she said while rolling her eyes at him. “Because we’re not going to be partners, ok?”
Lochan shifted his shoulders a bit.
    “But Devnath says so,” he said with raised eyebrows and widened eyes, looking rather confused.
    “He ought to know better,” she said with her arms crossed over her chest. “I work alone, okay?”
A slight rumbling suddenly came from above. As it got louder the painted clouds started to blacken and moving fast across the ceiling. Before they realized it, a thunderstorm had developed right above them and a lightening sprung from the clouds and hit the ground right on Halka’s left side, making pieces of stone floor fly everywhere and creating a deep hole. She screamed loudly at the sight and quickly jumped to the right, almost bumping into Lochan, who grabbed her shoulders so she would not fall. For a few moments, she just glanced at the smoking crack in the floor, then she shook off Lochan’s hands in disgust and stomped her foot in protest.
    “Alright alright, I’ll do it already!” she shouted at the ceiling, which was now calm and almost free of clouds, exposing most of the blue sky. “You don’t have to be such a pest Devnath!”
A small rumbling echoed through the hallway yet again. Halka squeaked and held her hand over her face, before she quickly began to run to the exit. She would not like to discover what Devnath’s wrath could do to her like it did to the tough stone floor. Lochan followed her rapidly and they both quickly reached the end and exited the hallway.
Outside was nothing but green meadows and a blue sky, no sign of spirit life for miles around the place. Halka muttered a silent huh? to herself and turned around to go back, but the pair of doors was gone, as well as the rest of the palace-like building.
    “Oh great!” she sarcastically yelled angrily. “This wasn’t where I came in!”
Lochan just stared into thin air, before he finally replied to her complaint with a faint smile.
    “The spirit world really is rather unpredictable, huh?”
Halka clenched her teeth hard and looked around in frustration. Where the heck was she? And more importantly, how did they get back? She sat down and took her arms around her legs, with her forehead resting on her knees. Lochan bent down beside her to make sure she was not crying or anything. She had a sad expression in her eyes, and he wondered if he should say something to make her feel better.
    “My magic can surely get us out of here,” he said cheeringly and patted her on the head. “I’m pretty sure we learned a spell like that at school.”
    “You have a school for assistants?” Halka asked him, sounding extremely uninterested to know more though.
    “Yes, but we prefer to be called magicians”, he answered anyway. “It’s just like you have a school for guardians.”
Halka raised her eyebrow at him.
    “Oh yeah, that’s right!” he suddenly realized and gave a big smile. “You never went to that school. You’re self-taught! That’s quite an accomplishment!”
She was self-taught alright. She had never attended school and still managed to reach one of the highest ranks in the spirit hierarchy. She was also one of Devnath’s favorites, despite her stubbornness.
Lochan wanted to pat her on the shoulder to show his respect, but she shifted away from him and got on her feet. After hesitating a little, she held out her hand at Lochan, to his big surprise.
    “You know a way outta here or not?” she asked and gave him what reminded him of a generous smile. He thought that even this shallow state of affection must have been hard for her to manage, being less socialized and possibly a loner. He smiled back and took her hand to get on his feet as well. He then cupped her small hand with both of his.
    “I sure do… just trust me.”