Destiny Without Desire

“Someone had camped here.” The voice was very deep and very hoarse. His voice box was over working as he spoke. “I can see that, you fool,” the other one said. This man’s voice was even croakier than his pal. But how could he see? Maybe they have ‘Night Vision’. If it was so then we were in great danger because if he looks up, then…I don’t need to complete that. I hoped that his head wouldn’t tilt back sufficiently to make him look at us. I could not see anything in the darkness. It was obvious. I strained my eyes but it was of no use. It’s very irritating to see nothing. You see almost everything around you in this world with your good eyes and then darkness covers everything around you and your eyes are of no use then. You can’t even close your eyes and take a nap because if you do so you might be any minute sleeping between a pack of hyenas. In such a situation the only sense organ that can help you is your ear. And I was using my hearing power as much as I could. “It was some human. Yes, Batchels they are nearby. I can smell them.” The first one said. I was feeling increasingly uncomfortable on the single thick branch which bore my weight. There were no thorns on the branch, it was quite smooth. My lower back was paining now. I continuously shifted in my place trying to find some comfortable posture, carefully, without making any noise. The wind started blowing heavily. I felt it on my face. My senses told me that a storm was approaching. The first hint was the rain. Initially, it poured slowly then heavily. There was a petrichor smell. I felt the thick, broad hardwood leaves of the tree caressing my face gently. They were wet. I too was covered with water but I was not wet because of my ancestry. I was in high spirits now as I came in contact with water on my body for the first time since the start of this adventure. “This ash here…some human, I’m sure…their flesh…Oh! Ronkar how did we miss it. I’m hungry.” Batchels said greedily. “You only think about food. Grow up, you idiot. We haven’t missed them. They are close, very close.” Ronkar said coldly. “Then let’s catch them and take them to the master, brother. He must be waiting for some delicious warm – blooded humans.” Batchels said. “Yeah, good, then let’s run with the wind and bring doom to the humans who dare to enter master’s land,” Ronkar laughed with malevolence. They started running around a small distance from the tree. The ground started shaking from the thumping it received from the heavy weight bodies’ running. Within no time we could see two huge shapes at a faraway distance running parallel to each other. The shapes were covered with a glow that had a faint tinge of green and blue. Their movements were desultory. After a while the huge shapes turned back and started running in our direction. As they were approaching back toward our tree the contours of the shapes grew clearer. “Are they Giants?” I whispered loudly. Roalf said “Quiet!” A faint smell of garlic was carried by the air as the shapes were approaching us. The Giants had two feet attached to each leg! May be this was required for them to balance their huge bodies. Their skin was twisted all over and looked graphitic. The skin texture looked like scales on a crocodile body. The Giants had three horns; the middle one being slightly longer than the side ones. Their ears had grown forward making them look like blinkers in a horse tack. We soon realized that the Giants could only see straight ahead like a blinkered horse and not to the sides. Just then I tried hurriedly to adjust my position on the branch on which I was sitting and pushed the front half with my hands to move my body backwards. The push from my hands was a bit too much on the front part of the slender branch and it suddenly broke. I barely had enough time to latch on to the remaining half attached to the tree. But fortunately, the Giants did not hear the cracking of the branch as they were still a distance away. But by the time the branch fell to the ground with a muffled crackle on the wet leaves the Giants had almost reached the tree. This low pitched noise was clearly picked up by the Giants’ large ears. The Giants stopped suddenly in their tracks. “Oops!” I whispered. A sudden silence filled the forest and then it was broken by the roaring noise of Ronkar. “What was that?” he shouted. “Who made that noise? Come out you coward! Don’t hide from me. I’ll tear you to pieces! Who dares to spy on Ronkar and Batchels, the favorite twin giants of the King of Ganohan?” saying that he began punching the tree on which we were sitting. The tree began shaking heavily. I told myself not to panic. I held the trunk of the tree tightly and closed my eyes. “Don’t look up. Don’t look up. Don’t look up.” I prayed silently. My heart was almost thumping. I could hear it in my ears like a war drum. Beads of sweat travelled down my cheeks quickly. They mixed with the rain water and tasted salty. I felt a sudden stroke of nausea. I tried to control myself. I heard Jack mutter, “Oh my God”. Jason and Roalf were quiet all this time. But soon we realized that the Giants could not move up their heads to the sky because of the twisted scales present on the back of their necks too. This was a real blessing to us. “Cool down brother,” Batchels said, “The noise was just that of a fallen branch.” R