Quenching the Thirst for Answers

 

Just as Saira and Aditya fell onto their knees out of tiredness, Aditya asked "What is the arrangement you have made to take me back into my time? Why don't we go now? What are you looking for in all this running around?" 

       Saira took a few moments to catch her breath and said "The arrangement is timed. There are fifty-one hours more before the execution of that arrangement to take you back in your time." She continued "We had to leave the last times that we went into because of the trouble we landed in. This time period too looks troublesome. We can right now jump into another time period; it's turning dark and we are only going to get deeper into trouble here." 

Aditya too felt tired and spoke nothing on hearing her response. After a minute of silence, she raised her forearm and looked at the wound, she gently touched it. This reminded Aditya of the wound on his upper arm. He now realized the sensation of pain in it. "Is it hurting?" he asked. Saira looked at him and looked at his wound. "I had sliced my arm from the surface, but for you, I had given a deep cut. Yours must be really hurting," she said. "Oh, never mind, I would have gone for sacrifice in the hands of those tribals without you giving me this wound," he said. "You could have left to another time period instead of hurting yourself." He added. "Oh no, I could not leave you there. Like I told you, I can travel in time but I do not control exactly which time I want to travel. If I had left you there, there was no way to come back to you," she said. 

"You saved my life," said Aditya and looked away from her turning towards the horizon. He recalled how his feelings towards her changed from hatred to familiarity in the forest and now to gratitude. He felt a heaviness in his heart, as his mind took him to the sudden moment when he left his time and went jumping from one problematic time period to another. A sense of loss and feeling of loss and exhaustion overwhelmed him. He knew that he had no room to hate Saira, for, whether she was good or evil, she was his only companion through this ordeal. 

"What is the thing about my right palm? Why do you have to hold it to travel in time?" Aditya asked, looking back at Saira. "Oh, I am sorry I never told you. When we first met, we did a handshake. At that time, I had inserted an ionizing chip in your palm. I have one in my right palm. I hold your right palm in mine to activate these chips so that our body gets ready to travel." She replied. He raised his right palm and looked at it. "You won't be able to see it. Touch and press in the center of your right palm with your left thumb, you can feel it." Said Saira. Aditya did as instructed. He felt a small thin circular object in his palm. At first, he felt uncomfortable to realize that an external object was sitting in his body, he accepted it nevertheless. They sat there quietly, just breathing, as the sky turned from orange to red and then to a dark blue.