Next Day
“It has been so long that I have tasted fresh new nubile and
tender grass. It is so good to taste some after long time.”
This summer was very hard on the forest dwellers. Especially
on the herd of Chital deer’s as the rain fall was scarce this summer and the
grass the herd would survive on was so rare to find in the usual patches. The
herd head had brought them to a patch near the foothills of the great
mountains. Here, there was a stream that flowed all the year round and hence
there was a patch of green grass that the whole herd could feed upon.
But mama doe was irked by some sounds that were not usual in
these parts of the forest. This being the reason, she kept her calf quite
nearby and would not let it wander too far away. Also there were smells of
strange animals in the air.
Suddenly then, she heard the ruffling sound somewhere nearby
and immediately became alert along with the other members of the herd. As soon
as she had heard the sound there was the thud sound of something falling near
the herd. The already alerted herd thought it better to make a quick get away
towards the interior parts of the forest.
As it happened, Tamluk was hiding in the deep forest along
with his friends and following the movements of the hunting troupe of Raja Bhim
Sen. The forest people deeply revered the forest GOD and believed that who ever
kills any living creature in the forest without the need of hunger should be
punished. This was a law that went without saying. Every creature in the forest
followed the same law. But why were men from the planes suddenly in a hunting
spree that was not going to quench their hunger was beyond the understanding of
the forest people. In all essence Tamluk and his small gang of friends wanted
to stop this. So they had decided to make the hunting excursion of the Raja a
failure. Every time the Raja or any member of his hunting party would aim at
any animal the animals would miraculously get some prior knowledge of the
attack and would flee. This had been going on for three days at a stretch when
the Senapaty Chaturbhuj had to conclude in frustration to his almighty Bhim Sen
about the matter. It was a serious concern and Bhim Sen himself was getting
frustrated.
“Today I want my soldiers to form a circle around the prey
and hide in the forest. I want to find out the reason for this. Chaturbhuj tell
all soldiers to act upon your signal for the same”.
Languishing in the early summer soft morning sunrays was an
exquisite royal Bengal tiger in the small
clearing near the foothills. The hunting party had spotted it and according to
the instructions had circled around it in a quarter mile radius. Raja Bhim Sen
along with Chaturbhuj were progressing slowly towards the tiger on their
elephants. Their bows and arrows were ready for the kill. Then suddenly there
was a sound of ruffling in the forest and an arrow hit the ground just near the
tiger. As if the thunder had hit the ground from nowhere in the blue sky, the
tiger raced away towards the deep forest. Immediately afterwards, the Raja
heard the shouting of a few soldiers who had made a perimeter around the tiger
from the North side. On a signal from the Raja, Chaturbhuj dismounted from his
elephant and mounted on a horse nearby. He immediately sped towards the general
direction of the shouting. After sometime, the Raja could see that Chaturbhuj
was returning with a captive walking in front of his horse slowly towards him.
No comments:
Post a Comment