"That arrow."

"That arrow."

Our thoughts seemed to be in sync, and so, our voice, full of surprise.

"You dare steal my arrow. The arrow that is possessed by the ro-"

Before I could complete, I heard the slow and predator steps, as I remembered why I was running in the first place.

As I jerked off the arrow out of her hands - and even though she protested - I slowly started to back away.

She said something, I didn't understand, or maybe I was just too focused on them to listen to her.

When I turned around to leave, a sudden thought crossed me.

If they have seen me coming over here, which they have, sensing they are here, then they will see this girl. And if they see this girl, she will go through unnecessary troubles for something she doesn't even know about, and by the way, I need to ask her about the arrow in her hands, which were the same as mine.

I pulled her left wrist which was closer to me, and starting running in the opposite direction, she resisted but I was much stronger than her.

(Me - Yes, you are stronger than her. But not toooooo much, she is really weak right now. That is why she couldn't stop you.)

Their footsteps quickened, and I heard their chief calling me.

"Hey you thief, come back and fight." They called, but neither was I the thief, nor was I going to go back.

Halfway running though the alley, I realised that she was getting really weak.

Was probably running from someone too, by the way she was sweaty and huffing.

And if she was, that strengthens my suspicions of her being the stealer of- ahh!

I feel pain on the hand I held her wrist with

I looked back at her, scratching my hand.

Here I am saving her and she? Scratches my hand?

I swear, if this wouldn't have been the situation, I'd - What would I do? Heck, I can't even do anything.

But I have to admit, this girl has some strength to be barely running but still scratch my hand enough for it to be painful.

As I heard the footsteps fading, I slowed down a little. And then started jogging.

And that was when she decided she had enough and jerked her wrist out off my hand and yanked me, so that I now faced her.

To say I was shocked was really a small sentence to describe my stance.

No one had ever, ever had the audacity to even touch me without my permission except Mata, Pitashree, Bhrata and Adi, and this girl just yanked me towards her!

A girl cannot touch a boy without permission and a boy cannot touch a girl without permission.

And here she just brought me infront of her by grabbing my collar!

Me, the king of Mehrangarh!

First those goons, and now this girl.

Everyone has to make me extra angry when I am already angry, because they can't bear my calm posture, right?

"You-"

Before I could utter a word more, my peripheral vision caught movement on the back side.

God damn them!

I looked at a very small space left between two houses and it didn't look like someone could hide in here.

Well, now that you have already touched me, I may as well also save you again by touching you.

I pulled her towards me and wrapped my hands around her waist, then went straight into that space.

I had also covered her mouth with my hand over the cloth she was holding close to her face.

As her back came in contact - or it may have been something else, maybe it was actually me - with some thread, a very long cloth fell and covered us both, tangling us but saving us from the goons too.

When I had looked at their shadows from my peripheral vision, I had seen her looking at them too and then looking at me before I pulled her.

And I knew by now that she had guessed what we were doing.

Running from people.

And from what I could guess, she didn't exactly get a good impression of me.

What can I say, the feeling is mutual.

The silence screaming in our ears, warning us of the danger right behind us.

We stood perfectly still, my muscles stiff and worked up, begging to be pardoned.

Our breaths were mixing, my hand glued to her mouth to prevent her from saying anything and exposing us.

I was almost certain that the sound of our breaths and heartbeats were so loud, it would give us away and any moment, the goons will grab me from behind and then all efforts will go down the drain.

As we stared into each others' eyes, I let my muscles calm a bit down, acknowledging that it will only help me.

Suddenly, I could not hear them yelling and throwing things in search for us.

And then again, my relaxing muscles tensed.

Not because of sensing them - it was too late - but because of the dagger that went swooshing past my right ear, just barely missing it.