Chapter 11- Much needed help.

Darpan only remembered sleeping next to the precious brown bag in the carriage last night before some much needed sleep finally came to him. He could honestly use more of this relaxing time but unfortunately, his companions had other plans.

" Darpan Bhai! Come on! Don't sleep anymore! We're almost there!"

Ashmit tried shaking Darpan's shoulders but the latter just muttered a 'later' before turning his face away in sleep.

" Oh god Bhaiiya! Weren't you the one who wanted to come here at the earliest yesterday? Don't give us any crap about not waking you up earlier then! You are the one who snored away with that thing in your arms. "

Aryan blabbered which all seemed like incoherent nonsense to a still very sleepy Darpan . He could barely even make out their silhouettes in the blinding light shining on them.

Yelling and that too the first thing in the morning??? Yeah,no. That's a sign of the worst day possible you could imagine.

All Darpan's ears could hear were incomprehensible mutters when they would randomly shut off all noise and his eyes found the safe dark space. But then someone would just shake him again and it felt so bad to have all joy shaken off from your soul. What is that joy you ask? The comfort of sleep ,of course!

This on and off continued for a few times when Darpan was irritated enough to just pretend to not open his eyes in pure spite for ruining his beauty sleep. That was until a very specific memory came back to him. Oh no! The manual.

Darpan shot up straight from where he was lying , his eyes desperately searching for the brown containment of value. His hands groping around in his slightly dizzy state till he found the crumpled cloth bag with all the material inside safe and untouched - the manual , obviously. A sigh of relief passed through his lips as he slowly put down the bag and started tying his healthy,luscious hair into a bun; as he always did out of habit every morning.

His eyes then fell on a concerned face ...and two very angry faces staring down at him.

" You know what? Better late then never! If you weren't going to wake up in the next five minutes I was going to personally throw you off the carriage myself but thanks to you , my efforts are saved."

The carriage driver remarked seeing a very bewildered look in the green eyes of the sleepyhead.

" So what now? Are you going to get off or do I need to take you back on a round trip?Oh! not before I take the extra charge though!".

He calmly said walking around the vehicle and plopping down on his seat.

" Come on bhaiyya, what are you waiting for? " Aryan urged Darpan by pulling the latter's arm and getting him off the carriage. After successfully getting all the stuff out of the carriage they bid the driver goodbye . He went off his merry way too, but not before giving a nasty look to the three troublemakers he had the misfortune of encountering .

" Wow, seriously Bhai! I can't believe how long it took for you to wake up. And to think you were the one stressing over things yesterday. " Ashmit remarked at Darpan's ability to sleep amidst noise.

Darpan felt guilty about it too. Being an introvert ,he really tried to stay out of trouble but it seemed to follow him wherever he went. He was still a bit sleepy and a bit light headed. 'That's wierd' he thought.

" I know, I'm sorry. But how long was I alseep for? I mean I don't think I have ever slept like this before. "

Darpan asks Aryan who is still busy organizing their stuff.

" You were out for like 10 hours . You never do that. You really slept like a baby,huh? But well, I guess it's all the stress you let on yourself since yesterday that had been weighing you down. So I'd say you really needed that."

Aryan retorts before opening a water pack to gulp down a stream.

" Oh , and believe it or not , we've been trying to wake you up for the last 45 minutes. So we already ate before that. Your breakfast is in that bundle" he added pointing to a small black bundle in Ashmit's hands.

Darpan was still light headed. He never had sleep this good yet troublesome. Must be the stress as Aryan had said. But he still didn't like how he was able to sleep so defenselessly with the manual right beside him. That could have been dangerous if they were in open air.

He chuckled slightly taking away the bundle from Ashmit while Aryan demanded to know if Ashmit ended up touching the food.

He decided to eat amongst the not very peaceful banter of his two acquaintances in the back.

When they were all cleaned up and full, they decided to find an inn nearby to place all of their stuff. With all of their stuff and the newly acquired item, the trio finally were headed to the most bustling city of the whole Kingdom.

The hustle and bustle of the place was almost overwhelming to town folk like Darpan and Aryan. Ashmit was a different case since only one of his senses worked at a time and most of the time - it was his taste buds. On the way he somehow saw a peanut seller and was now happily munching on roasted peanuts while strolling behind the other two.

" Oh, Shama kare* I didn't mean to!"

Darpan silently muttered as he collided with a woman carrying a fruit basket. He totally felt like an outsider and even worse when that woman gave him that ridiculous look. As if he's some riverside creature who somehow by some weird miracle had found his way into society.

He was really trying to not accidentally anger these super sensitive people but that is really hard when you have two bags hanging down your shoulders and a big black bundle to hug along with a special brown bag hanging by his side. It was impossible to not touch or hit someone with the amount of luggage they were carrying and the crowd in the narrow streets wasn't exactly helping.

" Watch your step, fools! Hopping around here and there. Can't you see I'm walking behind you?"

An old man from behind yelled at Aryan when someone stepped on his little toe. The crowd was so big that Aryan wasn't even sure if he had actually hurt him but had to apologize in case he accidentally did.

They somehow made their way halfway to the street when suddenly someone screamed from behind. When Darpan and Aryan turned around,they found Ashmit totally flat over some poor girl who was crushed by his weight.

Panic set in the brothers as they hurriedly tried to lift the fatal weight called Ashmit from the girl while others helped drag her out.

" Are you okay? You don't feel any wounds or bruises on your arms do you? Can you stand?" Aryan tried to check on the girl on the verge of tears. 'I would cry too if one day an elephant just randomly fell on me', Aryan thought internally.

The girl looked up shyly with a blush coating her cheeks as she responded affirmatively.

She quickly dodged his gaze when Aryan had helped her stand up and checked her over.

This was of course not missed by Darpan who was currently giving Ashmit an earful for not watching his steps.

Aryan was a good looking guy, girls are bound to feel shy in presence of such a man.

When he compared it to the stare of the woman who collided with him, the reactions couldn't be more different. 'Well, good looking people just have it easy maybe' Darpan thought.

" Ya! What are you all holding down the crowd for? I have work to do! Move, people."

Came someone's yells from behind which quickly made the crowd that gathered around Aryan and the girl disappear. The trio too decided to continue moving once the girl had left.

" Ashu, seriously. You almost killed her today,man. What were you doing to end up on that poor girl like that?" Aryan asked out of curiosity. Ashmit, though he was on the broader side didn't actually ever face problems with balancing himself.

" I feel bad too, hey, Aryan! I don't know how I fell. All I know is I felt something tugging around my waist and when I felt a pull, I turned around but just somehow lost balance. And it isn't like I'd kill someone like that. That's so mean of you!"

Ashmit replied , very upset that his weight was considered fatal by people. He was not even all that fat. Aryan just replied with a scoff and a smirk.

They had already walked quite a distance when suddenly a realization dawned upon Darpan. He stopped in his tracks, Slowly turning around to face Ashmit. His face clearly stricken with panic and fear. He quickly bent down to check on Ashmit's waist belt pockets and touched around to find what exactly he feared had happened.

" What happened,Bhai? What are you-Wait? Did - did it vanish?"

Aryan was confused at his brother's behaviour at first but then quickly realized what this situation could mean.

" It's gone. it's gone!" Aryan yelled after checking around Ashmit's belt.

" Bhaiyya, I told you we should have kept it with us, hadn't I? I knew we couldn't trust this airhead. All he does is stuff his mouth " Aryan angrily ranted.

" The money pocket is gone! Ashmit, where did you drop it?" He asked grabbing Ashmit by the shoulder who was still very confused about the situation.

" Did you even know we had given the money pocket to you for safekeeping? " He added while still glaring at Ashmit .

" I-I mean . I-uhm -well , I had kept it with me of course and my hand was placed over it so I knew it was right here" he pointed to his waist belt. " I don't know where it- it is now though." he added, almost whispering the last part.

" So you didn't drop it?" Darpan who had been staring blankly at space till now suddenly awakened. Ashmit only slightly nodded in response.

" If you didn't drop it then where the hell could it have disappeared? Seriously,Ashmit! "

Aryan tugged on his hair in frustration.

" Then that means we were pickpocketed. That's the only possible reason. We would have heard a small sound if it had dropped on the ground wouldn't we? And we just came here a few minutes earlier. It's possible someone took advantage of the crowd and took it away. ,"

Darpan deduced since the road before the market streets was actually quite spacious and desolate so the clink of coins could not be missed.

" But who could have- wait,wait! Ashmit, didn't you say you felt a tug before you fell back there? Like someone pulled something on you?" Aryan questioned,his suspicions of the incident rising.

" Now that you say it.....yeah it did. Oh no! So ....do you mean that...that girl back there, she ..stole it?"

Ashmit asked in bewilderment.

" Seems like it. " Aryan just looked up at the sky and let out a deep sigh. " What do we do now?"

" Pickpocketed on the first day here? I can't believe this. I knew this was going to be the worst day possible.!" Darpan just felt defeated. What wrong did they do to deserve such humiliation and inconvenience on the very first day. As if things weren't already troublesome with the thing that they now have with him. What if someone had eyed the other bags though?

This made Darpan clutch his brown crumpled bag harder at the mere thought of losing the item that he promised to protect .

As they sat there in silence in the corner of the street, people kept staring at them wondering why these people won't move. All those stares now pricked Aryan badly.

In a surge of anger , he demanded compensation from Ashmit.

" C'mon, spit out all of your food. You dumb airheaded being. You only keep on eating and fueling that furnace in your tummy. C'mon, either spit out your food or give me my money back!"

Aryan rambled with his palm stretched open in front of Ashmit .

" But it's not my fault!" Ashmit retorted with tears in his eyes. He was weak to criticism and angry speech.

" Oh , yes it is! Every bit of it. Now it's either you give my money back or go hungry for the whole day! I don't care! Now bring my money back!"

Aryan stressed again.

Darpan tried to separate them as he could feel the people's stares as well and didn't want to make a scene. To make matters worse, Ashmit crying would only lead to false assumptions.

" Hey c'mon, it's no use fighting now! Okay. It's stolen. It's not like it's going to come back and drop on your hands right now-"

Darpan could barely finish his sentence before a red pocket full of coins was suddenly dropped on Aryan's palm and the clink sound of the coins is what made them realize the presence of the once lost object.

The trio blankly stared at it.

" Nevermind, it did drop right in your hands all right!" Darpan slightly muttered .

A chuckle could be heard right beside them and all three heads turned toward the source of the sound.

The person at the center of the attention was suddenly conscious.

" Oh . I'm sorry, I just found the situation very humorous."

Upon deciphering the blank stares he got from the trio, the man straightened up and stretched a hand in front of Darpan.

" Nice to meet you .I'm Shashi!"

The man flashed a toothy smile.

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1. Shama kare- A very poorly translated way of saying I'm sorry. I mean there are words in Hindi and Sanskrit for the same but some are too formal or just don't fit context. So I had to do with this.

2. Shashi- A new character woohooo