DREAM OR MEMORY??

A young girl of about ten years old was excitedly tilting her head at the young adult boy standing next to her. The girl was wearing a long flowy purple skirt with matching embroidered blouse, a pink glass flute fastened in her silver waistband. The girl wore beautiful jewellery made of flowers and looked like a beautiful flower herself.

The boy had an angelic face, tall and lean frame. His long curly hairs reached his temples giving him an ethereal charm.

A saint along with a few people soon came in view and it seemed they were preparing for some ritual. Only a part of his conversation was audible as the saint asked the boy

"Are you really sure?"

"As much sure as I know my name, maharishi" the boy replied with both of his palms joined in respect, in a very polite tone.

{Maharishi- Hindi word for saints with very high cultivation}

The saint was very highly cultivated and has far broken any kind of worldly obsession. He just wanted to serve God with pure unpolluted mind. He had acquired a lot of capabilities while cultivating himself. Such a man was naturally calm with very less words but one of his disciples still spoke

"Child let me remind you again, this blood bond will bind her death to you. due to this bond if she dies, she'll come back to life again and you'll die instead. You don't need to do this, becoming her guardian angel is enough to repay."

"Thank you for enlightening me but I still want to do this. If she hadn't saved me, I would have been dead already." the boy answered smiling without a bit of doubt in his crystal blue eyes.

The girl was intently trying to understand what was going on as her silver hairs danced in wind like silver silk and her purple eyes moved back and forth between priests and the boy.

"Will you like me to become your guardian angel?" the boy bent a bit to face the little girl next to her.

Her face looked so innocent and pretty that it was difficult to look away from it. She asked in her sweet voice "then will you be with me forever?"

And the boy smiled at her caressing her cheeks with his thumb "yes" and the girl answered in no time "then yes"

In no time the ritual started, all the saints along with the two sat encircling the sacred yajna fire and the saints started chanting Sanskrit mantras. After some time, the highest saint asked for their hands and they stretched their hands to let him complete the ritual.

The saint took a silver knife and slit their index fingers, then started to chant some mantra, a purple glow from girl and blue glow from the boy started to intermix and the light covered both of them as their blood droplet from cut flew in air and mixed together. The mixed glow passed though the blood and returned to their owner and the saint stored the blood in a small cup and enchanted a mantra and the blood tuned into a very pretty sapphire.

"you'll need this sapphire if you want to break the bond someday. Keep it safe at all costs." he said handing the sapphire to the boy, his words were warning to not to lose it or consequences will be grave.

"WAKE UP KUKI!! NOW!!" Seerat's voice rang in my ears and I opened my eyes. My head throbbing with pain but soon I regained my usual calm composure. Was it a dream? But the girl looked just like my child version except for her purple eyes and silver hairs and she had 'maya' with her too and the boy was definitely Sumedh. So, was it a memory? But I clearly remember my childhood there was no such event and their appearance was far from modern ones. The place in dream was like the most beautiful garden with positive vibes. I don't remember visiting there.

"Kuki!! Speak up damn it!!" Seerat shook me vigorously her hand holding tight on my shoulder. She sounded worried. Kuhu came behind and placed her hand on my forehead, I slapped her hand away "what?"

"You finally speak" Seerat hugged me tightly, burying her face in my shoulders. Kuhu also sighed in relief. I did not get what was going on but despite I patted Seerat's back "I'm here I'm here… what's wrong?"

She pulled herself away and eyed me from top to bottom "you… you weren't waking up Kuki"

"Huh??!" I arched a brow when Kuhu answered "you scared the hell out of us. When we woke up this morning you were still asleep, which was quite strange because you always woke up on time… but when we tried to wake you up you didn't"

"Maybe I was tired and slept deeply" I innocently answered trying to comfort them.

"But you… you weren't responding a bit also, just like a doll lying unresponsive. Except for your breathing there were no signs of life in you…" Seerat said clinging onto me with no intension to let go. I just managed to smile reassuring that I'm perfectly fine.

"And when you opened your eyes that was more terrifying, your eyes looked blank, no blank is understatement void yes void is the word. You had a faraway look in your eyes as if you aren't here actually… remembering it is enough to cause goosebumps" Kuhu shivered while explaining and I could only blink at her. They were worried to death for me, I just opened my arms where Seerat was already clinging, Kuhu also jumped to me to join the embrace and I whispered "I'm sorry".

….

"Don't wear that, it looks so plain" Kuhu nagged rejecting dresses after dresses after hearing how Trisha tried to taunt me the other day. "This one is nice" she picked up a white bell sleeved shirt and paired it with a black ruffled skirt which barely reached my mid-thigh. She pushed me into the washroom with those clothes, giving no chance to protest.

"I think it's not proper" I came out of washroom running my fingers though my hairs. Thinking of ways to persuade her to allow me to wear something decent to avoid unwanted attention.

"Wow!!!" Seerat who was busy applying makeup turned to me with lips parted in surprise.

"I think it's very proper. After all breaking big ego requires short dresses" Kuhu smirked triumphantly imagining Trisha's defeated face. "don't worry, the length is decent enough"

I could only nod, she looked happy and I didn't have the heart to say 'no' after what happened in the morning.