Rain (The Quest Trilogy-Book Two) by Iram Dana Read Free Book Online Page B

informed.
    His Geeya raised a discerning eyebrow. “You remember the trees at Seekers Field?”
    “Those creepy, twisted things? Sure! They appear in my nightmares occasionally, hugging Miti and strangling me.” he said dryly. “What about them?”
    “All rule breakers disappear from Quniverse and reappear on the Seekers Field-as trees.”
    “Should have known.” said Rain sullenly. “Those trees … are they really alive?”
    “You mean the consciousness of the person?”
    “Yes.”
    “They are. They can sense everything, but they can never move.”
    Rain threw up his hands and shuddered, lost for words. He couldn’t believe he had spent almost a month camping out in a field surrounded by humans cursed forever to remain as trees. A thought struck him then and he looked up at his Geeya with a stunned expression on his face.
    “Wait a minute … are you sure this is a rule?”
    “Absolutely certain.”
    “Oh no…” he shook his head sadly, “my brother is going to end up on the Seekers field as a tree!” he said, only half-joking.
    “Has a penchant for breaking rules, has he?”asked his Geeya.
    “Compulsion’s more like it!” laughed Rain.
     
    He was still grinning to himself five minutes later when he stumbled over a small mound of grass and fell, face first, onto the ground. There were several loud cracks as he landed on four unsuspecting snails crawling along slowly.
    “How did that get there?!” he exclaimed, getting up and dusting himself off.
    “They were trying their best to move out of your way, but I suppose they were too slow.” said his Geeya with mock gravity.
    Rain threw her an exasperated look. “I was talking about this!” he said, getting to his feet and pointing to the mound of grass he had tripped over. He then checked himself for damage.
    He had scraped his palms and elbows, and the scratches were starting to bleed lightly. He took a quick glance at his chain. Was it glowing? Had he missed a cue? Rain saw that his chain was not glowing and sighed in relief.
    He walked over to the shapeless mound of grass. There was a foot sticking out from one end of it.
    “It’s a human! Buried under the grass!” he said, quickly shoving aside the piles of grass, revealing an unconscious ashen-faced man.
    Rain bent down to check if the man was still breathing – he was. He then reached forward and lifted the unconscious stranger’s wrist to check for a pulse and noticed a Geeya mark.
    “It’s a sequestor! And he’s alive!” exclaimed Rain, almost shouting in his excitement and beginning to pump the stranger’s heart. Feeling a warm wetness, Rain drew his hands back to find blood on them. Rain realized that the sequestor was badly injured and in need of urgent medical attention.
    Seeing his hesitation, his Geeya spoke up; “Are you planning on help him?”
    Rain gave her an incredulous look. “Of course I am! Is that even a question? I’m just wondering if I should attend to him myself or have Subodh take a look at him.”
    His Geeya nodded.
    “If that’s what you plan to do, then I think you better take him to Subodh. He doesn’t look too good. I think he’s been unconscious for some time now.” she suggested.
    Without hesitating, Rain lifted up the wounded sequestor and carried him as quickly as possible back to the hut.
     
    ****
    Rain half-jogged back to the beach and found Subodh already outside the hut, waiting for him.
    “What took you so long, boy?” inquired Subodh impatiently, pointing to a spot where a makeshift bed had been laid out, ready and waiting for his incoming patient.
    “How did you know I was coming here with an injured person?” huffed Rain, setting the sequestor gently down on the bed.
    “Not just an injured person … a badly injured sequestor .” grumbled Subodh.
    He set to work at once, ripping open the man’s blood stained T-shirt and wiping away the dark, clotted blood from the wound.
    “How’d you know that?!” said Rain, gaping in