Varun, still contemplating the day's events, drifted between wakefulness and sleep.
The flickering lamplight cast long, dancing shadows across the hut, adding to the surreal atmosphere.
Suddenly, he felt a soft touch on his shoulder.
He turned, his eyes widening in surprise.
It was Kajal, her eyes glazed, her movements unsteady.
The effects of the tiger meat, he realized, had taken hold. She was clearly intoxicated, her inhibitions lowered, her emotions heightened.
He didn't understand why she had come to him, especially at this late hour. A question mark hung in his drowsy mind.
Ignoring his bewildered expression, Kajal cupped his face in her hands, her touch surprisingly firm.
She gazed into his eyes, her own filled with a strange, intoxicating intensity. The eye contact, prolonged and charged, created a palpable tension between them.
A strange heat rose within them both, a primal, undeniable attraction.
Their minds, already reeling from the day's events, succumbed to the intoxicating pull, and they pulled each other to themselves succumbing to their primal instincts.
The night unfolded with a raw, almost primal intensity.
Kajal, driven by the strange intoxication of the tiger meat and her burgeoning attraction to Varun, was uninhibited and passionate.
Her touch was urgent, her gaze unwavering. Varun, caught off guard by her sudden advance, found himself drawn into the vortex of her emotions.
The flickering lamplight cast their entwined figures in a dance of shadows, the silence of the hut broken only by their ragged breaths and the soft rustling of the woven mats.
The air crackled with a charged energy, a blend of desire and a strange, almost feral urgency.
The morning after arrived with a sense of hazy disorientation.
Kajal awoke first, her eyes fluttering open to the dim light filtering through the thatched roof.
A wave of memory washed over her, a vivid recollection of the previous night's events.
Her cheeks flushed crimson, a mixture of shame and a lingering warmth spreading through her body.
She glanced at Varun, still asleep beside her, his face relaxed and peaceful.
A flicker of panic, quickly followed by a rush of confused desire, coursed through her.
She slipped out of the hut, her movements quick and furtive, hoping to escape before anyone noticed her absence.
Varun stirred, his eyes opening slowly. He felt a strange sense of unease, a lingering echo of the night's intensity.
He sat up, his gaze sweeping over the empty mat beside him.
A fragmented memory, a blur of soft touches and whispered words, surfaced in his mind.
He frowned, trying to piece together the events of the previous night, but the details remained elusive, shrouded in a haze of confusion.
He rose, his movements stiff and awkward, and stepped out of the hut.
The village was stirring to life, the air filled with the sounds of morning.
He saw Kajal in the distance, her back turned to him, her posture tense and guarded. He hesitated, unsure of how to approach her, of what to say.
The silence between them was thick with unspoken questions, with the lingering tension of their shared intimacy.
They avoided each other's gaze, their movements stiff and awkward.
The unspoken question hung heavy in the air: what had happened, and what did it mean? The tiger's influence, the raw, untamed energy that had fueled their passion, now left them with a sense of confusion and unease.
The morning after was a silent acknowledgment of a boundary crossed, a secret shared, a question left unanswered.
Kajal, after a period of tense silence, finally allowed her thoughts to surface. The events of the previous night crashed over her, a wave of shame and despair.
Tears welled up in her eyes, blurring her vision. 'Who will marry me now?' she thought, her voice a silent scream in her mind.
Her virginity, a precious commodity in her culture, had been taken by a man who, she believed, would soon be gone.
Marriage to Varun?, a man of such enigmatic power, seemed an impossible dream, a fantasy she was not worthy of.
Choking on her sobs, she turned and ran, her feet carrying her blindly towards the dense jungle.
She didn't see the villager who called out to her, asking why she was running. She didn't hear their concern.
Her mind was consumed by a single, desperate thought: escape.
She reached the riverbank, the familiar sound of rushing water a stark contrast to the turmoil within her.
The river, once a source of comfort, now seemed a dark, inviting abyss.
She thought of ending her life, of escaping the shame that threatened to engulf her.
As an orphan, raised by the collective kindness of the village, she felt an unbearable weight of guilt.
She had betrayed their trust, stained their honor. To live with this shame, this secret, was unbearable.
It was better to die, to take her disgrace with her into the silent depths of the river.
----- MC's POV -----
As Varun moved through the village, attempting to reconcile the fragmented memories of the previous night with the tense atmosphere of the morning, he heard a villager's urgent cry. 'Kajal! She ran into the jungle!'
The villager's voice was laced with concern. 'She wouldn't stop when I called, and she was sobbing!'
Varun's senses sharpened. He knew something was terribly wrong. He didn't waste time shouting her name, knowing it would only send her further into the jungle.
Instead, he relied on his enhanced hearing, focusing on the faint sounds of her sobbing and the constant rush of the nearby river.
He moved with incredible speed, a blur of motion through the dense foliage. The sounds grew clearer, the frantic sobs and the rushing water drawing him closer.
He caught a glimpse of her shadow, a dark silhouette against the pale light of the riverbank.
Hearing the sound behind her, Kajal turned her head, her eyes widening in despair.
She saw Varun, his form a blur of motion, leaping towards her with impossible speed.
The sight of him, the very man who had brought her to this point, solidified her resolve.
With a final, desperate sob, she turned away from him and plunged into the river.
The cold water enveloped her, the rushing current pulling her under.
She sank, her eyes open, the murky depths welcoming her into their silent embrace.
She wanted to disappear, to vanish, to escape the shame and the pain that had become unbearable.