-: Pancha Vastra :- ( By Shailu )

[shailu4ever]

 
Before he can respond, she begins unwinding the cloth.
 
She isn’t gentle.
 
The dried bandages cling to the burns, and when they peel away Arjun hisses through clenched teeth.
 
“Sorry,” she murmurs, though she doesn’t slow down.
 
“If infection sets in, the damage could be far worse.”
 
The final layer comes free.
 
Arjun looks down at his palms.
 
He expected something horrifying.
 
Charred skin.
 
Blackened tissue.
 
Instead, the burns are angry but surprisingly clean, blistered, red, but already beginning to knit together.
 
Mantra studies them closely.
 
Her brows draw together slightly in concentration.
 
“Interesting,” she murmurs.
 
“What?”
 
“They’re healing faster than I expected.”
 
She dips her fingers into the green paste she prepared and spreads it carefully across his palms.
 
Her movements are calm.
 
Unhurried.
 
The scent of crushed herbs rises again into the air.
 
The effect is immediate.
 
Coolness seeps into the wounds like rain falling on hot stone.
 
The throbbing pain softens into a manageable ache.
 
Arjun exhales slowly.
 
“What is that?”
 
“A mixture of island herbs,” she replies. “Plants that grow nowhere else.”
 
She begins wrapping his hands in fresh bandages.
 
“Our medicines tend to work faster than what you’re used to.”
 
“How fast?”
 
“In another week,” she says calmly, “you will barely have scars.”
 
Arjun stares at her.
 
For a brief moment his gaze lingers on her face again.
 
The calm confidence there.
 
The strange, almost timeless composure.
 
“That’s… impossible.”
 
Mantra only smiles faintly.
 
The expression is small.
 
But somehow deeply knowing.
 
“You would be surprised what is possible here.”
 
For a moment the only sound in the room is the ocean beyond the window.
 
Arjun finally asks the question that has been clawing at his mind since he woke.
 
“The women.”
 
Mantra finishes tying the final bandage and sits back.
 
“The nine I pulled out of the fire,” he continues. “Are they,”
 
“Alive.”
 
The single word releases a tension he didn’t even realize he was holding.
 
“All nine?” he asks.
 
“All nine,” she confirms.
 
Relief floods through him so powerfully it leaves him light-headed.
 
“They suffered some smoke inhalation,” Mantra continues. “A few minor burns. Nothing permanent.”
 
She studies him again.
 
Quietly.
 
Carefully.
 
“You saved their lives.”
 
Arjun shakes his head weakly.
 
“I just… ran into a fire.”
 
“In this village,” she says quietly, “very few people would have done the same.”
 
Her tone suggests something deeper.
 
Something unspoken.