I will be watching over the entire hunt today. Our queen had to take rest. She is an elderly woman. She is 50 this year. She watched over the whole kingdom and saved it from war, drought, and floods through the 20 years of his majesty's reign. I don't believe her, though. I shouldn't entertain such thoughts, but in my belief, she's faking it. Not only that, but I heard rumours of how our King used her to over through his brothers. But these are now history. Now I am an honorary consort of his. As I am young among his three consorts, I have been overtaking outdoor festivities for 5 years since I have come of age.

The hunt of today will take place in the great forest of Olonkar. The noblemen of the land are partaking in to show their strength and primarily to wed their daughters to the crown prince, my son. The crown prince, Vinod, has just stepped into his thirties. When I was married off to the king, Vinod and I met first. I mistook him for the king. He was the most handsome man I had ever laid my eyes on. But for the unfortunate reason of him being my legal son, I have become a fan of him.

- Consort Indrani.

-Vinod, o my! You've taken my breath away.

- You never get tired of it, do you?

- How's his majesty?

- Still on about sending you to the emperor.

- To tell you the truth, his majesty doesn't have a choice on the matter. He would do anything to for our queen.

One of my lady in waiting knocked on the door, "Your Highness(Indrani), all the noblemen have arrived." Both of us went to the hunting ground. His majesty ( the king) announced the initiation of the hunt.

I'll be sent to the emperor's harem in a month which is considered both dishonorable and life-threatening in a consort's life. Vinod Kumar, the crown prince of the kingdom, and I, the honorable consort, are against the gesture. So we decided on a plan to prove one of the prophecies of the queen wrong. If once she is proved wrong, we have a chance of pressing his majesty against sending me to the imperial harem. Vinod and I aren't on the best term. He's handsome, alright. But he has done me the most harm.He killed two of my child in womb. My mother used to say," In a royal Palace, even your breath is your enemy." And He proved her right. He does have the knowledge of my knowledge on his deeds.

Suddenly, a servant came, " My lady, one of nobleman got injured. He has lost jugs of blood. Someone thrown a knife at him. He asked for your presence." Who could have thrown a knife?- I pondered on. When I went in the waiting hall, there was two men. All my maids, ladies in waiting, are waiting out of the hall. I wondered ,yet went into the hall. The two men are in uncommon attire. One of them was in his thirties, stout body concerned for the other man who was young, fair skinned, hair as the flower of daffodils but pale, death on his face , eyes already lost life. He lost all the lionshare of his blood.The older man begged on his knees," Please save him . He's..."The half dead man sneered, " Noren, I am alright. Stop making fuss. Rani Indrani (queen Indrani), I am alright.Please, permit me to go."

-You have one foot in the grave, ladies, call the royal physician, and bring him inside.The moment my ladies took the first step inside and I was having a thought," Why is he making a big deal about receiving treatment ", it was already too late. I felt a sharp object in front of my throat," No one steps inside", said the half dead man.

- Why are you doing this? What do you want?

- I want no one to know about this. You, in pink, bring me some clothes.

After taking pieces of clothes , he threatened to kill me evenwhile leaving the hall. I was stunned, in fact , too stunned to speak. As a result, I forgot to order an arrest for assault.

Is he really a nobleman? I have never seen him in any of the gathering. Why did he whisper into my ears," Sorry, play along. There are eyes on me." Do I know him?I was confused and left the hall.

Indrani always had a good sense of smell. Her father was the second son of a landlord. In spite of that, she has grown up poor. Her father had been a farmer almost all his life. So indrani's sense of smell helped her father a lot. She could smell rain even days before cloud gathered. So,her villagers used to call her a gift of Goddess Amman. But she was not only good at forecasting the weather. She could smell someone miles away. Once she told her father that her uncle smelled, seven days later, her uncle's rotten dead body of 3 days was found. So some said she could smell death. But now she doesn't have much sensitivity to smell.

But the night after the 1st day of the hunt, her sense of smell increased in a thousand-fold. She had a severe headache from sunset. The smell of hunted animals, rotten blood, sweat of the hunters, the metals of arrow, and oil of calotropis over the arrow overwhelmed her. With the increasing darkness of the night, each breath she took started suffocating. At midnight, she ran out of harem towards the forest of Olonkar. She ran for hours, and finally, when she stopped, she realized she was lost in a forest full of ferocious beasts.

She was out of breath, shivering with the night breeze. Suddenly, she smelled a strong musky smell. It wasn't a smell she was used to. The smell was getting stronger each second. She was worried that it might be a wild animal. But by the time she understood it was an animal, and she ran towards a tree to climb, her saari got stuck to something. Suddenly, she was thrown over.She heard a voice into her, " Indrani rani, deep dark forest isn't considered safe. Why have you come unguarded?"

She opened her eyes and found herself on the top of a tree as tall as a mountain held by the young man she met injured. She couldn't smell any blood on him. He didn't smell like human. He didn't have any scent. She asked ," Leave me.What are you doing?"

He pointed down towards a growling cheetah.That didn't make sense to her. The forest of Olonkar holds no home to cheetah. How did he pull her to the top of the tree in a blink of eye?

Indrani Rani wasn't aware of the fact that cheetah can climb trees.

- How did you pull me up....

- We are short on time Rani, may be next you'll get the answer.

She was kind of offended, she looked at his eyes . His eyes were glowing in the moonlit night. Her time stopped and it resumed when she found herself in her bed again .

The next morning, she became a widow. The king of Sonali was found dead in her slumber. She had adorned herself in white and went to see the her husband for the last time. And seeing him for the last time,she felt something wasn't right.