Three days ago, it had been, when the storm started. Well technically, it was the 4th night ago, but till then the storm seemed like a normal one, so they only started calling this storm, the storm from the next morning, three days ago. It was the worst storm in the regular memories of most people, and the worst storm in the story telling memories as well, since no one, at the bar, that evening, or at dinner tables, in the houses talked about how, he’d been stuck in a worse storm. On the morning of the 12th, the storm had started on the 10, people started to leave town. They packed up their carts, and started engines and left the town, half sleding half in wagons, to go down to the lower levels of the hill.
Only Anjali remained in the town. Her husband, Raul was out hunting, he’d left on the morning of the 9th, and had taken supplies for a three day stay in the woods just above their house. Anjali and Raul were a young couple, not yet 3 years into their marriage, the glow of marriage still hung about them, and often they would be seen with their arms around each other walking around town, or sitting silently with each looking out over the magnificent mountains across the valley. But like all young couples, they fought too. Luckily it wasn’t the kind of fighting that had any meaning, they just still weren’t exasperated enough with each other to no bother about the littlest things.
Raul loved hunting, and his wife hated it. Well, she hated that it meant he would have to leave her, specially in these colder winter months, she thought it was particularly mean to leave her alone, and go out hunting. What she didn’t realise was that, he didn’t go out any more than was needed to keep their pantry stocked for the winter. That wasn’t because of his love for his wife, but mostly just because it was cold, and dangerous, and at home, she’d be there. So he went out infrequently, but still he did, and she still didn’t like it.
And on the 9th when he’d left, she’d been particularly angry at him. “We’ll live of canned beans,” She shouted at him, as he silently checked his gear in the living room, “but i don’t want you going out today. I have a bad feeling about it.”
“oh comeon Honey, it’s not big deal, i’ll be back by tomorrow night, at the latest.”
“No, Raul don’t go, look, I’m not superstitious and all, but it’s not a good idea, I just feel that way.”
“Uf! Comeone!” he replied, sighing inwardly, knowing how superstitious she could be, “I’ve been hunting in these woods for years now, nothing is going to happen to happen to me, and besides we’re almost out of meet, and the roads to the plains are all blocked, in a few days we’ll be snowed in too, and we won’t have any meet, you now how hard it is go get bye a winter without.”
“Oh we’ll manage!” She was getting desperate, “Please babe? For me? Just this one time, don’t go out,” she was in a pitiable state, suddenly, frantic, almost. There were tears in her eyes, and she was very really beseeching him. He didn’t get it, ‘what’s the big deal?’ he asked himself, and then her.
“Nothing babe, just don’t go na?”
Raul wasn’t the kind of guy who did things just because others asked, he prided himself on being extremely rational. ‘well, if it’s something supernatural, it’ll happen just as easily at home, as outside, so what’s the big deal?’ “Look honey, you’re acting quite weird, it’s just a feeling, it’ll pass, and i’ll be back before you can even start to worry properly. Ankur told me about a good herd of deer that seems to be pasturing in the valley, just over the pass, and I’ll only go that far, don’t worry, and I have my radio, I’ll be in touch all the time.”
