Chapter 5
Katrina and the underground river
The landscape turned red with the setting sun. Everything seemed to have been painted red. Sumit, who was leading the way, ran as fast as he could so as to reach Katrina before the sun sets completely. Harshit found that keeping up with Sumit, when Sumit was running at this pace was no easy task. But somehow, he managed to do so.
Sumit shot along at the speed of an arrow, frightening away all the squirrels, rats, rabbits and every other animal that happened to be on or near Sumit’s path.
Sun was sinking slowly but steadily. And you know the old saying, “Slow and steady wins the race.” It was certainly a race now. Sumit wanted to reach Katrina before the sun set, and sun seemed to let Sumit do anything but that.
At last, the sun set, leaving Sumit and Harshit in the dark. But there wasn’t even a five minutes’ walk to cover now. So the two boys went on and reached their destination pretty quick.
The “destination” was none other than a cave. The cave had a narrower opening than usual. Inside, the floor was carpeted by sand. This made the cave look “nice” and feel “nice”.
The walls were perfectly smooth, but the “side-walls” were a little rounded and merged with the “roof” perfectly, forming an arch above the boys’ heads.
Another peculiar feature of the cave was that, the same strange-roaring sound, which could be heard in the Harshit's cave, was also heard here, only it was much louder.
“We must now wait for Katrina,” said Sumit, sitting down on the floor of the cave. Harshit did the same.
Not long afterwards, a scrambling noise came from the ceiling. Suddenly a girl leaped down from the ceiling, landing on her arms and legs.
“Katrina!” exclaimed Sumit.
The brother and sister hugged each other.
“Oh, brother!” said Katrina, “It was so lonely without you!”
“I missed you too!” said Sumit, hugging his sister more tightly than ever.
Sumit had quite forgotten Harshit in his brotherly embrace. As for Katrina, she hadn’t noticed Harshit at all; her whole attention was on her brother.
Harshit looked on; with arms crossed. He didn’t care to interfere. At last, Sumit noticed Harshit, waiting patiently.
“Katrina, look who’s here,” said Sumit, as a way of introduction. Katrina turned to look, seemed a little suspicious.
“Can we trust him, brother?” said Katrina, suspiciously.
“Oh, he’s all right,” Sumit replied, grinning at Harshit, “He won’t betray you!”
Harshit, grinned back, and said to Katrina, “Don’t you remember me, your brother’s best friend?”
For the first time, Katrina noticed that it was Harshit, Sumit’s old playmate; for it was so dark that she could hardly see Harshit.
“Oh, hello Harshit!” greeted Katrina, smiling. “It seems ages since I saw you last.”
Katrina held out her hand – a dirty hand – to Harshit. And Harshit took it (with an equally dirty hand, by the way) and gave her a great, big, friendly grin.
“Glad to see you, Katrina,” responded Harshit.
Katrina gave one of her best smiles, and asked, with a tone of formality, “And how’s your old home, Harshit?”
“Well, I left it,” said Harshit, innocently, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
“What do you mean?” asked Katrina, puzzled.
“He means he had to run away,” said Sumit, grinning.
Katrina laughed, “You too!” And then changing her expression, she asked, “But why did you run away?”
Harshit explained, with Sumit putting in a word or two.
Katrina was very indignant.
And then they all fell into talking, about old times. Presently, Sumit broached the subject of Harshit being Katrina’s companion. Katrina welcomed the idea.
“You don’t know how lonely I feel here,” said Katrina, “It would do me a world of good if I could’ve someone to talk to.”
“Then it’s all settled!” said Harshit grinning.
By now it was pitch dark. And Harshit's “baggage” was at the old cave. It was decided that Harshit and Katrina would sleep in the present cave for tonight (Sumit would go back with the goats), and then, Sumit would come back early in the morning and Harshit and Sumit would go and fetch Harshit’s “luggage”.
Sumit went away with his goats and the other two lay down to sleep. In a little while, Katrina was sound asleep. But Harshit lay awake; what a queer life he was going to live? What was in store for him in the future? Who knows? He’ll have to wait and see.
The next morning, Katrina was up and about early. Sumit kept his word and was at the cave just after dawn. But Harshit slept on till, at last, Sumit awoke him: “Wake up sleepy head! I suppose you’re in the wonderland; wake up!”
Harshit woke up, regretfully. “Just five minutes.” He pleaded. But Sumit tipped a wink to Katrina and they both fell on Harshit, who yelled and howled. Harshit woke up at once and the other two laughed.
Harshit went to “his cave” accompanied by Sumit. Sumit took Harshit's satchel while Harshit collected some of the fruits of the trees around. Then they set off or the cave where Katrina was waiting patiently.
“You two have been simply ages!” complained Katrina, coming out of the cave to greet them. “What have you been doing all this time?”
“Oh we stopped on the way to play about,” explained Harshit, tipping a wink to Sumit, who at once started grinning all over that the two ends of his mouth almost touched his hair at the back. Sumit then, put on a solemn face, and said innocently, “You know, it was a most perfect place to play about. Just behind us there was a precipice, and the ground fell away a hundred feet an inch before us and…”
“Oh you’re pulling my leg!” declared Katrina. “I’m not such a fool as to be taken in by that story; and now buck up; let’s breakfast, I’m starving!”
So they ‘bucked up’. Harshit deftly took out some of the fruits and the knife, and then out came the bread and some other eatable things. They all stuffed their tummies “to the brim” as Harshit chose to put it. They cleared everything, sent the waste (seeds and things like that) tumbling down the hillside.
“We’re ready. Lead on Katrina! And we’ll follow you to the center of the ‘ring’!”
So Katrina took the lead, and the boys followed her. Katrina, first, pointed to the roof in which was a hole, big enough for a man to go through; head first. The roof was a little low. So Katrina jumped and got hold of the edges of the hole.
“Tumble in after me!” she shouted, and then she pulled herself into the hole and disappeared.
Harshit followed easily but Sumit was not so fortunate. He jumped one or two times and tried to get hold of the edges (of the hole of course), but failed. Katrina and Harshit laughed. Sumit went at it again, slashed out his hands wildly at the edges but was unsuccessful, and in a moment, he was flat on his back. The “tragedy” was greeted with shouts of laughter, from the successful ones sitting above, and Sumit sprang up hurriedly and jumped desperately. Unfortunately, Sumit banged his head against the roof in the attempt and was down again. There was silence. The “bang” was too loud to be considered funny. Sumit felt his head to see if his poor head wasn’t as flat as a paper as he fancied. His head was all right! Sumit made another attempt and was this time successful.
Sumit joined the others with a sigh of relief.
Sumit turned his attention to his surrounding and found himself in a tunnel, with a hole in the floor (which was, of course, the hole in the roof of the cave below). The trio proceeded down the dark tunnel, with Katrina leading the way.
After a while, the tunnel turned sharply to the right. All this while, the strange roaring noise could be heard very clearly. But the boys noticed, that it was, now, much louder. The floor started slopping upwards. The strange noise became louder at every single step till they had to close their ears with their hands to stop the deafening noi
se. Then came a sharp turn and the trio found themselves at the banks of an underground river; the real source of the strange-roaring noise!