Chapter 27: Chapter 27

When Yuvraaj had said that she would love the surprise, it didn't cross her mind the faintest that he would brought her to the cliff for paragliding. Evidently, she knew what was the surprise. He wouldn't have brought her over there for no fun. She gulped casting her eyes around to observe the people taking solo and dual flights, screaming high pitched with zeal that all but hyperventilated her.

Her feet solidify on the ground, eyes widened in horror and mouth parted so wide that the whole universe could settle in. Disparaging her fear, Yuvraaj stabilised himself beside her grinning ear to ear. His kindling orbs kissed her face. "You ready?"

"What? No." Anahita squealed coming out of her wonderland, judging his look correctly. "No. No. I am not going for this. How could you do this? You know I've acrophobia."

She found difficult to breath when people around her were flying with artificial wings and their enthusiastic howls were ringing high in air. Sanity was a second away to wear off and her fears were defeating her shadowing her gradually.

"What about fighting with your fears, then?" He fondled her hair, stepping nearer. His eyes beseeching her to venture out. "We both will fight together."

Gripped in thick film of vulnerability, Anahita repelled, shaking her head, frantically, "No. I have all my life left for fighting with these shitty fears, now is not the time. Are you freaking planning to kill me? They bloody have no security at all." She panicked, whimpering at the boot camp that organized the paragliding.

"They have what with all those strings and safety guards, including the helmet. Why are you freaking out?" Yuvraaj emphasized, trying to persuade her, "I have seen you in the aircraft and I am ashamed to see that my wife is scared of flights. That harms my status because I love soaring up in air."

"Do hell with your status, my life is more important than your status, Yuvraaj." Anahita was now seeing red. She glared him and stomped his foot causing him to wince. "I thought you don't even care for this. I thought you care for me but now, all you care for your status."

Her shivering gaze suddenly caught the woman who started screaming at the flight and crew had to make her land safely on her feet. Anahita mimed to Yuvraaj and sniffed. "Look at her, look at her how scared is! I am telling you, Yuvraaj, this is no cakewalk. If I fall from that height,I don't think you'll ever find my body."

Rolling his eyes, Yuvraaj pulled her closer and kissed her earlobe, intertwining her fingers with hers. The object was to use her weakness to persuade her, but Anahita was smarter than that. She kept her melting emotions and kindling desires on bay.

"Do you trust me?" Yuvraaj husked in her ear. Anahita took a minute to process his words and frowned, pouting and whining like a toddler. "I actually don't and I am not planning to do especially in this care. Moreover we'd different plans for today. Then why have you brought me here to explode a detonator on me?"

With ease, Yuvraaj's long fingers found their way on the crevice on her forehead and smoothened them. His eyes resting on her face and her thump pad descended down on her cheek, rubbing circles. "Then let's do it as trust workshop. You just have to steel your faith on me and I swear, I will not let anything happen to you."

"Are you crazy? We can do this workshop on ground as well, why is it necessary to go 10 feet up in the sky?" She rubbed her forehead, blabbering and glaring him.

"Nah, I need to get this fear out of you because I don't want you to cling upon anyone who is sharing a seat with you while taking off in flights, when I am not around." Yuvraaj left no space for the further discussion. Anahita face palmed herself in defeat. "Great! This is not the way to be possessive, Yuvraaj. I assure you I won't cling on to others, instead of that, I will clutch my seatbelts tightly or the blinds or whatever but I won't cling on to others. Moreover, you are not going anywhere so I don't need to do this at all. Now, I hope you are contented. Then let's go!" She gripped his forearm and pivoted on her heels to leave.

"No ma'am, you are doing this. C'mon!" He dragged her back on the spot and wrapped his arms around her. He pushed her forward towards the camp and led her inside while Ananita slumped her shoulders, crunching her nose. "That's the reason I don't like you. You force me to do things I don't want to."

"Excuse me! You should be thankful that I am helping you in overcoming your fears."

"I will do the same with you then." She threatened.

"I've no such fears." He guffawed and she snorted, "I will find that out very soon in time and then, I will pester you the way you're doing. You just wait and watch."

"I am looking forward to that, now choose which one you want." He emboldened her pointing at the paragliders heaped around. (Paraglider - Free flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure).

"How does it matter when they all do one thing? Deport us to heaven. This is a direct flight to death. Choose anyone you want." She mumbled at the verge of crying and Yuvraaj sighed, cupping her face and turned her to him, "Look at me, do you seriously think I will let you enter any danger? Do you think I will let you get harmed till I am breathing? Huh?"

"It's not about that." She sighed frustratedly looking down, "I, kind of, trust you but I am afraid of heights and that's not something abnormal, every person has some fears in his life, what can we do?"

"We can fight with them, we can overcome our fears. Life is too short, Anahita and living as a wimp is not the best option. I know you can't be completely intrepid; no one can. Even I am not but this is very trivial and I know you can do this, you just need to build faith."

"What if I die?" Horror dripped in her eyes.

"Then let's die together." He winked at her, scoffing at the situation. Anahita smiled rolling her eyes and nodded halfheartedly, "Okay, let's do it. Choose that orange one, it has so many strings. At least we shall be little safe."



Then suddenly a thought trespassed her mind and she clutched Yuvraaj's hand when he was about to go for the booking, he craned his neck to face her and wiggled his eyebrows questionably.

"We are riding together, right? You're not going book two, okay!"

"I know. I will never send you alone for doing something like this and if it relives you, I have done paragliding so many times. You'll be safe." He assured her and waded off after she nodded thinning her lips.

Anahita's hand were clammy and shivering. She was still having second thoughts. Why the hell I had to say yes? She mentally whined and swallowed looking at the cliff where people were taking a race to fly and her heart thumped, what if I fell from here? What if our glider bursts? What if we never get to see our family? What if we die in cold waters of Sardinia?

She closed her eyes taking a deep breath, "No Anu, you can do it. It's not that difficult and you've seen worst situations before and this is just a sport. An activity thousands of people indulge themselves in. Trust yourself, trust....Yuvraaj. Have faith Anu. Have faith!" After her mini self motivational piece of soliloquy, she was ready to believe. Her task of tracing Yuvraaj wasn't difficult, so was her staggering towards the spot. She made it to the point that if they were going to die, they would die together as he quoted but she knew, he would not let them.

***

"Ahhhh....maaa.....no..no...put me on the ground..ahh...Yuvraaj, you bloody...punk...mum...mumma....I..am gonna die... amgonnadie.... amgonnadie... Aahhhh..." With the series of that Anahita started killing Yuvraaj the moment they took flight and her feet left the ground, soaring up in air. Her vocal cords parched as she screamed on the top of her lungs and Yuvraaj clenched his jaw to not lose his calm. Her resolution was coming to an end.

"Shut up!" Yuvraaj finally yelled, half mad on her and half mad on himself. "I swear if you don't stop yelling right now, I will throw you in the water from here." His browbeating made her breath stuck in her throat. Nonetheless, Yuvraaj hadn't left her but Anahita paled as if she was all alone and her demise was nearing. Her mind rewinding their journey and she concluded that their relationship hadn't been exactly delightful that Yuvraaj would think twice to throw her down. Frightened, her yelling drew to a close and with that she closed her eyes too, if I am not going go see it, it will not affect me. Soft breeze of a considerable height stroked her face and her breathings calmed down yet the vice grip on chords didn't loosen up.

"Good! Don't scream and I won't let you anything happen." Yuvraaj's breath fondled her neck and she nodded slowly with no intentions to get him mad and die in the cold waters of Sardinia; a place she had now pledged never to come back again with him.

"Now listen to me very carefully Anahita, open your eyes."

"No!"

"Open your eyes and look down, see the view is mesmerizing, you gonna love it. Just open your eyes, I am with you, you won't die." He emboldened her, pushing her to the limits and shivering slightly, Anahita opened her one eye peeking at the blue surface of sea to close it again.

"No no no. I can't do this, I won't...what are you doing?" She gasped as Yuvraaj's arm draped around her body and he pulled her in his chest, "Now since I've gripped you tightly, you won't fall but..."

"But?"

"If you try to panic, we both shall fall because my balance with holding you, won't be able to survive here. But don't worry, I trust you." He divulged and she whined, mumbling, "I don't think I can ever go back to India in one piece after this. I am damn sure, this trust building workshop will make me impaired."

Yuvraaj pursed his lips to stop his chuckle that was dying to escape out and cleared his throat, "Alright! Now tell me, have you opened your eyes?"

"Yes!"

"Good! Look down and simultaneously, look around. See we're like birds, floating in the sky. What could be more beautiful than this?" He looked around, admiring the view between clouds and looked at the sea below them, taking a low ridge flight, moving near the surface.

"Arrrghh! I think this thing has stopped working, we are going to die." Anahita screamed when she assessed that they were moving towards the ocean but Yuvraaj clutched her tightly, "To survive us, you've to bend your force backwards and release pressure. C'mon, do it!"

Though he had everything under control in situation she couldn't do that but pretended as if their life was indeed in danger and pushing all her strength Anahita did somewhat what instructed, taking a Ridge soaring with her feet's touching the water briefly and Yuvraaj floated them again up in the sky.

Once in air again, Anahita found her breath until he dropped another bomb, "Let's make a circle in the air and after that, we shall land. Alright?"

Swallowing, she chanted all her prayers to keep them safe but she didn't defy the fact that she was really enjoying it, Yuvraaj had clutched her tightly to him and his excited squeals were a thing to watch. Her fear was subsiding as she had started learning the accurate technique of flying, yet she wasn't completely confident and her fear of height was being a stand away.

"You ready?" He asked thrilled, adventure oozing out of him and Anahita spared a glance of him, speaking in daze, "I trust you."

Their eyes met and Yuvraaj smiled, "I won't let you down." Leaping freely in the air, he made circles and swaying like a bird he finally discovered the satisfaction.

"Woah! That was fun." He breathed out as they came on the ground safely and unarmed themselves. Returning the stuff to the instructor, he followed Anahita as she had already started walking. Quite amusingly, when he glanced at Anahita, he noticed her rubbing her heart, taking breathes of relief. He smiled, spooning her in a hug, "Don't worry. You're alright, we are safe."

Anger peaked up in her and she pushed him with a frown kissing her face. Yuvraaj fell on the beach aghast, to her credit the whole conundrum was situated when they were nearing Villa. Hence, the audience was limited or in the miniscule number of them. Aghast, Yuvraaj was sprawled on the sand when Anahita pounced upon him, showering slaps all the way.

"Who do you think are! What if we didn't reach down safely and how dare you leave the rope to clutch me, what if you could die?" She yelled, her eyes brimming with tears, "This all is a game for you, right? My life, your life, it is all game? How easily you said I trust you when you knew I could land ourselves in danger if I hadn't correctly pull the force. Why do you do that?"

Clutching her arms and flipping their position, Yuvraaj kissed her cheek. Anahita was on the verge and his touch was enough to break her. She started sniffing hiding herself in his embrace, "Are you ashamed of me? That your wife has some fears?"

"Are you mad?" He fired back, wiping her tears, "I didn't do it for anyone but for you. You might find me wrong but I think we don't try our best until something precious is in stake. Why don't you see that you actually saved us, if you hadn't pulled the force at that time, we would have been drowning, in case we didn't know how to swim, but it didn't happen because you did your best. You trusted me and I trusted you, which is why we both are save. No relationship can survive without trust Anahita, no matter how much we love the other person. If we don't trust each other, we can't stay together for a day let alone the whole life." He softly stroked her hair and accoladed her.

"I'm not ashamed of you, at least not in this lifetime and I also know that you've not overcome your fear but I am happy that you tried, I am happy that you trusted me and I trusted you. This is what I wanted to do." He kissed her eyes, "I am glad to know that you trust me."

"Still, don't do this next time. I don't want you to get hurt, Yuvraaj." She caressed his stubbled cheek, "I trust you." Her emotions were on contrast, she didn't understand what was happening with her; Yuvraaj Prakash was prohibited because she was committed but her heart said that nothing is wrong because she finally had unleased the person Yuvraaj deep down was. She was married to him.