"Saira waited. Every night, she lit the lantern. Days turned into months, months into years. People told her Veer wouldn't return that he must Have forgotten her , but she never stopped believing in Veer's words ."
I felt pain in my heart.
She waited without expectations, just like a devotee waits for their god.
Nani continued. "One night, after many years, a storm hit the village. The winds were fierce, and Saira's lantern finally stop glowing . She took it as a sign , that it was time to let go."
I speak quietly. 'So she finally gave up…'
Nani's voice carried a hint of mystery. "The next morning, a traveler arrived at her door. His clothes were damaged , his face covered in dust, but his eyes.....his eyes were the same as before. It was Veer."
She paused again
"Nani, but why? Why did he come back after all these years?" I asked, confusion clear on my face.
She smiled, her eyes filled with wisdom. "Because when the storm covered the lantern, Veer panicked. He had been following its light every night from afar, believing he still had time. But the moment it disappeared, he realized he might have lost Saira forever."
My breath stop for a sec as she spoke the final words of the story.
Saira smiled, tears in her eyes. 'You were lost long before the storm. But I am glad you found your way home.'"
Silence filled the air
I turned slightly, looking at Nani. "Did Saira forgive him?"
She sighed, brushing of hair from my face. "Some questions don't have simple answers, Aira"
As I lay there, the story refused to leave my mind.
Was love meant to be painful? Or was it people who made it so?
Before I could find an answer, my eyes slowly closed, the wind carrying me into dreams woven with lanterns, storms, and the light that always finds its way home.
my dreams pulled me into the very tale that had consumed my thoughts.I found myself standing within its world, not as an outsider, but as a part of its essenc....walking the same paths, and living the moments as if they were my own.
Every detail was vivid........the scent of damp earth after the rain, the distant echoes of whispered conversations, the weight of emotions pressing against her chest. I spoke, I fought, I felt....completely immersed, as if the boundaries between fiction and reality had blurred into nothingness.
Time lost its meaning in this realm, and before Iknew it, the golden glow of sun enter in my room through my window.
The dream clung to me like an unspoken truth, and I woke up .... though a part of me still belonged to that world.