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–you for saving my life.”
    The old man regarded Rain in silence for a while, coal black eyes burning with intensity. Then he got up, grabbed a thick walking stick leaning against one side of a makeshift hut, and thwacked Rain on the head with it.
    “Ow!” yelled Rain. “What was that for?”
    “That,” said Subodh, calmly keeping the stick back in its place, “was to let you know that you are welcome. Now do not thank me again, for the next time, I will make you feel more than welcome .”
     
    Must be where the senile part of his name comes from, thought Rain, rubbing the back of his head in annoyance and lying down again. Minutes later, he had dozed off.
     
    *****
     

 
     
    CHAPTER 5
     
    It took Rain almost a month to recover fully from the wounds inflicted on him by Miti. Mostly because of the delay in receiving treatment and because the infection had spread. Subodh had turned out to be an excellent caretaker, though, and made Rain do no work during this time, allowing him to rest and recover fully. He tended to Rain’s wounds and needs alike with great concern, never tiring of him or complaining even when he fixed all meals for both of them. Before long, strength and life had returned to Rain’s previously numbed muscles and he was feeling good as new.
     
    A month later, Subodh removed the bandages wrapped around Rain’s body.  The gashes and wounds had healed, but slight scars like scratch marks had remained. Rain wasn’t overly worried about these and hoped that with time, these would go, too. What worried him were the places where Miti’s teeth had cut into his flesh and her digestive enzymes had dissolved portions of his flesh. The gaps were closed, but the skin in those places was lumpy and a funny yellow shade now.
    “Will these go?” he asked Subodh, fingering the pale yellow marks on his right shoulder.
    “I doubt it. The rest of the marks will leave, though.” replied Subodh, piling the used bandages into a small heap on the floor.
    “Setting fire to those?” asked Rain, pointing towards the pile of used bandages.
    Subodh nodded.
    “I’ll do it.” offered Rain, taking the log of burning wood away from Subodh’s hands and moving forward.
     
    Now that he had recovered, Rain made it a point to help Subodh in whichever way he could, since the latter would not allow Rain to thank him for saving his life. He began accompanying the old healer on all his trips to the forest to collect herbs and other items needed to make medicines. Now, just as Subodh had been to him previously, Rain proved to be a blessing for the old man who could not undertake much strenuous activity because of his age and frail body. Rain was young and athletic, and he would climb trees, or reach into high ledges or crevices of rock without much effort to remove rare fungii or the occasional honeycomb that Subodh managed to find. For his part, Subodh healed everything that he had the power to heal. With Rain by his side, they would sometimes carry large wounded animals back to the hut and treat them, too, until they were all right again. What delighted Rain more than the healing was when he saw these same animals that had been treated by them return later with small tokens of appreciation for him and Subodh. A doe once left a small pouch of musk outside their hut. At other times, they would find small piles of firewood or rare medicinal items placed inconspicuously towards one side of the makeshift hut that Rain now shared with Subodh.
     
    “That is how you express gratitude.” said Subodh once, indicating the small pile of wood left outside the hut by a recently healed monkey. He was standing on big stone, trying to fix a hole in the roof of the hut.
    “Learn from nature, boy. It teaches you how to do things gently, kindly. Humans with their over civilization have become too rough to be of any good to anybody.” he grumbled, patching up the hole.
    The hut was just a large sheet of tarpaulin tied over four bamboo