The Archer

Varun grabbed Aryan's arm and pulled him aside, lowering his voice to an urgent whisper that barely carried in the still air. "What the hell are you doing? I mean, why are you including her with us?"

Aryan glanced back at the girl, still hanging patiently in the snare with an almost supernatural composure, then met Varun's concerned gaze. 

"Look at her," he said quietly, his voice carrying conviction. "She is not completely insane yet. She is still thinking clearly and strategically. And she has obviously a fighter inside her. More experienced than either of us."

"Yeah, Experienced at trying to kill us," Varun hissed, his fear and exhaustion making him more confrontational.

"Experienced at surviving," Aryan corrected firmly. "And right now, I think we need to stick together to stay safe. Three people watching each other's backs, sharing knowledge, figuring this place out together." He paused, his voice dropping even lower. "Besides, would you rather have her as a reluctant ally where we can see her, or as an enemy hunting us day and night throughout this place?"

Varun's jaw worked as he processed this, clearly torn between his instinct to trust Aryan and his very reasonable fear of the girl who'd spent the night trying to put arrows in them.

"One week," Aryan reminded him, his voice carrying the weight of leadership that had somehow settled on his shoulders. "If it does not work, we will figure out something else."

After a long moment, Varun nodded reluctantly. They turned back to face their captive, who watched them with keen interest, as if she'd heard every word despite their whispered conversation.

"So," she said, her voice carrying a note of dark amusement, "do we have a deal, or do I continue my career as forest decoration?"

Without a word, Aryan tilted his head toward Varun and made a small gesture with his hand. Varun sighed, clearly not thrilled, and stepped over to the knot in the vine.

A quick tug.

The trap snapped loose.

The girl dropped with a dull thud, landing in a crouch but still letting out a sharp breath.

"A little warning next time would be nice," she muttered, brushing the dirt and dead leaves from her sleeves.

Varun gave her a quick once-over, unimpressed.

"Oh, sorry. Didn't realize we were offering luxury landings today."

The girl looked up at him, smirking.

"Didn't realize sarcasm was a survival skill either. Guess you must be thriving."

Aryan stepped between them, half-smiling despite himself. He could already feel the tension crackling. nothing dangerous, not yet.

"You are free just like we had deal. Just... don't try anything."

The girl brushed a twig from her hair and stretched her arms. she looked at her scattered arrows on the ground. There is clear look of disappointment in her face.

"Try what? I stand by what I say. It's you who needs to live up to your promises."

Aryan looked between the two of them. Varun, jaw tight, and the girl, looking like she already had a dozen comebacks loaded. He exhaled through his nose.

This was going to be a long night.

The moonlight filtered through the dense canopy above, casting shifting patterns of silver and shadow across the floor as the unlikely trio made their way deeper into the wilderness. 

They had been traveling for hours now, and the landscape had gradually changed from the thick undergrowth where they'd set their trap to a more open woodland with towering trees that seemed to stretch endlessly upward into the star-scattered sky.

The night felt eternal, as if dawn might never come to this strange place. Time itself seemed different here, stretched and distorted like everything else about their reality.

All three moved with cautious precision, every sound in the jungle setting their nerves on edge. Aryan kept a firm grip on his makeshift spear—a sturdy branch the girl had skillfully carved into a lethal point using her knife. He was a little surprised knowing, she still had a small second weapon tucked away.

The weapon felt foreign in his hands, but its weight was reassuring. Beside him, Varun carried a similar weapon, though he held it with less confidence, still adjusting to the idea that he might need to use it.

The girl moved with the fluid grace of a predator, her bow held ready but not drawn. She scanned the tree line constantly, her pale eyes catching the moonlight as they swept back and forth, cataloging every shadow, every movement of branch or leaf.

"You know," Varun said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper as they navigated around a fallen log, "I mean, it's getting pretty awkward calling you 'the girl' or anything else all the time."

His tone carried a hint of mockery, the kind of casual provocation that had become his way of expressing the discomfort and distrust he still felt about their arrangement. The words were meant to needle, to remind everyone that this alliance was temporary and fragile.

The girl's step faltered slightly, and for a moment, something vulnerable flickered across her features. Then she straightened, her mask of composure sliding back into place.

"I'm Robin," she said simply, her voice carrying across the quiet forest.

Varun's eyebrows raised, and he couldn't resist pushing further. 

"Robin? What, like Robin Hood? Planning to steal from the rich and give to the poor?" His tone was mix of soft and hard. "I mean, how fitting for someone who's been hunting us with a bow."

Aryan shot him a warning look, but something about the name tugged at his memory. He knew that there was something familiar with her but couldn't put finger on it.

"Robin Heera?" he asked suddenly, his voice carrying a note of recognition.

Both Varun and Robin stopped. She turned toward Aryan, her eyes narrowing slightly—not in shock, but as if something long overdue had finally arrived.

"You know her? is she you girlfriend?" Varun asked, his mockery replaced by genuine curiosity.

"No," They both shouted in unison. Robin gave Varun a sharp look, a sort of warning.

Then Aryan nodded slowly, pieces clicking together in his mind. "She is a famous athlete. Master archer. Gold medalist Robin Heera. I saw her compete in the last Olympics. She was incredible." His voice carried a note of awe that hadn't been there before, as if he was suddenly seeing her in an entirely new light.

Robin's expression softened slightly, and she confirmed with a small nod. "That's me." Then she looked at Varun with something that might have been amusement. 

"How do you not know about the Olympics? It was all over the news for weeks. Are you living in a cave?"

Varun shrugged, his discomfort with being on the back foot evident in his defensive posture. "I don't really follow sports. I'm more interested in space and science, herbs and botany. Athletic competitions just... never caught my attention."

"Explains a lot," Robin muttered under her breath, but there was less venom in it than before.

The revelation cast their entire night in a different light. The woman who had been hunting them wasn't just some random person driven to madness by this place. She was someone who had spent years training her body and mind for competition, someone accustomed to pressure and strategic thinking.

"That's why you're so good with that bow," Aryan said, understanding dawning in his voice. "And why you were so confident about your abilities."

"And why you're not completely insane yet," Varun added, his tone grudgingly respectful despite himself.

"Speaking of which," Varun continued, his curiosity getting the better of him, "what do you remember last before finding yourself running here?"

Robin's eyes sharpened, studying him with new interest. "How do you know I was running?"

"Everyone has the same story," Aryan explained, pieces clicking together in his mind. "They're doing something normal, then there's a blank, and suddenly they're running through this jungle with a weapon in hand."

As he spoke, something struck him—a detail that didn't quite fit. He glanced at Varun, who seemed to be having the same realization.

"Wait," Aryan said slowly, "you had a weapon too, right? When you first got here?"

Varun shook his head, looking confused. "No, I was empty-handed. Just running, panicking, trying to figure out where I was."

The revelation made Aryan pause, his so called theory suddenly wobbling. He'd been so certain that everyone ended up here with a weapon. Like Ranjir with his claws, himself with the sword, and Robin with her bow and arrows and a hidden knife too. 

But Varun's experience didn't match the pattern.

"That's... strange," Aryan murmured, his mind racing to reconsider what he thought he understood about this place.

"What's strange?" Robin asked, sensing the shift in his demeanor.

"Never mind for now," Aryan said, filing the inconsistency away for later consideration. "What about you? What's your last memory?"

Robin was quiet for a moment, her expression growing distant. "I was shopping," she said finally. "Just normal grocery shopping after training. Some fans recognized me on the street outside the store." Her voice took on a harder edge. "They started crowding around, asking for selfies and autographs. I tried to be polite, but they kept pushing closer, getting more aggressive."

She paused, her jaw tightening at the memory. "One of them shoved me, trying to get a better angle for their photo. I lost my balance and fell toward the road. And Then..." She trailed off, her eyes unfocused. 

"Then what?" Varun curiously asked as if some is reciting a movie plot.

"Then nothing. Just blank. Next thing I knew, I was here, running through the trees with bow in my hand, and voices and strange visions in my head telling me to survive."

The same thing everyone here had told, a mind with fragmented memories and visions that can't be explained in simple words.