Though my surroundings feel unsettling, I pushed these thoughts to the back of my head and started running towards the inn.
As I give my surroundings more attention, the forest seems to stretch endlessly, each step feeling heavier than the last, but I didn't stop.
After what felt like hours, I finally reached the clearing where the inn stood. But something was wrong, completely wrong.
The place didn't look like the same one I remembered from the time when I first entered here. Thick vines crawled across the walls, wild roots had broken through the frozen ground, and unfamiliar plants covered almost everything in sight.
It was as if nature had reclaimed this place.
The whole area was surrounded by the overgrown and strange fauna that couldn't have appeared in months. I stood at the entrance, staring in disbelief.
My brain was trying to tell me something, but I couldn't believe it.
I also noticed the same thing in the forest, but I didn't pay attention to it. But seeing this scene in front of me, I could not ignore it anymore.
At first, I thought that maybe I was unconscious for a few hours since the Giant man had saved me, but the fauna here tells a different story.
From what I had studied about the flora and fauna, I understand that this much growth requires years, if not months.
I tried using my omnione, but it was not working; maybe during the landslide, it got damaged.
How much time had passed?
With this question in my mind, I entered the inn, hoping that the old couple could tell me something, but seeing the situation here, I don't think that they even live here anymore.
The door creaked as I pushed it open, and a rush of damp, earthly air hit me. The inside looked nothing like before.
The same wild growth had invaded the place, roots twisting through the floorboards, vines crawling across the walls, and even the ceiling sagged under hanging moss.
Faint rays of light filtered through cracks in the windows, catching tiny floating spores that glimmered like dust in the air.
The inn was looking less like a residential place and more like a ruin.
The condition inside tells that this place hasn't seen a living human for a long time.
With this, I lost my last hope to find Giant, to find Yash, if he was even alive. Feeling lost, I knelt on the ground.
But when I closed my eyes, I saw Yash, he was telling me to find him, to not give up.
"What happened, big bro? already given up. Come on, get up. Get up and find me."
His voice gave me the strength not to fall, not to give up.
There must be something here that can tell me where the couple has gone, some clue that can point me in their direction.
During all of this, there was one thing that I couldn't understand. The couple had been living here for more than a decade, so why did they leave this place?
I stood up and began searching through the building, carefully stepping over broken furniture and thick vines that curled across the floor. Each room I passed felt colder, quieter, as if holding its breath.
When I reached the dining room, I remembered the fun and relaxing day we had spent here with the old couple.
As I entered, I just stood there, unable to move.
"What's that?"
There was a skeleton lying near the table, and my heart sank. As I got near the dining table, I saw two skeletons lying there, half-covered in small plants growing around them.
The moment I saw the second skeleton, it became clear that the old couple didn't leave this place; they are actually dead.
. . . . . .
Actually, as the earthquakes and landslides were more common in the mountainous area, people rarely visit here. And since the road toward the Gangotri Dham was lost, even those rare people have stopped coming here.
Yash and I were their first visitors in the last 3 years. At the check-in time, they had told me how surprised they were to see someone visit these mountains again.
. . . . . .
I stood there, frozen in shock, and lost in thinking about what to do next, when something caught my eye, a faint reflection glimmering in the old glass water jug, its base, covered by the moss, only a small reflective surface could be seen.
I turned my head slowly, and for the first time since waking up, I saw myself.
My reflection looked a little different from me.
My face was pale, almost lifeless, streaked with dust and dried blood. My jawline looked sharper. My eyes seemed different, as if something inside them was missing, desperate to find something/someone.
And not just my appearance, I also noticed that my body balance also felt strange. This strangeness has been present since I woke up today.
As I checked my body, I was beyond shocked; my height seemed to have increased. Not just slightly, before coming here, I was 171 cm tall, but now it seems my height is around 180 cm.
I took a step back, my pulse quickening. My emotions are in disarray, don't know whether to be surprised or frightened by the changes in my body.
My mind raced, trying to make sense of what had happened to me. It was beyond ordinary for a person's appearance to change this much.
Then it struck me, that giant. His presence was also not ordinary, or I can say anything related to him was not ordinary.
There had been something in the way the air bent around him, something beyond human.
Maybe he had something to do with my changes, or maybe he knew something about it.
I had to find him. Even if he doesn't know anything about the changes, he must know something about Yash.
With that thought, fear slowly gave way to resolve. With the couple being dead, I can only depend on myself to find him. I couldn't stay here any longer.
I turned away from the lifeless room, from the silence, and stepped back into the cold. If that giant was still out there, I would find him, no matter where he was.
A.N. - The title means 'The change in one's appearance.'
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