The Inseparable Princes

5. वैदेही

As years passed, a beautiful baby was born. Her parents named her Urmila. Beautiful name, isn't it?

She was quite practically Sita's life. And she was extremely protective of her sister. Fiercely, far too fiercely protective, just like another person. They both loved each other more than anybody else.

"Urmi, come here. Pitashree is calling us," called out Sita.

"Coming, coming. I'm a little busy. Anything important?" she replied. She was nine years old and her sister was ten.

"What are you doing?" asked Sita.

"Come here, and look for yourself, didi," she replied.

"God! You won't tell me, will you?!"

"No, I won't. I'm telling you na, I'm so busy! Uff," replied Urmila, making adorable expressions.

"Dramebaz, what is it," asked Sita

"See, I've made this painting. You like it?" she said.

"Woah! It's beautiful, Urmi," said Sita, pinching one of Urmila's cheeks.

"Aye Urmi! Will you come? Your Pitashree is calling you. Sita didi, he told you also na," shouted Mandavi from a distance.

"Hey when did you come? You'd gone out na, with Keerti," asked Urmila, wiping her hands that had been almost drowned in paint.

"Yup. But we came back. And you know what, your Pitashree isn't in a very good mood now, so you both might want to be there soon,"

★★★

"Pitashree please," she pleaded.

"Okay, putri, but why? Why do you want to learn from only me?" asked Janaka. There was a sense of serenity in his face, but at the same time, there was also a tinge of mischief and fun.

"Because your sword-fighting is awesome!" declared Sita.

"Okay, come on, then. We'll go right away, alright?"

★★★

"Pranam Pitashree! Pranam Mata!" said the princes of Koshala in chorus, after they returned to Ayodhya after their formal education has been completed. It was almost a festival there, and the parents were crying. Tears of joy. The boys, on the other hand, were very joyous and jubilant to be back home after that long. The twins in particular, were very eager to get pampered by everyone, being the youngest ones.

"How are you all?" asked Dasharatha, before he enveloped all four of them in a tight hug.

"We're fine Pitashree," they all replied, before being crushed into a set of hugs by their mothers.

The boys relaxed for a long while and came to the dining hall for dinner.

"And Maa, you know bade bhaiya would try to act like he's some full-on adult, but by the end of the day, when he came back with us, he'd be just like a little toddler," reported Shatrughna with a chuckle.

"I'm not that much elder than you people, that I act like your parent," retorted Rama with an expression proving that he didn't like Shatrughna's statement a lot.

A little chatter went on while the boys had their luscious dinner and enjoyed. They had their mothers make them sleep like they did before they went to the Gurukula.