The Princes of Ayodhya-The Ramayan Through Short Stories

The Midnight Eclipse

Ravan's caterpillar eyebrows furrowed together, and he looked close to shouting at her with bulging eyes and the weird vein that ran through his temple, before he thought better of it once realizing that Mandodari still held his sword in her hands.

Pursing her lips, Mandodari turned away, picking up her husband's helmet before facing him, placing the heavy chainmail crown on his head. Then she stepped away slightly. "Of course, if you truly value my words that much, then May You Return Victorious, Ravan. But if you had, then there would have been no war to win in the first place."

Ravan rolled his eyes, laughing so hard that he began to snort like the pig he was. "Why should I return something that belongs to me? Everyone knows that whatever I set my eyes on is my possession! That hermit doesn't seem to have understood that yet!" 

He took the sword from Mandodari's outstretched hand and twitched his mustache. "But he'll learn his lesson soon. Too bad he won't be alive to teach it to other people."

Ravan turned his back on his queen and left their bedchambers, and Mandodari collapsed onto the floor, pressing her lips together until they turned white. "Oh Ravan, then I can only hope as your wife, that Yama himself doesn't appear in front of your greedy eyes today."

-----O------

"I see him, prabho!" Hanuman exclaimed, pointing his finger excitedly. Like a group of unified Bharatnatyam dancers, every head in the vanar sena turned towards the direction of Sigiriya, where a faint vehicle was seen approaching. 

"It must be Ravan's flying chariot, don't you think, Vibhishan ji?" Vibhishan could only nod, swallowing slightly and sipping green tea from the tumbler Ram had gotten him for his birthday.

But something else caught Ram's attention as well. "Bhaiyya!" Lakshman said, and Ram's head turned. From behind the gates of Lanka, they could hear the familiar roaring of the rakshasas, and the heavy thundering of their footsteps was already shaking the Earth. Ram tilted his head. "Of course." Lakshman scowled, eyes narrowing. "Ravan's so cowardly. How could we have expected him to initiate a fair one on one fight? He wants his entire army dead, it seems."

Hanuman stepped forward. "Prabhu! Let us handle the army. We'll finish them off in minutes!" Sugriv nodded, gesturing for a few legions of his army to step forward before hoisting his mace onto his shoulders. Nal and Neel did their little handshake, and Angad started to stretch. Ram squinted at the army, before turning towards Hanuman.

"Finish them off quickly," he laughed, shaking his head. "You have to be here to witness my battle with Ravan." Shifting his bow to the other arm and leaning forward, he hugged Hanuman tightly, before doing the same with Sugriv.

"Prabhu!" Neel exclaimed offendedly. "This is injustice! What adharm! What discrimination! What segregation! We want hugs too! Just because Hanuman and Maharaj Sugriv are larger doesn't mean they deserve hugs more than us! We too are fighting for you! We're also killing rakshasas! We too are-" Ram leaned down and hugged Nal, Neel, and Angad with his long arms, before standing up fully, smiling at all of them.

"May you be victorious, this last time, as you have been all the days before this." Hanuman, still bright red from blushing at his hug, leaned down and touched Ram's feet, before joining his hands together.

"That was all we needed, prabhu. Now there's no chance of our failure! Even the fates wouldn't dare oppose your hopes. Before Ravan can even lunge at you, we'll be back with every single soldier here intact, don't you doubt it! This is Hanuman's promise." He crackled, his knuckles, before beckoning to all the vanars behind him. "Let's go, and show these last demons how we say goodbye to our enemies!"