Sojourn : mahabharata's era

CHAPTER 11 : The Punishment

"And Duri think up for a better plan to save her-" she spoke, ultimately cut off in between by him.

"Did you just call me Duri-seriously?" He said in a traumatized reaction, his eyes because small as he looked at Devpriya all stunned and baffled.

"You have a long name to speak, so I just shortened it." She said departing the tent followed by Tushti, who gave me a serene smile and then darted towards Duryodhan, and her smile became wider, giggling all her way out of the tent.

"How are you handling her-she's so annoying and dramatic and irritating and-" Duryodhan spoke, I didn't want to tell him or react to his words but he sounded funny.

"Okay whatever, just go out dear Duryodhan,-" I said in a teasing waking up from

"Yeah, tell her not to use this 'Dear' word upon me." He said loudly exiting the tent. A smile extended upon my lips as I looked at Duryodhan.

How silly these boys are, unable to accept the love given to them but it's something they crave for, just not able to express it. I giggled remembering Duryodhan's face but my mind took me back to him, and his shining face. He must have been unsettled by my actions, probably. I remembered Gurudev calling me, and now I must go outside before it's too late.

* * *
You are triivadaanam late, Nihira." Spoke Gurudev in a profound tone, his hands were folded back and he stood in front of the big banyan tree, with some other students, i hung my head down, still a bit sleepy. Devpriya Didi was standing beside me, squashing her lips.

"I'm sorry Gurud-" Before I could speak up, he suddenly cut me off holding his head up.

"No apologies are needed, I just want you to clean up the stable before lunch." Said Gurudev walking back to his usual seat and continuing with his teachings.

"I-what-stable-" I said all baffled, I looked at Devpriya didi who made a disgusting face, and her eyes were crammed with tenderness as she gave me a disfavored smile.

"I'm so sorry for you nihira-you have to clean the horse stable. And that's so awful." She said backing off and making a weird face, she went away doing her stupid girl behaviour where whereas I stood there with all chaos dwelling upon my face.

What a day, I would never sleep now. I hate this!!!!

The horse stable was a lot farther away from the tents, and it was sparsely located encircled by trees and grass, there were many horses inside the table. Approaching it I could now breathe in how horrendous it smelled, there was fodder all around with horse shit and dirty water, mud and whatnot! I took large steps to avoid any contact with silt. It was all marshy, the ground was starting to sink, my feet were already replenished with mud and hay all over, and my clothes were damp.

"It can't be that bad-nihari, it can't be that bad, you can do it." I let out almost on the urge to vomit.

halfway through the cleaning, I began hearing some voices approaching, some silly boys chuckling and someone talking about Dhanurvidhya and some unreasonable conversation upon The Pandavas, I halted listening to their conversation.
Those people stood behind the stable, gossiping without having any clue of me being there.

"Bheem won't die until we push him into the water, or add some poison into his food." Came up the voice.

"Oh, shut up are not killing him." Came up another.

"We can just leave all of these things on Mamashree instead." Came another voice somewhat familiar.

"Hmm, I just can't wait to meet Mamashree." Came up the voice, and now I immediately recalled it to be of Duryodhan. I stood there motionless listening to their conversations and being horrified by the things that the other person spoke.