Dried Lilies, Withered Hearts And A Lonely Path

•Chapter-16• Training & doubts

Never in her entire life, Khushi thought she'll do something like this. Not even in her wildest dreams, she dreamt of doing something like this. She always had been a dreamer proud of her imaginative powers but still even as a child, she hadn't ever dreamt of something like this.

Riding a majestic white stag in a moonlit jungle. A majestic white stag who was also capable of shifting in a quite annoying bespectacled human was never quite there in her mind.

Yet here is she doing just that.

Racing through the fireflies lit jungle on the back of a majestic white stag.

Feeling free and unnerved.

The ride is simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying with the stag galloping like a snake and no premotion of what next. It was the kind of memory Arjun asked her to concentrate on.

Of course, she didn't have any such strong happy and at the same time freedom inducing memory back when they first started with the training. At that time, a gloomy cloud of unwanted memories of pain was circling above her. Raining bad memories, quite literally.

And her first day of training wasn't something noteworthy yet she couldn't help but recollect it almost fondly now. It had been two weeks since the first training day and she hadn't made much progress yet.

Well, not at all the kind of progress she wanted to make. But Arjun reassured her that it's a slow process and firstly she has to come in terms with herself. Accept her predicament. Accept she isn't a human anymore.

Accept she is a Sur.

And a royal. 

The word "royal" seems to be the most fav of all her new mentors. They tell her this almost every day and she doesn't know why or what weightage this word holds in their world? Even Arjun won't explain it to her. And to say, he is her favorite mentor.

Even though on her first day of training, she was almost as terrified of this new world as she was of Arjun. He was an unknown entity to her. The guy with a stoic face and tranquil eyes. She didn't know him at all and he was supposed to be the one she could depend on most.

But she was determined to overcome her fear of Arjun.

She was determined to learn.

She needed too.

Needed to attain her purpose.

Needed to seek justice.

And she couldn't do it until she mastered her powers.

So she was determined. She had too.

For no one but she can bring herself to justice.

So when she woke up that day with the weird surge of energy coursing through her again. The symphony of loud laughing thunder, melodic chirping birds, the goosebump-inducing sound of the conch shell, and the soft chime of a bell. All in all, she found herself awake again in the godly hour everyone calls ungodly.

She was terrified and determined. 

Her mother's pic on the bedside table fuelling her determination.

So, the moment Riya came to fetch her for the first day of training. She was all ready and a bundle of extremely nervous energy. Sometime last night, she had started picturing what her first day of training will be like?

She could clearly imagine her tutors in dhotis or any other attire of the past kings and queens shown in the tv shows or something. For the way, they talked it reminded her of them only. She even imagined a medieval age training set up.