"Wow," muttered Lakshman, looking around. The forest was thick, teeming with life, from monkeys, furry and mischievous, and with red fur that made him think of himself and his twin, to snakes, cold-blooded and dark eyed, which he felt drawn to. He walked through the forest, and it was then that he realized that he must have left his dagger behind. "Okay, let's just get the water and get out of here," Lakshman told himself, and quickly grabbing a pot, dove it into the waterfall calmly and grabbed some random plants and berries.
Studying them closely, and then shrugging, Lakshman was about to head back when he felt like someone was watching him. He heard a hiss, was that a snake, and it sounded almost scared. He caught a fleeting glimpse of a fleeing python that was slithering on the ground, before something long and clawed caught up to him. "Oh no," whispered Lakshman. "When I said that I would die for them, I didn't think I meant today!"
-----O-----
"What's taking him so long?" Ram worried. "Is he in trouble? Oh no, oh no! What if he's caught somewhere? What if he's killed? Oh no, and I let him go!" He didn't have to worry, for Lakshman dove over the edge of the mountain peak and collapsed on the bedrock. Shatrughan walked forward in confusion as Lakshman took a deep breath. "Did he fall back asleep guys?" he asked innocently, before quickly jumping back, startled as his twin lifted up a pot of water and a fistful of plants.
He stood up fully, and there were scratches on his torso and neck. "This is what happens to me when I forget my dagger on the peak of a mountain." he hissed in exasperation, before setting down the water and plants. Shatrughan grinned guiltily and brought out the daggers out of where he was hiding them. Bharat smacked the back of his head angrily as Lakshman rolled his eyes. Shatrughan was feeling plagued with guilt, however, and his face sunk down and he turned away.
"Oh, it's no problem, Shatru, really. I wasn't close to death or injury, or anything. There was just this rakshas, and a bunch of snakes were running-er-slithering away. I didn't manage to get away in time." he shrugged. "A matter of luck, really, don't beat yourself up about it. I wouldn't." Suddenly, the entire family heard another, louder, more insistent hissing, and Urmila woke up, Ram having sprinkled some water on her face.
The first thing she saw was her husband being surrounded by snakes, big and small, green and white. "AAAH!" shrieked Shrutakirti.
"AAAH!" shouted Bharat.
"AAAH!" yelled Sita.
"AAAH!" yelped Shatrughan.
"AAH!" cried Mandavi.
"Oh, cool." said Lakshman as the snakes circled around him. "That's interesting, I wouldn't have thought serpentine behavior was so complex, but it appears my mindset should be changed immediately, stat, as soon as possible."
And that was when Urmila realized something about her husband as he waved innocently at the snakes. Yes, he was ruthless and short tempered and mean. But he was also innocent, in some cases. He was completely clueless when it came to women. He had a huge soft spot for animals of all sorts. And he had heavy, deep feelings that would often affect his actions. Urmila smiled as Bharat complimented her husband on his vocabulary. What complex beings men were!
Lakshman was having no such deep thoughts, just pure relief as he glanced at the smiling Urmila briefly. He was attacked by a monster, apparently called the enemy of snakes, and was about to give up when the blood-drained, dry face of Urmila came to mind. How his heart ached when she was unconscious! It was as if he couldn't live without her even for the few moments that they were separated, when her amber green eyes did not meet his. They could never be separated again, he decided.
--------O-------
They must have taken a wrong turn, for no one knew where they were once they had gotten off the mountain. It was obvious that they were somewhere outside of Kosala, definitely not in Malla Republic or Videha, perhaps somewhere in the no man's land in the middle, where no government governed. Dasharath refused to rule that place, leaving it to the wild animals to roman that no industrialization should ever reach!
Eventually, they reached a cottage in the thicket, and everyone breathed a small sigh of relief at the tiny structure. It was thatched with drying, brownish grass, made of mud walls which Bharat looked at interestedly, always a sucker for architecture.
"Who's in there?" asked Mandavi quietly. "And more importantly, do they know where we are?" Bharat rolled his eyes, as Shatrughan looked up at the cottage.
"Here, let me do this. Hopefully they know where they live." he murmured, stepping forward. No one questioned him; they all knew that Bharat was the true diplomat among them all, and if anyone, it should be he among the princes who approached in a friendly manner. A man with a short, white beard, medium colored skin, and orange clothing of a sage, but lacking the emanating wisdom, stepped out of the cottage, and looked between them confusedly.
"Asdfghkl?" he asked, looking between them again, his eyes widened in confusion. "Qwertyuiop, asdfghjkl?" Shatrughan blinked. He thought he recognized this dialect. It sounded weirdly like something he had heard during Gurukul, when they met with people from tribal villages and clans surrounding the Sarayu River. He thought that it may be the "Keyboardian" dialect spoken by a particularly friendly tribal princess whom he had the pleasure of being acquainted with.
"Oh guys! I think I know this one!" cried Shatrughan, raising a hand excitedly. Bharat was known for his wide literary and artistic accomplishments, but Shatrughan loved to pick up information from books and real life. He stepped forward, and Bharat reluctantly stepped back, while everyone else looked on in confusion.
"lkjhgfdsa, princes." he replied calmly. The man showed a simple sign of recognition; a mere twitch of the left eye, and he looked between the princes and the princesses again. For some unknown reason, he immediately tensed, and his head began to shake a little bit. Lakshman didn't take that as a great sign.
For good reason too. A few more moments of awkward silence, and Shatrughan began to wonder if he had perhaps, by a minor mispronunciation, spoken a curse word instead of a friendly introduction, when the man made a sudden movement towards the left.
His hands, which Ram only now noticed had claws, razor sharp and tree trunk brown, seemed to make grasping movements in the air towards Sita, who stepped back, stricken. Her heart beat furiously as Ram kicked him off, and Lakshman stood protectively in front of the family.
Narrowing his eyes maliciously, Lakshman drew a blade, and made a slicing motion across his neck, before pointing a finger towards the man and raising an eyebrow. Without a single second wasted, the rishi muni turned attempted princess assaulter ran back into his cottage. Shatrughan looked in awe between the two.
"How did you do that? You can speak Keyboardian?" he asked in jealousy.
"No, no I cannot. You will always be the one with prowess among us in foreign languages. No, Shatru, there is a universal language for some things." Lakshman sheathed his dagger.
Sita, however, was still staring at her husband in complete awe. He stood, seething with rage, in the same pot where he had pushed that man off his wife. She had never seen him so angry, so completely manifested by fury, in her life!
Sita knew she was close to death, or something worse, at the hands of that monster. Ram had come so close to losing her, god forbid, losing her forever. He would have forever been plagued by guilt if she had died with him and his brothers being so close that they could have saved her. Ram took a deep breath. He had been so close to losing her. Never again. Never again would he let his guard down, not once. He couldn't let it happen.
"Come on, let's go home. It has been a day, has it not? Filled with revelations and thoughts galore! Let's go home. I want to return to my knitting." murmured Shrutakirti hopefully. Each of them grabbed a hand of their significant other, and they headed back to the castle.
Kaushalya almost fainted. Time and time again, her sons and daughters were put in danger, and then pulled out of it. When would her misery end? When could it be possibly over? She did not, could not, ever think that Kosala and the area around it could be so hostile that they may have had to arm themselves even as the royal family. At least, she had to concede, there were no wild animals.
Kaikeyi was very, very proud. All of her sons and daughters were so mature! She couldn't be more happy for Bharat to have married such a persistent and understanding wife, who would go to such lengths as to climb a mountain with him. Now that was true loyalty indeed! Besides, she quite liked Mandavi. Mandavi reminded her a little bit of herself when she was younger, bold, beautiful, and good.
Sumitra, for once, had nothing to twist ears over. She was glad about that in this case however. Something told her that if she did have something to get mad over, that result of that mishap would have been serious. Besides, this trip seemed to have been good for all of the couples. Ram seemed much more protective about Sita, Bharat admiring of Mandavi, Lakshman and Urmila now practically inseparable, and Shatrughan extremely proud of Shrutakirti as he perhaps was not before. Could these couples get any cuter?
"Shrutakirti?" asked Shatrughan as the two sat on their thrones. The latter turned his head to look at him questioningly.
"Why is Papa looking so happy? He's smiling at everything and everyone. I wouldn't be surprised if someone bounded in here with a terrible problem requiring immediate attention and assistance, and he just continued to smile. It's almost blinding!" Shrutakirti shook her head as Shatrughan looked on in awe.
"Don't disturb him, he's in a happy trance," she stated reprimandingly, and Shatrughan almost immediately backed down, putting his hands above his head in surrender.
"Papa! Papa!" came the cry of Bharat as he bounded into the throne room, huffing and puffing, and looking pale as ever. "Urmila didi has gotten paints all over the walls from when she tried to throw them at Lakshman! Now he's on a storming rampage, she's all upset, and my walls are ruined! What do I do?" Nothing, not even a single peep came out of Dasharath as he continued beaming. "Papa?" asked Bharat again, tilting his head.
"Hey!" barked Shatrughan angrily, balling his fists. "Don't disturb him! He's in a happy trance!" Shrutakirti shoved his shoulders as he burst into laughter, shaking her head exasperatedly as Bharat looked at a loss for words.
A/N-Another monstrosity. Wow. This one was long. I originally meant to have it in a single chapter, but now I'm looking at it, and I divided it up into two! Yay for you all! Whenever I write a chapter over 3K words, this will be its fate. Good for me, not so good for you.
Anyhoo, have any of you read the "Aru Shah" series? I have, just now. I wish it focused more on the Ramayan. Of course, I like the Mahabharat, but I am sadly not as familiar with it as the former. *sad face*.
AAAAAAAAAAAH. I HAVE REACHED 10K VIEWS AND 1K VOTES.......AAAAAAAAÀAAAAAAAAAAAH