TW-Cursing
It was around this time that Ram truly did wake. He was the strongest man in the land, and he was divine, so of course he'd wake up! His body was still weak, but the faint purple drifted from his face as he sat up with a groan. He took in a deep breath of the cold, night air, before he was crushed immediately by a hug. "Prabhu! You're awake!" Angad cried, letting go and dancing around as Neel and Nal rushed forward too.
"We were so worried, Prabhu, especially Angad." Hanuman murmured, teetering from foot to foot as he too got a hug. Angad scowled at him. "We tried with herbs, but those didn't work. Then we sprinkled some water on your face, but you did not even twitch. We thought that perhaps only the warm rays of the sun could cure you, but here you are, in the middle of the night, finally awake!" Hanuman danced along with Nal as well, grinning widely.
"Yes," Neel agreed. "But the snakes still aren't shaking off of your body, and I'm afraid that your limbs are still a light purple shade. So that might still have to be dealt with. Ah, worst comes worst, you'll walk around with snakes wrapped around your body. It's still quite frightening. Perhaps everyone will run away from you. The King of the Nagas, Prabhu Shri Ram!" Ram smiled weakly; still not fully healed. The poison still coursed through his bloodstream, but he recognized that term.
"Speaking of the King of the Nagas," he began. "Where's Lakshman? He hasn't given me a hug! Embarra-" Ram cut himself off as the entire army shuffled from foot to foot. "Why, what's happened to Laksh?" He looked around, still frail, and finally, his eyes ran over the still body of his brother. "Laksh?" he asked weakly, reaching a trembling hand out, before clenching it into a fist and pulling it back.
With great effort Ram reached over again, and pulled his brother's cold body over towards himself. He took in a deep shuddering breath, before gently smacking Lakshman's arm. "What's happened to you?" he asked. "Lakshman?" He looked up, knowing the answer before he even asked. "What's happened to him? He's always been able to talk to nagas. Why is this sudden faint?" When silence met his question, Ram's voice became shrill. "What's happened to him?!" Insistent were his questions, and insistent was the silence he got as an answer.
"Jambavan?" he asked. "Is my Lakshman alright?" The bear king looked away. "Neel you could always heal. What's wrong with my Lakshman?" Neel shuffled. "Hanuman? Did you see what happened to him? You with your towering height? If I could wake up, why isn't he?"
Ram suddenly straightened. "No. No, he'll wake up. I'm sure of it. He's just tired. He can't right now, but he'll get up."
There was silence once more. No one wanted to contradict him, and Sugriv's glare was enough for no one to. "He'll wake up. He always wakes up." Ram muttered, more to himself than anyone else. "Whenever I asked him to, he would immediately leap out of the bed and salute me, remember that, Lakshman? Get up now, I'm telling you to." No one breathed, no one said anything. Maybe he would get up. And then, interrupting the silence, came the heavy, steady beating of wings. Ram glanced up again, and his eyes softened. Landing right next to him, stood an eagle larger than him. With its large golden wings and shining beak, it struck a magnificent figure of extravagance and otherworldly greatness.
With one beat of his wings, the snakes unwound from Ram and Lakshman's bodies and slithered back across the battlefield towards Lanka once more. Lakshman's eyes flicked open as if they couldn't wait, and he sat up impatiently. He stood up, then glanced around, his brows still making a frown, before Ram pulled him back down. "You're alive!" he exclaimed excitedly. "That's great news! We thought you were dead or something. Angad was freaking out."
"It's always me." Angad hissed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You always throw me under the carriage. Like, yaar, you find no one else in the entire monkey population of the world to blame and put the heaps of embarrassment on or what?" Well, he didn't say that either. He just rolled his eyes and pretended to faint like some damsel in distress as Hanuman smacked his arm playfully.
"What is your name sir?" Ram asked. "Well, whatever it is, Mr. Eagle, we thank you greatly for reviving us and removing the poison from our bodies. We are forever indebted." He quickly gestured for Lakshman to join together his hands and kneel before the giant bird, who had cocked his head thoughtfully at the both of them. In unison, the two princes bowed their heads in gratitude.
"My name is Garud." Some of the monkeys jumped back in alarm, but Ram didn't even move a muscle as the eagle spoke. Lakshman just figured that if monkeys could speak, there was no reason eagles couldn't. "My name is Garud and I know you from another life, Shri Ram. I am glad to have been able to aid you. It is, I feel, my purpose to aid you." With a bow of his own mighty head, the bird lifted off of the ground again, drawing up clouds of dust as he did.
"Lanka must be celebrating," Vibhishan murmured, pointing into the distance where yellow lights were lit. "They think that if you passed, Shri Ram, as well as your brother, that we'll all perish, following you in your journey. But the truth is, neither you nor your brother have passed, and none of us have any wish on our thali list to perish all of a sudden. We should do something to notify them, shouldn't we?"
Ram nodded. "Yes! Instruct the vanar sena to start celebrating! Partying like they've never had before! Bring the food, bring the lights, bring the lanterns!" Ram turned around and smirked at the golden dome palace that seemed to shine a little brighter that night.
------O------
"Oh! There's still a snake wrapped around your arm, Lakshman!" Ram noticed, peering as he saw that the green thing wrapped around his brother's bicep was not an armlet (which Lakshman hadn't even brought in the first place, but Ram didn't judge). "Maybe you should remove that and send it back to Lanka. Better yet, kill it. We shouldn't take any risks, now should we?" he shrugged.
Lakshman turned around and stumbled, as another snake magnetically wrapped around his leg again. "I'M GOING TO KILL INDRAJIT-" Ram shook his head disappointedly as Angad dropped a cup, Neel fainted, Nal caught him, and Hanuman's jaw dropped. Lakshman was back to normal.
-----O-----
Ravan laughed raucously, his wine sloshing in his goblet as he raised it in drunkenness. Just then, a messenger, cowering with fright, stumbled in. These messengers always amused Ravan, with their fright. They were scared of him, Ravan, King of Lanka, as they rightfully should have been. "Yes, yes." he began, his voice sluggish and sloppy. "Do tell me, before getting your useless rump out of this room! Do tell what's happened? Have-" he leaned in, his eyes suddenly excited by a new prospect he seemed to have just thought of. "Tell me, have the monkeys perished so quickly?"
The messenger shook his head, and Ravan's face became dull again as he settled back again, amid the disappointed murmurs in his room. He raised an eyebrow impatiently. "The monkeys are c-c-celebrating, sire." the messenger murmured. "Some of our viewers have reported that they have seen Ram and Lakshman pacing around, very much alive, and that the snakes that once bound them are rushing back to Lanka."
Ravan dropped his goblet, his face immediately twisting into a menacing growl. "I shall see this for myself! My viewers must have lost their minds." he snorted. "A dead man alive. What shall we see next? A hermit defeating my sons,and the other defeating me?" the room burst in laughter and Ravan grinned, his mood appeased and his ego flattered. Still stumbling like his own drunk generals, he walked over to the viewing balcony.
Grasping the viewing scope (a very similar one to the one in Ayodhya's palace), he peered in thoughtfully, twisting the queer cylinder around. Finally, he reached a spot, and with a shrill gasp, he stepped back. Then he grabbed it again, a hand on his heart, before stepping back once more, his eyes the size of dinner plates. "It can't be," he growled in his bristly voice. "Indrajit had sworn that they were dead."
-----O-----
Just as the pink started to crawl into the sky, a fire was lit in front of the tree Sita sat underneath. She stared at it, her eyes ablaze and crackling in the reflection. "I made a promise to you, when you told me that you would become king." she said, her voice bold and strong. "I made a promise that I would follow you into the underworld and back if need be, as long as you would be there the entire way. I promised that wherever you went, I would walk along as your shadow, a part of you always."
She folded her sari elegantly, and cleared her throat. "Well, what is following you into the Heavens compared to living in Hell here without you? What is jumping into the sparking flames of Agni Dev compared to being at the mercy of the obnoxious Ravan? What is the use of anything and everything if I cannot share it with you, Raghav? The sole regret I had in this life is living. Living so much longer than you did. I wish I could burn right next to you."
But just as Sita was about to step the sole of her foot into the fire, she saw a blur next to her, and in a few more moments, she was pulled out of the blaze's way struggling and kicking, but two strong, tough hands. "LEAVE ME!" she shrieked, her hands clenched into fists and punching at whatever she could get. "Leave me! Let me go! Let me go! Let me go...." she trailed off, tears streaming down from her eyes as she stared at the fire wistfully, now sure that she would become Lankesh's wife.
But to her astonishment, the face she met was the kind one of Trijata. And Sita felt betrayed, betrayed by the kind rakshasi who had provided with the only happiness she could have felt in this land of unrighteousness; the one of deserving companionship. "Dear," began the gentle voice. Gentle and deceiving. "If Ram was dead, I would have allowed you to jump." If? He was dead! "He is not dead, dear. He is alive, and his army is rejoicing. Lankesh told me himself! He is alive. Don't do this!" Alive. A single word struck so much hope into her heart. Surely, yes, her Raghav was immortal.
The fire was doused, Trijata went on patrol again, and Sita sat once more, peacefully, cross legged under her tree, drawing the cloth of her sari over her head again and folding her hands together in gratitude towards the Gods, who had surely saved her husband. "Hurry, Raghav, hurry," he murmured in her quiet voice. "I am not sure how many of these scares I shall be able to take. You are immortal, but your Sita is weak. Take me back soon, for I am frightened that the next time such a thing happens, Trijata's kind soul shall not be there to protect me from the burning flames that threaten to consume me.
------O------
Indrajit sat on his bed, head in his hands, gritting his teeth together in an anger only few did not flinch from. This time he was not ashen faced, just angry. So damn angry. "HOW COULD THEY GET AWAY AGAIN?!" he roared, and Sulochana flinched, removing her jewelry once more. "Those weapons are lethal, Chandni, so how did they not kill them?" His eyes trained on Soluchana (who had all of the solutions, duh). "How could they, Chandni? Tell me now, and perhaps I can forgive you."
Sulochana turned around, eyes blazing. "Forgive me? Hawww. Yeah, Forgive me. I'm sure! Maybe those lethal weapons were wielded by the wrong person, Meghnad! Maybe, just maybe, they weren't used right! Meghnad, I do not know everything! All I know is that those weapons were lethal, and they didn't act very lethal, as now those two hermits have risen again! All I know is that you can defeat them, and you will defeat them! Perhaps it wasn't meant to be with those astras, but with something else!"
Just then, just as the tense air increased ten times, just as the couple stared into each other's eyes, temper matched for temper, fire matched for fire, a loud smack echoed throughout their room. Indrajit snarled as Sulochana jumped, and stalked over to his window, flicking his long hair over his shoulder and opening the thin glass violently so that a long, spider like crack threaded through the translucent material.
And then, Indrajit's hands, for the first time, trembled with something that he had not known before. For the very first time, Indrajit's hands trembled with fright. Because right there, embedded into the brick walls outside of his window, was the bloodied body of the snake he had used to try and kill the hermits, rigid and erect. And pierced through the fangs of that snake was a note, that he, even without ripping off and reading, could comprehend. Indrajit was suddenly reminded of the dark eyes which had snapped right at him mechanically, angered and raging. That note, with bloodied, scratched writing said two words. "You're Next."
A/N-I'll tell you that at first, I wrote this as a single chapter. I also thought "Oh! This is going to be terrible. I'll barely get 3 pages in." And then I got 8 pages and 5000 words in. This was, easily, going to be my 2nd longest chapter (1st being Retaliation, standing at 5444 words). Then, I thought "Ah heck to it! Yudh Kand is going to be really short. Might as well make it longer. So I divided it into two. So yay!
Has anyone been making vectors recently? I have! And then I realized no one wanted them, and lemme tell you, that realization was hilarious!
Actually, the first one of Kashibai is a gift for @History__Lover1234 because of her book "The Kashibai Chronicles", but I was too chicken to give.
Oh yah, I made this too for @Ramayana_lover
Okay bye.
Wait, nevermind! Because now I made a fan cover for @J13S10 as well
😶😶😶
Okay, NOW BYE!