The death of Dhumraksh "the undefeated", filled the vanar army with previously restrained joy. Neel practically pulled Hanuman to the planning table, and when the bashful giant refused to speak, turning red, he himself told the tale (though anyone who was there to witness the slaying could say with a hand on their heart that Neel had been five miles away, jumping on a rakshas like a springy bed.
However, there or not, everyone could imagine how Hanuman killed Dhumraksh, and everyone could imagine how terribly angry Ravan would be when he heard of it. "Like it or not," Angad grumbled, shaking his head solemnly. "-the day isn't quite over yet. Which means the battle, which even though it seems as if Hanuman already won, has not been won." Smiles disappeared, and dropped maces were picked back up, and Ram smiled, picking up his own bow as Lakshman disappeared out of the tent sneakily as well.
-----O-----
Ravan was, as they all had predicted, not very happy. Lately, the rakshas king had been chewing copious amounts of betel, and Devantak had winced, much preferring his tobacco. So when Ravan stood up and bared his teeth, they looked blood stained and red, and even Indrajit grimaced for a second. "What is this news? How could those uncivilized apes just kill off Dhumraksh like that?!" he exclaimed, dropping his goblet of wine.
The messenger seemed, however, to take this quite literally. "Um, well, Dhumraksh attacked the fortress looking quite undefeatable. The thousand rakshasas whom he had chosen to attack all arrived, and immediately began eliminating the vanaras. And then Dhumraksh himself knocked on Hanuman's door. The giant vanar came out, and immediately, they began to brawl. Then, for some reason, both dropped their maces, and they began to wrestle. Well, Dhumraksh fell on the ground, and-"
"ENOUGH!" Ravan roared, putting up a fist, his eyes almost comically wide at this point, and if his teeth weren't red, and if he didn't look murderous at that point, and if he wasn't Ravan, King of Lanka, then they would have all laughed. "Enough!" Ravan's voice was shuddery, almost trembling, but he quickly made it steady and studious again. "Enough." Then Ravan did something terrible. He smiled, and his long smile stretched from ear to ear as he stood up straight and turned towards another rakshas. "Vajradamshtra of course."
He cleared his throat. "Oh Vajradamshtra, mightiest of all rakshas warriors, go and destroy these barbaric monkeys." He paused, and the entire court went silent as he collapsed in his golden throne once more, taking up the strict pose of a king once more. "Go, Vajradamshtra. Go and kill the vanar sena, and come back victorious. Then, you shall become the hero of Lanka as no one else has been."
Vajradamshtra bowed low, but as his face turned towards the ground, a smile of sharp, scathing evil covered it. "As you wish my king." he laughed in his oily, cheap voice that would make anyone shudder with discomfort, and the slippery rakshas stepped away, his head still slightly bowed, before completely exiting the throne room. As the rest of his most valuable courtiers turned back towards him, Ravan took a long sip of his wine.
------O------
Vajradamshtra might have seemed like a clever, sharp demon (as Indrajit was), but he was actually greedy, foolish, and arrogant. And as Ram often said "Arrogance shall be thy end." Nonetheless, Vajradamshtra had more of a chance than Dhumraksh ever had. For one, he carefully selected his army, rather than just choosing the bulkiest or the brawniest, Vajradamshtra chose those who worked well together.
Everyone knew of Vajradamshtra's luck, and his good omens. Everyone knew that he was less thick skulled than Dhumraksh, and everyone knew that he could, and would win. So it was an optimistic demon army, led by a smirking Vajradamshtra that marched out of the South Gates of Lanka that day, and it was an optimistic demon army that paraded through the battle between the vanar sena and slew hundreds of monkeys.
And it was an optimistic demon army that caught Ram's eye as he stepped back from his viewing scope after leaving behind a graveyard of rakshasas slewn with his arrows. "Vibhishan," Ram began tensely. "There is a legion approaching us, and it doesn't seem familiar. Look, they wear different armor. They are led by a different rakshas than I have seen. Vibhishan, who are they, and what threats do they pose?"
Vibhishan teetered from foot to foot. "That, Prabhu, is Vajradamshtra-" Ram raised an eyebrow. Really? Vajradamshtra? And he thought Lakshman and Shatrughan were terrible. "-and his army of specialized rakshasas. They come out when the enemy is believed to be more than just brawn. Prabhu Shri Ram, Vajradamshtra is one of Ravan's, though not most trusted, most oily and terrible courtiers."
Ram turned around, and tilted his head. "I believe you Vibhishan. But I believe in the prowess of Angad and his army, and Raja Sugriv's confidence. I believe that our own can defeat this legion of rakshas, and we can beat them well. After all," Ram's eyes crinkled hopefully even as his grip tightened on his bow. "Hope and dharma is the reason we all fight. Hope, dharma, and prayers for a better future for us all."
-------O------
Angad had spotted the army arriving before they even knew what they were attacking. With bared teeth (there seems to be a ton of teeth baring around here. Don't know why), he began to run towards the charging rakshasas. Without even a moment's hesitation, without any doubtful glances exchanged, not even waiting for a single second to pass, his legion followed him step for step, leap for leap, because they trusted Angad, they trusted him, the vanar directly under Ram's command, more than they trusted their own minds.
Vajradamshtra encountered many bad omens, just while he arrived. His left eye twitched, the sky began to thunder though the clouds were not gray, and he thought he heard things break behind him, voices whispering incomprehensible words to him. But Vajradamshtra was one of Ravan's most loyal warriors. He did not stop, and he would not stop until he killed off Angad at least. He would not stop till this legion was dead and his club was soaked in their blood and torn flesh.
But Angad would not let his flesh be torn so easily. "CHARGE!" he roared, but he himself stayed back, calmly blinking as the two legions clashed. The monkeys uprooted boulders and trees and pebbles, and the rakshasas swung their swords and twirled their maces and clubs. Vanars were impaled, and demons were crushed, but their two leaders did not attack each other quite yet, but it did not reach anyone's notice.
But Vajradamshtra loved to fight. He was not going to just pace as Angad calmly stood there. "Coward," he taunted as he paced purposefully towards the legion leader, switching his club from palm to sweaty palm. Angad raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow, and lifted up his own mace, his muscles flexing as they lifted the heavy golden object. He took in a long breath, and closed his eyes for a moment, before they snapped back open.
They snapped back open just as Vajradamshtra swung, and snarling, Angad met it with his mace. He couldn't blink. He couldn't blink. If he blinked, then they would attack. A sudden flash of black, and his head would be busted. The only moment when he wasn't on guard, rakshas would spot it, and they would attack. It was preposterous, almost disgusting, how they could attack at someone's moment of vulnerability, but then, Angad amended, it was their only chance at killing him, so it was worth a shot.
But Angad had opened his eyes, and the flash of black, the moment of vulnerability, had disappeared, and now the Crown Prince of Kishkindha would show how exactly he was one of the best fighters in the vanar sena. He lifted his mace, gritting his teeth together with the effort, and swung it so that now he was fighting to attack Vajradamshtra instead. The rakshas did not pay attention to Angad's feet, however, nor his arms, nor his mace. No, the rakshas was dead set on his face, peering at it intently.
Peering at it as if Angad's face would give everything away. "Son of Vali!" Vajradamshtra laughed. "Son of Vali, how meek you are!" Angad raised an eyebrow, but chose not to comment, instead, analyzing the rakshasas' weak points. "Vali would be able to do so much more, but here you are, on the battlefield, bruised and bloodied." How Angad wished he could say that it wasn't his own blood which was coating him, but he was too focused. "Are you feeling a little down? Wishing you were back with your father?" There! The demon's side was left unprotected! "Well, I'll send you there!"
Angad removed his mace in one go, and with a great swing, banged Vajradamshtra's side so that it turned blue and purple immediately, and the demon flew into a boulder. "No," Angad growled breathlessly as he approached the struggling rakshas, who reached to grab his own club which had fallen on the ground. "No, I do think that it's me who will send you to meet my father." And with one more swing, Angad busted the demon's heart. "Say hi to him, would ya? Say that his son has defeated more than one prince."
------O------
"Prabhu?" Hanuman asked tentatively, as Ram wiped away his tears. "Prabhu, what's happened?" Ram looked up, and Hanuman stepped back, for a moment, glancing at Ram's tear tracked face. "Prabhu?" he repeated, shocked, and sat down at Ram's feet, where Ram smiled down at him again, something wistful in his face as he shook his head. "You could tell me, Shri Ram. I wouldn't tell anyone, ever."
Ram cleared his throat. "That, I have no doubt of. For a moment, when I sat to rest, I mourned all of the vanars who sacrificed their lives for a future dharm. I cannot do this in front of the monkey army, lest they be offended, or worse, weakened, so I do it here." Ram stared out of the window. "I wonder, Hanuman, how long this bloodshed will last. I wonder, will I soon lose one of you? Nal, or Neel, or wise Jambavan?" Ram paused. "I don't think so, because you all are mighty. But then, my father was mighty too. He threatened Lankesh himself."
-----O-----
"Vajradamshtra." Ravan murmured. "He too?" By this time, more of his messengers died than his own warriors. "He too is dead, Prahast. I've never heard news like this. I've never heard that my own Vajradamshtra could be even halfway matched by anything. These vanars must be using something to their advantage. Yes, that's it." Ravan's court, of which two thrones lay empty and bare, agreed.
"But that doesn't mean that we won't send deserving warriors out there to match their unfair means!" Ravan roared, and thumped his glass eagerly, and the shouts from his men showed that they agreed wholeheartedly. "Yes, yes I think-how about-" Ravan brooded for a second, stroking his beard, before his entire aura lit up, and he grinned about as happily as a demon king could. "Akampana!" he laughed, and Akampana looked up.
Of Ravan's courtiers, one of the most famous (other than Indrajit and Prahast, of course), was Akampana. Akampana the feared, they called him, Akampana the great. Akampana, the rakshas who could defeat any enemy. But wait, hadn't Dhumraksh and Vajradamshtra been known for this too? Yes, but unlike those two, Akampana had both brains, and brawn. His arms were muscled and meaty, and his face was sharp and angered.
Akampana was the face of a truly undefeatable warrior. If the others killed hundreds, he vowed to kill tens of thousands. Always eager to please when it came to Ravan, no one, not even Indrajit, could think of a time when Akampana had not succeeded in following through with Ravan's any command, from simply bringing a glass of wine to the table on his head without spilling a single drop, to killing the entire enemy army if he had to.
Sure, Vajradamshtra had been paraded and praised for fighting and staying loyal to Ravan till the very end, not a beg came out of his mouth. Well, Akampana would not be defeated in the first place, and even after death, none of the court believed that he would stop fighting. Some people continued to move even without their heads. Akampana would fight and kill without any of his limbs, his head, or his heart pulled out of his chest. Akampana was the true threat.
-----O------
This time, no one spotted the army approaching. A new shift of vanars were sent out to meet the preliminary rakshasas, and as Angad took Ram's blessings proudly, Neel wolf whistled and Nal jumped back and forth, soon engaging Angad in a waltzing session. Lakshman even shook Angad's hand in what could be considered a friendly manner. "This is wonderful!" Sugriv laughed. "Angad, truly, it's wonderful! You must tell us the story again, I-" he cut himself off, his face calming down. "No, something's wrong. The last time we were happy like this-something went wrong."
Ram frowned, and followed by his legion leaders and generals, he raced out of the tent. By that time, Akampana had already approached the middle of the battlefield, and was charging towards the tents at a speed that Ram did not know before. Sugriv had paused in shock, and so Ram did the ordering. "EVERYONE!" he shouted so that his voice was heard above the suddenly loudly churning oceans. "Everyone, grab your weapons! GO!" Ram grabbed his own bow, and picked up his quiver, and Lakshman, for once, decided to hook his sword onto the waistband of his dhoti.
A giant battle ensued. Where Ram walked forward and shot arrows in close range, leaping into areas and releasing five at a time, Lakshman finally drew his sword and sliced off limbs, stabbed chests and stomachs, and slit throats, whatever it was, as long as he could draw blood, and preferably, kill. The rakshasas learned, in general, to avoid the two hermits who could fight, and fight very well. Kumuda, Nal, Mainda, and Dwivida, some of the vanar sena generals, held off Akampana, who defended himself valiantly. Quite according to his name, Akampana was firm, almost immovable in battle.
The vanar sena lost many to Akampana's legion, though they would have lost more if Kumuda, Nal, Mainda, and Dwivida had not held the ferocious Akampana back. Sugriv and Angad nodded at each other, and began to slowly eliminate Akampana's men. Ram never slowed with his arrows; his quiver was never ending. Whenever he reached back, his hand would hit the feather of an arrow and he would release a thousand into the masses of rakshasas, their screams informing him that he had met his mark. Lakshman did not seem to tire, finally being able to fight as he had trained for so many years. Suddenly, he was locked in a duel between five demons, who had surrounded him in a circle.
But the fight wasn't going well for the monkey army, even if they had good fighters by their side. Akampana's legion drew blood and stole lives like they were useless bronze, and slayed men like they were nothing. The vanars were getting ready to retreat, when Hanuman showed up, in his immense size. Nal, Mainda, Kumuda, and Dwivida stepped back and began to fight the legion as Hanuman started to fight with Akampana.
He sent a boulder flying, but Akampana matched it with darts that turned the humongous rock into powdery dust. Hanuman stared at the boulder, for a moment, jaw almost dropping, before shaking his head, and quickly dodging an astra sent his way. Akampana shot hundreds of arrows at him, hundreds and hundreds, but Hanuman just shook them off. And then, with a great roar, Hanuman uprooted a tree from the very Earth, shook its roots of the dark soil which clung to them, and with one swing, killed Akampana, the might, the great. WIth one swing of this tree, Akampana was dead.
The rest of the rakshasas who had accompanied Akampana fled from the battlefield, leaving behind a graveyard of death and destruction. Angad caught his breath, but Sugriv stared mournfully at the blood-soaked Earth as Hanuman shrunk to his normal size and helped some of the limping warriors back to the healing tents. It would be a long, long night for the Healers.
-----O-----
The number of injured were so great that the cots could not take them anymore. Angad suggested sharing beds, but Neel had quicklys shaken his head. "No no!" he had cried, waving his hands as if it was obvious. "Then their wounds could get infected if they were so close to each other!" Hanuman had brought up putting them on the ground, but Neel seemed to take that even worse. "NO NO NO! What if dust goes into their wounds? They could get jaw-breaker disease, or tetanus even! They could die in hours!"And then Lakshman suggested something, taking some inspiration from their vanvass days (though they were still in exile, this was war, and war was different).
"How about mats of grass? Those can be assembled quickly, and we can lay them on the ground to protect from-erm-jawbreaker disease." This had been agreed to readily, and large clumps of grass had been brought over to lay down on the ground in mats. They were set down, those mats of grass, and rapidly smoothed out by Lakshman himself, who had smacked away anyone who tried to help. "I can do this fast." he had bit out.
Ram walked through the tents as Jambavan worked with Healers to find new herbs, and Nal and Neel quickly brought cloths sewn almost fleetingly by Jal (who had tagged along as a Healer), to bandage the wounds with. "Is there any way I can help?" he asked Jambavan, but the bear shook his head sadly. Lakshman had finally decided that there were no more mats to lay out, and stepped back, and then stepped back another.
------O------
Lakshman caught Ram, sitting on the edge of the shores, and walked up, sitting a few feet away from him. There was just silence, in between them, a silence where Bharat and Shatrughan would have normally sat. A silence that would normally have been filled. And then Ram finally spoke. "It's not right, Lakshman. Nothing feels right without Sita. If we were in a war like this, she would have been there, cooking with the meager food here, or helping the monkeys clean up, or heal them with her light mood and cheery stories."
Ram glanced sideways at Lakshman, as if scanning to see if his brother had any judgment of his words, but Lakshman just stared at him, imploring him to speak more. "And yes, I know, we wouldn't be in this war if she were here, but wouldn't everything have been so much better? I know half of the tears, half of the sadness I felt in my life have been in the past few months, not knowing how she is doing, not knowing, anything really-and-Lakshman-I-I- really want her here-I-"
Lakshman suddenly scooted closer to him, and hugged him tightly, his silence leaving Ram enough room to cry, and shout, and scream, but he didn't. Ram just hugged back, swallowed hard, and he hugged back. "But you know what? I can't possibly just sit here and cry, Lakshman. I have to-I have to be a strong man. A strong leader. I have to be what we are, resilient, and truthful." Ram scooted back, and stared Lakshman in the face again. "And who am I to speak of this with you? You've somehow handled it marvelously, without your wife for fourteen years."
Lakshman exhaled. "You know, bhaiyya, at first, it was a little difficult without Urmila. All I could do was remember her, everything about her, her smile, her laugh, her words, her 'I love you's.' I thought that she might even remarry in my absence." he paused as Ram shook his head. "But then I realized that I wouldn't have it any other way. Any sadness I had was brought upon by myself. I had to follow you, I would die if I didn't. I wouldn't have been any help back home. Urmila would be in danger if she came along, and besides, she would be better at home, wouldn't she?"
He paused again. "But you know what, bhaiyya? It became easier, easier and easier. I don't think that she thinks much about me, or nearly as much these days. We've both realized that we have so many other things to do, duties and promises made to each other. I made a promise to Urmila that I would keep her Sita didi safe, and though I couldn't do that-" Ram shook his head in vain. "bhaiyya, I will try my best to bring her back. And-" he smiled. "I go on, every day, living, so that I can return to that kind smile, that long black hair, and that warm embrace, bhaiyya. I go on every day so I can touch the feet of my mother again, and tell her that I did as she told me. I go on every day so that I can finally see your coronation, you on the throne, back with Sita bhabhi as the rightful king of Kosala, bhaiyya. And I wouldn't have it any other way."
Bonus Scene
"Kirti! Give me back my nose ring!" Mandavi shrieked, and Bharat pinned himself flat against the wall so that she didn't run over him and trample him. "Kirti, come on!" Mandavi did not seem to care that she was wearing a ghunghat, only drew it up and continued to run. Kaikeyi laughed, whistling, and Kaushalya grinned as she stepped out of her room after a long prayer. "COME ON YOU MONKEY!"
"Go Kirti!" Shatrughan cheered, clapping hard as he walked out of the Throne Room after a long day of consulting. "That's my girl!" Kirti turned around and stuck her tongue out at Mandavi, before turning around and running off again, waving the nose ring, bejeweled and pretty, back and forth in the air tauntingly before rushing off again as Mandavi neared frighteningly close.
"Sita didi help me-" Mandavi cut herself up, skidding to a stop, and swallowing hard. All smiles disappeared, and looks were exchanged. Shrutakirti walked back, and handed Mandavi the ring as Urmila's face fell, who had stood there, shaking her head. Kaushalya stared at the ground, and Kaikeyi's shoulders sank again. "Sorry," Mandavi murmured, crossing her arms across her chest. "I didn't mean to."
A/N-OK, so, this one was a sad one, and I'm sorry for that. I'm telling you, this are becoming increasingly emotional. I'm not even an emotional person!
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-By the way, I've just discovered my signature words! You know how for Ramayana_lover, it's "he oulled the bowstring upto his ear-" and for lakshmila4ardi it's "liar liar dhoti on fire!"? Here are mine!
1. HIs shoulders shook with silent sobs.
2. He clutched his bow so tightly, his knuckles turned white.
3. Yaar-