Valli saw Shakra with her brother at the verandah of the palace. Standing at the threshold, Shakra whistled. Breaking free from his caretaker, Vayu reached Shakra. The caretaker brought her brother’s horse.
Valli sighed. In this way Aaditya was never going to win the hearts of the people. It was a show match that Aaditya did not recognize. A soldier is measured on several parameters. One of them is how compatible he is with the stallion he rides. The horse should know the signals of its master very well. The master should know the horse very well. Shakra showcased his deep bond with the stallion while Aaditya did not. It was a whole different matter that Valli knew he didn’t have the same connection with any of the horses in their stable.
Even the subtle ways she tried to influence Aaditya and make him the right heir was failing. Valli felt horrible for using all those prostitutes to teach Aaditya what people found charming and what they didn’t. She wanted to hold the belief that women are not commodity but the state she was in, she had no option.
“Anna, can I also join?” Valli asked, acting very girlish.
“Silly, we are going hunting. What will you do there?” Aaditya chuckled at the thought that his sister could hunt tigers.
“Let her come, Yuvraj Aaditya. Someday your sister has to become a Prince’s Princess. Your sister has no experience with exactly how hunts can be. It is required if she has to capture any Prince.” Shakra said. Valli clenched her fists at his audacity to assume that she needed to impress a man for any reason.
“Be quick, Valli. We don’t want to wait too long.” Aaditya told her.
Valli was quick to take it before her brother changed his mind. She changed into a green dhoti and a top. Her long hair piled up in the turban on her head. A few strands still escaped and decorated her face.
She reached them and they brought her horse. “Hello, Pavan. I hope you’re doing well. We’re going hunting today. Hope you are all excited to run.” Valli patted her horse affectionately. The horse tapped its fore feet in response. Valli chuckled and got up the horse.
“Let’s go…” She answered excitedly.
Shakra passed her a glance. “Rajkumari if I wasn’t aware I would have assumed that you have quite good knowledge about how to dress for hunting.”
She gave him a look. “Yuvraj is known for coming to the right conclusion but he doesn’t prove the same in my case. It should be common knowledge for all girls that a saree isn’t the right choice for hunting.” She acted sweet and innocent.
Shakra chuckled. The girl was interesting. “I do not mean to offend the Princess. Men are generally assuming that women might not be aware of things related to hunting and battle. My sisters do not show any interest in hunting animals. I was not aware that this can be common knowledge. But at least I learnt something today.”
Shakra’s cheerful reply even when the reply Valli gave could be taken in an offensive stance made Aaditya think. Did Shakra have an interest in Valli? Aaditya assumed it to be a thing of interest. If Valli did end up becoming Shakra’s Queen, Aaditya could secure the throne with Shakra’s help. That would make him a powerful King no one would want to cross. He thanked the heavens that Valli was coming with them. It was a great opportunity.
Shakra grinned at being able to irritate Valli and took off. Shakra loved his hunting. It gave him a rush. Especially hunting in the dark. It picked off on his rush to be dangerous. Tigers come out at night to hunt. That’s when Shakra liked to hunt. But Aadtiya didn’t pick up the dangerous part of the hunt.
Valli’s core idea was to observe Shakra and take him in a moment he didn’t expect. When Shakra moved a bit ahead, Aaditya turned to Valli, “Keep him interested in you. I want him to want you. I guess your maids must have at least told you a little bit about how to make men interested in you.”
“What? You want me to seduce him?” She asked, unbelieving her brother.
“Yes. Not to do anything you shouldn’t but just enough to keep his attention and make him marry you.”
“Marry me? Are you cracking jokes? If you are then you are extremely horrible at it. Stop making jokes forever.”
“You are a girl, Valli. You don’t understand. Shakra is a potential ally. You can be a Queen Consort of a powerful Kingdom. Our Kingdom will get a great ally that no one wants to mess with.”
“It is fancy words for you to say you need him as your crutch.” She muttered under her breath and looked at him, “This is so beneath me to try and get a man interested in me. Technically, Sri Mahalakshmi also encouraged Swayamvara as a mode of choosing a husband. This is horrible.”
“I don’t want to argue, Valli. Do what I am telling you.”
“Anna…” She tried to reason but her brother rode ahead towards Shakra. She followed them.
“Rajkumari, people can see that you’re acting out. Stop it.” Her maids whispered. Valli wanted to roll her eyes but she gathered herself and gave a fake smile. They reached the forest.
Shakra jumped off his horse and grinned. The smell of the forest always made him excited. He pulled out his bow and arrow, getting himself for the hunt.
“Yuvraj, don’t you want to get on the horse? There can be a bit more danger.”
Shakra chuckled, “I live for the danger, Yuvraj Aadtiya. I didn’t earn the title as Ranaveera.”
Shakra heard the sound of a movement. He had his arrow and bow steady. He was ready to take the prey with him. From the little signs of brown fur, he realized it was a wild boar. He had to be quite careful. They’re very aggressive and can injure humans terribly. One gash of the large tooth and half the flesh on the leg might disappear.
When he heard the movement, he shot his arrow quickly. The soldiers went ahead to check what was shot.
“Yuvraj, you shot a wild boar.” They exclaimed. He kept moving ahead on foot. Vayu dutifully follows his master. Shakra didn’t have to hold the reins and get the stallion to follow him. Vayu just followed him as a natural instinct.
The movement of birds signalled him that there was a tiger close by. Shakra was waiting for just that. When the movement resounded in his mind, Shakra got himself ready.
“It is a tiger, Yuvraj. Come back on the horse.” Aaditya suggested. He signalled Aaditya to be quiet.
Tigers are notorious hunters. So, they ambush their prey. Shakra had to be extremely aware of where the tiger would jump from. Shakra would have only one chance to hunt. If he misses, the tiger is going to kill him.
He put back the bow and picked up the spear. When the moment gave away the position, Shakra waited for the tiger to expose its vulnerable part. The chest. That is when the tiger is going to pounce.
The tiger suddenly emerged from the left and lunged at him. Shakra threw the spear and it pierced through the chest and the heart. The tiger fell down, dying instantly.
Shakra checked it and saw that the tiger had blood on the claws but none on its whiskers and face, “It has just hunted some creature to protect territory. Look for another dead creature.”
The soldier went ahead looking for it. Some soldiers picked up the tiger.
The soldiers returned with 3 Leopard cubs. Shakra walked up to the soldiers and took them. The little cubs looked at Shakra. When he pet the little cubs in a way their mother would, they stopped shaking and relaxed a bit.
He made a pouch of his Anga vastra and kept the leopard cubs in it.
Valli didn't know what to make of it. Was he actually going to take them back with him?
"Does Yuvraj want to take them?"
"Yes, I have two little tiger cubs back home. They might get some company and playmates."
They started off camp away for the night. Shakra wasn't leaving just so soon.
"This is your chance. Go talk to him and interest him in you." Aaditya told her and then entered his own tent, the maid who was inside didn't come out. Valli didn't need to be told what he was doing to her.
Valli sighed and entered Shakra's tent. "How can I help the Princess? Did the big bad forest scare the little rabbit?" He teased her knowing forest wasn't a problem for her.
"If you want to taunt me, go ahead. I deserve it for letting that dumb human take birth before me. That too as a man." She huffed.
Shakra chuckled. Perhaps she wasn't all that different from him.
"Did he send you to entice me?"
"Do all men think like that?"
"Why?"
"If that's the case, I need to think of all the strings I have to pull to stay a spinster."
"No but yes."
"What is that supposed to be?"
"Men send women to entice other men and influence their head. For some reason Parameshwara decided the organ down there should be able to influence a little bit of thinking up there."
"Ugh!!! And people tell women to act respectable!! It is you men who need samskaram."
Shakra laughed loudly. "Oh, mothers try to put morals and manners into their boys. But you know how it is unless the sitting Queen isn't someone capable of wringing other's necks, they don't take her seriously."
Shakra poured two glasses of wine and passed her one.
"For me?"
Shakra rolled his eyes, "Men are influenced by the organ down there and women by alcohol."
Valli raised an eyebrow at him. "What is the goal of your manipulation of me? Even earlier you tried to pit me against Anna."
"To Rajkumari Valli" He raised a toast to her intelligence and took a sip, "Like I said earlier. I live for danger and amusement. I just want to see how much I can play with you all."
"That's horrible."
"Well, the ones on the throne to your kingdom are horrible. What makes you think your brother can stand a day in war with me? Or your father. Yet your father decides to ignore the envoy my mother sent. I take my mother's insult seriously."
"Are you going to kill my father?" She stood up. Shakra chuckled.
The fire that burned in his eyes told him that she was a little tigress in training. She wasn't yet the tiger capable of taking on him. Her anger plays with her. He plays with his anger, unleashing it when he wants to.
He stood up, the smile on his face gone. He towered her by a foot. "Princess, you should know one thing very clearly. I didn't start the game. Your father and brother started by playing with my enemy, Kanakotika Kingdom. Sending secret letters to them about how they aren't really interested in living in the shadows. I'm going to show them exactly how the sun is. They'll see it's afternoon heat and fire. Then when they have realised how they were protected by the shadow of the tree, I will see what to do."
Valli didn't want to let him know but he scared her. The way he almost promised her chaos in Pragvamsa.
She constantly told her father that it was a dumb move to anger the Kalika Empire and turn their attention towards Pragvamsa. Now, the people might just be having to take the brunt of it.
His eyes looked at her dangerously. He was going to enjoy the play.
She wasn't going to blame anyone but Shakra. He was the one who told her that men were influenced by the organ down there.
She reached up to him and kissed him. That honestly caught him off-guard and they fell down on the bed.
Before anything else happened, someone barged inside the tent and stopped suddenly.
"Yuvraj, we tried to tell her you were with…"
She saw Shakra's eyes go wide as a food plate and he actually looked horrified. Valli turned around and saw a girl standing there.
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