Warrior Princess; Her Quest to the throne

Teeth clenched tightly, Mriga was on bending forward from the waist, with her feet digging a hole into the ground to help add weight on her side. After all, Abhirath was a well-built guy and a puny Mriga needed all the help that she could get.     

After a few painfully hard moments, he was finally out.     

He fell on the ground next to Mriga as his legs tried to ignore the pins and needles in them with the blood circulation kicking back in. Mriga was sitting in a child's pose, with her knees bent and her head touching the floor in front of her. She was trying to catch her breath and let her arms get a break.     

The two ominous sound of the gong indicated that another person had made it through. This meant that only two spots remained open for qualification now.     

"Get up," Abhirath slipped his muddy arms under Mriga's shoulders and helped her stand up.     

"I am completely lost. I have no idea where we are or how far are we from the centre of the maze. Before your call for help came, I had just returned from a dead end," she whispered in a tired voice.     

"Trust me," he held her fingers tightly in his hand and started walking cautiously towards his right.     

While waiting for Mriga all this while, Abhirath had distracted his mind by only focusing on the contest. The fact that he had been so close to those people and suddenly their voices had vanished kept circulating in his head. It meant that either they had all fallen into a danger which should have made atleast one of them shriek out or they had reached the destination.     

This meant that he and Mriga still had a chance. Dragging the branch on the ground as a walking guide, he kept away from the quicksand and stepped in the direction where he had last heard those noises.     

"Extend your arm sideways. Look for some sort of a curtain or a screen," saying so, he extended his free hand on the opposite side.     

"Wait, it... it's like a wall of leaves against my hand. It's as if..." Mriga let her voice trail as Abhirath quickly came to her side and pushed his arm in the direction which she was standing in. As soon as his arm went through it, he suppressed a shout of victory and pulled Mriga's hand through that cunningly set up barricade.     

Without any hesitation, he propelled their bodies through the thick layer of leaves. Light blinded their eyes as soon as they stepped into an absolutely different section. It felt as though they were in a whole new place altogether. Gone was the dark forest and the spooky noises. This was a round room with a high ceiling and a glass top. The clouds were clearly visible through the roof.     

But neither of them paid any attention to the aesthetics of the place. Their eyes were fixed on the dais which had been placed in the centre of the room. It was a rotating stage and seemed to be moving sedately. Even though it was a large podium, not more than two people could stand on it at one time because a small tree had been placed right in the middle of it which had currently two shiny wrapped packets hanging from it.     

Mriga and Abhirath looked at each other in surprise. Was this it? The end game?     

Apparently, all they needed to do was climb on it and pluck it out! Before they could verbalise their plan of who would climb up, four more people burst through the leafy veil from different directions.     

Oh shit!     

Mriga quickly threw a look at Abhirath and started running towards the dais which was about 50 metres from where they were. Abhirath turned around swiftly and stuck his back to hers. He brought up his knife and tightened his fingers through the knuckle duster.     

One of the pairs in the room was Vaishali and her teammate, who seemed to have been hurt badly. Gesturing the teammate to stand aside, Vaishali moved towards Abhirath. She had a rope which she held in both her hands right now.     

Abhirath didn't recognize the other pair and they were also happy to see these two people start sparring, giving them the opportunity to cautiously move towards the tree. The dais which had been rotating leisurely up till now, had started to pick up speed. In fact, it seemed that as people got closer to it, it started moving faster. At this rate, it would become a challenge to climb on it!     

Mriga stood on her spot and looked around in the room. There was nothing in there which could be used to approach the tree from the side or top. She bit her lip in frustration and then suddenly a thought struck her.     

"If I can't reach it, I can bring it to me," with a spark in her eye, she pulled out the khukri out of its sheath and looked at the opponent pair who were nearly parallel to her now. Looking at her drawing her blade out, the contesting girl gestured at her partner nervously. The other girl murmured her to try and climb on the spinning podium while she took care of Mriga.     

Mriga gave a lightening glance at Abhirath sparring with Vaishali a few metres away. She was not just the same height but also seemed to be the same calibre as him. Thankfully her partner was incapacitated to participate in the chaos. As the other participant started inching towards the platform, Mriga deliberately moved slightly away from the tree and drew the opponent towards her. After a few attempts, he competing girl managed to get one hand on the bottom of the dais which was nearly blurry now due to its speed. All this while, Mriga and the girl's partner circled uneasily around each other.     

Mriga could feel Abhirath's frown boring a hole on her back but she had no time to give him a reassuring look.