Warrior Princess; Her Quest to the throne

Mriga clutched the cloth wrapped instrument tightly in her hand and closed her eyes, "Mom, I will try my best to display what I have learnt from you."     

She heard her name being announced and stepped out. Vandit and Nirbhay had already gone to the area behind the judges to make the necessary arrangements first.     

Mriga ran her eyes across the arena and then looked at the people sitting there. It was dusk already. Not only the noise but also the energy level of the place seemed to have dropped considerably. She had intended to perform first and then talk. But looking at the scene in front of her, she decided to reverse the order.     

She cleared her throat and raised her voice to many octaves higher than normal.     

"Greetings everyone! My name is Mrignayani. I am here to present the summation of what I have learned from my first guru, my mother," saying so she pulled off the cloth which had been covering the weapon in her hand.     

She raised it high enough for everyone to see, "This is a prototype armament which has been created by me from scratch. I humbly believe that it can be of interest to our armed forces. This weapon is based on the same science as a catapult. Having said that, I will let you see the difference in its effect from a catapult, rather than talk about it."     

At her words, the crowd which had been lolling around sat up and leaned ahead to look at what she was going to do.     

The boys, in the meanwhile, had finished setting up and gave her a thumbs up from their respective positions. The amphitheater was surrounded by tall, lush trees with their branches drooping downwards. Vandit had run to both sides of the semi-circle and tied a bag each to the lowest hanging branches on both sides, five of them in total.     

At the same time, Nirbhay had gone and placed a human sized clay-mold on either side of the dais where the judges sat. Mriga came and took her position right at the center of the raised platform.     

She was conscious of the time ticking away steadily but still took a few precious seconds to draw in a calming breath. In this moment, she was glad that the lengthening shadows of the evening prevented people from being able to see her nervousness. The absence of the buzz was also a helpful element, letting her concentrate solely on her task.     

"Before I start, may I trouble the judges to inspect the two clay models for their sturdiness?"     

She waited till a couple of them went and saw the firm and solid structures before nodding their heads and settling back in.     

Mriga pulled out six shiny, marble-sized metal balls from her kurta's pocket. She pulled the trigger back and loaded the metal balls in the crossbow's crevice. Her weapon was a modified version of her mother's crossbow which she had used in Himprayag, recently.     

Raising her right hand, she shut her left eye, and aimed at the bags, one by one. Before people could realise what was happening, a shower of rose petals greeted them from above. As people started to clap and laugh at the sight of now empty bags hanging by the branches, Mriga reloaded the crossbow and cocked the trigger again, this time taking an aim at the clay statues. The metal ball made no sound as it hit the two statues in rapid succession. But the judges were on their feet to survey the damage which the metal shots had caused. The crowd was also up on their feet, trying to see the condition of the clay model.     

"May I again trouble the judges to gently touch the head of the clay figures?" Mriga asked the judges.     

A middle aged man who was seated at the end of the judging panel got up and pushed the face of the figurine, only to jump back as a big piece of clay fell on the ground. It was the same for the other one. Mriga had aimed three shots each at the statues' necks.     

Amidst people's cheering and clapping, Prithvi, who was seeing the instrument and Mriga's usage of it for the first time as well, threw his head back and laughed as well. She truly was his senior's daughter.     

Mriga released the tense breath which she had been holding subconsciously for the past couple of minutes now. Both the boys came and stood next to her. Their grins were a mile long wide.     

Mriga had started working on this design when she was around six years old. It started out as copying her mother's work and slowly became her pet project. Even at this moment, she could see herself watching her mother's careful movements as she forged the device carefully with the mixture of wood and metal.     

Mriga's first prototype had been made purely of wood and could only hold one marble. She had been content with her creation till the time she joined the Admin department. During that time, she was informed about submission of project at the end of the year which would become an important element of her performance appraisal. She had thought of using this weapon and started working on making a better and working model of her original design. Even at that time, she was working with the thought of using marbles for hitting the shots.     

She had never thought that she would be presenting it at the QIT competition. But when she returned from the school this time with Shaurya, it was her mother who urged her to finish the making of her weapon with the thought of it being useful in the future for a bigger purpose. She had also asked her to practice using it. That was when Mriga had asked her mother to help her procure metal sheets which were moulded into these balls.