Warrior Princess; Her Quest to the throne

By the time Mriga reached the ground behind the Admin department for a session with Abhirath that night, she was ready to kill Yash. As it is the sessions had been crazy to cope with, his intervention only made the situation unbearable and impossible. The extended session with Chiranjeev and then the one with Nirbhay had left her brain dead.     

She hadn't seen or heard from Abhirath since last night. Things would definitely have been awkward earlier in the day. It was a good thing that she was doing her session with him now. She was too far gone in her head with all the QIT related preparations to bother about last night's incident.     

The only thing that a malicious bone in her body was hoping for was that Yash wouldn't dare show up in front of Abhirath right now given their recent dynamics. She didn't think that she could take on a combination of two warring suitors as her instructors at this moment. She might as well jump off the cliff, instead.     

"Hey, you look like you died and came back," Abhirath's greeting words were as usual acerbic.     

Mriga snorted but didn't bother wasting her energy on a comeback line.     

"Hello, am I late?" Yash's voice reached them before he could be seen in the darkness.     

Abhirath's body tensed up as he looked at the guy coming towards them. He had no idea about the developments which occurred during the day. Prithvi had assigned him an important assignment which kept him occupied through the day. He had been tasked to pick a person from a hidden place and transport him to another location without getting caught. Abhirath had taken a lot of pride in the fact that he was able to accomplish it successfully.     

He had just managed to reach back in time for Mriga's session and hadn't run into anyone else yet.     

"What are you doing here? Who allowed you to come here?" Abhirath's militant pose was reflected in his voice as well.     

Mriga sighed and got up from the reclining position that she had been sitting in. She had foolishly thought that she could avoid this but it seemed that time had come for her to talk to the 'boys'.     

Clearing her throat, she sought their attention before they got into a verbal fight.     

"Abhirath, Yash, for the next few minutes, I don't want any interruptions or rebuttals from either of you. What I am about to say now are my true feelings, and I hope that I will not need to repeat myself or have a conversation on this topic any time before the QIT competition gets over," she started.     

Thankfully both of them stayed quiet and Mriga took the opportunity to forge ahead.     

"One, thank you for your affection for me. Irrespective of its nature or longevity, I am truly moved by your feelings. Having said that, my own heart remains unsure about either of you. Yash, you were my first love. But you have hurt me and broken my trust which makes me extremely wary of becoming close to you again. I don't know if I can ever be the same Mriga who was crazy for you. But it is something which is definitely not possible in the near future. Abhirath, I have just started to get to know you. Since I have been burnt once in the arena of love, I don't know if my heart is ready to jump into another relation so soon. Basically, I am asking the both of you to give me space and time. Which brings me to the second point. I intend to give my best to this competition, result notwithstanding. I have come to realise that the QIT competition is not a test of my ability but a mirror to be able to see the real me. I want to know what kind of a person am I, I am curious to test my threshold limit, and I want to know if I am capable of coping with pressure. In this endeavor, it is my earnest request to both of you to guide me and help me. In return, I promise to give my best!" her words were met with complete silence.     

Both Yash and Abhirath shuffled their feet awkwardly before Yash spoke up, "I am happy to help. You can count on my unwavering support."     

Abhirath's voice was gruff when he said, "I think we have wasted enough time on unrelated topics. Let's just get on with it."     

He turned to look at Yash and growled, "A word of caution for you – don't try and interfere in the middle of my session. I don't care about whatever else you may do."     

Mriga who had been feeling hopeful a second ago, rolled her eyes in frustration. But then she consoled herself with the fact that it could have been much worse.     

Yash stood on the side as he saw Abhirath taking her through the warm up exercises before practicing archery with her.     

After about half hour, he intervened and said, "Do you think that we should practice sword fighting now? I know that it isn't something that you are good at but…"     

"She is already training for it with us. We want her to be ready for the unexpected," Abhirath butted in.     

Yash smiled and said, "That's great thinking which means that I won't have to waste time in going through the basics with you. Let me show you a few techniques which may look simple but can help you disarm a more qualified opponent especially when she isn't expecting it."     

Abhirath wanted to protest against it but he saw the merit in the guy's words. Taking the bow from Mriga's hand, he went to fetch a couple of swords which were lying next to a plethora of other equipment few metres away from them.