Warrior Princess; Her Quest to the throne

But she dared not interrupt her mother when she was in this avatar. In her eyes, Bela was sterner and scarier than even Prithvi guruji, who was the scariest of them all and hence had been suffering the lessons in silence these past hours.     

"Just get up and have a glass of water. You have been snoozing for the past five minutes," Shaurya whispered urgently in her ear.     

But Mriga was too tired and swatted his face away with her palm as if he was an irritating fly hovering near her ear. He looked at her eyes which had nearly rolled back into their sockets due to sleep and gave her a hard pinch on her forearm.     

"Oww! What is wrong with you?" she jumped up in pain and shouted, forgetting her surroundings.     

Shaurya didn't bother to look at her and stared resolutely at the scroll on which he had been taking notes all this while that Bela was talking.     

"Go and take a dip in the river and come back within ten minutes," Bela said in a no-nonsense voice.     

Mriga swallowed her protest down her throat and got up. The river bank was at least fifteen minutes away, one side. To go and come back in the stipulated time, it was nearly impossible for anyone. But she didn't say anything and dashed out of the courtyard.     

"I think you are being too harsh on her," came a quiet voice from inside the house.     

Bela turned her neck to look at her husband who was standing at the steps connecting the courtyard to the interior of the house.     

"I am only trying to train her. She needs to shrug off her laziness and complacency. She is not a child anymore," Bela replied, a touch defensively.     

Shaurya felt that he needed to leave the place before he found himself in the middle of a marital discord. Murmuring his need to go to the washroom, he excused himself without making eye contact with either of them. Not that either of them registered it in the midst of their conversation.     

"Don't compare her with the guy. He seems to have been trained before. My daughter is no less than anyone but she needs to be evaluated on the same parameters. It's not fair otherwise," a mild rebuke could be heard in Raghu's normally placid voice.     

"Fair? Are you actually that naïve to think that the world is fair? Just by being happy and oblivious in this cocooned life that we lead, do you think that it's a paradise out there? Our daughter needs to toughen up and be taught survival skills for her to be ready to face the jungle called life. We have no idea what kind of future awaits her," she said, her chest heaving with unnamed emotions.     

Bela was not prone to flaring up or putting her emotions in concrete words but for the past couple of days, there was an unusual aggression and a touch of fear in her persona which was troubling Raghu. He didn't know why had she been coming in late or going out early in the morning but he was sure that it had something to do with her past, which seemed to have caught up with her. He was alright with the choices that she made for herself because it was her life but he wouldn't stand by and see his daughter bearing the brunt of whatever was troubling or affecting her.     

"I agree with whatever you just said but she doesn't have to go to war, tomorrow. I strongly believe that teaching a receptive mind would yield better results than force-feeding a reluctant one. Also, one shouldn't saddle one's child with her or his own unfulfilled aspirations. I leave the rest up to you. I trust you to do the best for our child," with that, he stepped back into the shadowed enclave of the house.     

Bela sat down on her haunches and pressed the heels of her hands against her tired eyes. She had wanted to stop Raghu and try explain the situation without giving away the details but she knew that she couldn't. It was better that he knew as little as possible. The same went for Mriga. In her head, she had been ready to bear the brunt of their sullenness and irritation but had forgotten that it wasn't an easy thing to do.     

Bela hadn't had a goodnight's sleep since Prithvi's first visit and it worsened in the past couple of days. The more she needed to keep a rational mind, the more agitated she seemed to be getting. Initially, when Prithvi had come to her with the proposal to train Shaurya, her heart had soared at the thought of getting a small taste of her past. But as the stakes kept rising, everything changed. She had forgotten that along with the adrenaline rush, there came many other things which were a constant companion to a spy. She may be able to project a confident persona in front of everyone but the doubts came crowding her as soon as she let the self control slip. She was questioning her abilities, her thought process, her decision making skills already and they hadn't even begun the task yet!     

Mriga quietly moved away from the outside wall and started walking back to the river. In her hurry to follow her mother's instructions, she had run out barefoot and only realized it when a sharp stone poked the sole of her foot. Hobbling back, she had seen Shaurya walk out of the house and was about to enter when she heard her parents argue. The intensity in their voices took her by surprise more than the conversation per se.     

"I will do better henceforth so as to avoid disappointing mom and worrying dad," she swore to herself quietly while turning around and going back.     

The stones and thorns didn't register as much to her this time round.