The Warriors

By

Pawan Kumar Jha

Hello from India to all the community of writers and readers. This is my first

attempt of its kind as a writer to pen down something I was totally unaware of or

better say, never tried in practical. After a lot of pensiveness and an intuition

towards the hidden writer within me, I thought of giving it a try. So, I have started

with this line of storytelling. The idea of the story is from my imagination. I do not

know what reaction that this story will receive from readers; nonetheless it gave me

a kind of sheer elation which I’d never felt before. Meanwhile, I have not finished the

story just because I wanted to have response from readers. If they love it, I will

surely move ahead with the next part of the story.

Pawan Kr. Jha

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In my imagination of a world there lies a very beautiful place by the name of

Sundarnagar with good people being ruled by dutiful, pious and brave king, the

King Siddhartha. The king was married to Sailja, the beautiful daughter of brave

king, Yaksh who was ruling a rich and prosperous kingdom, Suyash which he

named because of the land’s reputation for increasing prosperity.

King Siddhartha was ruling his kingdom so successfully that within the few years

of his governance, the land became the state of ever prospering kingdom and

relatively surpassed other neighboring states in terms of prosperity.

People were happy with their king, there was no panic at all, no fear of being theft

or robbed as the king had set of laws implemented in such weight of strictness that

non-compliance would have cost the culprit imprisonment for certain years

according to the culpability of the crime committed. However, such situation never

occurred in the kingdom and no one was punished as crime never happened

because everyone was living the life of prosperity under the rule of Siddhartha.

There was no chaos at all in the kingdom of Siddhartha.

The days of glory and happiness went for a long time until the prosperity and

beauty of Sundarnagar became a reason for repulsion and an eyesore to many

neighboring states, including the king of Viratnagar, Yodhan.

The king Yodhan was a person bred with the innate nature of jealousy and hatred

for others who make better progress than his kingdom. He was short-tempered by

nature, and rumor had it that he killed his own father to fulfill his long-cherished

dream to become the king of Viratnagar. Though he brought his dream into reality

but that cost him a sleepless night disorder due to the sight of his father’s

grotesque looking face haunting him in the worst form of his life’s nightmare. This

led the king reach at the state of madness and peevishness at even a very slight

matter. He was avarice and his greed for wealth was increasing day by day since he

heard about growing prosperity of Sundarnagar.

King Yodhan soon called up meeting of his trusted ministers and let them know

about his plan for attacking at Sundarnagar to plunder the prosperity of the land

and render it into the state of abject poverty. What was the least known fact to

every minister present in the situation room of the king was that Yodhna had

another cruel reason for attacking Sundarnagar, and that was to avenge on

Siddhartha for marrying a woman whom he wanted to make the queen of his

kingdom. Now that Sailja was solemnly vowed queen of Siddhartha, Yodhan

loathed with the pang of the insult every night and day.

“But my Lord, do you have any strategy to attack at Sundarnagar? For as far as I

know, the king Siddhartha is extraordinarily brave warrior and his story of bravery

is told in folksongs and poems. He is by far the bravest and most difficult

opponent you have ever had,” said one of the ministers.

“So what he is brave enough not to be subdued easily? By the way, the pleasure of

fighting with a warrior of such said bravery is an opportunity that I never miss and

fighting with such a warrior has its own virtue. But I will surely not attack at

Sundarnagar until I get to know everything about the kingdom that will help me

map out a great strategy for an assail.”

“And for this, I have called up you gentlemen to let you know that I want to send a

man on the mission of espionage to Sundarnagar. He would fetch us all the

essential information that we seek to map out a good strategy for the attack. I want

to know the defense system of Siddhartha’s army of soldiers. The spy will do this

job for me and I would reward him in gold for this service. Now you fellows; tell

me, do you know of any such person suitable for this mission?”

A minute of silence suddenly engulfed the situation room as everyone started

weighing the option of sending a brave person who can do this job successfully as

there was an undeniable exposure to danger of being caught which would then

award the spy to capital sentence or lifelong jail term according to the laws of

Sundarnagar. Taking Siddhartha’s piousness for granted was of no good at all as he

was sincerely dedicated to providing adequate security to his subjects.

Surprisingly and quite atypical of his nature, Yodhna remained silence until one of

his ministers stood up, hand-folded in supplication, he said, “My Lord, I would like

to dedicate my son, Aryan, for this mission and I assure you that he would carry

out this task without a fail.”

“Do you know the gravity of danger that your son would come into, Dhyanchand?

You are risking his life by putting him into this dangerous mission. Are you no

scared of the possible consequence?”

“My Lord, please understand that my son is not an ordinary person. He was

brought up with good education and lessons in martial arts, horse riding and

fencing. I have full faith on his bravery and skill. Which is why, I would like to

present him in your service. He will not disappoint you, my lord as I believe so.”

“Fair enough, then. I will see him tomorrow in this meeting room. The meeting is

adjourned for the day.”

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Grazing the blades of grass, the poor deer was so unaware of the presence of fierce

lion inching forward to its way to come closer at the deer, slowly and menacingly.

Every paw getting closer to the deer was flaring up the hunger of eating the

venison in the eyes of the lion. Until the distance was close enough to make a

vintage point so as to pounce upon the deer, the lion unexpectedly or perhaps hit

by sudden flash of intuition, turned his head sideways, and what sight of a human

being that those fiery eyes caught was a sheer surprise followed by a raising anger.

The lion was in the vicious circle of his time.

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Perched on the top branch of a dried banyan tree, one hand holding a sharp axe

and the other one of the branches of the tree, Aryan cast his eyesight on the herd

of trees overlooking so perfectly from the height of the tree. Far at the distance to

the north of the jungle, his eyes suddenly squinted after spotting a yellowish

figure creeping its way to something in a gait signifying clearly that the figure

wanted its move unknown to its target or perhaps a prey.

Aryan strained his eyes to have better view of the figure and immediately

recognized that it was a lion! On trailing the sight of the animal, Aryan’s eyes

caught glimpse of a deer grazing the grass; totally oblivious to the presence of the

approaching beast.

Hit by sudden move of kindness for the poor creature, Aryana intuitively made a

decision of saving the deer, for he knew that the creature is in danger and will in

no time it be in the stomach of the monster. At surprisingly such a fast speed that

he scaled down the tree that in no time his feet felt the saggy ground of the banyan

tree. Dashing forward to where he caught the sight of both animals, his mind

suddenly came in charge of receiving incoming thoughts “I have to save the deer!

She’s in danger!”

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To be continued….