The Princes of Ayodhya-The Ramayan Through Short Stories

The Return to Ayodhya

  It had been 5 days since the eight had all gotten married, and Dasharath was becoming impatient. So after a hilariously long message sent to Raja Janak, narrating the tales of his woes, how much he missed his sons, and how longing he was to see his daughter-in-laws, and finishing with an angry "You're hogging my family Janak, and I shall never forget this in my entire lifetime!" Janak reluctantly let his daughters, nieces, and son-in-laws go back to their home; Ayodhya, Kosala.

Now they stood outside, all very comfortable in their new positions as man and wife. "I wonder when that elephant is coming. I could have walked to Ayodhya by now." Shatrughan cried out, jumping up and down. Urmila amusedly stared as her own husband drummed his feet on the ground impatiently. "Or, even if I couldn't have, you would have carried me Lakshman, and even slowed down by your burden, I still would have made it." Everyone laughed as Lakshman took a deep, nasal breath.

"You know what?" Shatrughan sighed. "I'm actually contemplating it. Ayodhya is only, what, 50 miles south?" Lakshman turned towards him, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah sure. What's 50 miles? If Shatrughan didn't talk, and there were absolutely no demons, then I might actually make it." Then he snorted. "Well we know those two things aren't happening, so no." the entire family descended into laughter.

A loud trumpet sounded, rudely interrupting their laughing session as heads turned up and Bharat gaped. "That elephant is larger than anything I've ever seen." hissed Shatrughan, as the assembled couples stared at the approaching gargantuan monster, who was also seemingly smiling and twirling its trunk in a manner that was so cute that even Lakshman felt an urge to go ahead and hug the creature.

"Come on," huffed Ram, and after a few minutes, each of the couples were on their own elephant, being able to see a good distance. Ram and SIta had gotten the largest one, a proud elephant named 'Raja". Ram laughed greatly at the name, realizing that his father was pushing him further to become coronated. Sita simply smiled at his regal demeanor.

Bharat and Mandavi received a slow, but steady elephant named 'Nitya'. It was a kind one, who always liked to swing her trunk, and never teetered like some of the others, especially Raja, did. Bharat was quite happy, as he could see all of the mountains and fields nearby without ever having to worry about falling off and being crushed by elephant feet.

Lakshman and Urmila had gotten an intimidating elephant named "Yudhajit". Urmila had face-palmed at the name, as Lakshman blinked, wondering how many wars the elephant had gone into, but in real life, the elephant seemed quite like Urmila herself, always trumpeting and interrupting everyone's words. Ram had joked that she had found her spirit animal, before being interrupted by a trumpet.

Shatrughan and Shrutakirti got a plump, almost round elephant named "Ladoo". Shrutakirti had burst into laughter at the name as Shatrughan pouted at finding an opponent which could make his wife laugh harder than he could. Ladoo was quite a good mix of them in demeanour, always smiling, and he loved sweets and food. Ladoo walked almost like a waddle, but still seemed just as royal as the rest of them, only perhaps a bit younger.

"Doesn't everything seem so nice from up above? Such a height seems to bring us only a little bit closer to heaven. I can practically touch the clouds, it feels as if we're swimming in them. Don't you think, Kirti?" Shatrughan asked, reaching his hands up as if he could touch the white, cotton like lumps in the sky. Shrutakirti gulped, looking down as if almost queasy.

"No, no. Shatru, I'm scared. What if I fall? I'll be crushed by the back legs of the elephant! I'll get broken bones! No, no, I'm very scared. Nothing is nice from up here, only the view. And I could get a view from a balcony." she sniffled as she scooted a bit closer to Shatrughan clutching tightly onto his arm. Shatrughan winced, nodding, and wrapped an arm around her, trying to be comforting.