The Inseparable Princes

24. The Rakshasa

"There! That is the palace of Ayodhya!" said Raja Chakrapani with a grin, pointing at the same, as his wife and daughter peeped out of their palanquins.

"How long will we take to reach, Pitashree? We've been travelling for so long!" whined the princess.

"It'll not take us any longer than ten minutes!"

★★★

Shatrughna was almost trembling at that point. He was terribly scared that something untoward would happen, that his twin would reveal the past and Keerti would leave him? No no no! That could just not happen! No, it couldn't!

"Shatru?" said Bharata, putting his arms around his brother comfortingly? "Why do you look so, I don't know, scared, low? Is something wrong?"

"Er-no-nothing, really," he said, sweating profusely.

"There they are!" cried Dasharatha excitedly.

The men lifting the palanquins kept it on the ground carefully, before moving back, as the women both got out of it elegantly. The king got off of the elephant he was riding, which swirled it's trumpet in what looked like a 'namaste'.

"Welcome, welcome!" said Dasharatha, his arms open.

"Pranam Dasharath. How're you doing?" asked the ruler.

"We are all doing very well, Chakrapani! Let me introduce you to my family. You know my Queens. This is Kaushalya, this is Sumitra, and this is Kaikeyi," he said, pointing at each of them, when he called their names. "And here, my oldest son, Ram, and his dear wife, Sita," he said as the couple folded their hands respectfully before the king.

"You've grown up to look quite like a king, and your wife looks just as queenly too!" exclaimed the guest. "And before you resume introducing your family, that is so so large, I'll finish introducing mine," he laughed. "This is my Queen, Aanandini. And here is my little daughter, Chandrasvaroopa!"

"Wow, she's grown so tall! he remarked, a typical Indian uncle comment.

"Pranam, Maharaj," she said, as she smiled at Sita. Sita felt uncomfortable. She smiled back falsely, something that she never did. Rama, however, have the princess a warm and friendly smile.

"And here," continued Dasharatha. "This is my second son, Bharat, and Kushadhvaja's daughter, Mandavi. This is Lakshman, as you may remember, and Urmila, his wife. This is Shatrughna, and his wife Shrutakeerti," he completed.
Chandrasvaroopa waved excitedly at Bharata and Lakshmana. She remembered them well, for they had played a lot of games together the last time she had visited. But when Shatrughna's name was called out, she looked out, as though avoiding him. Bharata and Lakshmana too reciprocated, and waved at her similarly, while the youngest stared at her in horror.

Sita winced. Why did her father-in-law say 'Lakshman, if you remember,'? What was there for them to 'remember'? Oh no! Were they on the verge of fixing an alliance, and it was cancelled for some reason? No, that couldn't be it! Lakshmana was just such a perfect person. If an alliance was fixed for him, then why would anybody break it? Break an alliance with Daasharathi, Sumitranandan, Ramanuja, Prince Lakshmana of Kosala?! Man, that person would be mad, if that ever happened. God, only if it happened!

★★★

"Look, Princess," said Lakshmana. "I really need your help,"

"Why are you asking me for help? And please, call me Chandrasvaroopa. Why are you being so formal?" she asked.

"I'm not being formal! It's just that the words rajkumari, or princess, are both shorter than your name! Man, your name is so long! I thought Pitashree, Shatru and I had the longest names!" he said, as she laughed at him.

"Okay, whatever. Now tell me what your plan is," she said.

"But before that," said Bharata, walking into the room. "Shut the door, and you're telling me too, Laksh!"

"I have two plans. Two plans and we've to implement them both,"

★★★

"Oh, Laksh! What are you talking about? The time when we both went into the forest?" she asked, laughing reminiscently.

"Yeah, that day. You remember? Oh it was so fun! We should go there together once more," he said, laughing lovingly. "Only we both!" he whispered.

Urmila looked shattered. Her eyes were tearing up, and her lips were trembling in rage. Did he love her? Did he love that idiotic Chandrasvaroopa? No, it couldn't be! He said that he'd be ever-committed to her. She fell on the bed and sobbed. She, somehow, didn't feel the anger yet. She felt like crying. What kind of a reaction was that from Urmila? Lakshmana wanted something else. He loved to see her anger, her jealousy, but he couldn't stand her tears. Those tears killed him so painfully.

★★★

"Look, Shatru used to have a crush on you," said Bharata.

"God! What?!" she shrieked.

"So I'm going to use that. I want to scare him to the core! He's just always playing pranks, right? Now is the time he'll see the Lakshman he used to see at Gurukul!" he said evilly. "And besides, I was being a very good boy in Mithila!"

"So what's the plan?" asked Chandrasvaroopa.

"Plan anything you like, but what if Keerti actually gets mad at Shatru? Pranks should be harmless," said Bharata.

"The plan is simple, really simple. I'm just going to blackmail Shatru for simply anything and everything! That will scare him enough. I just need to say 'I'll tell Keerti!' and he'll do all my work!"

★★★

"No! Why should I clean the personal library? Maa asked you to do it! There are fragile stuff in there, otherwise she wouldn't even have asked one of us! Do it yourself, brother!"said Shatrughna, as he turned to walk away.

"Well then," started Lakshmana. "I'll tell Keerti, about... Ahem!- Chandrasvaroopa!"

"No, no, no! I beg of you! Pleaseeeee! Nothing about her to Keerti, please!"

"Then the library is cleaned by you, isn't it? And the credit goes to?"

"You! Lakshman, the Rakshasa!"

★★★★★

A/N : This will continue. Tell me if you liked it. I mean, I didn't like it as much. I think people were quite excited for the part. I don't quite know if I've lived up to all the expectations!

The next chapter will have some Lakshmila, as you might've already guessed. But, I wouldn't be writing much Lakshmila after that, until the two boons of Kaikeyi, of course. I think the other couples deserve some attention too.

That's all... I'm not in a mood for an A/N filled with all the extravaganza. Simply because I'm quite bored by the chapter itself, huh!

Thanks for reading, and bye!!😁💖