The Princes of Ayodhya-The Ramayan Through Short Stories

Vali go brrrr

Ram spent his time in the recent few days training, and telling Sugriv all about his plans.

"Okay, so what I plan to do is that Lakshman and I will stand in the trees while you fight Vali. Right as the fight starts, I will shoot him. Does that sound alright?" Sugriv nodded, having already seen Ram's prowess in aiming arrows; just a few days ago, Ram had aimed an arrow off of the peak of the Rishyamukha Mountain, where they now resided, and killed a deer that ventured a few feet out of the Chitrakoot.

The only thing Sugriv was scared of was fighting Vali. He had confided his worries to Hanuman multiple times, but it appeared that Hanuman had placed all of his loyalty and belief in Yuvraj Ram's abilities and conscience. "Raja Sugriv, if he can shoot an arrow off of a mountain and hit a deer in the Chitrakoot, he will be able to kill our enemy! I believe in him and his words. Place your trust too in Ram sir, and you won't go wrong, Raja Sugriv." And Sugriv cleared his throat, tried to silence his worries, and nod along to the prince.

Ram was not worried for anyone but Sita, and he spent one hour before bed thinking of Sita, as if he thought that even after only a few weeks of being separated from her, that the memories of her would disappear. But it was a real worry that plagued his mind, and Ram would spend the nights tossing and turning, not being able to make his fears disappear. He trained hard, harder, and harder, hoping that the quicker he worked, the quicker he would get Sita back.

Lakshman spent his time trying not to get to know the monkeys. For some reason, he thought that someday, he would be fighting alongside these very same monkeys, and it would be a sign of weakness to have been close to one. This backfired, however, because apparently, they all wanted to get to know him. One day, the monkey named Neel walked up to him, and held out a hand to shake, which Lakshman took half-heartedly, having already socialized with his maximum "1 new person per day". "I'm Neel!" cried the vanar excitedly. "We don't get many new people around here. I do what I can to entertain, of course, but it appears that Raja Sugriv does not agree with my techniques! I mean, who wants a boring old story when they can have a playscript, no?"

Lakshman cleared his throat, and turned away. "Nice to meet you. You remind me of my brother, Shatrughan." And then, to his very appallment, Neel seemed to have spread some word that Lakshman was a friendly sort of fellow, and that everyone should go and introduce themselves to him. Thankfully for Lakshman, however, after the initial few days, he found a hiding spot where he could just sharpen his arrows and plan battle strategies that would probably never be used in peace.

-----O-----

Ram exhaled, and studied Sugriv, Hanuman, and Lakshman, the three people-er, rather, friends, that would be accompanying him. Kill. He was about to kill. Ram closed his eyes, and nodded. Sugriv, looking in between the entire group; Ram, Lakshman and Hanuman, before walking out, roaring loudly. Ram exhaled sharply before readying his bow, and stringing his arrow. But as Vali came out, beating his chest, and also roaring, Ram's eyes widened.

They were like Lakshman and Shatrughan; he couldn't tell them apart from a distance! Ram's eyes moved between the two monkeys frantically, his heart beating at a rapid pace, but no breakthrough seemed to come to him. But the fight did not stop for him. Vali pounced at the confused Sugriv, who spared a quick glance back at the tree. Ram's arms went slack as he could only watch in horror.

The only (vague) description of Vali that Sugriv had provided him with was that he was humongous, hard to defeat, and muscular. He hadn't said that they were twins or anything, and so Ram had thought that it would be quite easy to tell them apart! Well, the thought hadn't even come to his mind that he wouldn't! Ram's breaths only quickened as the fight got more and more brutal. There was no way that he would be able to shoot his friend and not feel guilty later. Ram shut his eyes tightly.