The Princes of Ayodhya-The Ramayan Through Short Stories

Rampage of the Day

Hanuman flew off again, but this time, he wasn't about to cross the Indian Ocean. No, as Hanuman hovered in mid-air, no one noticing him, seething quietly, he was about to invoke the wrath and rage of the King of Lanka himself; Ravan. "I can't just be here, in this island of Lanka, without at least paying a well due visit to the great Ravan himself! Let's see if his palace is as great as it is rumored from the inside as well!" He jumped up and down at this promising prospect, beaming widely.

"That sounds like a ton of fun! Besides, my stomach is growling,and this is a good way to kill two birds with one stone!" A goose that flew past Hanuman honked loudly and aggressively, and the flying monkey quickly changed his metaphor. "Er-rather, accomplish two things at once." Shaking his head, Hanuman flew again to the Ashok Vatika, standing in front of a tree and looking up at it forlornly. "I'm sorry, tree sir. Truly, my bad." He touched one hand to the tree, and back to his heart, as if the tree would actually be able to understand.

Then, Hanuman scratched his head thoughtfully. "Now how does one start ruckus again? I feel like it's been ages since I've done this. How should I possibly begin?" Hanuman muttered to himself for a moment, before his entire face lit up with an "AHA!" And with that genius idea, he began to shriek louder, jumping up and down. Five rakshasas whirled around, facing Hanuman, eyes bloodshot and widened in fury.

-----O----

"Well that didn't work," Hanuman murmured a few minutes later when all those rakshasas were dead or dying on the ground, and he turned back towards the tree. "I'm still not in mischief making mode, and Lankesh doesn;t care about his guards and security enough to send an army and bring me into his palace for only killing five. What if I-hmm-what if I just dive right into it? I mean, no harm. I could just, say-uproot this tree!" Hanuman wrapped his long arms around the large trunk of the tree and heaved up, pulling the reluctant roots of the oak and bringing dirt and mulch into the air.

This time, Hanuman did succeed in attracting more attention than he had in the first place, but less than he wanted. After all, it did take some social climbing to meet the king in his palace, hostage or not! "YOU DARE, YOU PUNY MONKEY?!" roared one rakshas, running towards Hanuman and swinging his mace. "I SHALL KILL YOU!" Hanuman caught his mace in mid air, raising an eyebrow. The rakshas continued to try to move it, grunting every time he shifted an inch and lost two.

And then his brains got busted out. One thing, after fighting ten rakshasas, that Hanuman realized, was that rakshasas were fairly bland sort of folk, and they did not seem to recognize patterns very well. Sure, the first demon could make a mistake and swing a mace, and then the second was forgivable, he supposed, but then the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh? ALL of them tried to swing a mace at Hanuman, and all of them got defeated. Which was a shame, Hanuman thought, because he really did like a challenge.

-----O-----

Hanuman went again to stare at the tree, this time even sitting down on the ground, because he felt like it would be a long time before he could start again. But something made his mind burn like anything. He was so close to Lankesh, so close to bringing Maa ISta back to Prabhu Shri Ram, and yet he was so, so far. It wasn't possibly fair, to be so close to reaching one's life's work only to have it snatched away from you. Hanuman stood up again,a dn this time, his brows furrowed and his shoulders rolled and he was filled with a fury that enabled him to do anything. And so he did.

"ARGH!" he roared, uprooting another tree and shaking it, becoming fifty times the size a normal monkey was supposed to be and throwing the tree over the garden and near the edge of Lanka's borders themselves. He shook more fruit trees free of their fruits and rammed them into buildings and gates and walls. He stomped on flower gardens lovingly tended to by gardeners ruthlessly and squashed helpless gate guards under his feet as he beat his chest with immense pressure and sound.