Daughter of the Mountains

Chapter 4

Gauri looked up at the man in utter disbelief. He was still standing, hand stretched out, palm turned upwards in expectation. For a few moments, she sputtered incoherently. Hari raised a well-trimmed brow, “Well…?”

“You cannot be a Vishnu.”
“Is that so?” Hari made sure to display how amused he was.
Gauri cringed, but her idiot brain had decided that accusing a Vishnu of lying was now a that thing people did, so she simply rolled with it. After all, how bad could it be?
“You don’t look like one.”
“And pray tell, princess, how is a Vishnu supposed to look?”
And yeah, it could be pretty bad.

“No… I- uh- ” Gauri stammered, then twisting her finger around a lock of jet black hair, she clarified, “you will forgive me for thinking thus, but I have never heard of a Vishnu showing up at peoples doorsteps like this. You may call this paranoia, but what guarantee do I have that you are not, say, a prankster or a shameless imposter at best, and an enemy spy at worst?”


Hari gave her an enigmatic look, then plopped down beside her on the grass again. He stretched his legs and wiggled his toes in their sandals. Gauri waited patiently. Then turning to her he asked, “Do you know of the Sudarshana?”

“It is the discus of the Vishnu.”

Hari nodded contentedly. A bird chirruped from a nearby tree. Hari waved his hands, and then, like a magician, extracted a shining object from the folds of his dhoti and presented it to Gauri. It took her a few moments to realise what she was looking at. The discus was small, no bigger than the palm of her hand, glowing the same unearthly gold as the trident that she now learnt was the Trishul. She ran her fingers along the serrated spokes and Hari said, “Hundred- eight.”

Gauri looked up, “Beg your pardon?”

“The spokes, there are a hundred and eight of them.”

“Oh,” Gauri said, unsure of how to react to this information. But Hari did not need any prompting. He went on, “Only a Vishnu, or one chosen by a Vishnu can wield it. Do you want to try?”

Gauri stuck her hand out warily. She remembered how her father had nearly broken his fingers with the trident. Gauri liked her fingers intact, thank you. Hari offered the discus to her saying, "Hold it by the edge, so it will not fall on your fingers."

There was a single  infinitesimal second  when nothing seemed to happen and then Gauri's breath left her in a rush.  It was like the weight of the universe had been pressed into her hands. The word spun, rotated and she was the axis. She did not realize she was screaming until Hari had gently taken the offending weapon from her hands and her brother had come rushing out from behind the bushes.

"Gauri! Gauri, are you okay? What did you do to her, you miserable piece of-”

Her eyes blurred and then focused again. Gauri grabbed her brother by the arm, halfway stopping his enraged punch, “It’s alright. I’m fine.”

Moinak rounded on her, “You are fine? Fine? That man nearly killed you!”

Hari stood up quietly and said, “No, it could not have killed her.”

“Yabha! I hope you rot!”
Moinak cursed. Gauri tugged at his hand pleadingly,

“Please, he is a Vishnu.”

“He can be The Holy Trinity for all I care! How dare he?”

Gauri was touched. Of course, she always knew her brother was on her side, but to actually risk fighting a Vishnu about it… She shook her head, “I’m not hurt. And I asked him to show me the Sudarshan. It’s okay bhaiyya. There are other things we have to discuss now.”

Moinak finally seemed to calm down. Noticing the grave look on her face, he asked, “What happened?”

Hari rubbed his hands together and offered one to help her up. Moinak glared at him but allowed it anyway. Once they had taken the angavastra off the ground, Hari spoke, “We need to talk to your father.”