Kaal Chakra

1. संमुग्ध

संमुग्ध - Meaning stupefied, bewildered or beautiful in a fascinating way

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Somnath, Prabhasa

Chaturdashi, Phalguna Krishna Paksha, 5000 BCE

Upon hearing the loud sound of something crashing with the earth, the people gathered in the temple, started murmuring amongst themselves.

"Om namah Shivay! Oh natha, what is it that happened just now? Protect us, Mahadeva!" The head priest prayed, closing his eyes and bowing his head in front of the shiva lingam.

Amongst the devotees gathered in the mandapa, majority of the faces showed expressions of fear, confusion and astonishment.

Meanwhile, in the pradakshinapath, one face stood out amongst all that were present from the royal family.
The pair of bright lotus shaped eyes glowed with delight and a serene smile curved on their pink rosebud lips.

She was here.

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Her head felt as if a thousand elephants had stepped on it. Her ears were ringing and the more she gained consciousness, the more aware she became of the white hot pain in her body. An involuntary whimper slipped from her mouth as she tried to move her limbs.

When she tried to sit up, she experienced a burning sensation in her palms and she hissed, bringing up her hands in her line of vision.

They were badly scrapped and skin of the back of her hand was torn. Blinking rapidly, she looked around to see herself lying on the earth, covered in loose mud.

Grimacing, she shook her legs to get some of the soil off her bare calves in an attempt to improve her pitiful state. While she was doing so, she heard the sound of numerous footfalls against the ground and when she looked up, she saw the tip of a spear pointing directly at her, right in the middle of her forehead.

With her heart in her throat, she allowed her gaze to travel the length of the wooden handle of the spear to it's holder, to see a broad man dressed in a red dhoti and armour, complete with a helmet on the top of his head.

Her eyes widened and she felt her head spinning at the implications of what she had just seen.

"Where on earth am I?" She whispered to herself, shaking her head vigorously in an attempt to clear her mind and then looking up again. But again, she was met with the same visual.

"That's it, you have officially gone bonkers, Lakshmi. All those sleepless nights are finally messing with your brain." She mumbled, pinching her arm hard and hissing when the pain set in.

Just as she was rubbing the spot to soothe the angry red skin, the head of the spear moved down her face and came to rest lightly under her chin, pushing it up sharply to face the man in front of her.

Almost instantaneously, her eyes blazed at the insolence of the action and bringing her right hand up, she took hold of the wooden handle just above the iron head and flung the weapon away from her body in one quick movement.

The moment she did so, more than twenty other spears were pointing at her in a flash of second and she looked around, wide eyed, to see numerous soldiers surrounding her and instinctively, her hands clenched tightly in order to control herself.

And then, all hell broke loose.

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"Dwarkadheesh! Dwarkadheesh! Yuvaraj!" Came a loud cry from outside the mandapam and the crowd parted to let the frantic soldier through the temple courtyard so that he could reach Dwarkeshwar and the crown prince quickly.