Suffered in silence ~~ Legend of Sumitranandans

Ramasetu- Bridge connecting The heart and heartbeat

"Who is that?" Angada wondered, as a few men flew over the ocean towards them. They looked harmless, but what can be seen cannot be trusted always, they had learned that much

Hanuman looked at the man in the front with curious eyes. They had surely met before.

"Hello!" The man said, descending on the soft sand of the beach "Myself Vibhishana"
Hanuman now knew where they had met.

Angada and Sugriva stared at the man with suspicious eyes, silently asking him to elaborate. Vibhishana sighed, looking at his own feet

"Lankapati Ravana's younger brother" 

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"I don't know to what extent that man can be trusted, Prabhu" Angada said, gravely. Rama nodded at him with a smile, considering his words, but contradicting them at the same time

"I understand where you are coming from, Angad. And, all things considered, I can't say you are wrong, either. But then," He said, softly smiling "He is asking for protection, isn't he? And it is against the ideals to ignore someone, even if it is the enemy himself, let alone a relative of an enemy, who asks for protection"

No one could deny that. Even though that man, Vibhishana, was technically an enemy, he was still asking for protection. Lakshmana's brows were furrowed together, as though he was in deep thoughts. Which he was, even if he didn't participate in the discussions happening around him

"Bring him in, Maharaja Sugriva. There must be a reason due to which he left Ravana's side and came to ours. Let's hear him out, shall we?"

****************

And so, it had been decided that Vibhishana, whose story now seemed genuine to everybody, would be crowned the king of Lanka once the war ended and Ravana met his end

That night, Rama and Lakshmana sat in complete silence, until Rama started to get annoyed with the quietness and started a conversation

"So? I've noticed that you haven't been very vocal about your opinion about Vibhishana? What happened?"

Lakshmana looked at him with a smile and settled down near his legs

"Nothing. I think you are simply great, to accept him so openly, but your greatness is age old, isn't it?" He said, laughing

"I'm just surprised. Evil Ravana might be, but I didn't imagine him to be so rotten that his own brother gave up on him!" Lakshmana continued, examining his nails. Rama put his arm around him

"Not every brother is like you, or Bharat, or Shatru, you know" Rama said, affectionately. Lakshmana rolled his eyes, but stayed quit

To be quit honest, Rama was shocked, and mildly disgusted at how Ravana had literally kicked his brother out for simply stating his opinions about something that would concern the whole kingdom. In Rama's eyes, no one, king or not, had the right to snatch someone else's freedom of speech. And the person who was being spoken of, here, was his own brother. Moreover, Vibhishana wasn't wrong, was he? He was just stating facts there. 

And to Rama, who always had huge respect for his brothers' opinions and views, it seemed quite cruel to cast Vibhishana out like that.

****************

The problem was glaringly blatant. And it remained, even as the other obstacles, relatively smaller ones, were silently dealt with. How to cross the ocean?!

Lakshmana had suggested Rama to dry the ocean up, which was declined by his brother for the fear of rendering the aquatic animals homeless. Lakshmana had fondly rolled his eyes at that, trust his brother to be a sea of compassion even when he was facing a quarter life crisis