अन्तः अस्ति प्रारंभः।
The end is the beginning.
A caterpillar dies, to birth a butterfly. Water evaporates to rain down. Dead carcasses fill the stomachs of vultures.Life gives way to death and death to life. In a vicious circle of different karmas...
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Mihira breathed heavily, her kitchen knife pressed horizontally into the mouth of one of her attackers while Virat stood on the chest of the other one, biting at the man's exposed bony shoulder.
At this point, today, she was just tired of men, honestly. Dealing with the princes, then the court, then the two Kings as they decided her fate, and then Eklavya and his father who had hovered over her and her injuries.
Mihira wanted to go and eat her dinner, apply medicine on her new injuries and go to sleep.
But here she was, stuck fighting two attackers on the porch of her own home. She clenched her jaw, the venom of kaliyug spreading in her veins as ruthlessnesss burned in her chest like a forest fire- all consuming.
She pressed the kitchen knife further, drawing blood from the corners of the attacker's lips. "Were you laughing earlier with your friend there?" She said lowly, her face tight and eyes locked onto his frame, making sure to keep a track of all of his motions so that he couldn't take her out by surprise. "Shall I make a permanent smile on your face?"
The man tried to shout, but the sound couldn't come out of his open mouth with one of Mihira's hands wrapped around his throat. He choked on his own scream while his partner whimpered in the back. He clawed at her hand desparately and used the wall behind him as leverage to give himself some space to fight. The shift in the space and his body weight falling on her made Mihira stumble for a moment and he took the chance to try to lift his leg and kick Mihira in the abdomen.
Mihira caught his foot before it could make contact and flashed him a grin as she stabbed his calf, knee and thigh in quick succession, pushing the knife all the way into the fleshy part of his thigh. He would have screamed, but Mihira quickly shoved the knife in his mouth, taking care not to stab him. A throat wound would spill more blood than she cared to clean.
She replaced her hand back on his throat and said,"I will give you one chance to speak. If you shout, I won't wait to split you up from the throat to belly. Understand me, boy?"
He tried to nod, mortified when he felt the knife pressing on his tongue, coated in his own blood.
Mihira gave him a saccharine smile and removed the knife. The other attacker in the background was breathing heavily and out of the corner of her eye, Mihira saw that Virat had stopped attacking the man, taking her cue of silence but not stepping down from the man's chest.
"Who sent you?"
The man blinked. "Maharaj Shishupal."
Mihira laughed. "You hear that, Virat? I've already got a King vying for my blood."
She had learnt years ago that leaving an opponent alive after a fight was not an ideal option. But so wasn't blood. She kept the knife away, tucked into her waistband.
"What shall I do with you two?" She murmured to herself quietly,"I can't stab you, that will become evidence." The next best option was poison, but Mihira did not have any on hand. She had never ventured out to make poision, and the snake she had guided to Tarush had been left back in the woods.
