Avantika And Her Quest

Some Mischief and its Repercussions

The next day I woke up as a woman on a mission. I was surprised at my usage of words. I started thinking of the change that had occurred in me over the past few days. A few weeks ago I was a carefree girl with only an inkling of the responsibility that would be mine to bear. Even if I got married, I would have to manage the people and step up if the king was not ruling well. Today I didn't know how I would shoulder my responsibility or if I even have any responsibility left. But I had made up my mind that I would shoulder it to the best of my ability or die trying to do so.

After the day before, I had realized that I had even less time to execute the plan Arjun had concocted. Sometimes I didn't understand how one person can be extremely clueless and dumb in some situations and yet be able to come up with excellent plans and strategies when needed. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. I decided to do the most important but difficult step in the plan. I decide to tell Uncle Suryakant. I needed all the courage I could muster to tell him. I walked towards his chambers with slow, deliberate movements. I reached there to find Arjun standing there having an all out crazy internal battle. His hair was tousled because he had run his fingers in it numerous times, he seemed to be talking to himself and he just tugged at the end of his hair and grunted. I saw him and a brilliant idea took shape in my head. He had teased me a lot for daydreaming and zoning out, now it's my chance. All thoughts of Uncle Suryakant or doing anything towards making Arjun's plan succeed flew out of the window.

In that moment it was only me and the mischief I had in my mind. If you didn't know better you would think that I was acting like my previous normal self. Only people who know me better would ever be able to tell the difference. I still felt a little lost and broken but I was healing. They say that time heals a person, I just hope it heals me too. With these somewhat inspiring thoughts I stood behind Arjun and cleared my throat loudly. He spun around in a surprised and tense posture but he relaxed once he saw that it was me but before he could say anything I cut him off by saying, "you're going to go bald with the amount of tugging and pulling you are doing with your hair." I knew that his hair was a touché subject for him and his absolutely scandalized look confirmed it.

I started giggling and he looked amused now. I knew now he had ammunition against me now. He would tease me no end about giggling now. I started saying while I was still giggling , "I have come to talk to Uncle Suryakant. Are you here for that as well?" He looked amused, "well I was trying to before you started saying things that will never come true.

I said, "your attempt seems to have been extremely unsuccessful." He looked at me with mock sarcasm lacing his words, "oh right! I'm sure you'll do a much better job at it. Well then be my guest. Tell your Uncle yourself." I freaked out but never being one to back down from challenges I agreed. Well here goes nothing I thought as I knocked on Uncle's door.

As I knocked on the door I heard a low grumble from inside telling me to come inside. I stepped inside and dragged Arjun inside with me. Uncle suryakant looked amused. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and asked me what the matter was? I miserably stuttered in front of him," uncle, Arjun has come up with a p....pl..plaan." I heard Arjun snort in the back. I turned around and shot him a glare. Oh! It would be amusing to see him do better than me, he would probably freeze up. I continued, "Uncle, Arjun has decided that we should disguise ourselves and spy on the king of Chetiya. This way we can come to know the secrets and the weaknesses of their ruler and it will help us defeat them. We could also find out how our people are faring."

I saw Uncle's expression get dangerous. I knew I was treading in dangerous waters when I came in, his expression just confirmed it. I am going to have to be more careful with my wording. I continued, "Uncle, Arjun has planned everything. He even has a map of the castle and its secret passageways." I had been surprised when he had shown me the map, I had lived in the castle for 16 years and yet I was unaware of any secret passages.

He interrupted me, "Avantika I know of the challenge issued. I don't think Arjun or king Mahindra will give us shelter for very long." Arjun immediately fired up, "we are not withdrawing shelter from you and have accepted the challenge. We are just hoping that you would give us your blessing and help us to execute our plan so that we can find any loopholes in their battle strategy so that my kingdom doesn't suffer."

Uncle suryakant replied with equal fire, " great! Everyone has gone crazy now! Are you really stupid enough to believe that entering the fortress and finding information from inside would be so easy. I thought you had more common sense than that. You are talking of a suicidal mission and you will get Avantika killed as well."

It was my turn to be angry, so all his vehemence was because I would get hurt. Did he not believe in me? I have trained long and hard yet he questions my competence. "Uncle if it is me you are worried about then we can surely do nothing about this situation. If you yourself question my competence, then there is no saving Avanti. We might as well accept our fate as Brahmins and spend the rest of our days, singing the lord's praises and surviving on alms. Uncle turned around and regarded me with a weary sigh, "this is not about your competence, stop acting like a child."

"A child! Ha, I wish I had the liberty to act like one. I never asked for this, I did not ask for the Kingdom to be captured, for my parents to be killed. Yet, I am standing here, while you question my competence and call me a child,"I fumed.

"Stop making all of this about you. There is an entire country at stake. Do you realize that? You are so wrapped up in yourself, you fail to think about the thousands of people who are dependant on your actions," he roared at me.

I had had enough of this second guessing. It would have been so easy to just be a boy. I walked out of the room as my eyes started misting. Arjun tried to yell after me but as I shut the door and sunk to my knees outside the door. I heard Arjun say, " General, with all due respect, I would never get Avantika killed. In fact I am accompanying her on this mission ." At this Uncle Suryakant sounded a little surprised and questioned Arjun," but,what will your father say?"

Arjun professed,"I have already spoken to my father and he told me that Avantika's father helped him in all his conquests and never asked for anything in return. It is now our turn to help Avantika when she needs us."

Uncle continued in a perplexed tone, " but what about your duties as a prince?" Arjun reassured Uncle,"In a few hours a royal proclamation will be made to inform my people that the kingdom intends to take revenge for their emperor's brother King Harsha and will be fighting to restore what is rightfully his. We are also going to erase all traces of Avantika being alive." Uncle took a lengthy pause and I assumed he was confused, so Arjun slowly said, "you can take a few hours to analyze the situation but we must act soon." Then I could hear the smile in uncle's voice as he asked Arjun ," what do I need to do ?"

Later when I had calmed down considerably and apologized. I asked him what convinced him to agree, I saw his eyes took a nostalgic gleam as he elaborated," I trust you and that boy, you both always pulled of many tricks and they would always be well planned. That boy would always come up with some plan to make our lives miserable and you would execute it. Your plans always succeeded. That is why I trust you. That is what convinced me. You both make an excellent team and together you could rule the entire Aryavarta." I smiled and we basked in the warmth of our memories and I had yet another reason to work hard. I had to save the place that held these memories. I would save the sacred place my parents ruled. I will save Avanti.