You and I - a pranushka tale

chapter thirty-one

Mithrah wordlessly listened to her mother narrate her past. It was a hidden part of Radha that she had never told either of her children. Mithrah grew up hearing numerous stories of her parents' love story. How they met at the temple with a fight over prasadam, how they fell in love and the many cute memories they had shared together.

But she had never heard about how Bhavani was always involved in their lives.

Mithrah and Rana were raised with the belief that the dispute between the two men only began due to land conflict and power battles. It worsened with events that occurred after but Radha was never once mentioned when they spoke about the long history of enmity.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Mithrah asked, her voice quiet.

Radha sighed as she looked at the door that lead back into the villa, knowing somewhere inside Veeraiyandi was walking around. "Your father didn't want me to. He feared that you and Rana might one day grow up blaming me for the hatred between the two villages. He would rather take the blame than have me being the one scrutinised. So he never allowed it."

Somewhere in Mithrah, she found herself feeling sadness for Bhavani. She couldn't even begin to imagine how he felt. But, that didn't change the dislike she felt for him. For as long as she could remember he had made her family's and others' lives hell. He was still a bad man. But no one could deny the way she felt her heart break a little for the soul less man.

Mithrah sighed and hugged her mother. She could tell Radha felt guilty about everything with the expression she still wore on her face and that didn't settle well with her. "It's okay amma." She told her with a smile. "It's all in the past and it's still Rana's wedding. Let's go and enjoy that."

~

Prabhas silently cursed Bhavani the moment he mentioned how he had injured his men. If there was one thing Rana wanted from him, it was for Prabhas to not get involved with the problems in his village. But of course he couldn't help but find himself in the middle of it all.

Arjun and Mahesh were the first to attack him.

"We thought you came with Rana to relax but it seems not only did you trap his sister, you're also fighting his father's rival." Arjun began, giving him a long judgemental look. "Did you think you're Nagarjuna or something?

Prabhas rolled his eyes.

"Why did you fight his men?" Mahesh asked curiously. When Prabhas failed to give him a proper answer, his jaw dropped. "Did you fight them for Mithrah?"

Arjun slapped his hand on his forehead. "Of course he did."

But before Prabhas could reply or even attempt to defend himself, he felt a hand on his shoulder. When he turned around it was the groom himself. Rana had quite a serious expression on his face which immediately filled Prabhas with wariness.

"You're an idiot do you know that?" Rana asked, a look of irritation appearing across his face.

At his question Prabhas grinned. It wasn't as serious as the reaction he was expecting when he saw the previous expression on Rana's face. "I was bored. It had been a while after training you know." He joked causing Rana to roll his eyes.

"Honestly, what happened?" He questioned as they stepped away from the rest together.

Prabhas wondered whether he should brush it off but he realised that there's already a lot that he hasn't been telling Rana. It wouldn't be fair to hold back this too. "They were bothering Mithrah." He confessed.

Rana raised his eyebrows in surprise, clearly not expecting that answer. There was a moment of silence as he stood quietly watching his best friend. Prabhas awkwardly coughed wondering why he wasn't saying anything.