THE MINI ADVENTURES OF SHRUTI

CHAPTER 8

Shruti walked back to her room where Hiraman was eagerly waiting. He started their conversation with a question:

"Did you bring them to court today?"

"I sure did."

"What happened? How did it happen?"

"After all the cases I sought permission from the king to bring the three inside, stating that the spies had been found. He then permitted me to do so. All the three came in and stood in a row. I said that the guilty person's palm would have a bright red spot and the servant and the soldier looked at their palms, but not the man. Their secret was then known by everyone. The man turned out to be a writer. Vijayji has happened to have read his books."

"Oh. But how did you persuade them to get here?"

"I lied to them. I told the man that he'll get a reward for giving me water when I went there. I acted as if I had sprained my wrist, and then told them that they'll get a reward for helping me. All three of them came here for the reward. I told you yesterday, right?"

"Oh yeah! I had forgotten."

"Never mind."

"Oh. The poor duo. What a shock it must have been to them!"

"Yeah."

"And for the man too."

"Not for him. I gave him my ring."

"What?"

"Yeah. I gave him my ring."

"But...let it be. What about Raja?"

"They said they would give him to us."

"When?"

"By today. They'll be hanged tomorrow."

"Hanged? Why?"

"As per the rules, they must be hanged."

Shruti then closed the windows and locked them from inside. She then sat on her bed again. Just then, an eagle swooped in from the balcony. Hiraman screeched loudly and jumped onto Shruti's bed, while she stood against the perch to guard Hiraman.

Hiraman peeked from behind her. "RAJA!" He then hid behind her. Shruti spread out her hand on both sides to stop Raja from going near Hiraman. The eagle let out a soft call and remained on the ground. He kept making calls but did not move from his position.

Hiraman peeked again. "Yeah. She is."

Shruti looked at him. "What?"

"I told him."

"Can you understand what he's saying?"

"Yeah."

After listening to a few more calls, Hiraman said to Shruti, "Look, he's saying that he'll listen to whatever you say from now onwards, because he heard whatever you did from those people. He flew here in search of you, it seems."

"What did they say to him?"

Hiraman asked Raja the same question in his parrot language. The eagle made a few short calls and Hiraman said, "Shruti, he says that those two elaborated the incident and told him to listen to whatever you say."

"Is that so?"

"Hmm..."

"Tell him, that my first order is to return to the forest. My second order is that he must go very deep into the forests and always beware of humans."

Hiraman translated her words to Raja, who gave a smile after he heard everything. His eyes grew bigger and shone brightly.

How cute he looks when he smiles!