THE MINI ADVENTURES OF SHRUTI

CHAPTER 13

Finally, when the court was over for the day, she went back to her room, and got to work. At 2:58 pm, she packed everything and went to the garden. At 3:05 pm, everyone arrived. Shruti then led them to the stables, from where they went to the forest. There, they played for a long time. And as they played, they wandered off deeper and deeper into the forest. They had not realised it until they saw a sage meditating beneath a tree.

Rani chirped, and Shruti told her to be quiet, in a whisper. She was well aware about the anger of sages when someone disturbed their meditation. "We must pay homage to him. Let's just bow to him from a distance and head back."

Kari's words were then translated by Hiraman. "Kari said, 'Is it compulsory for us to pay homage to him?'"

Shruti nodded. All of them tip-toed near the sage and Shruti bowed to him with joined hands. The rest saw Shruti and bowed their heads. When Shruti lifted her head, the rest of them too lifted their heads. Shruti looked at them and nodded. It was a signal from her for them to return. They slowly turned to go back. Just then, they heard the sound of leaves being crushed. They turned around and saw dacoits approaching. All of them quickly hid behind some trees. They had to make some real efforts to hide Beauty completely. By the time Beauty was completely hidden, the dacoits had neared the sage. The leader was a stout man. All the dacoits' faces were covered by a black cloth, up to the nose. Only their eyes were visible.

They all formed a semi-circle around the sage. The leader unsheathed his sword and placed it near the sage's neck. "Hey, you! Open your eyes and tell us how to get out of this forest."

The sage continued meditating. He did not move a muscle, in spite of the dacoit's repeated warnings. The other dacoits too unsheathed their swords and placed them near his neck. The sage was in his former position still. After a few more warnings, the leader raised his sword to behead the sage. Shruti whispered to Kalia, "Kalia, can you hover over that guy and somehow stop him from causing any harm?" Kalia cawed and flew to the leader. He hovered over him and troubled him quite a bit.

The leader ordered his companions to kill the sage, while dealing with Kalia. Shruti looked at the other birds. They understood her signal and they too hovered over the dacoits' heads which made them drop their swords and their hands got busy in trying to drive them away. This went on for a while.

"We have to make them go away. This can't go on forever like this."

She unsheathed her sword. All the rest then came out of their hiding place and the animals charged at the dacoits. "Leave the sage alone."

He pushed Kalia away and picked up his sword. "Who are you to stop me?"

"I'm Shruti, member of the council of ministers of Ayodhya."

"Oh! Nice! We'll get a good ransom for you."

"Just shut up, and leave."

"You have to defeat me first."

He charged forward at Shruti and their swords clinked. Shruti was doing her best to mimic the technique she had seen on television, and she was able to sustain the dacoit for quite some time with her mimicry. After hearing all that clinging, the sage finally opened his eyes. He saw all that was going on. "What on earth is going on here?"

Everyone turned to him. He looked at everyone for a minute and understood everything. He looked at the leader. "You dare to harm a sage, do you?"

All the dacoits stepped aside. They slowly started taking steps backwards. The sage got up and picked up his container of holy water. I don't know what it is called... He poured some water on his palm. "I curse you, to turn into frogs." He then sprinkled the water on them, and they were turned into frogs. Shruti's eyes widened. She immediately sheathed her sword and watched the frogs in awe. They croaked and croaked and croaked for forgiveness. The sage then turned to Shruti, who was still watching the frogs. After a moment, she took her eyes off them and saw the sage looking at her. She immediately stepped back.