THE MINI ADVENTURES OF SHRUTI

CHAPTER 14

Then, one day in the middle of the third month of her arrival, a serious issue came up. It took a lot of time to affect Shruti, so she couldn't prevent it or do anything of that sort. It all looked simple and normal at first. Ashok and Avatar were sent as ambassadors to a kingdom a little far away, so that the process of sandhi could be done with that particular kingdom. Shruti had forgotten about it till she saw the empty seats of Ashok and Avatar the day after they left. A week passed. Both of them had not returned yet. There had been no contact with the kingdom's ruler or with the two of them. The court decided to wait a little longer.

The fourth week passed, which marked the end of the third month. There had not been any signs of them still. It would take a person three days to travel to that kingdom, people said. Even if they stayed in the kingdom for a whole week, they shouldn't have been absent even after two weeks. People persuaded themselves to wait a little longer. The first week of the fourth month too, passed. Shruti had started giving this thing a thought, but was too busy to think about it deeply with the time machine around. On the first day of the second week of the fourth month, there was a heated discussion about the two's disappearance after all the cases were over. Shruti remained silent during the discussion. After a while, Roshan and Vijay were sent to the same kingdom to bring both of them back.

A week passed after their departure. Now, even they had disappeared. The absent courtiers' families were worried about their well-being. This matter had started gaining more and more attention. A messenger was sent to get some news about what was going on. He returned within five days and said that he could not find out anything about anything. When he was asked to give an explanation, he said that the king of the kingdom told him that he had not seen any courtier from the kingdom of Ayodhya, ever. Everyone was shocked. Shruti became thoughtful. She was sure that something had happened to all the courtiers before they reached their destination.

She remained silent when it was decided that a search party would be sent to look for the courtiers. She doubted whether the search party would be able to do the job or not. She told her friends about whatever happened in court, and Bulbul said, "How can they just vanish?" Shruti said, "Someone is doing this..." Rani said, "The search party will find out." Kari said, "What if they vanish themselves?" Gillu said, "Exactly." Shruti said, "I doubt them for that reason." Beauty asked, "Didn't the messenger mention any details?" Shruti shook her head. Kalia said, "How did he manage to get to the kingdom?" Shruti said, "Exactly! I've been thinking about this for a while. He's somehow aware of all these happenings and the procedures behind them."

Mitthu asked, "Didn't anybody question him?" Shruti said, "No." Hiraman asked, "Are they planning to take him in, for questioning?"

"Doesn't seem so."

Beauty said, "Who is responsible for these search parties, investigations, and questioning stuff?"

"All the courtiers have to play an equally important role in all this... If you're asking for the person who has the most experience in all this, it's Maheshji."

Hiraman said, "That Dumbo is a good for nothing. This case will take a long time to be solved."

"Don't say that Hiraman. It won't be his fault if the search party can't do anything."

Rani said, "Why are you taking his side Shruti? He doesn't like you at all."

"Not everyone in the world will like me."

Kari said, "Then is it necessary that you help them in crisis?"

"Of course. We are born to do good to people."

The conversation then shifted to the case. Rani said, "Why don't you do something then?"

"What can I do?"