The Village Girl

Chapter Four - [Aaryan]

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By the time Aathavan turned eleven, he was already joining me on nearly all of my trips around the nation. He was growing, quickly, and though when I was his age, I was already fighting in battles alongside my father, Seetha's worrying was consistent.

Of course, her worries were not necessarily legitimate.

We were in a time of peace. The last time anything worrisome happened was five years ago, when the Mountain Tribes felt threatened and we found out that Aarun was taking over the north.

As of now, Aarun had indeed taken over the north, but it seemed like he made a smart decision in deciding to stay quiet and obey, leaving the mountain tribes alone. I suppose he also may have made that decision because of the increase in warriors that I had stationed in the area.

Whatever the case, it was peaceful. There were no battles to fight.

There were some border skirmishes here and there, and sometimes we would send warriors to help our allies with their battles, but other than that, for a warrior kingdom, this was the most peace we had seen in decades.

So the reason why Seetha's worries were not legitimate was simply because there were no battles to send my son in to fight.

Of course, as a parent, that was a good thing. But as a Maharajah with an heir, it really wasn't, and so the only alternative I could think of was to make sure he was with me for everything else. He was with me for the skirmishes, he was with me when making decisions in regards to our allies' battles, he was with me when I was doing everything that was expected of from the Warrior King of Chandraba.

Like today.

One of our allies in the south was fighting a war against their own neighbors and requested for our assistance, and though we would not be fighting in the battle ourselves, I brought Aathi with me to be a part of the planning with Lakshmanan and my brothers.

He was attentive and observant and I was proud of him, though I did worry that it was still not enough. All this training could not be enough. Nothing could compare to the real thing.

"If you are so concerned, Aaryan, why not let me take him with me?" Lakshmanan suggested from his seat across from me.

We were in the fort, in his office. Our arrangements had been completed so I let Aathi go spend time with the warriors, some of whom were his friends, while I stayed up in Lakshmanan's office with Aayu, Anbu and even Akshay, my second youngest brother who I charged with foreign affairs.

Though Seetha and I had promised to make all our decisions together, she was not here with us because the one thing she let me keep control of was war planning. She admitted that she could spend her whole life trying, but she knew she would never master the art of war planning.

So we concluded that she gets a say in whether the fight happens or not and I get to decide how it's fought.

Thus, she was not here.

"I don't mind the idea," I said, considering it, "but I'd need to run it by Seetha."

Lakshmanan chuckled. "She'll say no."