Abhaya Bhairavi #Wattys2020

Chapter Eighteen

Bhairavi was sure she was in heaven, albeit a little tired. She felt soft grass tickling her skin, cool breeze caressing her limbs, soft sunshine smiling on her and heard the cooing of birds and chirping of crickets.

Reluctantly opening her eyes, she found herself near a small pond with deep blue-black water, and wondered if Maa had lied about heaven being full of eatable landscapes. "So you have woken up, how do you feel?" Bhairavi jumped on hearing Samanya's voice, so Rakshasas shared the same heaven as Manavas. 'Am fine. A little tired. Hey, sorry for killing you. It was not deliberate.'

"What?"

'Yeah, I mean, this is heaven right?'

Samanya looked at her with concern, "I caught you before you hit the ground but maybe your head did hit the ground.... Where do you think we are?"

'This is heaven, right? And you are carrying Amrit for me in that bottle? Although it looks really unpleasant for the nectar of Immortality I must say.'

Samanya started laughing, "Oh this is good. This is really good. You think we died, and went to heaven?" He sat on the ground and held his sides as he roared with laughter. Bhairavi was not amused and she began to feel embarrassed when his laughter did not stop, 'Samanya. Am serious. Stop laughing, if we are not dead where are we? What happened? The last I remember...' her mind went back to the entire stripping down, the feel of soaring temperature and burning up and then...ashes everywhere.

Confused, she asked, 'Tell me what exactly did I do? And how are you alive? I thought I vaporized everyone.'

"Well. Not everyone. In short, you undressed and then began to emit heat. So intense was your Divine Radiance that every Rakshasa who was looking at you with lust...turned into ashes. You technically beat them at their own game of desire."

Bhairavi stared at him, stunned. 'No, seriously. I did that? According to the visions during my Tapasya I knew it had something to do with their desire for my physical body. I just went with my instinct in there, and my emotions. Hey, wait a second. How are you not dead?'

Samanya gazed at her with intense, unreadable eyes, "When you started undressing, I turned my face away. I could not bear to see your public disrobing, nor disrespect you by enjoying that."

Bhairavi stared at him, not knowing what to say. Samanya filled her in, "After everyone turned into ashes, I covered you with your coat, and picked you up. Since your rage had half demolished the throne room, I carried you down the corridors carefully and met Bahurupi.

After thanking him for helping me previously, I told him that I renounced my throne, since I was the successor with my father and brothers dead, and named him the king in my stead. After handing him the royal ring and telling him to rule justly, to look after the remaining Rakshasa population well, and let humans be, I left. And well, I brought you to my favorite place in Aritar. It is inside the forest near my home, beside this pond. Few people know of it."

Only then did Bhairavi realise two things, one, she was naked under the coat and two, Samanya was the finest man she had ever known. But, without caring for the first and only focusing on the second, she pulled him in for a hug.
'Thank you, and I really mean it. What you did, going against your family and not disrespecting me even when you had the chance to, very few men, and even fewer Rakshasas would do that.'

Samanya held her close, relishing the feel of her short hair tickling his face as he hugged her tightly before releasing and facing her, "And I would do it all over again for you in a heartbeat. Not only because you deserved justice, but also because it was the right thing to do. You cannot imagine, Bhairavi, how terrified I was when you went off plan. Not for myself, for you, because I knew I could not fight all the Rakshasas at once to protect you. "