Warrior Princess; Her Quest to the throne

Raja Amrendra was massive, both in height and breadth. It wasn't a coincidence though. Every time a male heir was born in the royal family of Saptsindhu, he was put on a special diet which included strong herbs for increasing weight and height of the baby. To top it, the prospective king was made to indulge in exercises and games like boxing and swimming which helped further the cause.     

The king gave a pleased nod. He liked being in control and it was his dream to bring glory to his nation by achieving its unfulfilled dream.     

"Long live the king! Apologies on interrupting the meeting, your highness, but we have found the whereabouts of Princess Kritika along with her husband," one of his senior generals came in and hurriedly informed him.     

Everyone in Saptsindhu knew that the king had suffered a major loss of face when his daughter had run away with an absolutely unworthy man of low class. A major manhunt had been on for them for the past one year but the princess and her husband, Abhimanyu had managed to stay a step ahead of them, every single time.     

The king sprang up from his seat despite his bulky body mass.     

"What? Where are they?" he was not going to let this opportunity slip past him.     

"They… uh, that is to say, our men have been on their tail for weeks now and they were finally found in V… Vayuprastha," the man said, with fear in his voice.     

"WHAT?" Raja Amrendra's scowl was fiercer than a dark, stormy night.     

Vayuprastha was a mild, easy going country with hospitality at its core. But the one thing which they were strict about was interference from other countries into their functioning. Vayuprastha was the only nation which didn't have an extradition policy with any of its neighbours. That meant that as long as a person was allowed by Vayuprastha to stay in, no one could forcibly take that person away.     

The consequences of the same would result in nothing less than a war. It wasn't as if Saptsindhu couldn't defeat Vayuprastha but it was a headache which the king could ill-afford at this point in time and that too for the sake of his stupid daughter. One didn't need to cut his nose to spite the face.     

"It seems that I have underestimated my daughter and her bast*rd husband. All this while she continued to remain in Saptsindhu and dodge us. I wonder if it is a coincidence that they have chosen to move to Vayuprastha now?" he thought to himself.     

Northern zilla     

"You look lost," Raghu spoke from behind Bela's back, startling her out of her thoughts.     

She had been staring unseeingly at the window for the past few minutes and hadn't even registered Raghu's footsteps in the room.     

"Well, it seems kind of empty without the two kids around. I wonder how are they doing. Anyways, did I mention to you that I have to join back work from today. I better go and start getting ready," she sighed and walked towards the bedroom.     

He looked at his wife's retreating back in confusion. She had sounded as if she wasn't happy to go back to work which had never been the case ever since she started working there. Was she bored of it? Had she taken a liking to being a teacher?     

Somewhere on the northern border of Chandragarh     

Shaurya had managed to make it upto this point fairly undetected and the journey had been smooth enough. But he knew that the tricky part started now. He needed to cross his country's border without getting caught by his country's army. Unfortunately, this was the first and probably the easiest obstacle of his mission.     

There were still a few hours of daylight left. He found an old oak tree and climbed on it, looking for a sturdy branch to sleep on. His entire body was covered in a thick layer of neem oil, making it repellent to all sorts of insects and mosquitos. He was well covered behind the leaves of the tree, camouflaging his presence.     

"Is she doing well? Does she think of me at all? What if I fail the mission? Will I ever..." Shaurya bit his tongue hard to stop himself from thinking any further.     

Grimacing over the coppery taste of blood in his mouth, he reminded himself to stay focussed on the task ahead rather that indulge in day-dreaming about useless things. His country was expecting him to be clinical and ruthless. There was simply no place for any sort of emotions in his life at this moment.     

The northern border of Chandragarh was a hilly terrain and had steep mountains which were well guarded by the army. But because of the vast area to be monitored, the army personnel were well spread out. But that wasn't a big concern.     

The geographical location of the Northern border was such that the mountains were nearly impossible to climb both from Saptsindhu and Chandragarh's side. They stood tall and majestic, looking like a straight wall which was tough to scale. The army in this area received special training in mountaineering before being posted here. Also, because of the sheer height and the cold weather, the soldiers climbed in groups and set base in the crevices of the mountain.     

To make up for the lesser number of their guards on all corners of the hill, Chandragarh had dropped various booby traps along the mountain side, preventing even animals from scaling up this 'wall'. This was the reason why the Northern zilla had experienced least, near negligible infiltration from the enemy over the years. It was simply too much of a trouble.