Warrior Princess; Her Quest to the throne

Thankfully, Shaurya didn't have to go through the headache of thinking about a way out. Due to the information received from his teacher, he knew of a way which may test his resolve to the maximum but wouldn't require him to perform superhuman tasks.     

Unknown to Saptsindhu and most of Chandragarh, handful of the Suraksha Chakra spies had been using a well-hidden route for many years now. Despite the mountains being located at a high altitude, there was a hot water spring at the base of one of the hills. The hot spring's surprising existence and the curiosity behind its science had led to discovering big cracks at the bottom of the hot spring where the water bubbled along with a mysterious, foul smelling gas.     

There were wide enough fissures caused by the heat for the brave explorers to slip beneath them which had led to another startling discovery. Due to this phenomenon, a small cave like structure had formed beneath the mountain. The cave was small and filled with water but it had just enough room for a person to bring his face out of water and breathe before diving back in.     

After swimming in foul smelled hot water for a few minutes, one reached the other end of the cave which opened under absolute freezing cold river but on the Saptsindhu side. Due to the existence of this river, the opening of the cave had remained camouflaged during all these years. This cave was shaped like a mother's womb where Chandragarh's side was elevated and wide through which the person slipped in and came out of a much smaller opening. But if one was to try and enter through the Saptsindhu side, it would seem to be nearly an impossible task, just as it was in case of a natural birth where the baby's head seemed to be much bigger than the vaginal opening of the mother.     

Due to the constant presence of the gas and heat, the cave was extremely slippery and smooth. As soon as this spring was discovered and reported about, the Suraksha Chakra team had taken over and spread rumours about it possessing extremely high temperature at the bottom of the spring, causing severe burns to a person. It was also said that the gas was poisonous and had caused deaths of the people who ventured in for a dip. It was rumoured to be lethal if by mistake even a spoonful went into a person's mouth. All this was done in order to keep the existence of the place a secret and they seemed to have been successful about it.     

Even the army was not allowed to venture in it due to its harmful consequences. There was only a bare minimum patrolling done around that area for the same reason.     

When Bela had given him the coordinates of this cave, she had told him to start practicing holding his breath for as long as he could. Even though this mysterious gas was not lethal, it caused a stinging pain in the eyes, and nostrils and overexposure to it led to severe diarrhea as well.     

Shaurya was not looking forward to the experience and had deliberately kept his stomach light, surviving on dried fruits for the past half a day.     

As the dusk fell that day, he came down from the tree and gave his motherland one last glance before walking towards the direction of his intended destination. Even though it was a huge range of mountains, Bela had given him enough specifics to reach the right vicinity. After that, it was not a big task to find the hot water spring. There was only one of its kind existing here.     

An hour later     

"I can't breathe," Shaurya thought to himself.     

Knowing that he was going to be exposed to a strong pungent smell and breathing it, were two starkly different concepts and he was living the torment now. It was pitch dark and he had entered the water few minutes ago. Forget swimming to the bottom of it, he was unable to take the smell even while keeping his face out of the water.     

Fighting to stay calm, he took in deep breaths but suddenly there was a commotion nearby.     

"Hey, who is there?" someone was looking at him from the edge of the spring.     

Shit! He had run out of time. Without wasting even a nanosecond, Shaurya dived inside and started moving towards the bottom of the spring. Due to the hasty retreat, the pungent smell had been replaced by the fear of discovery.     

Thankfully the water level was not too deep and he soon touched the base. Holding onto his precious breath, Shaurya started feeling around the mountain wall where the opening was supposed to be located.     

Probably it had only been a minute but it was starting to feel much longer. Shaurya had managed to hold his breath in the Northern zilla river for as long as three minutes consistently for the past week. But right now, it felt that he wouldn't even last for half of that time.     

His fingers slipped against the smooth surface. Maybe because of the water temperature or due to the gas, the floor and walls around the spring were slippery, almost soft to touch.     

"I can't afford a failure at this level, I can't!" he kept repeating the mantra and suddenly his palm caught hold of an edge.     

Pulling himself to that corner urgently, he ran his fingers across the opening. It didn't seem big enough to take him in but he had literally run out of time. Eyes closed against the stinging water, he bent his head and dived in.