2 Her Real Self

"Noticeably something is off." Vriddhi was the first to notice the change in her behavior. The other girls, her caring roommates and friends, whispered among themselves.

"Yes, I can see it too." Dhara looked concernedly at Shunya.

"You know what, during the vacations when I casually called Birdy and drifted the talk about Kshitij, she seemed off that time too. Do you think something has happened between them?" Khyati told everyone.

"Gotta ask her." Mridu joined in the conversation too.

"But you know her, even if the sky falls on her, she would never tell anyone about her sufferings and smile radiantly to hide any bruise that she might have on her heart." Dhara softly said.

"Birdy! What are you spacing out for?" Mridu raised her voice.

Snapping out from her wonder world, Shunya turned around, "It's nothing. I'm thinking of grabbing a bite outside. Feeling hungry after wasting so much energy on Shambhavi."

"Oh well, I'll tag along." Khyati got up and came closer to Shunya.

"I don't have enough money to feed that beggar in you." Shunya replied jokingly.

"Hey! I don't eat that much okay. I only need three full plate chicken fried rice, a large plate of Manchurian and that's all." Khyati spoke as if she been wronged.

"See? Told you. You've a beggar inside you." Shunya nonchalantly said.

"Whatever, I'm coming." Khyati self invited herself.

Shunya turned around to the others and asked if they were coming along too which they denied. So only Shunya and Khyati left.

...

The ambiance in the small restaurant was quite good. The tables were all well arranged for couples, small group and large ones. Both the girls sat on a side desk like podium and ordered their food. The soothing melody flowing around giving a calming feeling.

"So this is where you come with Kshitij hmm? Quite good and a little home-like feeling." Breaking the silence, Khyati said.

"Yeah.." Shunya softly answered.

As their food was served, Khyati scooped a big spoon and began to eat while Shunya looked outside the ceiling to window of the restaurant. "There he is..." She looked at the person outside with a complicated expression that her friend found difficult to decipher.

"Huh? Isn't that Kshitij?" Khyati traced her line of sight when she was about to ask her to eat.

"Eat." Shunya said softly. "I'll go out."

"Sure, sure. Say my hello to my future bro-in-law." Khyati said as she munched her food.

Shunya went outside and walked to Kshitij who flashed a toothed smile on her arrival.

"Here you are, my Birdy." Kshitij extended his hand in an attempt to hold her shoulders but she dodged it.

"Let's go somewhere else to sit and talk." Shunya didn't look at him and said as she moved a few steps away. Not really minding her dodge, the guy followed.

They both went to a nearby park and sat on a bench. Shunya was about to speak when Kshitij noticed an ice cream parlor on the other side of them. He went and brought two ice creams for them each. Shunya tightly held the ice cream, composed her thoughts once again and then spoke in a calm and clear voice, "Let's break up."

"What?" Not believing his ears and thinking she's playing a prank on him, he asked half believing.

"I said let's break up. I'm fed up with this relationship." Not minding his expressions, Shunya said what she needed to say and got up to leave. Only then Kshitij snapped out and believed that she was not lying or playing prank but was really breaking up with him. Their two years long relationship was about to be trashed.

"Don't go! Please don't leave me alone. You know you're the only one I've ever loved. Please come back. Tell me if I did anything wrong and I'll fix it, but don't leave me." Kshitij hugged her from behind. But she stiffly looked on and slapped his hands away.

"Dude, I'm fed up with this melodrama and showing that I'm in love with you and I care for you, when in reality I don't. I no longer love you so stay away from me from now on. Goodbye." Saying everything clearly, the girl turned around and walked away. She went to the street and hailed a cab.

As soon as the car moved further away from the park entrance till where Kshitij had followed to reconcile with her and was no longer visible, the welled up tears rolled down. She listlessly looked out of cab.

*I'm sorry, Kshitij. I know it's unfair to you to not tell you why I'm breaking up and abruptly doing it. Please be well and safe, with or without me but you must live happily. I know it will take you some time to get over it but I know, being the good person in heart as you are, you'll find someone better who can make you forget me. I love you too but I can't be together with you. Only if "she" wasn't there, only if things didn't happen as they did, maybe then we would have had our 'happily ever after'. Goodbye my love. Be well and strong.*

The restaurant they chose, was outside the University premises and thus they had a deadline to keep so that they could go back in time. Shunya had texted Khyati to leave without her so Khyati had already reached back but Shunya was nowhere in sight.

Shunya kept thinking about the things that happened earlier that evening while sitting in a corner in one of the dark allies near her hostel hugging her legs looking like a lost puppy.

"Why… Why me? Why is it always me? Just why?" Sobbing silently she said to herself.

The sweet as this love story began, the bitter was its end.

---Boys' Hostel---

"He'll get on his knees and express his feelings." Wondering the ambiance Kshitij would propose Shunya, Anik, one of Kshitij's friend said.

"No he'll kiss her today as he proposes." Mayukh, the youngest and also the naughtiest among the four who shared the room and friendship since young, winked.

"Oh come on! They've already been together for a couple of year, he must have already kissed her. As for marriage proposal, do you really think a girl like Shunya would like to see roses and decorations around and her prince charming on his knees? I think she would simply spoil the mood getting angry as to why he wasted so many flowers who would look better on plants. Haha! Our Sister-in-law is special." Reyansh was more mature than the other two.

Unknown to what happened on their date, Kshitij's friends were excitedly and impatiently waiting for the good news from their brother. They prepared champagne and snacks to celebrate despite the rule of the hostel that said otherwise.

An hour before midnight the most awaited boy returned back. Not happy as was expected but sorrowful. His grim expression and tearful red eyes prevented the rest of the three to ask him anything.

The whole night Kshitij kept thinking about their awful breakup. His friends couldn't help but ask him about what had happened to him and he replied with nothing but a stare after which they didn't dare bother him.

---Girl's Hostel---

Shunya's friends were all thinking maybe she was going to stay out with Kshitij which she had never done but that was the only explanation they could come up with for her untold disappearance. Just as they were all settling in their beds their dorm landline phone rang and in came Anik's voice. Since Shunya and Kshitij were dating, their friends had met a few times and so knew each other.

Anik, Mayukh and Reyansh all three couldn't stand the silence in their room after Kshitij's return, so when the boy went out saying he would be staying in his own villa for a few days, they hurriedly called their Sister-in-law to know if they had any fight or anything.

Vriddhi was the one who picked up the call. "Where's Sister-in-law?" Anik asked with evident anger in his voice.

"Maybe with Kshitij…"

"No, she isn't and I think they had a fight or something because Kshitij didn't return in a good mood." Anik disclosed.

"What? Kshitij isn't with Shunya? Then where did she go? She is yet to return." Vriddhi was worried sick by now as nothing happened like they had imagined. No togetherness of the couple, no candle light dinner, no night out. Nothing of the sort. This made her worry and she hurriedly woke the others up. All the three girls rubbed their eyes and noticed Vriddhi's anxious face.

"Hey what happened? What's wrong?" Mridu was the first to lean on table and grabbed a hold of water glass to pass it to Vriddhi.

"Shunya hasn't been back yet. And unlike how we thought, she isn't with Kshitij either. Anik called just now and told me that Kshitijj has a somber expression after return." Vriddhi told in a single breath as she sipped down the water.

"What? But…" Khyati was cut in the middle of whatever she was going to say and Dhara ran over to her desk on the side of her bed retrieve her bike keys from its top drawer as she spoke, "Who cares what kind of mood Kshitij had at least he has his friends by his side and even his family lives in the same town but what about our Birdy, she only has us here. Where could Birdy be? I am worried."

"Yeah let's look for her first." All the others joined in. The five girls had three bikes on which they always settled in pairs and one single. All the girls since lived in a hostel which had a dead line, sneaked out on those three bikes with Vriddhi and Khyati sharing one and Mridu and Dhara driving singly, to look for their sweetheart friend. They even dodged the security guard by inches just so they can go look for her.

They went separate ways and repeatedly called Shunya but her phone was switched off. Kshitij, on the other hand, drove without looking at the road and ended up coming to the familiar roads of Shunya's hostel. Just as he noticed where he had arrived subconsciously and was about to turn away to leave, he noticed a girl fighting with a few hooligans in one of the dark alleys. He fronted her back and because of the nightfall, he couldn't clearly make out her facial features. The girl's movements were agile and calculated, it showed that she was superior in fighting and martial arts. But the hooligans were also no less inferior and seemed well trained. Even the best martial artist should fight with a limited number of people at the same time. She was outnumbered. Just at the very moment, the girl was hit by one of the hooligans on her back and she fell down on her knees. Slowly her blood streamed out. Her eyes became heavy and she was slowly losing her conscious. Before her eyes completely shut, she vaguely saw someone approaching her with fast and steady steps. The person then fought with the remaining gangsters. The girl fell in a coma.

While in her coma, Shunya had a long dream. About herself... about her real self....

******

"The walls of the fort have fallen. You're our only hope. Leave Princess Giritnaya. Only if you live will we be able to die in peace." The General yelled for her to leave but she didn't budge an inch.

"'Die if needed but never turn your back to people in need.' is what my mother told me as she died. I won't leave. Come what may and I'll fight." The determined look in her eyes melted the General's heart as he thought, "Sure enough, you're Queen Chhaya's daughter, you'll protect this kingdom with your life. Just as your mother did 15 years ago."

"Okay, let's fight with all our might then." Surrendering to the Princess's determination, the General said with a mixed feeling of hope and despair.

"Charge!!" With a thunderous sound the doors of the Great Hall opened and Princess Giritnaya's army was surrounded before they could step out to put up a fight. They were in the courtroom with big walls and pillars decorated with beautiful icy blue coloured curtains and portraits of their ancestors on the sides of the walls while a portrait of Princess Giritnaya and Queen Chhaya in the middle right behind the throne because the Princess always believed that the Queen is the one that owns the throne while the Princess is only taking care of it in her absence.

"Protect the Princess." The General commanded his subordinates of the army as he watched themselves being outnumbered. Glaring at the silent court ministers, the General looked hurt but didn't say anything.

"Arya, bring the Princess away as soon as I signal. I'll hold them here to buy you some time. You have been by my side for years now, so you are the only person I can trust at this moment when I see these courtiers and ministers who used to curry favors with the Princess turning their backs to her and the Queen. Arya, you must protect her with your life." The General spoke whisperingly to one of his subordinates while gripping his spear tighter than ever.

"I shall dedicate my life to the safety of Princess Giritnaya from this moment onwards and shall I ever even think of betraying her, I shall die the most painful death in the world." Arya determined.

Relieved by his words, the General commanded his army to surround the Princess and prepare to fight. As the army conflicting to the Princess's reached in further, her army closed in a circle surrounding her and the throne, leaving all the ministers outside of the closed circle.

"You're alone. This majestic throne of the Avanti Kingdom belongs to me and no one else. You can't protect this Kingdom anymore. Give up, Princess and be my concubine. Your smooth soft face, beautiful eyes and thin lips, I want to touch them, lick them. Your prideful girlish figure and slender waist, I want to leave my marks on all over them. I have desired your entire being to be mine. Keeping you in my palace and watching you, defiling you and caressing you every day, is what I want to do. So if you want me to let your Avanti Kingdom live, be my concubine. Maybe I'll spare lives of these low lives too."

Laughing loudly, a man wearing an armor which could not hide his bulky yet brawny and robust well trained figure from the sides where the armor was a little open, came in licking his lips and fixated his eyes on the Princess standing by the throne among her army men. His eyes gazed in amusement as if seeing through the light blue gown of the Princess. As if there was no fabric binding his vision and he could see her bare body, the man continued to lick his lips. As the man made his way in cutting through the surrounding army, all the Ministers of the Princess gave him way.

Lord Shonit's arrogant heavy voice and murderous aura was enough make everyone shake to their wits. But a girl 18 was standing there looking at him as if he was some clown. Not even bothered by the creature-like behavior of the man, the girl stood as firm as ever and returned his gaze with an equally murderous aura in her eyes.

As the man reached the foot of her army and face the frontline men of Avanti Kingdom, he howled again, "All these Ministers and courtiers of yours, have long pledged their loyalty to me, Lord Shonit, the King of Mayukh Kingdom. Stop dragging your time and accept your fate the earlier to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, Princess Giritnaya."

"Hah! I'll surrender to you? You will rule this Avanti Kingdom? What a joke. If you have the guts, try taking one more step and you'll be sorry for the rest of your short life." The Princess was not going to give in no matter if she faced her death. She was determined as she bent near the throne and opened a secret chamber on the right side of the throne and brought out a weapon. She did it so stealthily that even under the watch of hundreds of pairs of eyes, she was able to retrieve the weapon without anyone noticing it.

Shifting her gaze to the rest of the people present with a fierce expression as if spitting fire with her amber shaped hazel eyes, her thin lips curved in an amusing sarcastic smile.

"Flames of the rime. Heed my call. Feel my pain with the power of these flames. Be the destroyer, be the ripper. Destroy them all." Enchanting the spell, holding her round headed spiky mace with both her hands, the weapon that she retrieved from the throne not long ago, she looked past fiercely at her betrayer subordinates.

"Hahahaha!", clapping cheekily Lord Shonit laughed louder than before like the Devil himself but did not take another step further as a preventive measure to Princess Giritnaya's warning. "I thought it was some big deal when you roared Princess, but looks like it was just a dancing lamp before its extinguishment."

Soon as the words left his mouth, there was an uproar outside the Great Hall in the open space of the palace. The men stationed outside by the King of Mayukh Kingdom were shrieking and yelping in pain and were running around to save their lives. They no longer wanted the gold and gems and women as promised by their King Shonit before he brought the whole army on this expedition, but only cared for their own lives at the moment as they continued to look for a way out.

An animal as big as dragon with a mouth like a tiger, its big wings that could cover the Great Hall, the body made of something stronger than iron and the legs contrasting its built but about the height of two people one on another, such an animal out of the Great Hall was roaring spitting icy darts and was killing everyone in sight. Its Brown hawk-like eyes weren't sparring anyone and killing without mercy.

As the men were running in panic, some of them rushed inside the Great Hall and called out their King telling him the eye witnessing scene outside. Soon as Lord Shonit heard it, he gave a laugh as if he heard something amusing.

"Hah! So you finally called out your ultimate weapon. Today, I'll take you and I'll take that animal of yours and all of your army will only be watching from the sides. Hahahah." Lord Shonit said again.

He looked at his subordinates and commanded, "I want this Princess, alive."

Not wasting another second, the Princess roared akin to a tigress, "Flames!"

Soon as she yelled, except for the stage of the throne, everywhere else in the Great Hall, there was fire. The army of the Princess was unscathed but the rest of the people were yelping in pain, screaming as they watched themselves burning and running in all directions to save themselves from the wrath of this Demoness Princess.

It was a secret mechanism that the King of Avanti Kingdom, Princess Giritnaya's father, Lord Sanjith had installed before his death. The only person who knew about it was the Queen. But what they didn't know was that their little Princess had heard their conversation when the King was telling about the mechanism to his wife and she had remembered it ever since.

Everyone standing there, ran outside the Great Hall like ants running when it pours. Lord Shonit was the first to escape the Great Hall when the fire broke but also the first among the people present inside, to send himself at the death's doorstep. Inside the Great Hall, all those who couldn't keep up were handed over to the flames while the ones who headed out, didn't have it easy either with the giant monstrous animal spitting ice darts at them and wiping them away like waving away flock of birds with its huge wings.

The creature darted a few ice darts that Lord Shonit dodged and ran in all directions and so did the rest of the people. But he wasn't someone to accept defeat easily and thus whistled to send signal his subordinates. And also to call his ride, his Pegasus, a horse with wings.

Though Pegasus wasn't as huge as the creature outside the Great Hall nor had as big wings as that of the other, but he ran quickly and in cases otherwise, was considered one of the top five summoning beasts.

At Lord Shonit's whistle, the Pegasus flown and reached his master in no time and took him away. On the other side, the rest of the people, the army of Mayukh Kingdom as well as the Ministers and courtiers, the betrayers of Avanti Kingdom, all ran as they tried to dodge the death storming down from the sky.

In the split second after the whistle when everyone near the throne, the army of Avanti Kingdom still standing guard surrounding their Princess, when everyone was focused on the outside, a sudden attack was launched against the Princess. It was one of her own army man, the one who was standing in the inner most circle of the ones around the throne. With a swift motion without any warning or sound he turned around to face the Princess and stabbed her abdomen. She yelped in pain and shrieked. The General quickly moved him away but was surrounded by the defectors within the army.

"Treacherous!" He yelled as he flung his spear and took down a few traitors.

"This is the place you'll be buried Princess Giritnaya. You only have yourself to blame to be too innocent and cunning at the same time. You're the strongest woman I have ever met. You stood strong in the direst needs and without thinking twice gave your all to serve your people but you never once thought about me. I'm your fiancée for God sake, can't you give me some power or authority? This General Shail, he has more authorities than I do. He orders me around but you never care. Today, I'm going to kill every last person who supports you along with you and General Shail and I'll be the one ruling this world. I'll be the King of Avanti Kingdom." The attacker spoke as he tried to inch nearer but was stopped by one of his subordinates who protected the Princess with his body.

An ocean of tears over-flooded her eyes as his trenchant words wounded the deepest core of her heart, dazed with the swift change in his behaviour, the Princess felt numb all over as if someone had drained all her blood. Her abdomen wasn't as hurt as her heart. She fell on her knees and continued to be in daze.

Closing in near the Princess with only a handful of deputy generals and soldiers still serving their motherland, the General signalled his subordinate Arya to take away the Princess. The General silently bid farewell to Princess Giritnaya as his eyes fogged with tears. But then he got up and fought removing the traitors and sending them to fire still burning in the Great Hall. Arya held the Princess in his arms and through a secret tunnel led her out. General Shail stood guarding the secret door not allowing anyone else to follow the other two. But another stab came his way from his back, splitting his insides and scattering all the blood and materials out in the open. The blurry eyes of the Princess watched it all until the secret door closed and Arya carried her out.

The Great Hall was full of screams and shrieks and the outside was no better where the mighty divine beast, that huge animal was sending the attackers to hell's door.

"Your Majesty, my King, I'm now handing over the Princess to your blessings. Though I've sent her out, I'm not too sure of what she's going to face in the outside world. Your Highness, my Queen, watch over her and keep her safe. I'm now meeting my old friend, my death." The General silently prayed and took his last breath.

The army of the rebels won and took lives of all those who were on Princess's side. They tried opening the secret door by which the General had sent the Princess, and it opened after a lot of failed tries but the Princess had already escaped. All the rebels went in the secret door including her fiancée, as the door closed, they breath heavily because they had inhaled a lot of smoke while standing guard and then fighting the Princess's army. But they dared not go outside of Great Hall in presence of the monster.

By the twilight, the noise from the outside of the Great hall had died down completely. The rebels army did not go through the tunnel the secret door led to afraid that they would meet the monster, but sat in the tunnel itself to kill time. So by the time they came out everything in the Great Hall had turned into ashes and the outside was filled with pool of blood and violence clearly evident. The sight of it was so horrific that a few of the remaining rebels vomited then and there.