Child Of Manas ( Part 3 )

Although, strictly speaking, where was it a bed? It was clearly a crib. The young maids tittered and giggled leaning on to each other in their lovely uniforms. Some even sighed, looking doe eyed at Kush as though they found the naked child throwing a tantrum quite lovable.

This scene would've been easy to digest had Kush still been that short and cute ten year old who raided the desert in the west. But four years have already past. He was clearly a young man now. He was even sporting a morning erection! Flustered and embarrassed, he started throwing things at the maids.

"Get out! Get out! Get out!"

It was his fault really. As someone who often camped outside, Kush should not have gotten into the habit of sleeping naked. But somehow he did.

No it was teacher's fault. She let me!

The worst part was, these maids were not some innocent virgins. They were clearly trainees from the devdasi school belonging to the temple! Even if they did not have sex yet, they clearly knew all about it. More than him anyway. How could a boy like him take their intrusion like this every morning? Thinking about his future in this place, Kush began to have cold sweats.

"Oh, the little highness is angry again. He's so cute!" a petite and plump maiden cooed in her sweet voice.

"Shut up! I'm not angry. And I'm not little!"

"Your Highness is our entire palace's darling little child. The only one at that! Don't deprive us servants of our little pleasures, Your Highness," another one tittered.

"Do not talk about little pleasures!" Kush screamed in revolt, still trying to find a piece of cloth to cover himself.

On girl giggled understanding what he meant, but the others didn't even get it. They beseeched him, "Yes, Your Highness. You are the first child the goddess had in ten centuries since this temple had been built. How can you not be precious to all of us? We feel like you are the child of every one of us!"

This was coincidentally also the reason Kush was sleeping in a crib and not a bed. This crazily creative town was filled with centuries worth of songs and lore about the cuteness of the chosen one, who is but a child but was already an army general. Apparently, in the songs of the bards and poets, this child won over the army with his cuteness alone. Therefore, in accordance with the poet's fancy, the temple palace prepared a crib and not a bed for the successor. Not to mention, the hundreds and thousands of devdasis that lived in the temple were not allowed to have children of their own. Even if they birthed any, they were supposed to give them away in adoption if it was a boy or raise as a devdasi if it was a girl. Many fathers who recognised their children also took them away to raise at their own homes if their wives or mistresses permitted it. In consequence, the temple palace was full of thousands of beautiful women who were brimming with maternal hormones with nowhere to pour them at. So for eons, they lay in wait for the chosen one. The only one who was allowed to have a child in the temple palace was the goddess. So they will raise the goddess's child as their own. This was something they all agreed upon. Naturally, they all felt overwhelmed now that the chosen one had been found.

Only…the songs of the bards describe the chosen one a little differently. He was younger, chubbier and loved to be picked up and played with. The reality was slightly on the darker side however.

"Who wants all of you as my fucking mothers! My own mother was a bitch so I ran away from her! Who wants your goddess to be my mother?! I have my own goddess! My teacher is so beautiful none of you can fucking compare to her toenail. Not even your goddess can. I don't need some random block of stone to adopt me. Get lost you bitches!"

Hearing his rant, some of the delicate maidens broke down crying. Some whimpered softly while others gossiped among themselves. "Should we use soap or detergent for that mouth?"

"Neither. We should get the coconut fiber we use to scrub the buffaloes."

They giggled, whispering, "I heard he was raised by barbarians."

"Yeah. What do you expect…"

Some other girls shushed the giggling and gossiping ones, while some nudged each other's shoulders and passed messages through their eyes. All in all, the lively throng of twenty-two young maidens were clearly in a world of their own, swaying in mysterious patterns like honeybees, even making humming sounds like them that Kush completely didn't understand.

He was feeling contrite because of the way he acted, so he simply stood there, his mind in a mess. Kush was raised by the most elegant woman on the planet. He believed, even the universe. How could he not know how crass his words just were? Not only were they rude, they even had lies and untruths mixed in them. He didn't run away from his mother, his mother gave him to his teacher so he can get an education. The goddess who ruled Manas was perhaps beautiful as well. It was just that she was carved out of black stone and Kush was unable to tell. Kush wouldn't have felt so bad if he was just rude. But he never wanted to lie. Warrior doesn't need to lie. Warrior takes what warrior wants. Warrior does what warrior wants. So why did he need to lie?

Feeling like he was being throttled, Kush kicked the crib's wooden panel down and sat on the bed. The panel was made of hundred year old fragrant wood. It was also quite fat and made a lot of noise going down, startling the lovely bees. However, they just tittered again and changed patterns as they signaled to one another and took out two wooden sticks they hid in their outfits. Laughing and humming, they formed pairs of two and moved into a circular formation around the room. They knocked the pair of sticks together and began to dance as they whirled around in circles. Evidently, they did not at all put in mind what mood Kush was in.

"Your Highness, today is the big day! We will shortly prepare you for the adoption ceremony," the lead girl with a charming voice announced. "When we came in to wake you up with song, we also prepared this dance. Enjoy!"

Fuck me! Kush felt his head explode, but he still only think those words and not say them aloud.

Everything was happening too fast. Kush was becoming a royal. He thought of a hundred ways it could happen, but he never ever imagined it would be like this. He completely didn't want this.

'It is all because of Cactus, that bastard. Whenever he comes to visit me, my life completely turns upside down. The last time he visited, I fell into a pit of war and carnage that lasted three whole years!' Kush thought and lamented.

The first time Vajra visited Kush, he was in a terrible state. He followed all of Vajra's advice and only then could he successfully extricate himself from the situation he was in. Everything from the battle in the Tanadhar Valley, Dhija taking Rtadhara's help to guard Damayanti Pass, the resistance from all sides while marching through the coalition highway, the divine powered princes and princesses who wreaked havoc and even Dhija kingdom's later retaliation towards Rtadhara, their subsequent war, the four kingdoms' combined attack on Abhaya, it all happened exactly the way Martanda predicted. Even his assumption that Hangi will pull out when Martanda showed up on the side of Abhaya turned out to be true. In that series of battle, Kush lost fifteen thousand barbarians and one thousand Maruts. He started his campaign against Aaradhya with exactly twenty thousand men. This was once again spot on. However, under his teacher's guidance, he didn't easily lose men since then. But truly, the real battle began from Aaradhya.