Chapter 2— Kalindi

Hridaypura

The early morning singing of the birds were defeated by another smooth and soothing voice which was thanking the God for everything present on earth. In the palace of Hridaypura, a girl who was wearing a silk saree with gold jewellery adorning various parts of her body, completed aarti (a small wick placed on a plate for praying the statue of God). Then she turned back to look at all her family members including her step sisters and young stepbrother with their respective mothers as well.

First she moved towards her father and showed him the aarti from which he took the blessings and then she went to her mother and brother. All the while the small clipped smile on her lips didn't change. Once puja is done, everyone dispersed to their own works. She remained in the puja hall for sometime and then moved towards her chamber. When she came back to her chamber, her mother, Mathura was already waiting for her. She greeted her mother,"Mother! You are here? That too this early in the morning? ".

When her maids were standing with bowed heads, her mother came near her and said," Kalindi, The Royals of Rakhshatra will be here by next week and the wedding will happen three days later. So I came here to give you some new jewelleries which I have ordered from the goldsmith. Hereafter put on these heavy jewellries rather than the light ones you wear usually. Because you will not be one of the princesses of Hridaypura. You will be the Yuvrani(Crown Princess or Princess Consort), the future Queen of Rakshatra".

Saying this her mother looked at her with warm eyes which is rare since the Queen had always been strict about the learnings and discipline of Kalindi. From childhood, Kalindi has been carefully craved by her mother to be a proper wife as well as a Queen. Her mother time and again reminded her that a woman may be the Queen of a kingdom but for her husband, she is a wife and should always be at his service. This is a reason why Kalindi as well as her step sisters were made to learn cooking, sewing and other ordinary things generally done by their maids along with the academic education of a princess.

After the Queen departed from there, Kalindi went on to do her usual work to pass on the time, which is gardening. Although the garden is common for all the royal members, there is a separate garden with a little protective shade from the sun, which is a private garden for Kalindi. She collected a lot of plants and seeds which are rare for common people as well as the royals to find, through various travellers and traders from overseas who are brought to the back entrance of the palace by one of trusted maid, Rekha.

Kalindi was going towards her garden for which she had to pass through the common royal garden, where her step sister Uttara was sitting, eating snacks and gossiping with some of her friends, who are the daughters of important aristocrats. Seeing Kalindi going towards the private garden, Uttara made a face and ignored her while one of the girls asked her,"Princess Uttara, your sister doesn't look much like the Queen. So is the rumours true that she is the illegitimate daughter of the King? ".

Another girl admonished her by saying," Keep your voice low. This is the palace and talking ill about the King is offence punishable by death ". Kalindi ignored their talks although she could hear them clearly and went away without any change of expression. This is nothing new as she had heard even more ugly statements about her birth, the truth of which she herself don't know.

Once Kalindi went away from the common garden, Princess Uttara answered them with an irritation,"No one in the palace knows anything regarding her birth. But everyone is sure that she is illegitimate because Father brought her back from his journey, where he chased and defeated the rebels with the help of our neighbouring King. That is when her engagement was also decided with the crown prince of that Kingdom. I don't know why such a prestigious kingdom would want to have an illegitimate child as their future Queen. I doubt that their crown prince is either ugly or might have some disease".

Other girls also pondered on Uttara's words and somehow got convinced that the crown prince is ugly. Because everyone had heard about his achievements when he was in common Gurukul (Residential school for Princes) for all the Princes and his excellence which made him a direct student of the head Guru (Teacher) which happens once in a decade or more. But nobody mentioned about how he looks so they don't have any knowledge about that. What the girls missed to notice was the jealousy visible on Uttara's face.

Uttara got jealous that her elder step sister will be the future Queen of Rakhshatra, which is twice the size of Hridaypura. She herself knows that her father wouldn't hesitate to nullify the previous engagement of his precious daughter, if the crown prince looks ugly. From childhood, Kalindi had the privilege of the official daughter of the King even after being illegitimate child, just because the King put her under the care of the Queen. And on top of that the Queen never mistreated her nor did she let anyone else to mistreat her. What the King and Queen couldn't control was that Kalindi being isolated and outcasted among her step siblings.

However, Kalindi has a different perspective on her life, She didn't mind being isolated or outcasted by her step siblings because she herself doesn't like to interact with more people. Her birth has always overshadowed her other qualities. But she doesn't have any complaints about it because her mother, Queen Mathura and her father, King Udayan had never made her feel like an outsider. Not to mention her elder brother Pratham, who has even postponed his wedding till she is married off.

Although her mother is always strict, she had never shown slightest bit of hatred or disgust for her. And Kalindi is always thankful for having such a family. When Kalindi entered her private garden, her maid Rekha was already there with a new plant in her hands. The other maids of Kalindi stood outside the private garden as Kalindi doesn't like anyone else apart from Rekha and Lekha, her other maid who is the twin of Rekha, to be inside the garden.

Kalindi asked Rekha,"What is this plant? What kind of flower would it bear? ". Rekha answered," Princess, this is a special herbal plant which a merchant from persia got here". Kalindi frowned at the answer and said,"You know that I don't like plants without flowers right. Then why did you get this. Send it back." Rekha immediately replied,"No Princess, this plant has other uses other than simply medicine ". Then she went on to tell the uses and the impact.

After sometime, Kalindi and Rekha came out of the private garden after watering the plants and just then Lekha came there and greeted her to continue, while they walked back towards her chamber. Rekha and Lekha followed immediately behind her while the other maids followed at the back.

After passing through the common gardens, Lekha started saying,"Princess, today the court has finally concluded that they wouldn't import the vegetables from the Kingdom of chakyanagara. Yuvraj Pratham had convinced the court that the vegetables from the Kingdom of chakyanagara would perish within a short period of time which will cost a lot for us than the existing imports. So they have rejected the proposal of that kingdom ".

Kalindi nodded at her and all of them went to her chamber. Yuvraj Pratham was already waiting for her in the visitor's hall of her chamber. Kalindi dismissed the maids except Lekha and Rekha. Pratham asked," Why didn't you attend the court today? " Kalindi answered,"I had some other important work and anyways the court had no interesting discussion today ". Pratham sighed at her non-chalant behaviour and said," Anyways I came here to thank you for your suggestion regarding the import case. It's because of you that the disaster was averted ".

Kalindi smiled at him but didn't say anything. Pratham knew that her smile is the most acknowledgement he would get from her. So he stood up to leave but turned towards her and said," Your marriage is to happen by next week. I know that we Prince or Princess don't have much of a choice in choosing our life partner but I want to tell you that, I will always have your back whatever the situation may arise in the future ". Kalindi smiled at his words and teased him," Thanks for your concern, Brother. I will also assure you that I will have your back whenever you need to be away from your wife ".

Pratham rolled his eyes at her teasing and went from there. Pratham had never treated any of his step sisters badly or with resent. Although Kalindi is not his own sister, she is more special for him because he was the one who held her for the first time when their father brought her here and his mother refused to look at her. The five year old Pratham instantly liked his sister and accepted her.

After Pratham left her chamber, Kalindi changed her attire to a more comfortable form and then asked Lekha,"There is still one hour for lunch preparation right? " Lekha replied in positive and then both of them went to the balcony attached and climbed down using a rope. Then Kalindi moved to the denser part of the forest as she doesn't want anyone to see her face, while Lekha was watching out for her by hiding on a branch of the tree near the entrance of the forest. Rekha will handle there in the palace about Kalindi's whereabouts till they return back from the forest.

In the forest, Kalindi was looking for some target and got bored by the usual tree barks, leaves and fruits. So she moved towards the small lake within the forest which spilts the forest into two parts. She was looking for a target when a fish kept on jumping out of the water and back into the water again. She followed its movements within the water, which generally others might not see through and released her arrow at the right time to kill it. Then she tried to pull three arrows together in a single release and succeeded to reach the target for two of the arrows. She felt disappointed at that but still practised the same for some time and then went back.

Lekha climbed down the tree and said,"Princess, you finished your practice early? " Kalindi replied,"No, we came late and now it's almost time for preparing lunch ". Then she went to the palace in the same way and after dressing herself, went on to prepare the lunch for the royal family, as today is her turn to cook.

It's not a new thing that women of royal family learn martial arts. But surely its a rare thing to hear nowadays. The rule is written that women of the royal family choose to learn martial arts but not implemented by everyone. Once in a while there will be a story of some brave Queen who took up the throne after her husband's or son's death, but only a handful of them were able to sustain the position with loyal people supporting them.

And Hridaypura is one such Kingdom which keeps the rule for namesake while in reality wouldn't even ask the girls their wish for learning. So Kalindi hid her archery skills away from her family as her request was rejected by her parents during her childhood. Whatever she had learnt was from watching the training of her brother before and after his gurukul education. Among all other weapons, it was only bow and arrow which pulled her interest. Kalindi could only hope that situations will change when her brother ascends the throne.

𝙷𝚒 𝚐𝚞𝚢𝚜,

𝙳𝚒𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝙺𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚒? 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚗 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚌𝚑 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝚏𝚞𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜. 𝚂𝚘 𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚒𝚝 𝚝𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚗.

𝙳𝚘 𝚟𝚘𝚝𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛.

By:- sahawrites

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