Challenging Fate

Chapter 7

The first thought that 11 year old  Pratap had when he saw  his arch nemesis Adhira dripping wet   trying to sneak inside the castle through the backdoor  ,with the help of her friend and his trouble making brother was , too run to his mother shouting and screaming telling her about  how her perfect Adhira decided to not follow her orders and sneak out to the river , and watch Adhira's good girl Image crumble in seconds . But that thought faded away as fast as it came   3as he saw a trail of blood following the path Adhira took. Gone was the 11-year-old boy leaving the soldier in him ready to inspect the situation. The trail of blood lead Pratap to remember the last conversation he had with his father before he left to secure the Jaisalmer.

"dajiraj ! aap humere saath aise kaise kar sakte hai ? aap hume chodke yudhbhoomi mei kaise jaa sakte hai! kya aap abh bhi hume balak samajhte hai ? aap humse apni matrubhoomi ki raksh karne ka avasar kaise chin sakte hai ?(father! How could you do this to me? How can you leave to protect my motherland without me! Do you also think that I am a child?! How can you take away the golden opportunity of protecting my homeland from me?) " Exclaimed a distraught pratap 

" Pratap hume aapke shourya par pura bharosa hai , aur islea hi hum aapko yahi chhodke jaa rahe hai kyuki  iss samay jitna khatra bahar hai utna hi mahal ke andhar bhi hai  aur hum chahete hai ki humere jaane par aap sabhi strriyo aur baccho ko surakshit rakhe  isse jyda hum aapko abhi kuch nahi bata sakte bas aap humeri baato  par dhyaan dijiyega ( Pratap I do trust your bravery , and that's why I am leaving you behind , because in this case  both the border and the capital are in danger  and I want you to protect all the females and children  in this dire situation  I can't  say much right now I just want you to keep my words in mind )"said  his father Maharaj Uday Singhji 

Remembering his father's words Pratap was filled with guilt that he could not fulfil his promise, but now wasn't the time to feel guilty his first priority was to make sure everyone is safe and this was only possible by assassinating the assassin himself, and to do so he needed her help.

Adhira would be lying if she said she wasn't scared now that she actually thought of the events that took place before, she realised that she wasn't simply drowning in the river, and the boy with pretty unique eyes didn't simply pull her out of the river he fought the assassin in the river to help her escape. Someone attempted to assassinate her. It was all new to her, being the target of the killer, but what she did not know was that this wasn't the first assassination attempt on her this was just the first that was able to reach to her, her father and brothers took care of all the other assassins that ever stepped in their household without alerting anyone. Ashira was pretty sure that this was the first of many  such attempts on her life suddenly she didn't feel like a 6-year-old anymore. Her too intelligent thoughts for her age were interrupted by burning pain in her leg which caused her to shriek out loud. 

Shakti was watching Adhira trying to keep her cries of pain in by biting her lower lip as Phool applied medicine to her leg. Shakti was not new to sword wounds so seeing the straight deep gash on Adhira's leg he knew that the wound on her leg was definitely a sword wound , he very well knew that Adhira was lying when she said that she fell down on a sharp rock and cut herself, while the story she brew was very convincing  but it was no way real, while a normal person like Phool would definitely believe her false story he wouldn't because he knew how to differentiate between wounds of a knife and a scratch from a stone having experienced both himself.

Their patch up Adhira session was interrupted by his very serious looking older brother who was looking at them with an expression that said tell-me-everything-right-now-I-to-murder-someone. 

"Adhira kanwar aap hume issi shan sab kuch sach sach batiye , aur humne kaha sach kyuki aap jo kahegi uss par iss mehel ke sabhi logo ki sursksha nirbhar hai ( Adhira, I want you to tell me the whole truth right now, and I want the truth because your answer determines the safety of everyone in this palace. )"said Pratap in a tone that sent chills in the spines of everyone present there . 

Understanding the importance of the truth Adhira decided to open up and told everything point to point form her going to bath in the river alone to the unknown child saving her life from a professionally trained assassin. She cleverly left out the part where he helped her ring the bell of the temple not wanting to show her weakness in front of everyone, not that it was important for them.  

Listening to everything Adhira said, Pratap came to a conclusion that to capture the assassin he'll need the help of the unknown boy as he was the only one who actually knew how the assassin looked and to meet the boy he needed Adhira's help considering she is the only one who knows how the boy looks. this was going to be a long day and Pratap was definitely not looking forward to it.

On the other hand Adhira was ecstatic after all she was going to meet the boy who saved her life again, and she'll make sure she pays her debt to him this time.