Vagaries of the heart

Northern Zilla

Thankfully, Mriga was too low on the totem pole for her existence to be under any sort of threat to anyone. This was one of the main reasons that Shaurya had decided to stay away from confessing his feelings to her. Under no circumstances, could he let his true attachment to her be known to her or others. Unfortunately, though, all the logics of the rational mind couldn't stop his heart from breaking.

If life gave him another chance, he would surely come back and stake a claim on her heart and her affection. But till then, all he could do was be her mentor, tormentor and maybe a little something more…

A week later

Mriga had left by the first boat early that morning. She had been instructed to report to the Gurukul before travelling to the Eastern zilla, in the last letter received.

Shaurya had asked Mriga to take him to her favourite scenic spot the night prior to her leaving for the internship. Despite her surprise at his uncharacteristic request, she had not said anything and climbed up to the spot with him. She had stood there, soaking in the night and stars, looking nothing less than temptation personified. He had resented her calmness, bitterly. How could she have forgotten the monumental occurrence of the last time, while he was fighting a hard battle within?

A part of him had told him to throw everything to caution and live in the moment while the other urged him to even breathe with caution. Regretfully, the rational side of him won and he let go of her after an inconsequential conversation and a hard, swift and unexplained hug. He had walked away from her in long strides, and wasn't around to see her off the next morning.

Though Mriga wasn't aware of the true nature of his feelings for her, the tectonic plates of her heart had shifted without her being even aware of it. She couldn't describe the sense of loss which she was feeling currently but she knew that something was amiss...

Bela came back after dropping her daughter at the riverbank and went to look for Shaurya who had been missing in action since early morning.

She found him practicing his archery skills at the moving target site which she had engineered on one of the floors of the training hill. She had deliberately let the place be dimly lit and the floor uneven to keep it authentic. After all, this wasn't a practice site for entering into archery competitions but to train for hitting the target accurately under variable conditions.

Sensing her footsteps, he lowered the bow without shooting the arrow off it. Turning, he bowed to Bela and waited.

"The whole regime of tightening the bowstring to its full tautness before releasing it accurately can act therapeutic when one feels frustrated, no?" she picked up another bow and strummed its string.

Shaurya hoped that the question had been rhetorical and lifted the bow again, pretending to be immersed in locking his target.

Bela gave a small smile at his attempt towards feigned indifference but didn't call him out on it.

She had sensed the intensity of his emotions towards her daughter sometime back. Mriga's spatial intelligence wasn't greatly developed yet but Bela excelled at it. Not to forget that a mother's instinct about ferreting out her daughter's potential suitors was unparalleled.

As a result, his stares and sighs had been registered by her within the early days of his arrival. She hadn't intervened in the matter till the time she thought that he could keep his emotions in check and he hadn't disappointed her. It wasn't that she held anything against him as a potential suitor but the current situation which they found themselves in, didn't have the margin for luxuries like love and its reciprocal, not to mention the fact that her daughter was still nursing a broken heart.

"Now that Mriga has left, we can up the ante for your training without any hitch. As per the latest information, your travel date is set fifteen days from now. While it may not be enough for me to help you learn any new skill but it should be sufficient to hone whatever you possess. We would allocate half of our working hours towards this. The other half will be dedicated only towards improving your soft skills. Your planning isn't bad but you are thinking like a soldier. I need your vision to expand and reach for the unknown horizon. Do you understand my meaning?" her clinical words set the awkward atmosphere at ease.

Shaurya nodded and followed her out of the room.

Gurukul

"What are all of you doing here?" Mriga screeched loud enough to send the parrots fly away in terror from there.

All four boys turned around to scowl at her.

Abhirath stepped forward and asked her, "Shouldn't we be asking you that? How dare you hide it from all of us that you were still very much a part of the Admin team?"

Vandit nudged Abhirath aside and held Mriga's wrist while complaining, "And to think that I felt so guilty that I had been the unworthy one who stayed in while you were thrown out. Bad girl!"

Chiranjeev and Nirbhay were also looking at her with a fierce expression. Mriga swallowed visibly but soon realised that offence was the best way to defend herself right now. She pulled her hand out of Vandit's grasp and climbed up the stairs outside the Admin building. Sequentially, she turned towards everyone and gave them a similar glare to what she had been welcomed with.