Ashram 01 - Part II

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In my last post, you read about Sharayu, the valiant lady out in search of her Prince to get him to rescue her friends. Now we find the Prince in the dreaded Ashram. Are you interested..?

Yuvraj Aditya Hansraj opened his eyes sleepily. It was a huge effort to stay awake. He raised his hand to his head, grunting with the exertion of it. His head prickled uncomfortably, and a strange sensation of having overslept assailed his heavy hands.

A faint tinkling sound, such as that of a bell carried lightly in the cool air. A temple, he thought absently.

With a sudden jerk, he pulled himself upright. His back and hands ached in protest. But the movement had cleared the sleepiness, and his head cleared. Breathing a little more freely, Aditya looked around.

What was this place?!

He was sitting on rough ground. On a raised dais made of hard earth. A dark shadow was cast over him by a Banyan tree sharing the dais, vastly broad at its full height. But even if not for the Banyan tree, it was dark.

A bright moon shimmered low on the horizon, taunting in its vigor. The strong light it lent gave a pale glow to the surroundings.

Bleak surroundings, for all the glow they had. Dismal land stretched out on all sides, only to be swallowed by gnarly trees in the far distance. Saplings of lesser plants eased the stubbiness of the stark plains. A network of shrubbery assailed the land on one side, a group of thatched huts on the other.

Groaning at the stiffness in his limbs, Aditya pushed off the ground and stumbled to his feet. The place did not seem any brighter from a few feet up. But it did afford more of a view.

A wicker gate ran around the furthest part of the grounds, bordering the woods outside. Aditya followed the uneven sticks of wood along the perimeter with his eyes. Over a slope they went, and past a still, dull pond. Half-falling to the ground where they bordered the shrubbery, and sturdiest at a barren terrain furthest from where he stood.

Perplexed, Aditya rubbed his hand over his head. His palm brushed over a roughened chin and trailed over silky hair above his broad forehead. A golden chain holding a ruby pendant carved into the shape of a fiery sun snagged into his fingers, and Aditya traced the chain around his head.

For the first time in his life, the weight of the ruby against his brows felt unfamiliar.

Where was he?!

The mystery was starting to get at him, and Aditya jumped off the dais, ignoring the crick in his legs. The place was so bleak, there weren’t even any animals about. Not a sparrow foraging in the soils. Not a stray dog hounding around.

Not a soul for miles around! And yet the faintly tinkling bell persisted.

He started to walk toward the sound, but his left leg cramped beneath him. Kneeling on the ground in pain, Aditya grimaced. This could not go on. Pushing himself off the ground again, Aditya jumped into the air. Again, and then again and again, until he felt the blood flowing again in his tired legs.

Slowly, the cramp receded.

Swiping a broken twig off the ground, he began to walk briskly in the direction of the tinkling bell. As if to thwart him, the sound stopped. But Aditya kept walking in the direction the sound had come from. Toward the thorny shrubbery.