Reminiscence Of Amore - A Mahabharata Story

CONSPIRATIONS-15

~Author pov~

The sun had just risen, the rhythmic hymns sung by the gentle waters of the Gomti river soothed Tara.A cool tender breeze teased her wavy hair.It acted like a medicine to her battle scarred body.

She was riding her horse, devadutta, gifted to her by Hari, she was going back to her gurukul after assisting the Panchal king Drupad in a war with sindh raj.
She stopped at the river bed and washed her face. Ashwathama was supposed to pick her up, but he bailed when he knew she was helping panchal,because of his father's enmity towards Drupad.
Tara knew that soon Ashwathama would become the king of Southern panchal, she got the message that all the princes were returning to Hastinapur, the story is about to start.
Whenever she thought about that wretched city, her thoughts will go to her first massacre, the blood...
How she was horrified that she killed those people, but now it's like second nature to her.She had killed thousands of people in these 4 years, some were innocent, some were not,the smell of blood never left her, she had been named an assassin by many royals, a person who would kill anyone for money.

In a few days she will know what her destiny is, she will enter the saga herself.
She was lost in these thoughts that she had strayed off the road into a clearing, where staring her in the face was a beautiful building, it was built entirely of white and pink marble.An imposing flight of stairs led up to the top of a high platform, which had been adorned by pillars around its entire circumference.
Elaborate structures were curved upon every available space on the structure. Then it striked her, it was the temple of lord Brahma. She had heard the folk that it was the only Brahma temple.
There was a small crowd of hawkers around the courtyard in the clearing. Some stalls were there selling flowers and items for Puja.

"What are you doing here"
Tara turned around to find a Pandit staring at him.

"Huh, dancing, this is a temple, what do you think I am doing"

The pandit smiled.

"But you don't really believe in God, do you"

How did he guess it?? She thought, she went to temples only because someone forced her, she had accidentally found this one.Saying she didn't believe in God would be pointless now because she was friends with a literal god, but her 21st century brain still couldn't wrap her head around the fact that there is a god.This was all still like a dream to her.

"How-" she started.

"Everyone who enters this place of worship has eyes only for the idol of Lord Brahma, nobody notices the brilliance of the architecture, however you only have eyes on the work, not even a glance on the idol"

Tara grinned "You kinda guessed right, I don't believe in symbolic gods, God exists all around us and I really don't care if my opinion has caused any offence to you"

"Your tongue is a menance girl, but I really believe that one day you will walk to the temple for prayer not by accident or its beauty "

"Oh really, which day would that be, you have predicted this much, predict that too "

"You will know that day when it comes"

Why do these damn people in Dwapar yug always talk in riddles, why can't they talk like normal people, straight to the point, she was irritated.

Tara nodded sarcastically and decided to flee the temple quickly.

As she got down the stairs, she was alerted by a quick movement from a seller there.She turned to see him pulling out a sword as he tossed his shawl aside.The 2 people next to him also stood in a traditional fighting positions with their swords drawn.In a flash Tara drew her sword.
The three attackers charged in.Two more jumped from behind the trees.
Tara raised her sword defensively just as the first attacker came close.Feigning a sideward movement to draw the shepherd into an aggressive attack, Tara dropped his sword low.
But instead of taking advantage of Tara's opening, he tried to strike her shoulder. Tara quickly raised her right arm and swung viciously, inflicting a deep wound across his torso.
As the first one fell back, the second one moved in from the right.He swung from a distance, Tara stepped back to avoid the swing and brought his sword down in a smooth action to dig deep into the attacker's thigh.Screaming he too fell back.
As this continued Tara began to realise that this was indeed a strange assault, the attackers were trained warriors, but they did not appear to want to kill but merely injure.
Slowly but surely the attackers were being worn out.
All of a sudden the attackers disengaged from the battle and stepped back.Even as they retreated, their swords continued to point menancingly at Tara.They disappeared into the trees, Tara considered chasing them but most immediately decided against it, she might just rush into an ambush.
Tara was confused , who are these people, she then saw a bracelet lying on the ground, she picked it up and the sight astonished her, it was the same symbol as the tatoo on the back of her neck.
The words of Kripacharya dawned on her, but how did this happen?? She needed the answers, she need to reach
Malaya mountains as soon as possible.