Daughter of the Naga

Chapter 21

A few days passed. I began to adjust to my new life in this authentic parallel world where everything was odd and grand. Each morning Kesar would wake me up at early dawn so that I could start my load of intensive training like a soldier.

In the afternoon, I took general lessons with the other avatars. Sambo taught us everything there was under the sun. Sometimes, the Queens themselves would also give us lectures when they came to brief the soldiers.

For soft skills, we had mathematics, physics, geography, and philosophy with the Guru. The Hora gave astronomy lesson, but only Atith, Vorac, Tusita and Tepi seemed to understand what he was talking about. Queen Indradevi taught us government, architecture and war strategies while her sister taught us sutras and mantras.

Other times, the king would inspect the military base when he finished the state affairs. He and his wives would discuss the warfare with the avatars, the Guru, other ministers, and generals.

We would hold an assembly at the Royal Palace if needed. I was invited to join although I didn't know anything about how to run an empire.

As for the princess, she hadn't shown up again since. And of course, I felt like a bucket of parched flowers without her.

Atith and Tusita also taught me to ride a horse, but my horse tossed me around like a dummy. My chariot always ran off track, and every boat I joined in the race always lost. Sometimes, it sunk just a few meters away from the finish line.

They tried to teach me their two-thousand-year-old martial art, and I had no doubt that I was a hopeless. Vorac and Tusita tried to teach me archery. They expected nothing but the bull's eye. I tried to shoot as best as I could, yet on some occasions, the Devatas had to pull my arrows out of their headdresses. The flying Kennars would scurry away every time I raised my bow.

Worst of all, I had become the hilarious show for the other avatars, especially Issarak and Morokot. Indeed, their hope of getting me supports was in vain.

"How could you do that?" I complained while in the archery field one evening. My arrow had just dunked its head to the ground, missing the target for the hundredth time.

"You want to know how?" Vorac said and walked up to me. "Tell me what you see on the field."

"The target boards?" I said.

"How many bull's eye?"

"Twenty or so." I shrugged and turned to look at her. "Why?"

"Because I see only one," Vorac replied.

"Pardon?"

"I only see what I aim for and nothing else."

"How?"

Then she drew a golden arrow from her quiver and tugged it on the string of her bow before pulling it back. Her silver eyes gleamed.

I didn't even see where she was aiming at, but Vorac didn't waste another second, and she swiftly released the bowstring. The arrow cut through the wind. It darted so fast I had no idea where it went. But I heard a distant cry of a wild bird. That was when we saw a crow fell from a tree and dropped lifelessly to the ground.

I stared in bewilderment. A young soldier ran to fetch the kill and brought it back to us. The arrow had pierced the crow from one side to the other, but that wasn't all! It was the eyes of the bird that Vorac had struck. I looked at her with a gaping mouth. Vorac smiled at me.

"That is wicked!" I breathed.

"Huh?" she arched her eyebrow.

"I meant...extraordinary!"

"Oh....well," Vorac said with a shrug. "It's just my inborn gift."

"Poor thing though." I turned to look at the dead crow. Vorac made a face and pulled the tip of the blood-smeared arrow out of the black bird. Suddenly, the crow's eyes healed back to normal.

The bird started blinking once and twice and then flapping its wings. It began a frantic flight from the soldier's hands as if it just woke up from a nightmare. Then the crow flew away and was gone.

"How could it be possible?" I gasped, staring at the soaring bird in the sky.

"Celestial weapons," Tusita's voice came from behind us. "They do no harm to innocent humans or animals."

"Really?" I said.

"Yes, but my Gandiva is still effective if I will it to be," Tusita said. "Trust me, you don't want to see how powerful my bow is."

"Please!" Vorac scoffed. "I thought you just didn't want us to know you have poor aims."

"Excuse you! I am the Wielder of the Great Gandiva." Tusita turned to Vorac. "My holy father uses the rainbow as his bow! How in the Seventh Hell could you possibly doubt my archery skills?"

"Is that right?" Vorac challenged. "Then how come you never show us?"

"I just don't want you to wet your pants, that's all."

"Never mind then," Vorac said and crossed her arms over her chest. "I know you're just bluffing."

Tusita bit her bottom lip. It seemed as if they were having one of those couple's moments when one wants the other to please her by doing things to impress her.

"Alright, fine!" Tusita said. Vorac tried to hide a satisfied beam. Tusita walked out into the field.

When she held out her hand, a whirlwind of gold dust swirled above her palm. Then out came a majestic golden bow decorated with hundreds of gold bosses over its shaft. The glittery string seemed to hum softly as if it was woven from nothing but power and light. Indeed, this wasn't the bow Tusita had been carrying around. The real Gandiva was a lot fiercer than I thought.

She pulled the string of the golden bow and aimed at the target boards that stood around the field. I had never seen her eyes sparkled so brightly so that they almost shone.

The sky grew dark above our heads. The clouds began to circle around each other, turning into a flashing storm-funnel where the daughter of Indra stood. I could see a faint glow of golden aura around her as she was holding back the bowstring, and a bright ghostly arrow was manifested from the golden light.

Vorac and I stood back and watched in awe. Everyone around the field stopped what they were doing and stared at us.

Then Tusita released the string. Her bow produced the sound of a mighty thunder. An arrow of vibrating energy smashed all the target boards, shattering them into a million pieces. But it did not stop there, the force of Tusita's powerful Gandiva raged through the field, unearthing the ground and uprooting the grass and trees then splitting a twin palm trees in half. Then it seared off the tip of a rock on the mountain in the distance.

Vorac and I froze in astonishment.

A moment later, we heard Tepi and Atith. They ran towards us. Their faces were wild with surprise. They stared at the mess before them and dropped their jaws.

"What in the world have you done, Tusita?!" Tepi cried.

"Oops." Tusita turned around and shrugged apologetically.