In the Kingdom of Prayag...
A man was standing alone near the window of the highest cabin of the tallest tower of the outer most fort looking far outside towards the ground where thousands of soldier were camping. There was no one inside the cabin, he had sent all the soldiers who were inside, out of the cabin to another station. He didn't want them to see that the light in their king's eyes were fluctuating from the storm of thoughts he was having in his head and making him indecisive.
For past few days, he was feeling unsettled, everytime he start thinking on how to deal with this entourage of Prince Shantanu, the first thing that come into his mind was to surrender to them. But then again the pride of a king and the pride of a nation came in between. So he immediately use to crush those thoughts. This was not the case before. At first when he was surrounded by the Kashyapa Army, at that time he had thought that he could easily ward off the prince's little army by his own army.
But the things changed in just few weeks, his whole planning and thought process started shaking like like leaves with just one wave of rumors and it completely crumbled like a castle of sand when the news of the same was confirmed. This was all due to reputation and strength of a single man and that is the Kashyapa Clan's forefather. From that day the first thought that use to come in his mind everyday was of surrendering.
Whoosh.....
While he was thinking, he saw a tiny brilliantly shining dot approaching towards his fort, his eyes went wide. He immediately rushed away from the window and was about to shout when he heard a terrifyingly loud bell sounds in the fort. He knew what this bell sound signifies to and so he took a sigh of relief for a moment before his eyebrows raised, his face again turned dark.
Thuddd.....
He saw a arrow invaded the fort and stuck on the wall before him. His eyes narrowed while looking at the arrow. While he was about to go and declare the start of the battle he saw a red piece of cotton cloth was knotted on the tail of the arrow.
His eyes narrowed more as he looked towards that tail of the arrow. He immediately understood it was a letter, a letter that was going to decide the future of his kingdom and himself.
He immediately wanted to reach out and see what was written in it but the thought that it can be a declaration of war, stopped him from moving forward but soon another thought came into his mind that maybe it can be some favourable terms and conditions for the surrender. He took a step forward towards that arrows.
Thud... Thud... Thud...
Some running footsteps was approaching towards his cabin but they immediately stopped before the cabin seeing the door of the cabin was closed but someone from them immediately said,
"Your Majesty? Are you alright? We saw an arrow coming towards this cabin. Your Majesty?"
"Come in and send someone at the top and ask the soldiers there to stop the alarm." A cool collected voice came from inside the cabin.
"Yes Your Majesty." After saying that one of the soldier left and the remaining two soldiers entered the cabin and saw their king was untying a piece of cloth from an arrow. They immediately understood what was that arrow they saw was for. They also become curious about the content of the letter. Was it a declaration of a start of a war, they thought.
The piece of cloth was finally in the hand of the Prayag King, he closed his eyes for a moment, maybe was praying and hoping that as the end of the long entourage and the burden he was having for such a long time. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at the red piece of cloth and slowly opened it.
There was silence in the cabin, the soldiers standing behind him was not even breathing heavily, they had even slowed their breathing and were wishing if they could have learnt some eye methods to see the content in that letter.
Lastly after a long torturing silence, a light flashed in the Prayag King eyes, the fluctuations of light stopped at once and a brilliant light shown in there, looking like that the king had determined something, maybe he had determined the future of the kingdom, the determination that everyone in the kingdom will have to bear with. In the end he said in a peaceful voice,
"Send a summon and call everyone here before the gate of the fort."
.....Back in the Shakya Clan...
A tense atmosphere was spread in the throne room.
"So Kashi King what are we still waiting for then? I don't think we should wait or hope for help from Magadha Kingdom anymore. They had shown that they don't want to help another great clan." Said one of the minister of the Shakya Clan. Seeing the aggressiveness in his voice it seemed like he was itching to fight and slaughter people from the Kashyapa Clan.
"Ohh.. you seems quite eager. Brother Shubalaraja seems like even your ministers are getting impatient to see their crown prince and princess.
Sigh... don't worry. I'm not waiting for the Magadha King anymore, if he's not coming then I'm sure he must have has his own issues and as for why I'm planning to wait a little more is because I'm waiting for a good piece news."
"What news?" Shakya King was growing impatient with every passing second, he just wanted to run to the Kashyapa Clan with all of the elites and start a massacre in there. So he immediately asked in a very unrefined manner.
Seeing the rudeness in the voice of the Shakya king, the face of the Kashi King twitched but soon when he saw the burning lava of revenge his eyes, he laughed at him inwardly and calmed himself. After that he revealed his thought and the strategy that he started preparing on the basis of the news he had received.
"If my calculations are right then I think we will not be facing the Kashyapa Forefather when we will reach the Kashyapa Clan," He revealed.