Neigh….neigh…
A horse's whinny sounded in his ear as his horse moved both of his front legs up in the air, as if it was trying to stand on his back legs. But it lost its balance and tripped over and fall on the side along with him, who was sitting on it.
Thud….Thud…
Before even Navaj could get his right leg which was stuck between ground and his fallen mount out from there so to stand, a sword came right in front on him. His eyes went wide as he saw that his life was going to end.
Swish….
Thud…. Thud….
"What are you doing Navaj? How come you become a chicken seeing a sword in front of you?"
A shout vibrated in his ears as he opened his eyes to look at the owner of that voice. He saw a familiar face, the same middle aged man who was posted on the outer circle of the camping area along with him, the man who tricked him into picking up that letter. On seeing him, Navaj felt extremely comfortable. He even forgot that he had even cursed him to death that day.
"What are you looking at? Pick up your sword you, brain dead. We are in middle of a battlefield, not in your mother's kitchen."
Neigh…neigh...neigh...
The middle aged man shouting reverberated in the Navaj's ear as he came back to his senses. He saw his horses was furiously throwing it's back leg in air and shooking its head rapidly while shouting from its mouth.
Navaj initially didn't understand why it was doing that untill he saw that one of his horse's front leg was chopped from it's torso. Navaj realized that his horse was agonizing in pain. Seeing that he felt an incredible pain in his heart.
Even when the whole battlefield was full of noises of metals clashing with each other, and people screaming at each other but at that moment Navaj could only hear the voice coming out of his mount and it's big round eyes from which a stream of water was leaking out. Even when shooking it's head it kept on looking towards Navaj's face as if it was begging him to relive it from that agonizing pain by killing it.
His mount was nothing special. It was like the same horses given to the soldiers of the Ashvarohi Regiment when they join. And their horses remain with them from then on till either the rider or the ride died. For Navaj this horse had an special relationship with him. He had got that horses just like everyone on the day of joining and like everyone in his regiment he also had formed an attachment towards his horse. An attachment that was similar to the attachment he had with his friends.
But at the moment, when he saw his horse begging him for putting an end to its pain, he couldn't bring his courage for doing that as he kept staring at his horse and the days they had spent together. He even forgot that he was in a battlefield where every second decided the life and death, he didn't even notice that someone had come in front of him and was about to swing his sword.
Swish…..
Chop…..
Thud…..
"Noooooooooooooo…."
The head of his horse fall on the ground before him and on seeing that he unconsciously shouted with an eyes full of rage he stared at the person who killed his horse.
"What are you staring at kid? If you don't stand up in the next moment then the next head will be yours."
"I don't want those bastards killing you and feel motivated by it. I'll will kill you myself before letting them kill my brothers."
The middle aged threatened while once again swinging his sword but towards another person who was riding a horse and coming to him with a full speed.
Thud….. Thud..
A head fall in front of Navaj… the eyes that were staring at him were wide open, the mouth was leaking with crimson liquid and his neck was smoothly sliced open from were the crimson liquid was gushing out.
Seeing the face in front on him woke Navaj up as he realized that he was in battlefield in between a battle and if not for the middle aged man, he would have already died in the same manner as the man in front of him was laying before him.
"Pick up that sword and take this horse kid and come behind me."
He struggled to get his right leg out from under the dead body of his mount. Since his mount was already dead, he needed a new mount, he could not possibly fight with being on foot in there. So he picked up his sword and took the horse that the middle aged man had got after killing that guy just a moment ago.
Once again after mounting on the horse he looked towards his previous mount for one last time before leaving that place. He and the middle aged man could no longer stay at that place, it was very possible that someone had noticed them already especially the middle aged man as he had already killed many Prayag soldiers so there was possibility that soon his hunt will begin by the top experts of the Prayag Kingdom. And even if that was not the case, standing at a same place for a longer time only gives unwanted attention and thus the chances of getting killed more.
"Thump!"
Just as Navaj went a little away he heard a booming sound of something falling on ground, he looked towards that falling sound that almost trembled the ground. Atmost hundred meters away he saw an elephant fallen on ground with a sword struck on it's forehead from where the crimson liquid was gushing out.
"Brothers, kill them!"
"Avenge our brother! Kill!!!"
Soon countless ferocious howls came from the soldiers and echoed inside the whole battleground as everyone wildly charged toward their enemy with a new energetic vigor. They had become senseless. While they were charging at their enemies, many had been shot to death by the showers of the rain that was happening constantly where the enemy forces had gathered in a large number. Many young soldiers who had newly joined the army didn't even had the chance to fight their first battle with their enemies before they died.
Seeing all of that was causing more and more frustration and resentment in the heart of the soldiers towards their enemies. And so they were not leaving a single chance to avenge their brothers.
The attackers and defenders fought in pitched, close-quarter battles as large numbers of corpses started gathering in the area, forming piles so high that they were even higher as elephants themselves as bodies fell downwards. Blood splashed everywhere, causing rivers of blood to form. Countless soldiers continued to raise their weapons, charging towards their enemies.
For the sake of survival. For the sake of avenging their brothers. Everyone fought wildly with their eyes covered in bloodlust.
.......
At the Prince's camp a little far away from the battlefield. Everyone was sitting along with the prince and focusing on the battle that was about to happen.
"Ooooooohhhhhmmmmm"
A sound vibrated in the ears of everyone present in the prince Shantanu's camp. Everyone stood up leaving their chairs and become silent while looking at the prince.
The prince had a emotionless face at the moment as he himself heard that sound. This was the sound of the war conch. The war conchs were special conchs which was used to declare the attack on the enemy.
The war conchs were said to be used by the kings even from the previous era. They were said to be came from heaven and they were only found in 'Kshirsagar' that was in the heaven. But when gods left the mortal plane in the ancient era they forgot to take away some war conchs.
War conchs were as white as milk in color and at least 5 to 6 times heavy than a normal conch with the size of a hand of a man and a distinctive coiled design starting from the middle and a large open mouth structure at the end.
On the mortal plane it was found to none except the ancient clans, even the great clans didn't have a single one of them or as it was said in public. But the use of them was started by ancient clans themselves. Whenever they were to declare the war on some kingdom they did so by blowing the war conch.
There was a simple reason for that, the reason was the heavy loud voice of the war conch. Even if it was blown several miles away, it could be heard clearly.
So after hearing the conch, prince Shantanu's face was emotionless for a while that seems like he was lost in some thoughts. But soon his lips curved into a smile while he moved his head to look towards the south were the battle was taking place.
On seeing the smile on his face all the commanders present become skeptical of his smile and thought it must be cause their prince was thinking of a brilliant plan. They were still unaware of the content of the letter that was delivered to him few days ago.
But they didn't thought too much about the smile the prince just had. For them it was more amusing that the Prayag King himself was leading the army of his kingdom. The more they were thinking about it the more they were convinced that the Prayag King had gone senile even before his age, maybe cause of being caged in his kingdom.
When a soldier came just an hour ago to inform them that the Prayag King was seen standing before his royal army and leading it, they couldn't believe what they heard, so Commander Urjavat was given task to go and confirm the news himself. But when Commander returned with a confused expression and same news. Their first thoughts were that the Prayag King must be planning some serious tactics to defeat them.
So they started checking their own strategy they had made as to see any counter of it or loophole they had missed. But they couldn't find any, so they started thinking all the plans that the Prayag King could come up with.
But the end conclusion was that the Prayag King had gone senile and must be doing that on the provocation of his kingdom's nobles. They must have asked him to act like a bold and fearless king. So in his senility he must have accepted to do that.
In the starting days of the fight it was very rare for a king to lead his army. As the initial days of a battle were full of uncertainty and hidden dangers which could especially designed to kill a specific king. So they don't join the battle till it was necessary and let his army commander do the job in his place on the battle field.
"I am going to survey the battlefield."
Prince Shantanu was still looking at south were battle was going on. Even when they were inside the camp, his gazes seems like tearing down the tent and seeing every events that was happening in the battlefield.
"Your Highness, forgive us but we ask you to reconsider it."
"Yes your Highness, the Prayag experts must have planned some ambush near the camp taking advantage of so few soldiers we have for encircling the camp."
"Yes your Highness, I don't think the Prayag King will even mind attacking you. He had done this even when we were not in battle. But at the moment we are in battle, I don't think he'll care for consequences since he had already picked the weapons against us."
The plan of the prince to go survey the battlefield and see the situation of the battle was met with the disapproving of his army commanders.
"Your Highness, please let me and a vice commander accompany you there."
Commander Urjavat spoke looking at the prince. He had a job to protect Prince Shantanu after all. The job was given to him by the forefather himself and he had already failed the forefather once in protecting the prince. If that night Prince Shantanu would have died then he wouldn't even be standing there. With his best luck and fortune he would have been died and with his worst fortune he would have been spending his time in dark screaming prison. But he thinks it was his good fortune that the prince was save and sound with just some injuries.
That day he vowed to protect the Prince at all cost, even with his life so when he said that, prince Shantanu could see a determination in his eyes. He didn't has a reason to refuse the request and it was also good to have someone except birds and the driver to discuss about the battle in the sky.
Everyone agreed on the Commander Urjavat suggestion but with a little modification. Instead of a commander and a vice commander accompanying the prince, he was going to be accompanied with a commander and two vice commanders.
There was a slightly hidden motive in that move too. Since this was the base of the operation of the Prince's army and was like a temporary fort, so there must be atleast two commanders inside the camp to deal with any uncertainties. But if they were to stay inside the camp they couldn't see by themselves of the condition of their troops who were doing battle under someone else's command. So they send their subordinate for the job to tell them about their troops who were on the battlefield.
A little away from the prince Shantanu's camp was a big temporary stable built by the soldiers for their mounts and attached to it was a the place where the chariots of Prince Shantanu, the commanders and vice commander Medhavat were parked along with their Uchchaihshravas in the attached another stable. Since vice commander Medhavat was already in the battlefield so there was one less chariot and it's group of Uchchaihshravas.
Seeing the prince coming toward the stable, the driver of his chariot immediately rushed and attached the Uchchaihshravas with an exquisitely designed golden chariot.
....
After a while two chariots were seeing in the sky, one was like it was a tiny sun that had brightened the sky even more. It was the prince's golden chariot. And he was sitting in it while looking downward where the battle was going on. And just before his chariot was another chariot, in it there were four people, commander Urjavat and the two vice commanders and the driver who was sitting in the front.
Below on the ground…..
A pile of corpses were already started gathering at many places.
Swish…swish…
Clank… clank..
Thump….
Neigh…neigh…
"Kill…."
"Avenge our brothers…."
"No.…."
"Kill these bastards of ancient clan….."
All kind of sounds were making their way to the prince's ear who was sitting without a single emotion on his face and looking down the at the bloodbath going on.
He seemed like a divine being sitting on that chariot and making that emotionless face. He was the very image of the gods who look at the mortal battle just for entertainment and most of the bloodbath just did not any difference to them.