*Disclaimer*
Might contain some disturbing scenes
_________
A month had passed since Tejas and Vidur got their weapons,
Just around this time, many rumors began spreading around the villages on the eastern side of the kingdom of Gorakh.
People claimed to have seen a giant human-like rakshas (T/N: Demon). Apparently, It was a lower-class rakshas.
Generally, Rakshasas' are divided into 4 types.
-High-Class Rakshas
They have brown or black colored human-like size bodies with razor-sharp teeth. Two of their largest teeth stick out like fangs. They have 2 large horns and are the most intelligent Rakshasa. They have monstrous durability and stamina, And also use a Gada (T/N: Mace) as their main weapon.
-Lower-Class Rakshas
Their body is similar to High-Class Rakshas with their only distinct features being is there Giant body their red skin color, pointy ears, hideous face, and lack of horns. They eat anything from a fruit to a human being. They also use a Gada (Mace) as their main weapon.
-Beast Rakshas
They are Rakshas with a similar body structure to all sorts of animals. They share various genetic traits with their animal counterpart.
-Mix-Breed Rakshas
These Rakshas are rare as they are the product of the breeding of different species.
"Do you know about the Rakshas in the forest?"
A few villagers began to talk about the lower-class Rakshasa from the rumors.
"Yes Yes, I heard it is obsessed with human flesh."
A bunch of kids also began to listen in on this conversation.
"Yes, If you enter its territory. Consider yourself dead."
"Plus, That Rakshas is apparently a fanatic of eating children."
"I know right, I heard that It is a Rakshasa that lived around other villages and ate the children of those villages."
"I heard they call it 'Gurumapa'. It has terrorized many villages." (T/N: Notes at the end)
As the villagers continued to gossip about the Rakshas named Gurumapa, all the kids that heard this story were terrified. But, Among them, 5 kids didn't seem to believe it a bit.
The group of 5 kids, consisting of a girl and 4 boys decided to be the "heroes" and prove that this was just a story the adults made up to scare them.
The 5 kids decided to head towards the forest to play hide and seek.
And, So they did. One of the kids started counting as the other 4 hurriedly went to hide inside the forest. Coincidentally, Gurumapa was feeling hungry then.
It smelled the entire territory and was surprised to find the presence of some delicious treats waiting for it.
The boy also finished with his counting and began to search for his friends. Meanwhile, on the other side, one of the kids hiding behind a rock giggled to himself as he looked at the seeker kid who couldn't find anyone.
Just as his small giggling stopped, A giant shadow covered him. The kid turned around just to be frozen still in fear. The hideous face of Gurumapa, Its large red body was something enough to seriously traumatize any child.
And this kid was no exception, He tried to cry but met an unfortunate end. (p.s He was eaten)
This time Gurumapa giggled creepily before it began to eat one after another kid. Finally, The only two kids left were the girl, who was atop a tree, and the seeker boy.
Gurumapa slowly made its way towards the tree. At the same time, oblivious to the Rakshasa approaching, the girl atop the tree was annoyed.
Why? Because the seeker boy hadn't found anyone since the game began. She had been sitting on the top of a tree for god's sake.
The girl became impatient and called the seeker boy. The pair agreed to go home as the girl began climbing down the tree and the seeker boy started to call his friends to come out of hiding.
Unfortunately, His friends had been hidden in a place where it wasn't possible for them to respond.
As she was climbing down, Gurumapa came running caught her in its big hand. The girl immediately shouted in pain but became quiet due to sheer terror when she saw Gurumapa hideous face with blood all over his mouth.
Tears stained her soft cheeks as Gurumapa snickered. The seeker boy was also horrified. He tried to move but the more he saw the large body of Gurumapa, The more despair he fell in.
Gurumapa started to play with the terrified girl taking his sweet time.
The girl was even more terrified and start asking help from the seeker boy."
please help me friend I don't want to die please save me.!!
Too bad for her, The seeker boy had already started running away. The girl broke down completely as her last strand of hope was broken.
All she could do was cry in pain while regretting her decisions as Gurumapa crushed her limbs. Not caring about the amount of blood she was coughing, Gurumapa threw her in the air and tried to swallow her but he started chewing the girl body slowly in his mouth to get the taste he was taking his time with his food .
the seeker boy saw this as an opportunity so he slowly started moving his body while watching Gurumapa he saw the monster was not watching him then he started running.
Gurumapa saw the boy running !
he smiled before running in the direction of the seeker boy, who was running as fast as he could. Tears fell from his eyes like a river and snot was all over his nose, Yet the boy ran without caring.
All he wanted to do was to run as fast as he could, as far away as he could reach, He kept running.
Of course, Running that fast in the middle of the jungle wasn't easy. He tripped on some mud and fell headfirst onto some animal feces.
The mud is all over his body even on his face seeker boy gave up on running and crawled under some bushes not bothering to wipe the feces on his face. There was a small hole under the tree where he immediately inserted his small body. The boy closed his mouth and began to calm his rough breathing.
Soon, Gurumapa arrived with an annoyed face. It felt like running so much for a single kid was too much work. Still, it had no intentions of letting the boy go.
It soon reached the place where the boy was hiding. It looked around but couldn't see anybody. So, It closed its eyes and began to smell everything in the area.
"Arghhh"
Gurumapa didn't find the scent of the boy but It did smell a large number of feces around. It quickly left the area to search somewhere else.
In the small hole, the seeker boy was silently crying. Fortunately, the smell of shit on his face was what saved his life just now.
After a few minutes, he got out and began running towards the village. Lucky for him, Gurumapa had given up on him and returned to its cave.
The boy successfully reached his village but the incident left a huge shadow in his heart. Traumatizing him for eternity.
After hearing about this incident, The villagers became frustrated. This wasn't even the first time Gurumapa ate their children. They tried to kill it but only suffered utter defeat.
after hearing about the children's death the mothers and the father's of the children's who got eaten by Gurumapa , start crying because they can't even find there children's body to finish ritual for there soul to rest in peace.
some mothers and fathers become crazy as they become hopeless family.
The villagers were falling into despair when one of the elders suggested asking for help from the hunters of Goraha village so other children's and women's don't become victim.
The village chief talked with others and decided to put his last hope on the warriors of Goraha. The same day, 3 people including the village chief head out for Goraha village.
the council members of 2 village gather in the Goraha main chamber room.
Elders, chief, hunter leader, head Brahmin, head of Vaidya's every one talking about Gurumapa.
They explained the situation and asked Ram for help, which Ram agreed to after consulting with his trusted people.
The next day, Ram called for a meeting between the hunters in the village. He knew that this hunt would be considerably harder than when he and Raj hunted the scarred tiger.
As they were discussing, suddenly one of the guards entered the meeting room and shouted.
"Ch-chief, please come outside. Soldiers from the capital have come!"
"Capital? You mean from Gorakh?"
The guard nodded.
Ram looked at the people present and dismissed the meeting before quickly heading out. When he came outside of the house, He saw around 20 soldiers marching towards him.
Behind the soldier was a man riding a black horse. This man seemed to be in his late 30s. He was tall and seemed fit.
all village people's also came outside of their house to welcome warrior and his soldiers."
Tejas and vidur with their friends get inside crowd of village people to look who come from capital."
His red and black hair was neatly tied behind his head as he wore High-class clothes. He had a Talwar (T/N: a saber) with an engraving of a Tiger's head at its hilt along with a Bow and quiver on his back.
The string of his bow looked like it was made of pure gold and the quiver was also full of arrows. Finally, He had two Khukuris in two gold and black coloured sheaths with tiger art.
The man exuded the aura of both, a noble and a warrior.
Tejas and Vidur with there friends saw the warrior and his army from croud of people both of them get excited.
hey Vidur isn't he look like a high class warrior from capital he is wearing very good clothes and has nice looking weapons what do you say ?
I think he is Tejas but I am more curious about who is he and why is he come to our village, because not many people come to our village from capital."
ok Vidur give my answers what about you guys what do you say subahu, durvig, anudhar." Tejas start asking his friends.'
we all think Vidur is right but we don't know about anything about that warrior." subahu replied.
I think I know who can tell us let's go ask retire elder chief." Vidur says
anudhar reply to Vidur and Tejas
sorry Vidur and Tejas but we are not going with you guys, we three have something to do because our mothers give us some work if we don't our mothers will not be happy so you guys go.
we see you guys later bye."
all three of them wave there hand goes to there house's.
Tejas and Vidur were curious both of them went to ask the retire previous village chief in his house."
Ram ordered the villagers to welcome the soldiers and treat the Warrior on the horse with respect. And so did the villagers. They provided the soldiers with a place to rest and food along with some wine.
The soldiers didn't deny the hospitality and ate until they were full.
Then the man who had been riding the horse called the village chief.
Ram stepped up with Raj to his call. The warrior smiled and told them to have some wine before ordering the others to get out of the room.
The soldiers got out and Ram also ordered the villagers to stay outside. Finally, only three people were left in the chamber.
Tejas and Vidur reach the Retire chief and goes to his room.
Tejas and Vidur bow to elder Retire village chief.
we bow down to old chief,
get up kids tell me why you here in my house.
Vidur start asking questions because he is curious."
the warrior who come out side in our village who is he and why he come to our village, and is he came from capital ?
old chief replied and said
yes the warrior came from the main city of Gorakh capital. I don't know why he come to our village, why don't both you can ask to your father's after they come outside from meeting chamber room.
The great warrior is one of the strongest among the three great warriors in our kingdom but i forgotten the name of the great warrior."
Tejas asked the old chief ,"Is the great warrior stronger than our father?"
The old chief start laughing he control his laugh,
Tejas making angry face because old chief start laughing but Vidur has normal face he only want to hear."
you kids hadn't gone outside from this village thus both of you dont know about him or how strong people or creatures around the world."
After listening to the words of the old chief, they got confused because Tejas and Vidur didn't seem to think that man was as strong as their fathers are so they leave old chief.
Ram personally served the warrior with wine as the three began to discuss.
"Esteemed warrior, why have you taken the effort to grace our humble village?"
Raj got straight to the point since he wasn't really good with formalities. Ram glared at him but the warrior laughed it off before answering.
"Don't mind him. I like that he is straightforward. In fact, I am here on behalf of my lord, His majesty."
Ram and Raj immediately became surprised when they heard that the King sent the warrior.
"Esteemed Sir, Then what could be the order of His majesty?"
Ram asked while Raj decided not to speak since He could possibly say something rude to the envoy of the King.
"I am here to capture the Golden Deer of this forest. I have heard that it is living as the guardian beast here."
Ram and Raj listened without interrupting as the Warrior continued.
"Our Queen, Her Highness has been sick and one of the things needed for her recovery is that Deer's horn."
"Don't worry, I don't plan on killing the deer. I will only take its horn and leave."
Both Raj and Ram sighed internally when they heard that their guardian beast wouldn't be dying. That's when Ram had an idea and began explaining the situation in the forest.
He specifically told the warrior about Gurumapa and its atrocities. Ram had the intention of having the warrior take care of Gurumapa since He knew that someone sent by the King wouldn't be so weak to die at the hands of a low-class Rakshasa.
"Hahaha, so you want me to kill that Low-rank rakshasa for you?"
The warrior was laughing but Ram knew that he almost offended the warrior.
"I dare not ask the Esteemed warrior for doing such menial tasks. Please leave that Rakshasa for us to deal with and focus on his Majesty's mission."
The warrior nodded and was a bit impressed by Ram. Since He expected the villagers to beg him to take care of the Rakshasa. Of course, He didn't know if Ram was just sucking up to him or actually had the guts to back his words.
The three ended their discussions and Ram offered the warrior and the soldiers to spend the night in their village. He and Raj also began to plan for their upcoming hunt.
The next morning,
The hunters gathered in front of the Shiva Lingam (T/N: an object that symbolizes Hindu God Lord Shiva, more notes at end). They began to pray for the success in hunting Gurumapa and concluded their Puja by lighting some Kapoor (T/N: camphor).
The warrior and the soldiers also joined to pray. Finally, both groups parted their ways after wishing each other good luck and doing 'Namaste' (T/N: a greeting and also a goodbye, more notes at end)
At the same time, Tejas and Vidur, who were observing the hunters began to speak.
Tejas said to Vidur, "Let's go see how our fathers and other hunters will kill the rakshasa!"
Vidur replied, "Nope. What happens if other hunters or our father sees us? They will punish us if they found about this"
Tejas quickly said, "Don't be nervous brother, we will just look at them from far away. Don't you wanna see how strong our fathers are? How strong their skills are and what that rakshasa looks like?"
Vidur was hesitant at first but soon agreed. They picked their weapons just in case something attacked them and carried some food.
The duo silently followed their fathers and the other 14 hunters to the forest by hiding behind trees.
_______________
Gurumapa: Gurumapa is originally a demon from Nepali Folklore. it's a mythical creature that takes away the disobedient children
Shiva Lingam: it's a votary object symbolizing Lord Shiva, one of the three major Gods of Hindu mythology and also the God of destruction.
Namaste: Mostly used in Nepal and India or neighbouring countries also rarely use it. It is a 'greeting' and a 'goodbye' where your clasp your hands together and bow a little.