Lakshmana had watched Rama pace the floor of their house for nearly three months now. Sugriva had sworn to assist the brothers in locating and retrieving Rama's wife, Sika. Preparations with the troops and planning strategies should have begun at least a month prior to this, and the deadline was approaching for the agreed upon timeline. Tired of watching his older brother slowly come unravelled, Lakshmana had decided to handle the matter himself.
He threw open the doors and stormed into the great chamber. "Sugriva!" He bellowed. The cry echoed off of the walls of the enormous room and brought the music to a halt and all eyes to him. Sugriva had been hosting yet another party. Good. This meant there would be many, many witnesses to pressure the king into fulfilling his promise.
"Lakshmana, my dear boy, what brings you to this marvelous shindig? I figured you and your brother would never come to my home. I've sent the both of you close to 100 invites now... Where is Rama? I must once again thank him for his help in restoring me to my throne." As Sugriva went to move around Lakshmana in search of Rama, he suddenly found himself hoisted by the neck and pinned against a pillar. The guards made a move for their weapons and began closing in on the pair, but Sugriva waved them down.
Lakshmana cleared the red haze of anger that had clouded his vision and released Sugriva's neck. He slumped to the floor, clutching his throat and gasping for breath. He then spoke loud enough for the whole party to hear, "my brother is still at home, pacing a hole in our floor, because you have decided to neglect your end of the bargain for your assistance in bringing his dear Sita back to him. Now Ramam is a gentle, forgiving soul, but I am not. It would do you well to get your lazy, self-centered ass up off of whatever lounging chaise you've been having the maids hand feed you your dinner on before I chop it off and serve it to you on a platter. Do you understand me?"
The silent room let out a collective gasp at the threat on their kings person, but no one stepped forward to defend him. They were all mostly in shock at the idea that the great Sugriva had neglected his debts.
"Yes Lakshmana, I understand you completely. I will begin gathering my troop tonight so that their training my start tomorrow."
"You had better. If I had have to come down here and talk to you again, there will be pain," Lakshmana practically growled before spinning on his heel and exiting the room through the door he had entered, doing his best to slam the heavy slab of wood on his way out.
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| via Pixabay |
This story is meant as a fill-in-the-gap or behind-the-scenes type of thing. The gap that was open to be filled was how Lakshmana convinced Sugriva to honor his promise to Rama in The Armies. I hope you enjoyed it!
Hi Jessica! I love the picture you chose for your story because it's what caught my attention and got the click from me (good clickbait haha). But I love the added depth and context you added to the story "The Armies". There's not a lot of characterization in the stories since it mainly focuses on Rama and the conflict between him and Ravana, but your story also gives the reader the opportunity to explore other characters and their stories too. Good job, this story was really well-written!
ReplyDeleteHi Jessica. I really liked this story - highlighting the between the scenes part of the Ramayana really fills in the gaps for me, and adds a lot to the plot of the old text. I like how you gave Lakshmana a really strong personality - in the Ramayana he struck me as a character who was just kind of there, so giving him the justice of having a voice and a hot temper makes him feel a lot more real. I thought it was interesting that Sugriva claimed to invite Rama and Lakshmana to his parties - if this is true, why hadn't they attended earlier and tried to get him to commit his forces to their cause. Or, why was Lakshmana surprised a party was happening? I liked how Lakshmana was portrayed as a sort of action movie villain, and I thought it would have been cool if he said "next time it won't be me you're dealing with" in reference to Sugriva having to deal with the more powerful Rama if he doesn't pay up.
ReplyDeleteHi Jessica!
ReplyDeleteI wanted to start off this discussion by how amazing it was for you to fill in the old texts that seemed to be missing! I love someone who can read between the lines and find something that they think should belong somewhere and you did a fantastic job at creating a new storyline for these characters. I wonder is you gave just a few more dialogue lines for when Sugriva agrees to comply to Lakshmana threats. Since Lakshmana has much more to say in these parts I wish Sugriva did as well. I like the details you provided within this short story such as, "Lakshmana cleared the red haze of anger that had clouded his vision and released Sugriva's neck". However, I what if you could add these into your story more often I love a story that is filled to the brim with details. All in all I think you did a fantastic job with this story and are so creative!!!