Aarya and the Goddess of Betrayal

  “Beta, Wake up na!” my mother said at five in the morning, surprising me and making me fall out of my hammock. I had to go to my cousin’s Engagement party, so my mom woke me up early. She then moved to the 3 hammocks next to me, one of them already empty. I guessed that my oldest sister, Aditi, had already left to scour the island and find an adventure. Anyways, as I got up and left the room, I heard my mom waking my younger sisters up. I trudged sluggishly to the restrooms to get ready. As I locked the door and started to brush my teeth, my sister, Dhriti, pounded on the door, yelling, “GO QUICKER!!! I NEED TO PEE!!” 

Same thing every day… Hello! My name is Aryaa, and welcome to my dreadful life.

I quickly brushed my teeth, and exited the restroom. I went to my bedroom and changed into a party dress, fit for a queen. Yellow with a flowy skirt, and a see-through layer on the top of the skirt, the wind blowing it behind me like a cape. I exited the house, the warm sun smiling down at me. I was just about to climb up to the volcano, when my mom yelled my name.

“ARYAA!! TAKE DHRITI AND ROHINI WITH YOU!” My mom’s eyes were closed and she didn’t realize that I had already entered the house and was standing right next to her.

“Mama, I am RIGHT next to you. Stop yelling in my ear please!”

“Oh sorry beta. Anyways, take Rohini and Dhriti with you. Your papa and I need to help your cousin Radha with setting up for her engagement party. Shaurya will be there, and you know how much Dhriti drools over him.”

“All right mama.” I sighed and called my siblings. 

I thought, I never get a moment to myself. I waited until a couple minutes later until Rohini and Dhriti finally got ready. We exited the house, me holding a bag full of supplies just in case. I started trekking up the hills to the volcano, and my sisters were slowly gliding behind me. Once I reached the top, I took my phone out and started to take pictures. Soon later, Rohini and Dhriti came up too and started dancing along the edge of the volcano. 

“NAHI! DHRITI! ROHINI! APP KYA KAR RAHE HON!”(da heck r u doing?) I started panicking in Hindi, the way I usually panic, as Rohini almost slipped off into the boiling pit of lava, because Dhriti bumped into her. Soon enough, Rohini lost her balance and fell in. 

“DHRITI! YOU ARE SO RECKLESS!”

“Sorry,” she mumbled, “I didn’t me--

“YOU DID NOT MEAN TO! IT DOESN'T MATTER! NOW STAY HERE OR ELSE!”

I looked around and found some stairs that led to the core of the volcano. I hopped down quickly and found Rohini lying unconscious.``“Mwaa Ahhhhhhhhhh Glubb,” my younger sister Drhiti said, making a raucous. “Just seeing if sound can wake her up jeez.” she said as soon as she caught my glare. Oh that rascal! She is always acting disingenuous even though she knows that what she does is invidious. We both were wearing our new dresses, but they were so ripped that they looked like a crop top with a ripped skirt! With my youngest sister, Rohini, unconscious, this was just exacerbating things. I touched her cinnamon brown scabrous skin, wishing I had never taken Rohini and Dhriti up to the volcano. I could not believe I was so dumb to do this. I perfunctorily got up all of a sudden, carefully carrying Rohini and walked towards the craggy part of the rocks on the volcano. Surprisingly, it was not nearly as hot as I thought it would be. I called my elder sister, Aditi, on my phone, who was enjoying herself exploring the wildlife on the island. I told her to come to our location. She probably knew we were in trouble from my voice cracks because she arrived only a couple minutes later, but her kaleidoscopic make-up was glowing from a mile away. She saw Rohini unconscious and demanded what had happened. Dhriti said nothing, acting innocent, but I knew it was because she was recusant.

“Aryaa! Dhriti! What happened?” I was trembling as I told my sister what happened.

“Well, good for you. If it was any other volcano, She would have disintegrated immediately!”

“Wha-What do you mean?” I asked.

She sighed and with a grimace-smile I thought only existed in books, she said,

“I think you should finally know the truth.

She got up with grace, and beckoned me to follow her to the edge of the volcano.

“I slowly got up, Dhriti scrambling behind me. I imagined myself back home in California, about to dive into the pool for swim practice, as my coach yelled so loudly that the whole building could hear,

“READY GO!”

The pool was my second home, literally. It was a safe-haven for me, and in times where I didn’t feel as brave as I wanted to, I pictured myself diving with a perfect technique, ready to dominate.

My sister sharply took my name as she snapped me back into the present, 

“Aarya. Chant Lord Shiva’s chant and dive into the volcano. Just 3 times, no less and no more and you can enter through. If you don’t do it correctly, however, you will walk away unscathed but will have no recollection of how to enter unless someone takes you.”

She closed her eyes, with an aura of focus radiating from her.

“Om Tryambakam Yajamahe, Sugandhim Pushtivardhanam, Urvarukamiva Bandhanan, Mrityor Mukshiya Maamritat.”

She chanted this many times and dove into the hot lava. Nodding to Dhriti, I followed pursuit and as did she. With the weight of Rohini, I fell through the volcano quickly. I expected to die soon enough because the lava would melt me, but it actually felt like a Jacuzzi. Nice and warm but not scalding hot. 

I landed on my back, Dhriti next to me, as well as Aditi. Rohini was on my stomach, so I carefully sat up, lifted her head, and set her down. I stood up next to her, crouching down, moving a strand of hair from her face. Moments passed by as all of a sudden, her eyes fluttered open.

“Umm… Did we just fall through a volcano?” Rohini asked in confusion.

“You were unconscious, how do you know?”

We all turned to Aditi expecting an answer.

“Her conscience was probably alive, even if she was not. Anyways, um whew, this is hard to say, but um - wait actually, it's better if I just show you.”

She led us down a regal hall, my guess was part of a castle, with beautiful art tracing the walls, and artifacts the world thought to be lost.

She stopped in front of a room, and I looked up to see a plaque with gold letters spelling out The Ramayana Legacy.

We entered, and there it was, stained glass windows depicting Lord Ram and his siblings, and there were more stained glass windows, with the same number of people, same weapons as the brothers, but different faces. Aditi strode down a crimson red carpet, to the end of the room, and stopped in front of one specific window. 

One of us.

We all stared for moments that felt like they stretched into a millenia, but I broke the silence with a sharp breath and spoke what we all were thinking, 

“We are descendants of Shri Ram and his siblings.”

“OOH!” Rohini exclaimed, “Will we also get a questy thing like the iconic Ramayana?”

Dhriti piped up, slowly saying, “Ummm. What is Ramayana again?” 

Rohini, Aditi, and I all shot her a glare. 

I quickly summed up Ramayan for her, and she said,

“Ohhhhh. WAIT WHAT!! WE ARE RELATED TO THEM!!!!”

“Yeah.” Aditi said quickly.

“Why did we not know of this?” I demanded from my sister.

“Well, you guys just weren’t ready. Before you ask what I mean, Dhriti, you literally pushed your sister into a volcano, Aarya, you took them to a volcano, and Rohini, you literally just yesterday used chili paste instead of toothpaste and didn’t think it was spicy!”

“It was 2am and I was tired! By the way, we are true Indian people, we don’t know what spicy is. You, however, are some mutilated thingy who can’t digest spice.” Rohini protested.

Aditi sighed, and said, “Follow me, I’ll take you to meet the legendary Pandavas, also known as my best friends, Aru, Mini, Brynne, the twins Nikita and Sheela, their reincarnated wife as Aiden, his cousin Rudy the nagini, and Hira, someone who helped them on one of their missions…Let’s go to Atlanta, but first lemme text mom and dad that we are meeting them.”

We waited for a little while, until my sister took out a staff and summoned a portal. My younger siblings and I stared in awe.

Aditi hopped through the portal yelling, “WHEE!!”

Unsure, I followed, and seconds later I reached a museum of Indian culture. As my younger siblings came, we went inside, to see Aditi giving passionate hugs to her friends.

I cleared my throat loudly, as they all turned to me, Rohini, and Dhriti, all of us standing awkwardly.

Aru stepped forward, and said, “I believe introductions and food are in order. AIDEN! BE A GOOD WIFEY AND CAN YOU WARM UP SOME POPCORN? ALSO TAKE RUDY WITH YOU!”

“Sure.” Aiden grumbled at being called Wifey and looked depressed when she said Rudy, whereas Rudy, Aiden’s cousin (aka Naga  prince) was leaping with joy!.

“Wait,” Rohini said slowly, realizing something, “If you guys are Pandavas, and you guys call him Wifey,”

Aru gave an interested and encouraging look, 

“Is he Draupadi?”

“AHA! You are the first person to guess that!”

“Good job Rohini! Someone knows her mythology…” I shot a glare at Dhriti, who looked at her shoes sadly, when I said that.

Anyways, Aiden and Rudy arrived with the popcorn, as Aditi and Aru were speaking silently to each other along with Brynne and Mini. It looked like they were nodding their heads in agreement. Aru then said, “Aditi, can you summon a portal to Brynne’s place using Kodanda*?”

“Sure, why not.” 

My sister tapped her glasses, and a bow appeared. I’m guessing she willed it into a staff, because seconds later, she was using a staff to create a portal, not her bow. Together, we all stepped through the portal, and landed in Brynne’s room in a penthouse.

“Sorry you guys, my place is a little dirty.” Brynne said sheepishly, pointing at her spick and span room.

Aru cannonballs onto the bed, face first, Mini close behind. 

Brynne gestured for us to sit, and once Aru and Mini were situated, Aditi also jumped onto Brynne’s bed.

“First of all, Aditi, when you say ‘I’m going to their house,’ to mom and dad, do you mean here?”

“Yeah…Now, this is a little hard to say, and because emotionless Aiden is toying with his puppy camera, Shadowfax, we’ll let him break the news to you guys.”

Aiden rolled his eyes again, tapped a golden button on shadowfax, and I stared in awe as it transformed into a golden bracelet onto his wrist.

“All right, remember Ravana, the villain of Ramayan? Well, he kinda, sorta is back in a different reincarnation, like how you are of the 4 brothers. Well, he is also in the form of a girl, except, she is a god. She is the actual child of the Goddess of Chaos, Diti, and through lots of meditation, she became a full fledged Goddess instead of a demigod, and is working towards stealing the amrita, or nectar of immortality, for the asuras.”

“Again…WHY IS IT ALWAYS FOR THE AMRITA?” 

Yelled Aru in frustration.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Minni piped up saying, “Well, long ago, the deva’s promised the asuras some amrita, but they had to help churn the Ocean of Milk, and make the amrita. Now, instead of fulfilling the promise, the devas took the amrita all for themselves, and to this day, asuras are fighting for what is, supposedly, th--”

“Rightfully, theirs,” Brynne interrupted, glaring at Minni, “Sorry, seeing as I literally am part asura, you know how biased I am! Anyways, first things first, we have to get you guys your weapons. If I am correct, I think Aarya is Rama.” Said Brynne, as she opened another portal.

This time, it was to a room with many weapons.

As we settled, a radiating light emanated from me, Rohini, and Dhriti. A spirit, in the form of a bow and arrow ran through me, as it solidified once it came through and disappeared.

“Yeah I was right. Anyways, Rohini must be Laxman.”

At these words, a spirit, in the form of a snake ran through Rohini, as it solidified once it came through then like it did for me, it disappeared.

“Aditi, we already know you are Bharat.”

Aditi touched her headband, and it turned into a chakra.

“That leaves Dhriti to be Shatrughan.”

A conch shell spirit ran through Dhriti, and acted the same way the spirits did for me and Rohini.

“How…How?” I was not even able to take the words out of my mouth as I wondered how Brynne guessed it so easily, and indeed got it right.

“Haha, don’t think I'm creepy. You’ll find out soon enough how I know however.”

More and more time passed, as my heart longed to be more and more like the Pandavas. How could my sister keep this world from me? 

“Well, we need to get you guys your magic weapons.”

We walked out of the room and down ANOTHER hall and entered a place with 4 beautiful thrones.

"This is where the council meets." explained Rudy as he popped down next to me and Aditi.

A giant figure spoke, as it shrank down to a human’s size.

“Hey bro!”

Brynne said, making me jump. I looked around and realized everyone was here. I didn't even notice them. 

“Meri Behan, I have told you not to call me that.”

“Sorry Hanuman.” She apologized in a way her tone said she didn’t mean it.

“Wait, you are a daughter of Vaayu!” I realized, getting excited.

Brynne, willed Gogo into its mace form, and sent a gust of wind my way.

“Yeah, he is my soul god dad.”

“Dang! That’s wicked!” my younger siblings and I said in unison.

Hanuman was too busy to hear. In fact, he was too busy whispering in Aditi’s ear!

Aditi whipped out Kodanda, and created a bubble, surrounding everyone. Everyone but me, Dhriti, and Rohini. Petrified, Dhriti and Rohini grabbed on to me. I told them to move back because I sensed something was about to happen. All of a sudden, the same bow and quiver that passed through me as a spirit earlier, came, and in a flash of light, nestled around my body for a moment, and transformed into beautiful earrings. I thought, well this is destiny. This explains why mom and dad wanted me to take archery after seeing me shoot an arrow at Outdoor Ed.

A couple moments later, the same happened with Rohini and Dhriti. Rohini’s weapon was a dagger, which transformed into a beautiful hathphool, or hand flower, and for Dhriti, her weapon was a conch shell.

“WOAH! COOL!” Dhriti whispered in astonishment.

“Yeah, well children, you must go to the Tree of Wishes. Urvashi, another council member, told me that Kaya’s(the goddess person) is starting to come into view.”

“Aarya, this is your moment. Try willing your bow, Pinaka, into a staff to create a portal. Just think about where you want to go, and use Pinika to create a portal in any shape you want.” Aditi instructed.

I tapped my earrings, and a bow and arrow flashed in front of me. I then thought to my bow,

“Umm.. Hi Pinaka, um, can you turn into a staff or something?”

I tried this a couple times and on the 5th try, Pinaka then morphed into a staff.

“WOAH! IT TOOK ME 15 TRIES TO DO THAT WITH SUDARSHANA!” Aditi yelled in excitement.

I tried hiding my happiness, and concentrated on Floating Island, Atlanta, which is where the Wishing Tree, or Kapilvishara is located. Slowly, I lifted staff Pinaka, and created a giant circle. My first portal!!

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and hopped in. Seconds later, I find myself standing in front of the Wishing Tree, looking at Kaya, who was marching to my area. 

“We are fighting her!!??” questioned a voice behind be, turning out to be Rudy.

“Oh my god, Rudy made an amazing discovery,” I retorted sarcastically, “You finally caught on.”

“We must go, because this is your first battle and you have to do it yourself. Of course, Aditi, who has trained for this, is 1 of the 4 siblings, and will stay with you, but us Potatoes (our group name for some reason) must go. Good luck!”

Before anyone could say anything, the Potatoes vanished from sight, leaving us alone.

“Ok, everyone, will your new jewelry into a weapon of your choice, but Rohini and Aarya, you must keep your bows and arrows. Dhriti, try willing your Conch shell into a sword, because you can use a conch shell as a weapon, but it is very dangerous if you don’t know how. We have to be ready. We will not be able to vanquish Kaya without some certain things, and we will only be able to prevent her, because she will have to regenerate into her form. Remember, aim for the navel. If you hit her anywhere else, she gets more and more powerful. All descendants of Lord Ravan will only die/regenerate if you hit them in the naval, otherwise they get more and more powerful.”

I was shocked at how my elder sister knew all this, but I decided to question her later. As Kaya approached, her voice thundered through the air,

“How cute. 4 little children think that they can vanquish ME! Ahahaha. Too bad you all will die before you see how wrong you all were,        YOU SHORT, AND WEAK  LITTLE CHILDREN.”

“Even if we are short,” Aditi replied boldly, “At least our ego is not taller than our height!”

Aditi turned her head to us and nodded.

We ran… Rohini shot her arrow, aiming for her navel, but I had pushed her and she missed terribly. 

Kaya stopped attacking for a moment, looked at Rohini and I, and started laughing. Dhriti took this as a moment of distraction, and swiped her sword at Kaya’s navel. The sword stuck inside her navel, as Kaya looked to see what had happened.

“Wut da freak…”  Kaya looked genuinely lost as she disintegrated, leaving a few black specks of dust behind her.

“Woah,” Breathed Dhriti, “I did that. I DID IT!” Dhriti was jumping in joy as we all congratulated her. I was just about to hug her when I noticed the Potatoes sitting ON SOME CHAIRS WITH POPCORN! They started walking towards us, and we all hugged Dhriti. 

My phone started ringing, and I saw Radha calling! Oh no.

“Um, we have to go to Radha’s party. Aditi, is there any way to fix our dresses?”

With a swipe of her staff, our dresses were good as new. Then, I created a portal. We said our see-you-laters to the Potatoes, and jumped in. After a whole battle and a whole unrealistic day, we were ready to party.

Part 2 coming soon!

For those of you who have not heard of Shri Ram, he is a prince, and a brother of 3 other princes. His dad is married to 3 queens, (it was normal in ancient India)who all birthed kid(s). Anyways, the gods told one of his step-moms, that because the king had granted her 2 boons or wishes because she saved him on the battlefield, she had to use one of her boons to exile Lord Ram for 14 years… So the king had no choice but to exile him. One of his brother’s, Lord Laxman, had insisted he would come with Lord Ram and his wife wanted to come as well. One day, Lord Ram was running after a Deer who pleaded for help. The Deer was really a demon in disguise that kinda sorta impersonated Lord Ram, crying for help, in need of assistance, so Goddess Sita would be left alone. Lord Laxman decides to draw a magic circle in which no one can enter, and if someone exits, they cannot re-enter. Anyways, the only reason that the demon transforms into a deer was so that the Demon king could steal Sita mata. Now you see where this is going. Lord Ram makes a bunch of allies, there is a war, the good side wins, and everyone is happy except for the demons.