BATTLE OF LOVE (completed)

CHAPTER 8

In a temporary camp set up for training purpose

Arjun's POV:

I was expecting this to take at least two weeks, but it happened in five days and here I am standing in the middle of a temporary camp set up for training new recruits. In front of me were around 150 soldiers, all around 15 or 16 years old. They just entered the army and are going to have their training under me. I looked around searching for her. I don't know why but I missed her so bad. There she is, a few miles away from me casually seeing everything. God her eyes. They are so innocent and beautiful. I continued staring at her and my bad luck she noticed me.

"I think you should come here. We need to introduce ourselves," I said trying to cover up. She silently came and stood beside me and I started speaking.

"Good morning kids. First things first, all of you are going to form an army for a new city. Neither for Anjan nor for Mitra. So I want every one of you to forget where you are from. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir." They replied in unison.

"Now as for the question who are we? I am sure you might have heard our names. She is Dharani, the princess of Mitra and I am Arjun."

There was sudden silence upon hearing my name. Half of them started sweating while some of them looked as if they were regretting their choice. Dharani was right. 

"There is nothing to worry, " I heard Dharani speak, "Arjun is unforgiving, not evil. Moreover, he is here as a trainer, not as an officer. He might be strict, very strict in fact, but he will not do anything wrong with you and I am sure he would make you all great warriors."

Dharani is speaking in my favor?

"And in case you have any problem or issue that you are too scared to tell Arjun, you can always approach me," she added. I noticed that her words pacified the soldiers. The soldiers I used to train are not newbies, neither are they too young. They very well know how their tough their training is going to be, but here we've got all kids. So I decided to go light on the first day and ordered them to go for jogging. I told them not to stop till I asked them to and went back to sit beside Dharani.  We remained silent for almost 30 minutes after which I decided to speak up.

"Thank you," I said while she was reading something in her hand.

"They are all kids so please.."

"Yes, I will try being a bit less demanding,"  I continued as we heard a thud. One of the trainees fell down, fainted probably. Dharani immediately rose to help him, but I grabbed her wrist and held her back.

"What? Let me go," she said in a slightly raised tone.

"Two minutes, Princess. Just two minutes, " I said as I held her firmer and pulled my legs away from her.  Experience has thought me to do so.

"Why?" she asked again. The reason is that I wanted to see if could get up by himself. I didn't want to offer him help the moment he needed it. I wanted him to try getting up. Dharani was clearly pissed off with me. Yet she didn't fight back this time. Instead, he anxiously waited. After two minutes, I let her go after realizing that he wasn't in a position to get up all by himself.

Dharani's POV:

I ran towards the soldier as soon as Arjun let me go. With the help of the other soldiers, I took him inside the emergency room and sprinkled some water on him. After he gained consciousness, I talked to him and realized that he didn't eat anything since yesterday as he was traveling. Hence he fainted. I offered him a medicine and warned him that it would be sour. Yet it was necessary for his recovery. As he was drinking it, Arjun entered the room and the soldier tried to get up. I signaled him that it's okay while Arjun requested if we could talk outside.

"I need him back in 15 minutes," he said in a calm but demanding tone.

15 minutes? Is he the same man who promised to be less demanding a while ago?

"No Arjun. That's not possible. He fainted. He needs rest."

"Will the enemies spare him if he fainted in the middle of a battlefield?" he questioned.

"No, but..."

"I hope you know Princess," Arjun continued," If you want to stay alive in a war..."

"You need to meet death before the war." I completed.

Arjun nodded.

"Good that you know. 15 minutes," he said before he turned to leave.

"20?" I said stopping him.

He didn't turn back but nodded in agreement.

(Hey guys. Thank for reading till here and sorry for the typos. I wrote it in a hurry so please excuse me. The next chapter will be published on 30 October. Thank you. Love you all)