Blow the war horns!

The soldiers gathered in a tent as per the Prince's request. Pallavan stood at the edge of the tent leaning against a wooden pillar.

"We can't just throw ourselves at the enemy," A soldier threw his arms in the air and scoffed. "Do you know how many soldiers they have stationed at the entrance?" He asked.

"How many?" Another one asked.

"I-I don't know," The guy with the big mouth shrugged. "The Pallavan Prince went spying on them ask him," The guy pointed at Parthibendran.

"Oh please don't call me a Prince, I don't own a grain of land anymore, it all belongs to the Chozhan empire no?" Parthibendran said as he folded his arms and looked down.

The other soldiers laughed. "Maybe if you befriend the Prince, he'll return your land!" Someone said in a mocking tone. Pallavan fisted his hands and glared at the man.

"I don't have the desire to rule anymore," He said, but it didn't come out of his mouth wholeheartedly.

"C'mon, man," A guy nudged his arms. "Who doesn't have the desire to rule?" He joked. "Plus, didn't your ancestors rule half of Thamizhagam? Such a shame they had lost everything"

Pallavan had had enough, he stepped forward and held the man's collar in his fist, and raised his other hand to punch him.

"The Pallavan lion has risen from its sleep it seems," Adithan's voice stopped everything. Pallavan's punch stopped abruptly in mid-air just like the soldiers ceased their mutterings.

They all bowed as they saw him and Malayaman enter. Parthibendran dropped his hands and stepped back making way for the Prince.

"Save some anger for the battlefield Parthibendra," Adithan said throwing his arm around Pallavan's shoulders.

Pallavan nodded curtly.

"So what's the issue?" He asked Pallavan, who shook his head in reply. "Nothing?" He asked. "Okay," He turned towards the soldiers and gave them a smile. "Oh look who I have the pleasure to meet, The Chozhan empire's brave tigers," Adithan addressed the crowd gathered in the tent.

The soldiers looked at the ground as they realized Karikalan's sarcasm.

"Why are we here Parthibendra?" Adithan asked Pallavan.

"For war," Pallavan said matter-of-factly.

"Hmm," Karikalan nodded. "What are we doing instead?" He asked the crowd. The crowd didn't dare to meet Adithan's eyes, they felt ashamed. Deep down in their brave hearts, they wanted to fight, but they felt disheartened at the loss of their war general.

"Ilavarese," A soldier called out. Adithan turned to him and gave him permission to speak. "The Rashtrakutas have twice the number of men, it'll be like pouring a bucket of water in a forest fire," He stated.

"Quantity is not proportional to the quality," Adithan answered simply. "Don't you think you're better than them?"

"Well, what's the use of fighting for a losing war?" Another guy asked.

"How do you conclude that it's a losing war when you haven't even tried fighting them yet?" Malayaman finally spoke out. The soldiers spoke among themselves in hallow whispers. They felt what Malayaman said was right.

"If we let them go without a fight they'll invade our motherland one day, they'll think we are weak!" Adithan raised his voice, his deep voice sent chills down their spines. "then there would be no use crying then, no matter how much we cry out we won't get out land back," He said walking around. The soldiers avoided Karikalan's piercing gaze, they felt ashamed.

"What's the use of a lame body who can't even fight for his mother," These words were like arrows piercing through their chests, these words haunted the soldiers. They felt guilty for holding back for so long. They clenched their fists, the chozha blood in their body boiled. They agreed to take up this fight in silence.

The fire in their hearts was reignited.

Adithan and Malayaman sensed the atmosphere change.

"I'll meet you guys at dawn," Adithan said. "People who are brave enough can join me, others can leave," He turned back to leave, then he heard Parthibendran's ear-splintering cheer.

"VETRI VEL!" Parthibendran cheered with raised hands "VEERA VEL!" came the thunderous reply. Soon enough to Adithan's surprise, the whole crowd was chanting cheers.

Malayaman looked at Karikalan and smiled.

"Oh we're so going to win this war," Adithan mumbled to himself as he left.

****

The soldiers rose before the sun, all ready and geared up for war. The fire in their hearts burned brighter than the sun.

Adithan and Malayaman were overwhelmed by the number of soldiers who showed up.

"Remember what I told you?" Malayaman asked. Adithan nodded casually, his eyes were fixated on the castle which stood in the distance.

"Stay with the Senatipathi as per the plan," Malayaman said. "And--"

"Don't do anything stupid, I got it thatha," Karikalan scoffed tired of hearing advices. Last night Malayaman showered him with advice so much that his ears were about to bleed.

"Karikala...it's good to be confident, but head weight can kill you," Malayaman warned him. Adithan stayed silent and mounted his horse. The soldiers were talking among themselves about how excited they are and how they were ready to die for their motherland. The Senatipathi rushed up to Malayaman and Karikalan and stood next to them.

Malayaman stood in front of the crowd and cleared his throat.

The mutterings died down as Malayaman started talking. "Today is a great day," He said. "The day we will win over Rashtrakutas!" The crowd cheered.

The Senatipathi raised his hands and the crowd fell silent again. "As per the Prince's suggestions there are a few changed made to our previous war plans," He announced. The soldiers were confused. Even the Senatipathi was confused about how Malayaman accepted this at first, but after hearing the plan, he was convinced.

The thought of following a 16 year-old's war plans didn't sit too well with the crowd. But alas, he was their prince and they were to obey him. Well what if by some miracle it worked out really well?

They were ready to either return home with a glorious victory or to die fighting for their mother.

****

Rashtrakutas palace.
Day of the war.

The palace turned into a laughing riot when they received news from their spy. The Chozhas sent a child to a war.

The Rashtrakutas king was elated when he heard the news. He didn't imagine defeating the Chozhas would be this easy. "Great warriors they were you said," The Rashtrakutan king Krishnaraja laughed.

"I still stand by my statement, your majesty," came the reply from one of his chiefs. Krishnarajan's wrinkled face tightened at the comment.

"Do you think I'll lose to a child?" He asked, his eyes red with anger.

"No your majesty, I'm just saying you shouldn't underestimate someone, but of course, no one could compare to your strength," The chief replied carefully not to enrage the king.

"Hmmm," Krishnaraja hummed as he overlooked the entrance of his mighty palace. He has poured all his troops at the entrance so much so that even a small ant can't enter the place.

The other side of the palace was protected by natural landscape, tall mountains guarded the back side of the palace. It was impossible to scale the rough terrains of the mountains safely, most people have died trying to attack them from the back.

But for safety he has placed an archery unit there.

"Our spies have informed us that thry are planning to attack us by today," The chief announced. A smile crawled upon the king's worn out face.

"Very well then, they have marked the dates for their funeral," he walked towards the armory to get armored up for the battle.

"How many men do they have?" He asked the chief as he sheathed his sword.

"Half of what we have," The chief replied.

"Ha!" The king laughed, Why do they bother fighting? He thought.

Well he was not going to complain about another free victory under his name...

***

They waited for a while waiting for the war horn to be blown, but the only thing which was blown were the calm air around the palace. The sun positioned itself at the centre of the sky, beaming down its rays and lighting up the palace's corridors.

"Did they run away?" Krishnarajan laughed, he was down at the courtyard with his men.

"They probably ran all the way back to Thanjai seeing our army," One of his men mocked.

"Then we shall chase them down and capture Thanjai, what do you say chief?" He nudged the chief who was lost in his own thoughts.

"Ah--yes of course," He said. Something didn't feel right to the chief. The chozha's never backed off especially from war, He thought to himself.

"The hardest part of this war would be killing a child," The king said pitily. "He doesn't deserve to die in such a---" before he could finish his sentence the ground rumbled making him lose his balance.

"What was that!?" He asked the chief who looked as confused as him.

The ground rumbled again before they could wake up from their daze.

"Go! Check out what's happening! Make yourself useful" He yelled at one of his men and took off to the watch tower.

Before he could get to the top of the tower the war horn was blown.

"THEY HAVE ARRIVED!" Someone shouted.

The tiger flag was waving bravely in the air, below that, a measly army stood, ready to attack on Malayaman's command.

"This old man," Krishnarajan scoffed as he put on his helmet and his breastplate. They descended down the flight of stairs and reached the large gates of the palace.

"Where's their prince?" He asked bitterly as he mounted his horse.

The chief shrugged, "I don't know," he mounted his own horse and waited for the king's command.

"Go, tell our army to get ready to attack!" He said.

"What about you, sire?" The chief asked.

"I'll check--" The horse trotted as the ground rumbled once again, it threw it's legs in the air and threw a tantrum, the king pulled back the horse's snout trying to control it. "I'll check what the hell is causing these rumbles," He gritted his teeth. The chief nodded, kicked the horse's muscles and took off.

As the chief suspected. Something's going to go wrong. Terribly terribly wrong.

A/N

Can y'all guess where our beloved Prince is?