Ram took in a deep breath as he studied the legions and legions of monkeys before him, and closed his eyes for a second. If he just thought, if he strained very hard, he could remember the faint vision of seeing his own soldiers back in Ayodhya, standing in the very same legions, tall and proud, chests puffed out, hands tightly clenched at their sides, and shoulders rolled and lithe bodies eager to fight. He had trained these millions of monkeys like his father had trained him. Perhaps he was not so forgetful after all.

"We're ready." It was just a whisper, a light hiss from Sugriv, but it felt like it was shouted into Ram's ear. It bounced around his brain like a rubber ball. They were ready. Now was not the time to back out. And he didn't want to back out. Ram's eyes snapped open like a reflex, and stared into the empty air. In a flash, he thought he saw a pale version of Sita's eyes to stare into instead, and somehow, he clenched his jaw and flicked his palm. "Shri Ram?"

"Yes." Ram replied as the sun began to rise. He gave a tiny, almost imperceptible nod towards Hanuman, who grabbed the conch shell, and gave it a loud blow, so that the chilling sound rang throughout the heavy mountains, and so that it rang throughout the eardrums of Ravan, who perhaps wasn't prepared to fight. Either he wasn't prepared, or he was perfectly prepared. "Come on." Ram thundered, and leading the way, the monkey army of thousands, perhaps even millions, ran down the Suvela Mountain.

Ram's hair flew in the heavy wind, but his right eye twitched. Strange, both a good omen, and a bad one. Ram shook his head and continued to walk, hearing the heavy footsteps behind him. Good omen or bad, war was war. If Ravan thought that he would be able to get away with a terrible crime just because of his status, well he was about to prove him wrong. Terribly wrong. Ram exhaled heavily.

Angad, once in a while, couldn't help but look back at the scampering army as Ram finally stepped foot on flat land. Who knew, perhaps this was the last time he saw any of them. Perhaps it was the last time he ever had the monkey population so prosperous. Perhaps it was the last time he saw Nal, or Neel, or his uncle, maybe even Hanuman, Jambavan. Maybe it was the last time that they would see him. Angad would have laughed at that, for even if he died, he would have killed plenty before that.

-----O-----

(Note-The original War took place as the monkeys tried to infiltrate Lanka. I am not sure how to write that, so this one will take place on a battlefield)

Ram had never seen Lanka up close before, but once he did, it enchanted him. Gold and marble, and the gates so intricate! Ravan certainly loved his luxuries. Ram took a deep breath in. Sita must have heard the thundering of their feet. Ravan must have heard the thundering of their feet. Ram glanced from the corner of his eye at Lakshman, who, for one of the first times in the exile, had kept his sword on his waistband, and sheathed. Even ages later, his brother embraced the art of war like Urmila and Bharat had loved painting. Ram smiled.

Vibhishan's moustache curved down a little bit, but he did not look reluctant or repentant that he had approached Ram for asylum and had agreed to help him. What he did have on his face was almost regret, that Ravan had to become this way that his own brother had to turn against him. But what was, was, and neither could have done anything about it. Silently, Ram thanked the Gods who were looking at him kindly for Vibhishan, who might have just been the reason that they knew so much about Lanka.

And then there was Angad, Yuvraj. The monkeys almost always would only follow his orders, listen to whatever he said, laugh at all of his jokes. Sugriv was their king, but Angad was their friend, and their future. Angad was daring, and unbiased. Ram wondered just how Tara had convinced him to stop sulking and join the cause but however she had, it was amazing, for Angad had a heart of gold.

Lastly, of course, there was Sugriv-hold up. Before Ram could ask 'Sugriv, the hell are ya doin'?!"Sugriv had jumped off of the ground and somehow launched himself into Ravan's palace. Ram paused for a moment, not being able to comprehend what had just happened. Then, "How many flying monkeys are among us?" Angad simply rolled his eyes and picked his nails as Hanuman shifted from foot to foot.

-----O-----

Sugriv didn't quite know what exactly had compelled him to launch himself off of the dust and into Ravan's palace, but he knew that now he had done it, that there was no going back. If he did go back, he would look like a coward, someone who suddenly reconsidered his decisions, or if he told them that he really hadn't thought this through, would Prabhu Shri Ram think of him as rash or unwise? He knew that Shri Ram wouldn't, for he was kind, but one could never be too sure! Besides, he loathed Ravan.

With that, Sugriv burst into the ceilings of the palace and landed right before Ravan, whose eyes widened. "ANOTHER ONE?!" he roared. "Who are you-you flying monkey vanar!" (which was kinda redundant seeing as monkey means vanar so) "I have told you and your stupid army multiple times! I am not scared of some hermit who has no sense of wiseness-dealing with the great Ravan so recklessly!"

"My name is Sugriv!" Sugriv boomed (well that was predictable, I mean, who else would he be? Maya Sugriv, like Maya Sita? Imagine, Sita comes out of the fire, and Sugriv jumps out too. Ram would be like-tf man??). "I have come here to tell you that Ram's army is ready to fight, and that you'd better be ready to fight too, you and your so-called undefeatable sena. But I know that nothing can match us!"

Ravan huffed, his eyes bloodshot again. "Well then fight me Sugriv!" And with that, Ravan stood up, rolling his shoulders. Potbelly or not, Ravan was still a good fighter. There was a reason he had 100000 wives (oh what's that? He only had 5000 before? Well he married 95,000 more in the few days in between for stress relief). Ravan stood up and the two began to wrestle. The thing was, Ravan had heavily underestimated Sugriv, because all he thought of him was Vali's younger, softer brother.

Sure, he was younger. Maybe a tad softer. But Sugriv still could wrestle like nobody's business. Ravan discovered that the match was more equal than he liked, so he curled his fist, and began to use magic. And rather than fulfill a nonexistent death wish, Sugriv flew out the window, out the door, and back to the rest of his army, where Ram greeted him with open arms and motherly admonishments.

A/N-I was recently reading a completed story by this author who wrote really short chapters, and her readers obviously hated that, and I blew a raspberry because I like writing long chapters, and thus my readers are alright with me. And then I wrote this runt. Seriously, the shortest chapter in this entire story. Also the trashiest. I'm feeling like puking.

Ah who cares. You guys were getting spoiled with 2500+ word daily updates. This is what my chapters used to look like guys. Maybe we'll go back to that era. Oh my god, It's literally 1412 words. That's 1000 words less than you guys are used to. Can you tell I'm procrastinating? PLEASE HELP! ONE OF YOU! ANY OF YOU! I don't want to write about the war! Please please please! How is this going to happen?!

I think I'm going to go on a mini-hiatus to process this war because I am literally freaking out. Yes, that sounds right. You all know that I'm going to prolong the Lakshman chapter for like 3 5000 word chapters unnecessarily. I think I'll update the oneshots book for a while as I educate myself on action scenes *ahem-delay so that I can see @Ramayana_lover's action superiority and try not to plagiarize shamelessly-ahem*