Return of the King

Here we go again I thought. Once more I have messed up and made a huge blunder. How could I have let this happen? If only I had been a more compassionate ruler. At that moment I vowed to myself to always put the needs of my people above my own, and to always perform my duty as king to the best of my ability. If I even have the opportunity to rule again. As I walked through the jungle and small isolated villages, I constantly prayed and reflected on my own actions. My fall from grace had hit me hard. Instead of jewels and silk I was wearing tattered garments that were my only possessions. My only company on my journey was hunger and the noises of the jungle.

However, it was not all bad. The time I spent by myself allowed me to grow and reflect on my mistakes, especially how I treat people. As I was making my pilgrimage I felt a familiar presence coming to me, and instantly my heart was filled with love. It was my wife Shachi, the goddess of beauty. Her eyes shone like emeralds and the smile on her face when she gazed upon me could have rivaled the brightness of the sun itself. Instantly, I went and embraced her. To her it did not matter that I hadn't bathed in ages. It was nice to just hold each other again. When I looked at her eyes again, they had changed from happiness to anger and I knew I was in trouble.

"Why did you leave me?!" She said indignantly. I was at loss of words. Nothing I could say would make it right. I had suddenly abandoned her without even a word of goodbye.

"I'm sorry." I said and repeated that a dozen times with tears in my eyes. Shachi saw how sincere I was and brought me close to her.

"I have missed you, husband, but we do not have much time for a reunion. Your replacement is making a mess of Svarga and ruining all your work."

"Who it it?" I implored.

"Nahusha" Was all she said with a knowing look.

Now at this point I was very confused.

"NAHUSHA?!?' I exclaimed. "Who chose him? He is the worst person ever to be king."

"Yes, everyone realizes that now." Shachi replied. "But now he is causing conflict and all the deities are on different sides due to his instigation."

"This is horrible," I thought to myself. "Everything we had worked on together was all going up in flames." I knew that this was a golden opportunity for me to reclaim my honor. I instantly got serious and with determination in my eyes. I concocted a plan. I explained to Shachi that I would defeat Nahusha to end the conflict and bring the gods back together. But first I had to obtain the ace up my sleeve. I obtained my deity form and I was once again Indra Lord of the Skies. I went to a secluded cave where I had hid my ultimate weapon and right when I entered I felt it respond to my presence. With all the tools I needed at my disposal, Shachi and I went to Svarga to face Nahusha. He was in a palanquin carried by a team of eight men. Dropping from thousands of feet above I landed in front of the procession thereby knocking his men and palanquin away. Nahusha got up from the rubble with rage upon his face. He grabbed his sword and rushed me, but I brought out Vajra, my ultimate weapon. With one shot I smote him right where he stood.

I called all the gods together to convene so that we could settle the differences between everyone. The discussion lasted the whole day with everyone trying to voice their opinion, but I saw that this was not going anywhere and decided to make my own decision. With a stomp of my foot the whole room went silent. Everyone looked at me expectedly. Gazing at everyone in turn I described to them how they were acting childish and not like actual gods. Then, I posed the question on everyone's mind: who will rule now? Once again, the room erupted in discussion, but this did not last long as Lord Brahma entered the chambers. Once again, the room went silent.

Lord Brahma walked up to the dais and came straight to me. He looked me in my eyes and said "Lord Indra will rule once again. He has proven himself capable and has shown that he learned from his mistakes." Nods of agreement went around the room and once again I became the King of Svarga. For good this time.

Author's Note: To conclude my storybook of Indra I wanted to highlight how much he has grown from the beginning. He has obviously matured much more from the time he slayed Vritra as he now takes into account other people's feeling and the consequences of his actions. All of his character development has led to this moment. He used all of the experiences he has had to stop the in-fighting and reclaim his position as king. I made some changes to this story as I left out some characters and events that played a role in the original writing. Originally, Shachi flees from Svarga because Nahusha wants to marry her. Shachi also receives help from Upashruti, the goddess of night, who takes her to Indra and the three of them make a plan to defeat Nahusha. I added Indra's side adventure of obtaining Vajra as I wanted to show how overkill it is and how much Indra hates Nahusha. In the original Nahusha actually gets turned into a snake by a sage, but I hate his character so I wanted to kill him off.

Bibliography: "Indra and Shachi" by ACKGuide