Kyra wiped the sweat from her brow and looked up towards the sky. It was a swelteringly hot day on the outskirts of Ayodhya, even hotter than usual. The sun was bearing down on her and her new "friend," Viswamithra. She could see heat waves erupting from the horizon, and sweat was pooling in the bottom of her boots.
Kyra averted her eyes from the sun and looked at Viswamithra, who walked ahead of her. He had arrived at her small home sometime yesterday afternoon, and had immediately started saying weird things about some asura named Ravana who had doomed them all, a fateful quest, four warriors, and Kyra being some sort of chosen hero. None of it made sense to her, and she would rather have just chased the old man off with her sword, but he insisted that she set off with him on some harebrained adventure. He promised her she would be able to bring her sword, so she figured she had nothing better to do.
So here they were, trudging their way through a desert. They had spent the previous day marching on through barren, dry desert. They had stayed with some hermits through the night, then set off again early this morning, Viswamithra telling her nothing of what lay ahead. In fact, Kyra thought she might as well ask him what's going on --
"Would you like to hear a story?" Viswamithra beat her to the punch.
Kyra sighed. "Sure, why not?"
"Long ago, a beautiful demigod fell in love with a chieftain named Sunda. They had two strong and powerful sons, who used their powers to destroy the land around them. Their father found this to be humorous, and joined in with their antics. However, a saint who had established a hermitage nearby was disturbed by their shenanigans. He, Agasthya, struck Sunda dead. After this, his family continued their rampage out of spite and anger, so he cursed the sons and wife as well. The sons, ashamed, ran off to live with demons. The wife remains here to this day, sucking the life out of the earth and destroying all that get in her way."
Kyra swallowed. She could see where this was going..... "S-so... where is she n-"
Once again she was interrupted. This time, it was the earth itself that disrupted her thoughts. It was shaking so hard Kyra found it hard to balance. She wobbled this way and that, until she finally righted herself again. She looked up to see a huge woman stomping towards her, and barely had time to roll out of the way as her giant foot came down to meet the earth.
"That would be Thataka, the wife. You must destroy her." Vishwamithra had to speak up over the rumbling.
"Oh, great!" retorted Kyra, running frantically in circles to avoid Thataka's giant feet.
"Do it quick; we have more work to do. This is just a test of strength."
Kyra pulled her sword from the sheath on her back and raised it high as she ran. She blocked a trident, a hail of stones, and dodged few more great stomps. She was really sweating now, half from fear and half from exertion. She knew she was strong enough with her sword to defeat this beast. All she had to do was wait for the right moment to strike......
At last, Thataka bent forward, exposing her giant neck and giving Kyra the break she was waiting for. Kyra thrust her sword through Thataka's throat, killing her instantly and giving way to a shower of sparks and smoke.
Kyra turned to Viswamithra, disappointed. "That's it?" she asked.
Viswamithra chuckled. "I told you we have much more to do, I didn't figure you would have any trouble with her. Now we must continue our quest to find the other three warriors. It is up to you to identify our second chosen one."
Viswamithra turned away and began to walk. Kyra glared at his back for a while, irritated at his nonchalant manner of going about things. Finally, she sighed and jogged to catch up with the surprisingly spry old sage. This was going to be a long journey.
Image information: Pyrrha Nikos Eyes by RussianHoneyBadger on Reddit Source: Reddit
Author's Note: The original story is not much different from mine, aside from wording. Viswamithra leads the hero on a journey through perilous terrain, stays at a local sage's hermitage, and then continues on his way to tell the story of each important location he and the hero pass through. The backstory of Thataka is explained, and then she is confronted. However, in the original, it is Rama who is on this great journey and who defeats Thataka. I added his heroism and ease of weaponry to my character Kyra, but definitely gave Kyra more sass and also a sword rather than a bow and arrow. I want all of Rama's heroic traits to be seen in my heroes, but with added spice to make them vulnerable and non-invincible as it seems Rama is. Since this is the very first fight that Rama encounters within the story, I had the first warrior take this battle, and I will follow this pattern with my other warriors. I've been working to try and shorten my stories to still include detail, but be right to the point as well, since the very first story I wrote was nearly a thousand words. That was my editing challenge for today, and I came up to just under six hundred words, which is a great resting place. I later edited my story to include a little more detail during the fight scene and the backstory, since my editing challenge was to add 100 words of detail.
Bibliography. "Ramayana" by R.K. Narayan. Source: Ramayana