By the time the party started on their journey again, it already near noon. All those who made bets that the little prince won't last more than half an hour lost their money. He indeed kept up the exercise for forty-five minutes, and that too sitting on the other man's horse while the poor creature confusedly ambled around, rattled by the violence.

Once at the palace, the little prince was seized by his four older sisters Sarapriya, Bhupriya, Agnipriya and Varunapriya who were each fifteen, thirteen, eleven and nine respectively. The late queen was famous for her fertility, to the extent that housewives worshipped her as a form of Santana Lakshmi, one of the eight manifestations of goddess Lakshmi who bestows offsprings upon her believers. Towards the end though, the queen had three successive births with Varunapriya, Vajradandaka and another girl Sirija, causing her health to deteriorate badly. The youngest baby died in her infancy, and the queen too passed in the same week when Vajradandaka was less than two. Consequently, he didn't have any memories of his mother. He only remembered the noisy, amusing and abundant feminine energy of his sisters that enclosed him like a womb since he was a little child.

Even now, the four of them simultaneously began their nattering, with no order or purpose whatsoever.

"Ah! Cactus is back. Hold him. Don't let him run away!"

"Catch him! Surround him."

"Varuna, you tell him about how the head servant in the hallway treated you when he isn't around. Get him to fix that old pig for you!"

"Girls, don't start complaining already. Little Cactus has a lot on his plate. Varuna should go to eldest brother."

"No, why go through all that trouble when this little twerp is within reach?!"

"Fine, you all just wait. Cactus, you have two hours in the evening right. You have to appraise my dance practice!"

"Since when did you book his time for dance practice! He has to appraise my music first."

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"You all elder sisters, I'm the youngest one here. I should get priority!"

"But Varuna, you're not good at anything silly…"

"Nonsense! I'm good at mimicry and solving riddles."

"Yeah…I know…sigh…you're too close in age with this knucklehead, it can't be helped you turned out weird as well."

"Can everyone just shut up! I'm talking about my Hasya rasa dance piece here. It is important because I want to show big brother next weekend."

"It's not like big brother is some important dignitary from another state…"

"Yeah, more like show big brother's good friend Teer-gaan of Surgaya vansh*."

(*vansh = clan)

"Ha ha ha, I know!"

"Shut up! Shut up! I hate you all."

"What! What! Are you denying it?"

"Yeah, yeah, oh which song are you going to dance to by the way? Is it the song of arrow, Teer-gaan**?"

"Tee-ee-er-gaan! Te-ee-er-gaan!"

"O Teeeer-gaan O Teeer-gaan! Oh love me please!"

"O Teer-gaan pierce my heart with your arrow already!"

(**literal meaning of the name Teer-gaan is song of the arrow)

Suddenly a high-pitched male voice disrupted the female cacophony in the courtyard, causing a hundred pigeons to flutter away. "Silence!"

The little firecracker's tiny face was red and crunched with anger, making it look like a monkey's buttock. The anger was real though. "You all! You make me feel mortified! If this is how you are going to behave once you've gone to your in-laws, I'm going to commit suicide! Just where exactly do you look like dignified princesses of the ancient and proud Aditya race?"

The silence in the courtyard was deafening. The passing servants and maids couldn't help but shiver. Those who could immediately made themselves scarce. The four young girls made round eyes in shock and surprise. Their hands and feet froze at various stages of action making them seem comical. It was especially so for the youngest two who were dancing to an invented tune of Teer-gaan.

"Hmm!" the oldest sister, Sarapriya was the first to recover. Almost simultaneously, Agnipriya and Varunapriya recovered as well. Only the second oldest Bhupriya was still confused owing to the attacks of her sisters on her secret flame. "You little!"

Suddenly, Vajradandaka's tall and strong warrior sister Sarapriya caught his ankle and before he could react, he was already hanging upside down in the air, screaming his head off.

"Waaahhh! Big sister, leave me, I was wrong!"

The three other girls jumped simultaneously to make good use of the opportunity and started pinching him and tickling him.

"Wah! Third sister, don't pinch me on my buttock."

"Second sister, don't tickle my waist! Waah!! Big sisters, you are the most beautiful and noble and graceful princesses of the entire world. Let me go!"

His youngest sister Varunapriya was even more resourceful than the others. She even went and got a fly-whisk to torture him by tickling his naked upper boy all over. "Aaahhh fourth sister, kee-kee-kee!"

"Little twerp!" Vajradandaka's heroic eldest sister asked menacingly, shaking him around like a sack, "Do you dare to make taunting statements about your elder sisters again?"

By then, Vajradandaka has all but lost his voice, giggling endlessly as his sisters orbited his little body tickling him all over. He fell into a trance of laughter, feeling like a hush of tall grass in spring, where miniscule yellow flowers bloom in the multitude.

In the silence, he remembered his grandfather discussing the four primal emotions.