Bhanumati held back a sigh and plastered a broad smile on her face as she stepped into the Rangamanch, where her Svayamwar was to be held.

Her eyes took in the arrays of Kings and Princes all dressed to the nines, hoping to win her hand in marriage.

She had always known that she was to be married off one day, to help her family build an alliance. Any King or Crown prince she married today would guarantee Kalinga an extra army and in these times when all of Aryavarta seemed to be in turmoil... military and financial support was very welcome. Well. Military and financial support was always welcome, but especially now.

Even though Svayamwars were supposed to be self choice ceremonies, where either the princess chose her groom or the groom was selected based on some task they completed... it was not uncommon for the Kings to tell their daughters to choose or not choose a specific suitor, behind the scenes.

She had wondered if her father would do so as well, but he hadn't. She might have preferred if had, actually, since then the weight of this very significant choice would not have fallen on her.

Bhanumati knew she was beautiful, with fair skin and wide hips and a curvaceous body. And as any other princess, she had been dressed in her best clothes made of the richest fabrics for her Svayamwar. (She was escorted by some of the dasis cum spies her mother had prepared to accompany her to whichever Kingdom she went to.)

As such, she could feel all the stares on her, some admiring as they should be, others more... hungry, lustful. But that was to be expected. She took note of all who looked at her the latter way so that she would know not to put her garland around any of their necks.

In her survey, she noted two rather large men, towering above the rest, sitting on the opposite sides of the arena. And she knew that the Pandava Prince Bheem was not here so he must be even larger, which was... somewhat alarming. Internally shaking her head to clear it of such useless thoughts, she turned back to her current objects of interest.

Looking at the first of these men made her nose wrinkle. He looked very strong(with that size, it was hard not to)and he might have been good looking once but now...He was... old. Too old. Honestly, he was probably older than her father. Why was he even here? Was he accompanying a son or nephew? She looked around him but.... she genuinely couldn't be sure if he was an escort or if he had actually come here expecting to win her hand.

The other one... this one was rather handsome. He had bronze skin and strong, well muscled arms and a rather beautiful face but... he also had a rather arrogant look about him, like he considered himself better that most people.

But right now, all his attention was on her and as he met her eyes, a corner of his lips tilted upwards. She looked away.

Beside him sat a fair skinned, beautiful warrior with a large bow, but unlike most, he didn't seem the least bit interested in her and she wasn't sure whether to be insulted or not. This was her Svayamwar after all. By the way the latter leaned to his side to speak to the former with a smile on his face, it seemed that the two might be friends. A rare enough sight since even friends weren't really friends at a Princess's Svayamwar, if they both came hoping to win her hand.

As she looked at the rest of her suitors... well. She found some of them to be rather pretty, though she was certain most of them would loathe the use of that word in regards of them.

She wished she could be marrying someone she actually knew and cared about at least a little, but... very few princesses had that in their fate.

Honestly, she had no idea on what basis to garland her to-be husband. She knew about their Kingdoms but nothing personal about any of these men present. Should she ask a question or?...

Her father stood up when she reached him and placing a hand on her shoulder, gave her what she assumed was meant to be reassuring smile. But he seemed somewhat teary eyed so.... The reassuring part wasn't really working but she didn't need reassuring anyway. She was after all a grown woman who had known from the beginning that she would have to be married off for the good of her kingdom one day.

King Chitrangad cleared his throat and turned to face all the assembled men.

"A very good morning to all the fine Kings and Princes of Aryavarta who have presented themselves here today! All of you will be introduced to my daughter first and then she will choose which one of you to garland."

Yeah. Her father liked to keep things concise and to the point instead of giving fancy, flowery speeches that was common for most royalty. She rather liked it and she knew so did her brother but she could see some of the men frown. Once again she made sure to note who they were so that she wouldn't garland any of them.

Now her options had been somewhat reduced but that was for the best.

Her adopted elder brother Srutayudha came to briefly grasp her hand as the names were read out. She smiled up at him but he also looked at her with teary eyes. Honestly. Her father and brother seemed to be more concerned about her than either she or her mother were.

She grasped his hand more tightly before letting go as she turned to face the assembly so that she could walk among her suitors with her garland and match names of suitors to faces.

The enormous old man there was.... Jarasandha. Of course. She had heard that he had attended Princess Draupadi's Svayamwar as well. Honestly did he not feel strange attending Svayamwars of all these princesses young enough to be his grand-daughters?

Others present included Shishupala of Chedi(too ratty looking), Bhishmaka of Vidarbh(again too old, really, his daughter was married to Vasudev Shri Krishna), Rukmi of Vidarbh(What nonsense! Both father and son were there to win her hand?! As flattered as she was at their desperation to have her included in their family, this was really too much), Vakra(as handsome as his face was, the moment he smiled he became terrifying because of his crooked teeth), King Kapotarma(no fault here as of yet), Neel of Mahishmati(she wasn't sure if her father would be very happy if she married someone so close to the Dravidian Kingdoms), Bhoja of Kunti(Dear lord, why were all these old men here!), Shatadhavna, Srigala, etc, etc, etc.

Bhanumati did her best to remember all the names. It was rather hard when she had to also focus on keeping that damned smile fixed on her face.

Finally they reached the other side of the pavilion opposite to Jarasandha. The announcer passed over the warrior with the bow so she assumed he was not there to participate. That explained his disinterest but how strange it was that all these old men here were there to participate and not as escorts, while this one who was still young(she was pretty sure he was almost a decade older than her, but that was pretty acceptable when compared to oh, say five decades older!) was here as an escort.

She turned to the next one--the other enormous one. He smirked down at her as if confident she would choose him. That was it. That... that arrogance. She might have chosen him. But now she wouldn't.

"Kuru Samrat Dhitarashtra-putra, Chandravanshi, Yuvraj Duryodhan of Hastinapur!" The announcer proclaimed.

Ah. Either Jarasandha of Magadh or this would be probably be the most beneficial alliance. And there was no way she was going marry Jarasandha. But. That arrogant smirk. She wanted to wipe that look off the Yuvraj's face.

So she stepped closer to him as if to choose him. His smirk grew wider, more confident.

But then she got onto her tiptoes and whispered, "I'm not going to choose you. You're not that enticing."

As she stepped back, she could see the gob smacked look on his face that was slowly giving way to a challenging one. What challenge? Was he going to challenge the person she garlanded to a duel? They would see.

She turned away and started to walk past him wondering how he would deal with rejection.

Not well, as it turned out.

He shot up from his seat and grasped her wrist. She jerked back in shock, trying to pull her hand away but to no avail. His grasp was gentle and didn't hurt her, but it was still far too strong for her to break out of, despite her best efforts.

Gasps rang out throughout the hall and her brother lifted his mace threateningly. Yuvraj Duryodhan lifted his mace threateningly, right back.

From the corner of her eye she could see the Yuvraj's friend(Who must be the Angaraj, she thought, given the bow) giving him an aghast and incredulous look.

"What is the meaning of this?" her father demanded.

"I am going to marry your daughter." Yuvraj Duryodhan declared.

"She hasn't chosen you." Her father said, despite the fact that this would be a great alliance for them, because he would still prefer his daughter's choice over a great alliance. Bhanumati felt her heart swell with a wave of love for her father even as she still tried to pull her arm away.

"I choose her." Said the Crown prince as though that made any sort of sense, and stormed out of the arena, pulling her along.

There was a great tumult as all the Kings and Princes rose and reached for their weapons to go after them but the King of Anga was much faster. He followed them and shot an arrow that transformed into a shower of arrows forming a barricade that prevented anyone from coming after them.

The three of them rushed out of there, Bhanumati having no choice but to run along given that her arm was still in the Yuvraj's grasp and she could not for the life of her, pull away. She saw that as the Kings and Princes including her Bhrata Shrutayudha banged against the barricade with their weapons, it shook but did not fall.

Okay, so writing a fic from Bhanumati's POV had been in my mind for a while now. This fic is not going to be very long, and after the next chap which should not take too long, updates may be sporadic as I focus on my other fic "In the Wake of the War". But still, I hope you enjoy.

And Shrutayudha was the King of Kalinga during the Kurukshetra war and he fought for the Kauravas and was Duryodhan's friend apparently but earlier its mentioned that Kalinga's King was Chitrangad so I made him Bhanumati's adopted brother. Adopted because he was somehow the son of God Varuna and his wife so. Yeah.