May 1659
Akhand Bharatiya Empire, Imperial Capital Bengaluru, Shourya Royal Palace
'Tsk!'
Kavya scrapped the paper she was working on and threw it aside with irritation. Her nose was wrinkled and brows furrowed, it could be seen that she was in a foul mood.
Currently, she is writing the climax of the second volu of the Bahubali Novel, where Mahendra Bahubali's father, Amarendra Bahubali is introduced along with his exploits, how he lived, and how his life ended. But despite having a clear outline in her mind, she is currently stuck on so parts of the novel where she is very unsatisfied.
Kavya took up a blank piece of paper, attached it to the pad on the table, and stared at it without doing anything. She tried to imagine how the scenes in the novel would play out in her head so that she could get so inspiration. In such a way, 30 minutes unknowingly passed, and Kavya is yet to put pen on the paper.
This made her quite disappointed, and her lips curved upside down, sulking.
"Bang!"
"Amma, look what I drew!" Suddenly, a little kid who looked to be around three years old broke into the private studio of Kavya.
The little kid wore luxurious clothes and had the temperant of a noble. Most importantly, he had pupils that were amber in color, which was very rare—not just in the Bharatiya Empire but all over the world.
Kavya, who was feeling a little depressed, imdiately cheered up after seeing Agni co into her room. She could always feel better spending ti with her son, no matter how many troubles she had.
Kavya smiled and stretched her arms. "Co here, Chinnu, let Mother see what you have made," she said with an expectant expression on her face.
Agni, who was about to proudly show off his achievent, suddenly stopped. He loved spending ti with his mother and playing with her, but he is a big boy now; he does not have to be cuddled like little kids. But his eyes were a little doubtful. Looking at his beautiful mother, whose aura was not right, he felt like he should not reject his mother's wishes, so he moved forward once again.
Agni thought so many things in a split second, but Kavya did not notice anything out of the ordinary as she saw her son slowing down for a bit and then continuing to run towards her.
The next mont, Kavya felt Agni jump into her arms, and she felt like everything was alright. All the frustration that had been pent up due to not being able to achieve a breakthrough in her novel for the last few weeks had disappeared.
"Hmmm!"
A wide smile imdiately spread across her face as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the mont.
Unbeknownst to her, Agni was constantly observing her aura getting calr and purer little by little at a steady pace. Finally, after a few minutes, Agni felt like his mother's condition was finally stable, so he struggled out of her embrace and put up a stern expression on his face.
Kavya was a little let down as Agni broke free from her hands, but looking at his expression that almost scread, 'I am an adult, no longer a child; do not treat like a child,' she couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"Hahaha!"
Agni felt a little embarrassed for being laughed at, but at the sa ti, he felt a little annoyed. "Ma, I have co to show you my new invention. Why are you laughing at so rudely?" he said as he put his hands on his hips like a little adult.
Kavya's lips trembled, her cheeks tightened, and tears almost dripped from her eyes as she tried her best to control her laughter. No matter how many tis she looked, Agni trying to behave like an adult would only appear funny and cute in her eyes.
Thankfully, she was able to hold in her laughter and asked, "OK, I am sorry your Highness Agni . I will no longer laugh, so let see what invention you have made," she asked in a soft tone with a doting smile on her face.
Agni looked at his mother suspiciously since he could tell that she was still not taking him seriously, but rembering the idea he had got in the morning and the drawing he had made, he beca very excited and showed an A4 paper to his mother.
Kavya curiously took over the paper and looked at it, not expecting anything magnificent to co out of it. But when she looked at it, she was really shocked.
On the paper was the depiction of Chota Bheem, a character in her last novel, which was ant for children.
The illustration was not very good, but it was not very bad either, since it was actually drawn by a little kid less than three years old.
What really caught Kavya's attention was the A4 paper, which had 12 different drawings drawn on it in a style she had never seen before.
"This is!" Kavya was shocked because she just realized that although the drawings made by her son looked very simple, they had a unified style. Although the visual features of the drawings are a few kiloters away from a real illustration of a human face, it succeeded in conveying the emotions of the character she had written.
Moreover, from a single glance and from her rich experience in painting, she could already tell that using simplified images like her son's would enable her to draw the illustrations at a faster speed.
What's more, she was amazed at how her son was able to convey her story in the form of 12 different images divided on the A4 sheet in a brilliant manner.
'What an amazing idea,' she thought as she looked at her son with her eyes wide open. She knew that her son had been a very smart kid since he was born and he was a fast learner, but she had not expected him to be a genius artist as well.
"Well done, Chinnu, you did an amazing job," Kavya praised as she forcefully hugged Agni once more despite his struggles.
---
Kavya did eventually let Agni go, but only because it was ti for afternoon lunch. However, Kavya had not forgotten the surprise her son had brought.
She had been thinking about the image since afternoon, and a lot of ideas started to pop up in her mind. 'If I illustrate Bahubali Volu One in the format Agni had invented, will I be able to find a way to complete the second volu?' she thought, excitent clearly visible on her face.
She did not hesitate anymore.
Kavya walked into the studio with renewed vigor, but instead of going to her writing station, she went to her drawing station and started to sketch out the first chapter of *Bahubali: The Rise of Shiva*, which starts with Queen Shiva Kamini Devi, with an arrow in her back, struggling to move forward with Mahendra Bahubali in her arms.
Kavya was very talented in art, so she intuitively allocated different images in different panels in varying sizes according to the requirents of the story. For the first panel, she took up the whole top of the page in order to show the magnificence of the waterfall and the insignificance of the Queen of Mahishmati.
She divided the remaining half of the page into three panels, where she used one panel, sized 1/4, to show the expression of the queen, Shiva Kamini Devi. The next panel, which was also sized 1/4, was used to show her bloody steps as she moved forward. The last panel of the page, taking up 2/4, was used to depict the arrival of the rebel soldiers from the Mahishmati Kingdom with ruthless expressions on their faces.
"Nice!" Looking at the outline she had drawn, she felt a little proud. Even though the colors and minor details had not been added in, the lines of the drawing alone could precisely convey her thoughts in the form of images.
Kavya excitedly took out a bigger brush and started to do the detailing work with the black paint. This work did not take long because, with the outlining done, she did not have to spend a lot of ti thinking about the positioning of the characters. More importantly, the image she had drawn was in the style her son had invented—a simplified image of a human, compressing all the complex features of a human into simplified features capable of expressing emotions.
With the detailing done, Kavya finally took up the colors and started to add the paint in. Surprisingly, within an hour, she was done.
Kavya raised the A4 paper and looked at it with a proud expression on her face. She felt like she had found a new expressive dium that would greatly satisfy her artistic demands.
After completing the first illustration, Kavya continued to draw as she felt very happy drawing.
As ti went by, she actually got faster and faster in her illustrations, and most importantly, the quality was not sacrificed either, since she beca more proficient in planning the panels and imagining the graphics required to express the novel.
By the end of the day, when it was ti for dinner, Kavya had already finished two chapters of *Bahubali Volu One* in the form of a *Chitrakatha* (images that tell a story).
When Vijay ca back ho for dinner, he was very surprised when Kavya showed off to him her drawings based on *Bahubali Volu One.*
"It was little Agni who had co up with this idea," she said with a proud expression on her face.
To be continued...
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