An interlude to Sunset

The part where a journey is undertaken - Yudhistira

Yudhistira stroked the mane of the horse he was riding lovingly, "This one right here is Arjun's favorite and has been his companion through most of his travels and what most of us missed, was that Arjun was riding Anay yesterday when he accompanied Dushyala to this forest."

"They had ridden?" Karna sounded stunned.  "Of course, they had ridden..."

Yudhistira managed a chuckle. "Common sense, isn't it?" he said. "But none of us questioned how Dushyala could have dragged Arjun from this far to the palace. It is only today, as we were getting ready to leave, that Dushyala rushed in with this bit of information. It was truly her idea that we should take Anay as this, Anga Raj, is a very smart horse." Yudhistira again stroke the horse's forelocks and was rewarded with a light nip on his fingers. "He was trained by both Arjun and Nakul."

"The princes train their own horse?" Karna sounded surprised, yet again.

This would get very old very soon... was Yudhistira's thought. "Yes, Angaraj," he replied. "My brothers and I, we do not like leaving everything to our attendants." As an afterthought he added, "You may also like to know that Bheem loves to cook, Nakul and Sahadeva attends to the serious ailments of our subjects, Nakul also attends to most of our animals and livestock and Sahadeva loves carving and even building chariots. Arjun...Arjun loves to help our subjects with almost anything; it may be tilling someone's land, patching up a roof or going on long and perilous journeys to kill some demon or sprite."

There was a long silence after Yudhistira's little interlude and the Samrat stole looks at their sworn enemy. Angaraj Karna looked pensive but for once his face did not radiate the hate that it often did whenever he heard about any prowess related to the Pandavas.

The day continued to grow hotter and soon Yudhistira felt sweat beading his brows and running down his back. Angaraj Karna looked slightly more composed but had also started to look flushed. They had been traveling for quite some time but more than that, they had been scanning the path for any evidence or blood drops.

They had found some blood splatters and Yudhistira had carefully packed up the entire soil sample in the little mud jars provided by Nakul and Sahadeva. All the jars were lined with protective herbs so as not to contaminate the samples placed in them. But that was a while ago. They had not seen any trace of Arjun's return journey for quite some time, and it was only Anya's sure-footed navigation that assured Yudhistira that they were not going ashtray.

"We should take a short break, Angaraj," Yudhistira called out after they had trekked another few miles. "The horses are tired and so am I."

"Of course, Samrat."

There was a small clear creek nearby, and the horses were loosely tied so as to enable them access to both fresh water and grass. Yudhistira took out a tub of liniment from the pack tied to Anya's saddle and started to rub it on the horse's legs and flanks. The soldiers rushed in to take over the task but were shoed away by Yudhistira. "You may go and start a small fire so that something may be cooked," he directed.

Yudhistira took time to carefully rub Anya's legs and took out what stones had wedged inside his hoofs. The other horses were also quickly tended to and as he was finishing with Angaraj Karna's horse,  the man came in with armloads of branches.

"Are we trying to burn up this forest, Angaraj?" Yudhistira couldn't help teasing.

"Huh?" Karna looked up at Yudhistira.   "Is it too much?"

The Samrat started laughing. "Define too much, Angaraj. It is definitely a lot more than what is needed now. And most of the branches also look damp, it will be difficult to keep the fire going."