सुखान्तः - A Happy Ending

||CHAPTER 6||

Lakhs of claps were heard. Dronacharya smiled in satisfaction. "Look at this wheel. This wheel has all the princes names. My son, Ashwatthama will shoot an arrow. And upon whoever's name the arrow would land, shall have to come and showcase their warfare talents. Two princes would come and duel with eachother", Dronacharya spoke staring at the big wooden wheel. 

'this seems unfair', thought Bhanu. 'what if Dronaputra Ashwatthama knowingly shoot arrows on the ones whom he wish to come forward'. The wheel thing didn't settle well with Bhanu. Being the princess of Ram-rajya, she didn't want herself to let this unfairness happen. But she knew, nothing was in her hands. If she spoke then the situation wouldn't get any better. Instead it would get worser. The place would lose it's calm. 

She was shook out of her thoughts as she heard a name. "Rajkumara Duryodhana". The crowd were cheering for him. Her heart thumped. She immediately looked towards the gate. And saw an elephant. It was too big, to be honest. As she tried to see better, she saw that a man was sitting on it. 

Rajkumara Duryodhana had worn a thick strong armour. He jumped down on floor. And caressed the elephant's trunk with his hand. She could guess that he did it out of affection for the elephant. The elephant then moved out of the place. He turned towards Maharaani Gandhari and joined his hands infront of her. He moved his eyes around the royal women section. May be to find someone? 

"Poor Bhraata. He's trying to spot me", Bhanumati heard Dushala speaking and giggling to herself. 

Suddenly, his eyes landed on her. Her breath hitched feeling his gaze on herself. While his heartbeats were lost. He picked up his mace as Rajkumara Sahadeva's name reached his ears. He moved towards Sahadeva. And they started their fight. It seemed like a friendly fight. Like both the parties didn't have any personal problem between themselves. Soon Duryodhana defeated Sahadeva. Both Duryodhana and Sahadeva smiled at eachother. A smile grasped on Bhanumati's face, which she herself didn't know why. 

Duryodhana looked towards Bhanumati's direction to find her smiling. His heart literally wanted to fly, seeing her smiling. He blushed slightly. And then again held his mace tightly as he saw Nakula entering the arena. Rajkumara Nakula's case was same as his twin. Nakula walked towards his twin and both of them gave supportive smiles to eachother. 

Duryodhana couldn't get chance to glance at Bhanumati as Rajkumara Yudhishthira entered as soon as Nakula left. Duryodhana choosed his sword to duel with Yudhishthira's spear. Both of them fought for a little long. Duryodhana was frustrated. He didn't want to fight physically with his opponent for much long. At last, he decided to end the game using words, "which cow's milk you drank today? Honestly speaking, you're fighting well today. I too would like to taste the milk". His words distracted Yudhishthira. That gave a chance to Duryodhana to overpower. And that caused a scratch on Yudhishthira's left arm. The duel was then announced to have no winner. Yudhishthira walked towards his younger brothers, caressing his arm. Duryodhana felt a little guilty, yet he decided to ignore Yudhishthira.

Duryodhana thought to leave too, but as he heard the crowd cheering his name, he decided to stay little longer. He glanced at Bhanumati who seemed aloof.  Duryodhana was confused seeing her indifferent expression. He couldn't react much as Bheema stood infront of him, face-to-face. Duryodhana found Bheema having furious look on face, which made Duryodhana angry. Both of them stared at eachother with furious eyes before starting the duel. 

Having their respective maces in their hands, they launched themselves upon eachother. One attacking and other dodging. Soon the fight turned fierce. Both the parties fought tooth and nail. None wanted to loose. Bheema's attention shifted to his brothers for a moment who were throwing encourage looks on him. Duryodhana who observed this, decided to take profit of the situation. He landed a heavy blow on Bheema's mace. And Bheema stumbled. Duryodhana smirked outraging Bheema. Bheema gave a heavier blow on Duryodhana's mace, but mistakenly Bheema's mace hit Duryodhana's face. Duryodhana touched his lip's corner. Blood sticked to his fingers skin. Immediately Mahaamahim Bhishma ordered the duel to be blocked.