THE DARK FATED KANYA

CHAPTER 2

HASTINAPUR:

Bheem was literally fed up. His three younger brothers were sniggering with their faces hidden behind those stupid scrolls, while his elder brother thought of him as the main culprit and had spared him a warning glance.

I am hungry, he thought, rubbing his hand on his stomach. How could she be late? She knows when hungry, my brain stops working and the only thing that occurs to me is food.

He huffed in impatience.

"Kakashree...", a meek yet vibrant voice echoed from the entrance. All the faces turned towards the entrance at once. More than the voice, it was the teary tone that had the five mighty warriors looking at the owner of that voice.

Sahadev hurriedly got up and went to pick the 5 year old kid in his arms.

"What happened, Vrishketu? Why are you crying?" asked Sahadev, softly rubbing the back of his beloved nephew.

"I am not," said Vrishketu, in an exasperated tone. He quickly rubbed his nose and eyes to remove any traces of his crying.

The five Panduputras smilingly shook their heads at the innocent efforts of their eldest brother's son.

"Sahadev, how can you say that my brave son is crying? Look at him. He's just a little bit worried," said Arjun, in fake anger.

Vrishketu nodded. Sahadev sat down on his place while making his little nephew comfortable in his lap.

"Okay now. Tell me, why my son is worried?" Sahadev asked, once again.

"Don't get him started, Kakashree Sahadev. It's just the everyday thing between him and Parikshit. I am so fed up now."

Bheem at once jumped from his place and darted towards the door, hearing the voice. There stood the heartbeat of the five brothers. Arjun's Vijayatmaja. CHANDRIKA.

She had just taken one step into the sabhagriha, when the towering shadow of her Kakashree Bheem engulfed her and in a blink of an eye, the plate of laddoos vanished from her hands. She stood there for a sec or so, trying to grasp what had happened and chuckled lightly. While Arjun, Nakul and Sahadev were laughing out at her perplexed situation.

She moved forward towards the sitting area, followed by a giggling Parikshit. He soon ran and jumped in Nakul's lap. She handed over the banana leaf package to Sahadev and made herself comfortable beside her Jyesht Kakashree. Yudhisthir lovingly pecked a soft kiss on her forehead and tucked her securely between his arm and body. Sahadev and Nakul took two laddoos each, one for themselves and one for Vrishketu and Parikshit from the banana leaf pack and passed it to Arjun who took one for himself and passed it to Chandrika. She took one and forwarded the pack to Yudhisthir who emptied it in Bheem's plate, with a smile.

"You could have given it back to us, Jyesht. Bhrata Bheem already has a plate full for himself," said Nakul, with a pout.

"Let him eat, Nakul. It's not good to eye someone's food," replied Yudhisthir.

Bheem gave a winning look to Nakul, who just made a face and ignored.

Yudhisthir was eyeing all this with a smile, when he saw the half laddoo forwarded to his mouth. He knew there was no way out so accepted it from the hands of his niece.

"No one misses my laddoo," Chandrika chided, earning an apologetic look from the Samrat.

"You are late, by the way," said Bheem, after satisfying some of his hunger.

"Ask your grandson and nephew. They are responsible," replied Chandrika.

"Not me. It's Parikshit. He keeps teasing me by calling me Kakashree," Vrishketu immediately clarified himself.

"But Mata said that he is my Kakashree. So I just respect him by calling him that," Parikshit replied, filling his voice with as much innocence as possible.

But the intelligent Pandavas were not naïve enough to miss the mischievous glint dancing in their grandson's eyes.

"No, I am not your Kakashree. I don't have grey hair like Kakashree Nakul."

Nakul choked at this, while Arjun, Bheem, Sahadev and Chandrika burst out into a loud laughter. Even Yudhisthir was having a hard time, suppressing his smile.

"Priya anuj, I guess you need to start applying the paste that you gave us, to your hair as well," Bheem mocked, while stroking the grey locks of Nakul.

Nakul harshly brushed his hand and shot an angry look towards Vrishketu, who instantly hid his face with Sahadev's uttariya. Soon everyone went back to their laddoos as Bheem strictly prohibited talking while eating.

Yudhisthir again buried his face into the scroll, while subconsciously caressing his niece. Even Chandrika was going through the writings on the scroll, when she felt a soft, yet intensely worried gaze on herself. She recognized it very well. And hence, she chose to completely ignore it.

Arjun sighed. She was as stubborn as her father. Nothing budged her from her decisions.

"I have a practice session with the new recruits of our army in some time. So I'll take your leave, Samrat," Arjun said, getting up from his place with a light smile.

Yudhisthir nodded. Arjun, at once, left the place and made his way to his favourite place. The Archery Arena. He had lied. The session had been over yesterday itself. But he couldn't stand the place anymore without shooting questions to his daughter. And he didn't want to do it in front of others, as they still hadn't noticed the light shadows forming below the eyes of their darling. She was suffering from sleepless nights. Again. Last time he had seen those shadows after her father's death in the Kurukshetra. That was the first time he and his brothers had met her. His thoughts wondered back to the days after the great war had ended and they were mourning the loss of elders and younger ones.

Flashback:

They were standing near the funeral pyre of their recently found elder brother, Karna. The Daanveer, who had been mocked as being a Sutputra for his whole life, but had actually been a Suryaputra. The one who, inspite of being a Kaunteya, had proudly declared to the world that he would be known as Radheya till the time his name was taken by people. Their cousin, Dwarkadheesh Shri Krishna, had known it all along. And yet, had chosen to hide it from them. They knew that it had been for their own benefit, but still... it hurt. Arjun was the most devastated, as he had given the fatal wound to his elder brother.

Suddenly, they heard the jingling of anklets. They looked up to find their Bhabhishree Vrushali, clad in dress of a widow, coming towards the pyre closely followed by a 12 year old girl, who held a few month old baby in her hands.

The five brothers gasped seeing the face of that girl. It was a splitting image of her father. The sharp jawline, straight nose and the eyes... they held the same expressionless silence as was seen in the eyes of Vijayadhari, when the people around him mocked him for his caste. The trio stopped some distance away from the pyre. Vrushali turned and caressed the hair of her daughter and 5 month old son, who was fast asleep in his elder sister's hands. A chill ran down the spine of those five warriors, looking at the scene. And even before they could contemplate the reason behind that chill, Vrushali jumped into the fire that had engulfed the remains of her husband, sometime ago.

Hello guys, hope you enjoyed it.

The story would be juggling between the flashbacks and the present in the initial chapters as I want to lay out the relations between the various main characters of this story and Chandrika.

Do let me know if you find it too much jumbled up.

Share your views in the comment box.

Thankyou for taking out your valuable time for this.

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See you soon...