It had been a whole week that passed excruciatingly slow, Drishti had been waiting restlessly for her wait to over while hundreds of miles away in the Matsya Kingdom a man dressed as a woman from head to toe held a piece of parchment in his hand which was delivered to him by his younger brothers.
Arjun couldnt contain the smile of getting a reply from her finally.
✧
Dear Arjun,
I am glad to know you all are well and I cant wait for you all to return as soon as possible.
I am sorry, I didnt reply to your other letters, I didnt know what to say.
I know you are always worried if I am fine here, trust me, I am. There could have been no better place for me to live. This place, these kids, Govind and your cute little letters make my life much more livable and I am glad of it.
By the way, I have heard, you dress rather peculiarly now. Dresses, jewelries, must be enjoying it, right? I always knew you and jewelries had a connection, though by the time you return I would forever miss the chance of seeing you in your new form but its fine.
Come soon,
Drishti.
✧
Arjun read the letter over and over again until every word was engraved in his memory, like the other six letters he had. This was a response he had gotten after eighteen months and suddenly it had made him the happiest man alive. Total seven letters in fifteen years was his treasure. And the worst part about this letter was that it ended so soon. It was a short one with not many things expressed and he just craved to read more and more from her.
But still he didnt want to put away the parchment at all, as its softness and fragrance reminded him of her. Closing his eyes and holding that letter close to his heart, he could feel as if she was right there. He could almost hear her voice and her laugh, as if she was just twirling around right in front of him like a dance of breeze and vanished just as quickly being blown away as a white misty cloud.
He couldnt resist the urge to read the letter again until after reading it for the twelfth time his gaze fell on the dried out teardrops which were almost gone as if someone had tried so bad to wash them away but they still left their stains there.
A huge part of him pained that she was always trying to mask her feelings now. She had never been genuinely happy in the past fifteen years and before, like she was never acquainted with such a delight called happiness.
Even in the letter it was nowhere mentioned if she was actually happy, she just used those repetitive words to convince him that she is not atleast sad, but she was. He knew, without needing to be told, how she was feeling even miles away. And all he ever wanted was to be there with her. Even if he knew he couldnt assure her that eventually everything will be okay, he just wanted nothing but to hold her hand in whatever she went through.
Tears pricked at the end of his eyes as he layed down, staring at the open starless sky from his balcony.
There was no moon, no stars, not even the night sky, all of it was just covered in the thick shield of grey clouds ready to pour.
****
"Maa says, Shri Krishna is going to come soon as well." Devika chirped as she walked inside the castle alongwith her cousins and friends. All the kids returned from their day eight of working on the tree house which was about to be ready before Drishti's decided birthday and Krishna returning from Dwarka to see his idea has flourished so beautiful had them all so excited.
"I wonder what he will say about the Tree house." Lakshmana grinned at them until they were interrupted by a rough voice coming from behind, "About what?"
Turning around they were all met with the awful sight of Jaydrath coming towards them causing most of them's smile to wear off. It was Devika who answered after no one did, "We are all helping with Drishti maa's birthday gift, a house built on trees."
Jaydrath barked out a laugh indicating how silly she sounded causing the older kids to roll their eyes and Lakshman pulled Devika back to face Jaydrath now with a slight glare, "What's so funny Sindhraj?"
Jaydrath's matched his glare as he spoke, "It is funny seeing all of you matching your parents' foolishness and also you are my nephew Lakshman, there's no need of such formalities."
"There is no need of coming to Hastinapur in every two months as well but nevermind." In the background Drumsena and Vrishaketu snickered.
"Excuse me?" Karnika scowled towards Jaydrath irritated with the old man's attitude, "What do you mean by foolishness? How can you talk about our parents like that?"
Jaydrath held a displeased look at he muttered down at the tiny fuming head, "I'd rather not waste my breath on you."
"What is going on here?" It was Duryodhan who called coming towards them with Dushasan and their wives and Jaydrath replied, "Was just listening to these kids wasting their time at a barn, Duryodhan. You should better keep an eye on them, they keeping engaging with those orphan, lower class kids and that woman-"
"No one asked you to listen to us, you were idle and was just trying to waste our time as well." Karnika reasoned with an eyebrow raised causing mostly everyone's eyes to widen in slight amusement. Vrishasena gave her the stern look, while everyone were trying to hold their chuckles, "Karnika, behave yourself."
"Its clearly reflecting what these kids are being taught there, good luck dealing with them all of you. I'll go for a walk around the town." With that Jaydrath went past them as he smartly tried to stomp over Karnika's tiny foot and so he did, causing her to cry out in pain and showed fake sincerity, "Aw, did it hurt? I am so sorry."
With that he stormed off leaving people glare after him hotly meanwhile Karnika was on the verge of tears as Lakshman quickly crouched in front of her caressing her tony feet and whispered, "We will squeeze lemons in his eyes with red pepper and trip him down the stairs from the eighth floor and release an angry bull after him when he wont be able to walk-"
"That's enough Lakshman, people can hear you." His younger sister muttered causing Lakshman to glance behind him and see how his parents were eyeing him in shock, he shrugged, "What? That's the least I just said."
He stood up sweeping Karnika in his arms and went to the other side of the room by the balcony as he told her interesting facts about the night sky. Meanwhile Duryodhan turned to Vrishasena and asked, "Where is Mitra Karna, Putra?"
"Pitashree went to Angdesh to bring Mata Supriya here." Vrishasena said with confusion laced in his voice as he too didnt know the reason for Supriya's arrival meanwhile Vrishaketu was quick to exclaim as he had a mini heart attack, "What?! Why is she coming here?"
Everyone eyed him suprised before Bhanumati spoke, "I asked Supriya to come Hastinapur for a few days, I havent seen your mother since months now, Vrishaketu."
"She is not my mother." Vrishaketu said aloud and now the place was filled with thick tension before his elder brother gave him the look to behave and watch his words.
They all knew the kids didnt like Supriya, Vrishaketu and Karnika being the most upset with her and it hurt Bhanumati on seeing her best friend was not being loved in any single manner, meanwhile Charumati who always knew that Supriya did no such thing to be ever loved but at this moment she too had started to pity her.
Charumati cleared her throat to ease off the tension and smiled at the kids, "So how is going on with your tree house, kids?"
Suddenly the tension faded away and all the kids rambled telling every tiny detail about the tree house and the time they spent with Drishti and other kids at the ashram. Both their wives could see how Dushasan and Duryodhan held sad smiles listening to all of it, it was evident how they too missed the time they once happened to cherish so much.
"What's going on without us?" Lakshman came towards them on hearing the excitement alongwith Karnika in his arms and Drumasena replied, "Just telling them about the tree house."
A while later all of them were settled as they talked about different things, the elders telling them about their past after being urged so much, the time when they were all happy. Ofcourse they filtered out the part the kids werent supposed to know but the older kids ofcourse knew already.
By now Karnika had shifted to Duryodhan's arms as Lakshman now had his head layed in his mother's lap as the environment was now a proper family story time mood. Lakshmana and Vrishasena sitting together, often caught looking at each other while smiling.
"And you know Devika your father couldnt even ride a horse at your age," Duryodhan laughed after Devika just declared she had aced horse riding, "You are much smarter than him."
Dushasan rolled his eyes and tried to convince his daughter, "Dont listen to him Devika, its not true, I learned horse riding when I was like Karnika."
"But I've heard differently from your mother." Charumati chimed playfully and now Dushasan claimed they were all trying to target him.
Karnika was now starting to doze off in Duryodhan's arms while Devika claimed she wanted to learn to paint and it was Lakshmana who remembered after forgetting a lot of time that she needed to ask the elders to give the tour of the room where such great paintings of every family member were kept.
Picking up a half asleep Karnika in his arms who now claimed she too was excited to see the paintings, Duryodhan led all of them to the paintings room. It was in a far more secluded area of the castle which was only opened when there was any event or occasion in the royal family but since almost fourteen years after the birth of Devika there had been none.
Just as the doors of the room opened and the torches all around it were lit by the servants literally everybody gawked, "Woah."
Meanwhile Dushasan and Duryodhan smiled on reminiscing their childhood from the paintings hanged around there. There was a grand painting of a hundred infants sitting all together one of them being a girl, Dushala. Everyone was amazed how all the babies looked different and easily recognisable. They were all truly impressed by the artist's skills.
Removing a curtain from another painting which was of Dushala sitting on a large elephant adorned in gold from head to toe, Duryodhan smiled, "This is from Dushala's eighth birthday, she asked for an alive golden elephant from Pitashri and cried all the because everyone tried to explain to her that an elephant made of gold couldnt be alive, so Pitamah suggested this to be done."
Everyone chuckled at how delighted Dushala looked sitting on her 'golden' elephant. A series of paintings went after that, some funny, some gladdening, some boring ones as well until the funniest of them all was revealed.
Duryodhan, Dushasan, Mamashree, Angraj Karn and Drishti- all standing in a row and winking. Dushasan and Drishti standing on either sides of Mamashree who stood in middle and all of them held proud looks as they were captured winking altogether, posing in 'The Mamashree Style'. Everybody burst into laughter.
"This is from Angdesh, right Dushasan?" Duryodhan laughed loudly, while Dushasan clutched to his stomach, it almost hurt from laughing so much, "Yes, we all lost a bet from Mamashree to who would mimic Pitamah best and he made us all pose this when he won."
Everybody watched the two brothers who were lost in their own reverie and it was so evident that they had literally lived the best time of their life which was shown in the paintings. Slowly the wild laughters turned into sad smiles as both brothers stared at those painting which only reminded them of those blissful memories which were nothing but paintings now.
Another curtain was taken off as it revealed a gorgeous white owl, wearing a small crown over its head and a royal blue cloak and posing as if he were the king of the universe.
"That's our Snowy." Dushasan whispered as only Charumati heard him and smiled, she knew of Snowy as well.
"It was from his frist birthday, Drishti demanded his portrait to also be put in the family member's portrait." Duryodhan spoke with a light smile.
Lakshmana pulled down another curtain which revealed two grand portraits, one of Dushala and one of Drishti. Both looking like goddesses. Everybody had their mouths parted at the beauty of those portraits.
"Woah," Lakshmana went forward to Drishti's which looked much extra beautiful and asked, "How? And Who? How is it even possible to paint such a realistic and beautiful painting."
Even the boys were very much intrigued this time because it was truly majestic. Vrishaketu asked, "How can anyone paint like that?"
Dushasan and Duryodhan exchanged weary sad glances before everybody's attention turned to a dreamy voice, "By love."
Everybody turned to Devika startled and she blinked as if snapping back to reality and answered clearing her throat, "Um- I read it somewhere, it was written, 'Brushes and paint do magic when when the artist not only loves but worships the object with the truthfulness in heart that makes him see the same thing in everything.'"
Drumasena stared astounded at his sister whom he thought to be dumb, "What have you been reading?"
Vrishaketu had confusion written all over his face, "So did the artist loved Maa or worshipped her?"
"And who was the artist?" Drumasena added as eagerly and all the kids could see no one was willing to answer.
Suddenly Vrishaketu's attention was grabbed by Drishti's name written at the botten of the painting and he concentrated at the writing, "Hey I recognise this writing-"
Duryodhan and Dushasan's eyes almost bulged out but Vrishaketu was interrupted by the sound of a couple of footsteps and all of them turned to see who had arrived.
Angraj Karn and his wife.
But Karn halted in the mid steps as his eyes fell to the only portrait which sweeped all his attention immediately, crowded by everybody around it but his gaze was strongly captured by those deep black eyes shining through the portrait at him.
And he swore those black holes still shot arrows directly piercing at his heart and oh, how he loved that pain.
*Author's Note*
I know this time I took soooo long, sry💕
And yeah, I wanted to give a happy chapter for once but dont make it a habit, okie? 😈
And who liked the family time and old memories? Those moments lived in my head since forever but I never got a chance to pen them down and this seemed a good opportunity😭✨
Anyways, love ya!
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