Chapter Text
The training dummy stood fairly beaten up, as the young prince attempted to desecrate it even more,
“Yuvraj! Yuvraj Uttar!”
Uttar groaned, “I'm occupied!”
From the stone corridor bordering the courtyard, a figure emerged beneath the warm glow of oil lamps. The crimson veil draped over her head cast shifting shadows across dark skin and ebony curls pinned neatly beneath layers of fabric.
Brihannala surveyed the battered dummy in silence.
“Yes,” she said at last, voice dry with amusement. “That appears obvious enough.”
Another strike.
“Your mother will have my head if I do not send you to bed immediately.”
Uttar spun around with a scowl.“Aren’t you supposed to be teaching my sister dance? Or singing? Or… something?”
“Or something” Brihannala hummed before steering the young prince away, briefly reaching down to toss the bamboo stick away from his grasp.
Uttar huffed all the way through the palace halls while Brihannala guided him inside. Servants carrying brass trays of lamps bowed as they passed; somewhere deeper in the palace came the distant fragrance of sandalwood and burning incense.
By the time they reached his chambers, Uttar had regained enough dignity to negotiate.
“Fine,” he declared gravely. “I shall sleep.”
“How generous.”
“But only on one condition.”
Brihannala paused beside the doorway.
Uttar crossed his arms.“You must tell me a story.”
A faint smile tugged at Brihannala’s mouth.
“I am not certain I know many suitable tales.”
“Anything is fine.” Uttar mumbled, flouncing back on the bed.
Brihannala moved through the room lighting the diyas one by one. Golden light slowly chased shadows into the corners of the chamber.
For a moment she seemed thoughtful.
Then she drew a stool beside the bed.
Uttar immediately turned toward her, chin propped atop folded arms, he curled up facing her visage. In the glow of the lamps, Brihannala always seemed slightly unreal to him.
Her eyes were strange, copper bright beneath dark lashes, sharp enough to make one feel seen through entirely.
Nothing about her was careless.
“Once,” Brihannala began softly, “there was a young prince.”
Outside, dusk settled fully over Matsya.
“They called him Arjun.”
Rain pelted the five princes as they stood huddled together, Sahadev looked a little green, as he chewed on something.
“Now is hardly the time to eat”, Yudhisthir had said stiffly, as they watched their father and Maata Maadri's ashes drifting across the Ganga.
Sahadev had looked so miserable, that even Yudhisthir paused his chastisement.
Arjun stood quietly to the side, his mind was a mess; he felt unbearably small, Bheem was openly sobbing into Kunti's shawl, as Nakul's hand flexed on his twin's bicep, his facial muscles twitched as if the shock had rendered him incapable of deciding on an emotion. Only Yudhishthir stood stoic, though the few tears that escaped him did not escape Arjun’s notice.
After a while the silence became unbearable.
“What happens now?” Arjun asked quietly, his voice cracking as he stared at his feet.
“We return to Hastinapur,” Kunti answers, still stroking Bheem's matted hair, her eyes vacant. “The rest is up to the king and queen”.
He had spent all eight years of his life in forests and mountain paths beneath open skies. Kingdoms belonged in stories with their vast palaces, thrones and jewelled halls.
They did not belong to him.
By dusk, a royal chariot arrived.
It gleamed unnaturally white against the mud and wilderness surrounding it, ivory plated with gold so polished that torchlight danced across its surface.
Arjun stared openly despite swollen eyes.
Yudhishthir placed a quiet hand against his back.
“Come, Arjun.”
And together, the five brothers climbed aboard.
“Wait wait—” Uttar halted the story abruptly, “Why were they in the forest in the first place? If they were princes?”
“Well..” Brihannala said a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips, “King Pandu had committed the sin of killing a sage— albeit on accident, so he had decided to go into exile, along with his two wives, leaving his older brother, the blind king Dhritarashtra to rule Hastinapur”.
“So then, what happened after they returned? To Hastinapur?” Uttar asked, his eyelids drooping slightly, though he stubbornly tried to keep them open.
“Well, after they returned, it took them a while to get used to the opulence” Brihannala hummed, her eyes growing distant, “although it wasn't peaceful at all, the enmity between the Pandavas and their hundred Kaurava cousins made life for the five brothers, near impossible in the palace.”
Uttar's eyes glittered with interest, “a hundred!” He remarked astounded, Brihannala nodded.
“It started off small” Brihannala rested her cheek against her fist, “a taunt here and there about their father, about them..” she trailed off, “But it got worse, the breaking point, I suspect, was when Duryodhana, King Dhritarashtra's eldest son, tried to kill Bheem, with poisoned kheer”.
Uttar gasped. Brihannala chuckled a little, “oh but what a story it was, Bheem was thrown to the bottom of a river, only for the snakes to suck the poison out of him, and grant him a boon!”
“What kind?” Uttar asked, propping his head up,
“He was made as strong as ten thousand elephants!” Brihannala said theatrically, Uttar exhaled in wonder, “I want to be as strong as ten thousand elephants” he muttered, kicking his legs as he flopped back, head hitting the pillow.
“You have to get poisoned and tossed into a lake first” Brihannala said primly, her eyes twinkling.
“Anyways, Goodnight prince, it is high time you got some rest.”
And she blew out the candle she held