Arjun heard the swoosh of an arrow heading towards him and automatically raised a hand to catch it right before it before it went through his eye. 

For a long moment Arjun wondered if Vrishaketu had truly meant to shoot him, before the boy let out a sigh of relief, therefore proving that it had not been on purpose.

Then the signature scowl returned to his face. "What are you doing here?" he asked, clearly deciding to ignore almost shooting him in the face, but Arjun wasn't about to let him off the hook so easily.

"What was that?" he asked incredulously. "No matter how much you don't like me, I didn't really think you would attempt to shoot me in the face and that too, with a normal arrow."

"I didn't know it was going to be you until the moment you stepped out!" Vrishaketu protested.

"And then? Your finger just slipped, did it?" Arjun asked sarcastically.

When Vrishaketu didn't reply back with a snappy comment however, choosing to glare at the ground with a blush so dark rising on his face that it was visible in the moonlight, Arjun paused. His finger couldn't have actually slipped, could it? That would be impossible. That was the first thing students were trained out of, once they had a basic grasp of archery. There was no way the Angaraaj hadn't drilled that into his sons' heads and reflexes.

"Vrishaketu?" He asked quietly.

Vrishaketu shook his head violently, hand swiftly rising up to rub at his eyes.

He had been crying.

Arjun really wanted to know how a clearly excellent archer had let his finger slip, but he didn't think it would be wise to press at the moment.

He sighed. "Fine, but you must come back to the palace with me. Your mother is worried."

"And she sent you, to find me?" Vrishaketu snapped back immediately.

Well, that was better than the silence.

"I offered," Arjun said, "since I felt that our dispute might have had something to do with it."

Vrishaketu scoffed loudly, but didn't accept or deny it.

"Come now."

"You go first." Vrishaketu planted his hands on his hips, which was really odd to see since he was still holding his bow in one of them. "I'll come after a while."

Arjun sighed in exasperation. "I'm not leaving you here. Come with me."

"No." Said Vrishaketu, getting increasingly agitated. "No. You go first Rajkumar. I promise I'll follow. I won't make my mother worry more. But you go first. You should not be here anyways."

"Why shouldn't I be here?" Arjun asked, raising his eyebrows. Something was going on here with the boy that he didn't understand. Why was he getting so agitated by his mere presence now? This had not happened when they had spoken before.

Vrishaketu stomped over to the nearby tree and sat down. "No. You leave. This is not a place for you."

Arjun pursed his lips for a moment.

"I will go ahead and after fifteen minutes you will follow me. I will wait right outside the Palace gates and if you don't show up within half an hour of myself, I will come and take you back with me."

"Fine." Vrishaketu agreed immediately, seemingly very relieved about not having to... walk with Arjun? "Go now. Go."

"But," Arjun said, holding up a finger and Vrishaketu tensed again. "You will first tell me why you say so desperately that I should not be here."

Vrishaketu glared at him but Arjun refused to relent. The boy bit his lip and seemed to contemplate if it was worth replying, if only to get Arjun to leave first, for whatever reason.

Finally, he sighed and said, "Look around, at the tree trunks and up at the branches."

Arjun did so, and now he saw thanks to only his excellent eyesight, very, very faded, years--maybe decades old marks on the tree trunks. Upon further inspection, they didn't seem random, but rather systematic. Almost like...like targets.

He looked up at the branches to see rotten remains of decades-old ropes, which may have once had targets attached to them as well. A thought occurred to him as he turned around in a circle and took in the odd position of the clearing, that once might have been perfect and distinct but was now almost as much a part of the forest as everything else around it.

"This clearing was man-made. Quite some time ago from now, maybe even a few decades." Arjun said. "It was located such that it would be mostly hidden from view unless someone was searching for someone or something. There are, what seem like faded targets painted on the tree trunks. The old rotten ropes might have been once used for hanging or swinging targets. This was an amateur attempt at building a training area, albeit a good one."

Arjun looked at Vrishaketu to see a twisted expression on his face.

"Well done." He said in a dry voice. "How clever you are, Rajkumar Arjun, how clever your deductions."

Arjun frowned slightly at the boy's impudence.

"Do you remember that your beloved Guru Drona refused to teach my father past basic weaponry, because of his low caste?"

Arjun looked away, fighting not to squirm. He did not like to be reminded of that, especially since it turned out, that Karna was Kshatriya. Not that it mattered, he should have been allowed regardless. Arjun did not want to acknowledge it, but he knew in his heart of hearts that his Guru had been wrong. Wrong with Karna and wrong with Eklavya.

"Well," Vrishaketu continued, "Before my father went to find his Guru Parshuram, he made this little clearing to practice. He needed to keep his skills sharpened of course, even after he had been just turned down by his Guru."

Oh, thought Arjun. 

"You don't have any right to stand here, Rajkumar. Please Leave." Surprisingly enough, instead of the venom in his voice that Arjun had almost gotten used to, now there was a strange desperation, and most shockingly, timidness.

Arjun looked into Vrishaketu's eyes. They seemed defiant but... scared. Scared of... him. 

Arjun almost stumbled backwards in shock. In all their conversations thus far, one thing he could most definitely be certain of was that Vrishaketu had never been scared of him. So why now..

And then he realised, saw it with heartbreaking clarity. They were alone here. It was dark. Arjun was older, stronger, more powerful and moreover someone who had killed not only three of his brothers, but also his very powerful father(Even though that death had not been a fair one, it had happened anyway). He probably felt trapped. 

He probably felt that with no one else here and with nowhere for him to go, Arjun could attack him, injure him....maybe even kill him. He was afraid enough that he had told Arjun the very personal story behind this place, simply to get him to leave first. Leave first, because he didn't want to turn his back to Arjun, didn't want to be alone with Arjun, until they got into a more populated area.

Bile rose in his throat. The fact that a child could think that he would attack them behind their back... and the worst part was Vrishaketu's fear of him was not even unfounded. 

Someone who could take away the safety of one's powerful father's arms away from them, could cause them apprehension even when one was old and experienced. Vrishaketu was only a boy.

Then another realisation hit him. Seeing him appear so suddenly... the fear... it might have been what caused Vrishaketu's fingers to slip.

Arjun spoke in a thick voice. "I will wait for you at the Palace gates. Please don't be late. Your mother will worry even more."

And then he turned to walk away from there as fast as he could without it looking like he was running.

Well. There you go. The anticipated Arjun-Vrishaketu conversation. How was it? Once again, was characterisation fine? 

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