Dear My Readers,

After so much delay, I think I am not even in a position to ask for your forgiveness. I just had some assignments, because of which I was so preoccupied that I could not update even a single chapter. Still I am thankful to you for having sticking with this book for so long. Here is the new chapter update for you. For the upcoming chapters I would try to bring updates as soon as possible.

And I am really thankful to all of you for the love you have shown to my previous chapters. 

Hope you will like this new update.

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Only three years to go!! I didn't know, whether I should be happy or I should be sad. On one hand my brothers' and Panchali's sufferings would be going to end and on the other hand I was worried about that severe storm that was waiting for us at the end of those three years.

But honestly, unlike the first part of our exile, life at the woods of Kamyaka then was very pleasant. Every now and then, we were visited by numerous monks and sages. Getting even a glimpse of some those sages was an extremely rare opportunity. Their sermons and stories about various aspects of dharma and life and, valuable blessings were like elixir to our souls.

We were also visited by some of our closest friends and relatives. But the person, with whose visit we were most delighted, was none other than my dearest cousin and the anchor of my soul, Vasudev Krishna.

Whenever Krishna visited us, it wasn't less than a festival for us. There was a different magic in his laughter, cheerful talks and courageous words. His words completely made us forget about our sufferings and filled us with a hope for a better tomorrow.

Arjun was extremely excited to meet Madhav. There is no denial, that dedication of Arjun towards his Keshav could be matched with the devotion Lord Hanuman had towards Lord Rama. And I also knew that Keshav also loved Arjun the most, among the five of us. But that day Arjun was more excited as after a long time he would get to hear about his dear wife Subhadra and his son Abhimanyu.

But our cousin, must had already read his mind and had the craziest idea to test his patience. Every time, Arjun went to ask Krishna about Subhadra and Abhimanyu, Krishna would either change the topic or start talking about something else or make some excuse to forgo Arjun's questions. At last Arjun lost his patience completely, and holding Krishna by both of his arms, said in an irritated tone, "Keshav!! How can you be so mean to a father, being a father yourself? I have been trying to ask you about my wife and my son, but you are just unwilling to tell me anything about them. What kind of happiness are you getting from playing with my feelings?"

Everyone went silent. None of us knew what to say. But I could see that signature smile was dancing across Krishna's lips. In a gentle baritone he said, "Parth, is it even possible that I won't be able to recognize your state of mind? But being your best friend and your dearest brother-in-law, I guess I have this much right to annoy you." None of us could stop ourselves from laughing. Arjun too smiled sheepishly.

"Okay fine. You won and I lose. Now at least tell me how my wife and my son are doing? How does my son look like? Is he a docile kid or a mischief master? What are his hobbies? What is his favourite weapon? What..." Arjun might have gone on shooting his question, had Krishna not stopped him mid-way.

"Wait a moment, my archer friend, I won't be able handle your arrows of questions. Let me answer one question at a time." Krishna stopped for a moment and then started answering to the questions of Arjun.

"First of all, Subhadra is doing fine. She misses you terribly but Abhimanyu's mischiefs keep her on her toes almost all day. I don't know, how you were as a child, but I can assure that my nephew is just an exact copy of me, in terms of its pranks and mischiefs." Krishna's words absolutely delighted our moods. Then he went on describing about the incidences from Abhimanyu's childhood one by one. While listening to those stories, I noticed that there was a yearning for his son in Arjun's eyes. I could only imagine the feelings that my Arjun was feeling at that moment. I knew that I was only responsible for inflicting those pains on my dear brothers. But my brothers still forgave me. Honestly, I was the luckiest man in the entire universe.

Krishna stayed with us for few days and then went back to Dwarika.

Author's POV:

In the royal palace of Hastinapur, in a luxurious room four men were making satirical comments and laughing loudly about something. The sounds of their laughter were echoing across the corridors of the royal palace. On a closer look, those four men were revealed to be the spoilt prince of Hastinapur, Duryodhana and his minions, prince Dusshashan, Anga Raj Karna and Gandhar Naresh Shakuni.

"Friend, just think, what our dear Pandavas must be doing in the woods. Just thinking about the plight of those forest dwellers makes me laugh." Duryodhana said sarcastically.

"That gluttonous Bheem was very proud of his muscle power. Now the poor guy might not even be getting proper food." Dusshashan said with a fake tone of concern and all of them broke into loud roar of laughter.

"Forget about Bheem! That holder of Gandiva, who proclaimed himself to be the best archer, must be busy in gathering dry grass and wood sticks, along with his brothers Nakul and Sahadev." Karna added in a derided tone. 

"And what about our Bhabhishree Draupadi?" Dusshashan questioned in a satirical tone, to which Duryodhana replied back angrily, "How dare you call that woman your Bhabhishree? That title is reserved only for Bhanumati." Then changing his tone to mockery, he said, "That prideful Draupadi, must be lighting cooking stove and preparing meals for her loser husbands."

"And Dharmaraj Yudhishthira, hiding his face in some corner, must be lamenting for his misdeeds. Neither his bothers nor their common wife Panchali must be ready to forgive him." Shakuni faking sadness in his voice. Once again all of them broke into a loud roar of laughter.

"Friend, when just talking about those helpless Pandavas is giving us so much pleasure, then how about witnessing their plight through our own eyes." Karna suggested. "What do you say Mamashree?" Karna asked Shakuni.

"Angraaj, this is the first time you have said something sensible. Seems like my company is slowly taking a good effect on you." Shakuni said, praising Karna for his suggestion. Then turning towards Duryodhana, he continued, "Bhanje[1], do you know what is the most powerful weapon that Pandavas have? Their unity and their optimism. And right now, it's the best time to hit them to shatter them completely."

Dusshashan suggested, "Then how about we go to the woods in the pretext of counting cattle and hunting. Neither Pitashri nor Pitamah will have any objection. Meanwhile we can entertain ourselves by looking at the devastated condition of our dearest enemies? To be honest, I am eager to see them fighting and arguing among themselves." Everyone agreed to his suggestion.

Emperor Dhritarashtra was reluctant to allow his sons to venture into the woods where his nephews, Pandavas were staying. His concern for his sons' safety was the primary reason for his reluctance. He knew that his nephews were already mightiest warriors. And with Arjun, having obtained the celestial weapons, made them invincible. He feared that if his sons, out of their ignorance and egoistic attitude, dared to further insult the Pandavas, then they might not survive from their unfortunate end. But Shakuni, very tactfully, managed to convince the emperor.

Finally, a day was fixed and, on that day, Duryodhana and his brothers, Shakuni and Karna along with their bodyguards, a small portion of Hastinapur army, and their servants, set out on their journey to the woods of Kamyaka. They had already obtained information about Pandavas' whereabouts with the help of Shakuni's spies.

For the first few days, they helped in counting the cattle and enjoyed hunting in the dense forest of Kamyaka. They hunted on many various ferocious beasts like tigers, elephants, wild boar, bison, etc. Then one day, a trusted spy of Shakuni came and informed them about the exact location of Pandavas' hermitage being closure to the banks of river Saraswati. Duryodhana immediately ordered his servants to setup camps at the banks of the river. He also told his men to ensure that tents to be extremely lavish and should have all sorts of entertainment.

However, when the servants reached at the river banks, they found that the place was already occupied by the Gandharvas, who had ascended from heaven. They returned back to their prince and told him everything. The egoistic Duryodhana, without thinking, ordered the commander of the army, to go near the river bank and evict out the Gandharvas from there.

Following the order, the commander went to the King of Gandharvas, Chitrasen, and ordered him, "I am the commander of Hastinapur Army and here I have come to you to let you know that heir to the throne of Hastinapur, Prince Duryodhana, wishes to set up his camp at this river bank. Therefore, I, on his behalf, order you to immediately leave this place or I shall be forced to evict you out of this place."

After remaining silent for a while, Chitrasen Gandharva and his other Gandharva companions started laughing loudly. Then he said in a thundering tone, "O Commander, your prince is an absolute fool. That's why he has dared to order us. Let me tell you, we are the celestial beings from the abode of Lord Indra. And you too have lost your mind. If you love your life, go back immediately, else I would gladly send you and your men to the journey from which no one has ever returned."

Without any further argument, the commander returned to his prince and informed everything happened there. Duryodhana, immediately waged a war against the Gandharvas. Fierce war began between them. People began to die from both the sides. It was almost impossible to determine as to which side was having the upper-hand.

But at one point, the Duryodhana's brothers got so terrified of the Gandharvas army, that they started fledging the battle field. At that point, Angaraj Karna, holding his gifted bow, Vijaydhanush, stood tall against the Gandharvas. He started raining powerful arrows on the enemies and under that heavy shower of arrows, Gandharvas army started dropping dead on the ground. Karna was leading the Kauravas army and was appearing closer to the victory.

Witnessing the Gandharvas getting afraid of Kauravas, Chitrasen got extremely angry and decided to enter the battlefield. He was an expert of illusion. Under his web of illusions, the Kauravas started hallucinating and feared for their life. Though, Karna still stood unaffected, yet within no time hundreds of Gandharvas attacked him from all sides and completely shattered his chariot. Having no other alternative, Karna had to flee from the battlefield.

At the end Duryodhana was left alone in the battlefield and soon he was completely surrounded by the enemy army. He was completely exhausted after fighting such a fierce battle for so long. As a result, he could not stand for long and soon collapsed on the battlefield. Gandharvas quickly lifted his limp body and took him as a hostage.

In the meantime, the Commander of Kauravas went to the hermitage of Pandavas to ask for their help.

***** 

[2] To be honest, I had never expected the Commander of Hastinapur army, who had sworn his loyalty to Duryodhana, would be standing at the threshold of our hermitage. We were surprised, would surely be an understatement. But why was he so fear stricken? The words he spoke gave an answer to my question.

"Pranam Chakravarti Samrat Yudhishthira! Please save my master! Gandharvas have taken Prince Duryodhana as prisoner of war, after defeating us. You are our last resort." The brave commander spoke in a single breath. All my brothers and Kalyani, looked quite pleased but they were eagerly waiting for my response. I did not know how I should react, but I considered it necessary to first pacify the distressed warrior. So, I gestured Kalyani to get some water for the warrior.

"O Brave Commander, tell me everything in detail. I will see to it that you won't return empty handed" I tried to assure our guest. He narrated the entire incident.

Suddenly, Bheem began to laugh. He clapped his hands and said, "That's amazing. I feel like rewarding the Gandharvas. Finally, Karma has hit back on that evil Duryodhana and his minions. Don't we understand that he came here just to mock us and he has the payment he deserves. Those who wish evil upon others, they find it for themselves." And he laughed again loudly. The frightened commander looked once at Bheem and then at me. There was a questioning look in his eyes.

I reprimanded Bheem, "Anuj, this is no time to gloat. This man has come to seek our shelter and we must not forget that Duryodhana is our cousin."

"And only because of that cousin we have been living like hermits since last 10 years." Sahadev interrupted. Arjun supported him, "Apart from pitashree's death, whatever unfortunate has happened with us, Duryodhana had been the root cause every time. Jyeshth how can you even have soft corner for him."

Bheem roared, "I agree with Arjun and Sahadev. He cheated us in the deceitful game of dice, robbed us of our kingdom, tried to disrobe our Panchali, and humiliated you and you still think him as our kith and kin."

"Jyeshth, he had also tried to poison majhle bhaiya, and burn us alive in the house of lacs in the past." Nakul argued.

I immediately replied, "I know Duryodhana has wronged us every time, but whatever differences we have among us, is a family matter. We should not let an outsider take advantage of it. Also, imagine if today something unfortunate happens with him, will we be ever able to face Mata Gandhari?" My brothers' kind of agreed to my last sentence, but still they were not convinced enough.

"And do not forget that the joy of being able to save an enemy's life is just incomparable." I pointed out.

Bheem perhaps understanding my point, said excitedly, "Jyeshth, you are absolutely right. We should save Duryodhana, for I want to see the shame on his face, when he gets back his life at our mercy. I shall immediately go to the Gandharvas and free Duryodhana from their clutches. That will be his biggest defeat."

"Listen Bheem, you won't go alone, take Arjun, Nakul, and Sahadev with you. And before using your muscle power over the Gandharvas, try to settle the matter with words, after all Gandharvas are our friends." I warned my brothers, then turning towards the commander I addressed, "Don't worry at all. I know my brothers' prowess as warriors. You may rest assured for Duryodhana's safety."

"Vijayi Bhavah!!" I blessed my brothers and then they set on their journey towards the Gandharvas camp. 

#Bheem's POV

The Gandharvas Camp was not much far from our cottage. It was just on the other bank of the river. I could clearly understand as to why Duryodhana was so adamant to set up his camp there. We were still a few steps far from the camp, when we noticed, Duryodhana, tied to a pillar and kept captive. We had just hurried our steps, suddenly out of thin air around thousands of Gandharvas appeared in front of us. One of them spoke, "Who are you? Why have you come here?"

I replied, "We are Pandavas, brothers of Chakravarthi Samrat Yudhishthira. We have come here with the aim of rescuing our cousin, Duryodhana." All the Gandharvas laughed at us and another one of them mocked, "Seems like these mortals haven't yet learnt their lesson, that's why they have come here to rescue that egoistic prince." Then turning towards Arjun he spoke, "All four of you appear intelligent, yet you came to fight us, even without an army."

Arjun replied, "The four of us are equal to four armies; you don't have to worry about us. I am warning you to immediately release our cousin or Mother Earth will drink your blood today."

"O Brave mortals! We follow order of only person, our king. So, we accept your proposal for war. Defeat us in a fare battle and get your cousin released." The Gandharvas declared. The war began, we tried to be as gentle as possible while inflicting injuries on our enemies. Our aim was not to kill them, we just wanted to defeat them. We were sort of having an upper hand, when suddenly a mysterious flying chariot appeared out of nowhere. The rider of that magical chariot was not visible but it was clear that he was certainly gifted.

The mysterious rider summoned a strange weapon and shot at us. At the same time Arjun too shot a golden shaft from his Gandiva and the shaft countered that strange weapon and nullified its effect.

The mysterious warrior again shot a strange weapon at the us and Arjun again countered it effectively with his celestial weapons. By then it was clear that our mysterious warrior was an expert in using illusions. The dwell went on for some more time, and by the end of it neither Arjun nor the mysterious warrior emerged victorious, for both of them were expert in countering and nullifying each other weapons.

End of Bheem's POV

#Arjun's POV:

It would be an utter lie to say that the mysterious warrior in the magical chariot was completely unknown, for I could clearly feel that I had known him for a long time. I wanted to put an end to our dwell as soon as possible, without killing my opponent. So, I summoned the thousand arrow weapon and shot at my mysterious opponent in such a manner that the arrows will form a cage around him and hold him captive.

The opponent did not know to counter my attack and he immediately got trapped into my cage of arrows and accepted his defeat. To be honest, I never expected him to accept his defeat so easily. He descended on the Earth from his flying chariot and for the first time, I could get a glance at him.

Wait! I knew him. He was my Guru Chitrasen Gandharva.

I immediately summoned back my arrows and released him from my cage. Then I crouched in front of him respectfully and touched his feet. He lifted me by shoulders and said, "Arjun, today you have proved yourself to be my worthy disciple. Blessed is the teacher who has a disciple like you." He placed a soft kiss on my forehead and took me into his arms.

I introduced him to my brothers. He seemed extremely elated to meet them. "Gurudev, we have come here with a request, please release our cousin." I stated. He looked at me with a hint of surprise in his face.

"After so much, you still care for this man? Do you even know what he has done?" The King of Gandharva questioned. 

Majhle Bhaiya Bheem answered, "O King of Gandharvas, we know everything and still we have come here to request you to free him. We know that he is your culprit, so he deserves your punishment. But what he has done to us, don't you think that we have more right to punish him than you." 

Chitrasen Gandharva kept looking at us for few moments. Then he spoke, "O Vatatmaj[3], I totally agree with your words, but before getting into any decision, I would like to have chat with Samrat Yudhishthira. Can you take me to him." We nodded and took the King of Gandharvas to our hermitage. 

End of Arjun's POV

[2] What was taking them so long? I kept thinking and pacing around. I was not worried for my brother's safety, for I knew, together they wee invincible. But I was more worried with the thought that my stupid cousin, might take a reckless step in his hot headedness.

Suddenly, I heard some footsteps outside the hermitage. I stepped only to find, my brothers standing along with a divine person. Duryodhana was also there as a prisoner. Arjun introduced, "Jyeshth, this is Chitrasen Gandharva, the king of Gandharvas. He was my teacher of music, dance and illusions, when I went to Indra's abode to obtain celestial weapon." I crouched infront of that divine person and took his blessings.

"O Dharmaraj, your brothers have defeated me and my army in a fair war and as a reward have asked me to release this wicked cousin of yours. Before I reach to any conclusion, I would like to have your opinion. I would like to let you know that he had came here to gloat you. If you want, I can send him to Yama's abode." Chitrasen said.

 I was alarmed, "Thank God! You did not kill him. I know he is miserable, but I still would request you to set him free. Chitrasen replied, "So be it then." He immediately released Duryodhana and vanished into the thin air.

I looked at Duryodhana. His head was bent to his chest out of shame. I, turning to him and laying a hand on his shoulder, said, "Being spiteful never bought anyone joy. Go back to Hastinapur, and don't be so rash again. Go in peace, I wish you well." He looked up, gave a rageful look at Bheem and Arjun and went away without a single word.

When he was gone, the hermitage echoed with a loud roar of laughter. Kalyani mocked, "Did you see his face?" They would have laughed again, but perhaps my stern looks at them might have stopped them. 

Author's Notes:

[1] – Sister's son or daughter is called Bhanja or Bhanji respectively. So Duryodhana and his brothers were the son of Shakuni's sister Gandhari, hence Shakuni called them Bhanje.

[2] – The story continues in Yudhishthira's POV

[3] – Vatatamaj – son of Vayu. Since Bheem was born with the blessings of Vayu Dev, he was referred as Vatatmaj.

So how was the chapter?

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Did you notice the change In Yudhishthira character? Did you like the change?

In the next chapter, a major illusion is waiting? Any guesses??

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Thank You