Empire of Righteousness

Chapter 129 : Can the Past Resurface?

Arjuna looks up the night sky. A princess born to marry him? He looks beside his Jyest who is asleep. His mother, his brothers all are deep in sleep. Slowly Arjuna goes outside. Tonight is very beautiful. The stars are so clear and a full moon. The forest appears to be on fire by the moonlight.

Arjuna lights a fire and sits beside it. He closes his eyes. Those descriptions...he tries to imagine how she looks. He groans a few moments later. Not able to imagine her.

Why is his heart so agile today?

"Madhav, I really wish to share this moment with you. Is this what love is?" Arjuna whispers to himself.

How he wishes he could run where the princess stays! He would hold her chin and look at her to his heart's content. Are her eyes really such rare blue?

A sudden fear grasps his heart. What if anyone else wins her swayamvar? What if...Karna participates? Arjuna shakes his thoughts. Karna holds no political powers. He wouldn't be chosen by Maharaj Draupad.

He doesn't know how the time passed by. He didn't feel his heart until he finally stepped in the swayamvar arena with his brothers.

His nostrils were full with a divine smell of blue lotus. He looks up. There is his Madhav sitting beside Dao. Beside Dao, is sitting Maharaj Draupad himself. Arjuna feels dread remembering the time he faught him. Upto this time, he never found someone as strong and courageous as Maharaj Draupad

And between Dao and Krishna sits the owner of this fragrance herself. Arjuna's eyes stops at her ocean blue one's. She is also looking straight towards him. Everything else vanished from his sight of view.

It was only her and him.

Noone else.

Only them.

A mischievous smile plays on her lip as if she caught a kid stealing sweets. Flustered Arjuna lowers his head. What he didn't know was two souls recognized each other that very moment in this birth.

Nothing is as divine as that.

Arjuna seeks permission from his Jyest. His head was all light. He had no control over his senses. He raised the bow is one go. He didn't care the gasps and looks of disbelief on his way. He didn't care of the looks of recognition from Kauravs.

He raised Kindhura, aimed at the sky. He was never so sure of himself. He knew this is his arrow. He will win.

And he did. He realized that when the swayamvar arena was showered with flowers from the heaven. Arjuna's hands tremble. He feared he will drop the divine bow any second making a joke of himself.

He sees the princess coming down the stairs with the garland in her hands. Arjuna didn't know when he also begin to walk towards her. He also didn't know when his divine friend stepped beside him.

"Sakhi, you already robbed this poor man of his words," Krishna teases them both.

Draupadi's cheeks adore a beautiful hue of red. Arjuna becomes flustered as well.

Draupadi puts the garland on him. Krishna was standing beside Arjuna handing him the second one. Arjuna feared. What if someone sees his trembling hands? He puts the garland around her neck.

She became his from that very moment.

But it wasn't an easy journey for him. All the kings and princes of Aryavarta has gathered here today. They rebel. The wanted to throw "his wife" in the fire for garlanding him.