Travelling Worlds to Save Us (A Karna-Arjun story)

The curse of the King of Serpents

There was a forest, the forest of Khandava, a large stretch of underutilized land on the borders of Indraprastha.

One day, a Brahmin approached Karna, Arjun and Draupadi while they were returning from a round of the city on horseback.

"I require an aid, respected ones," he said. "I require the Khandava forest to be burned as an offering to Lord Agni."

"Burn the whole forest as an offering?" asked Arjun.

"The God of Fire craves to satiate his hunger. It has become a matter of some urgency. He requires the food he will derive from the smoke and ashes."

"Lord Agni requires us to burn the forest?" asked Arjun, amazed. "Can he not burn it himself?"

"No. The Khandava forest, you see, is under the protection of the King of Gods, Lord Indra himself," said the Brahmin, bowing his head down. "He keeps sending terrible rains every time the forest is attempted to be burnt. In order to accomplish that, one has to fight Indradev."

Karna nodded at Arjun. "That explains the mysterious storms over the past months."

"We cannot do it, my Lord," Draupadi told the Brahmin. "My husband is Lord Indra's son. He cannot fight his father and win."

"I can fight my father and win," said Arjun swiftly.

Karna hid a smile.

"Since a revered Brahmin has specifically asked for our help, we must honour his wish, Panchali," he said. "You go and inform the others; Arjun and I will soon be back."

Draupadi frowned and hesitated. Arjun had already alighted from his horse and was telling the Brahmin they would require some time because he needed a better bow to fight Lord Indra; the Brahmin had most miraculously produced from thin air a spectacular bow.

"No one can hurt either of us while we are together. We will not get separated," Karna promised Draupadi.

"I do not have a good feeling about this, jyesht. That Brahmin does not seem like a Brahmin to me."

"Nor to me. He appears to me a bit like Lord Agni himself."

Karna grinned as comical realization dawned on his sister-in-law's face.

"Lord Agni himself," repeated Draupadi in consternation.

"Yes," said Karna, "so we cannot refuse. You go on ahead. We will be back before you know."

**************

Fighting the King of Gods was not easy to begin with in the first place, but when he realized that the ones fighting with him was not Agni or any other God, but mere mortals, his fury propelled his power to incomparable limits.

The Naga community of snake-men living in the Khandava forest joined in to combat Karna and Arjun. The latter destroyed them by thousands with the bow Agnidev had lent him. Karna lost quite a few precious minutes of attacking as he admired the bow and its wielder.

Rain poured down in torrents. The fire spread from tree to tree. They were drenched from head to toe, chilled to the bone one minute and almost scorched from heat the next minute.

Then Indra realized one of them was his son.

"ARJUN?" he thundered. "YOU DARE CHALLENGE ME?"

"Would you prefer I feared you, father?" asked Arjun.

The sky roared and lightning tore it apart into two.

"There's a time and place for getting a smart mouth, child--" Karna began.

But he was cut off by a fresh clap of tremendous thunder, then a burst of wind shooting at Arjun.

The Vajra weapon! Karna realized a panic-stricken second too late.

Arjun collapsed from the blow. His left arm was singed black. In his attempt at clutching the injured arm with his bow still clasped in his right hand, he only ended up adding a fresh wound.

At the glisten of red drops on the burnt skin, Karna paused in the action of kneeling down to hold his brother and stood up straight again.

Finally, his rage matched the King of God's.

*****************

Karna's arrows destroyed a thousand Nagas a minute, anyone who dared step close to Arjun, at the same time as holding Indra at bay. He attacked repeatedly, refusing to be deterred at the way Indra countered each of his blows with stronger ones of his own.

Grappling with the dizziness caused by the Vajra, Arjun heard him yelling occasionally, "How dare you touch my brother? How dare you shoot him with a celestial weapon? Have you got no shame, King of Gods?"

"Do not compel me to kill you, Suryaputra," said Indra calmly.

Arju's dizziness vanished. Within a second, he had stood up and joined his brother in shooting at the sky, standing shoulder to shoulder.

If his father thought he or anyone could kill his elder brother in his presence, he could think again.

**************

No one can hurt either of us while we are together, Karna had told Draupadi.

The King of Gods found out that day that not only could no one hurt the two when together, no one could keep them from victory, either.

In the end, he admitted defeat and acknowledged he had cherished a real fight with mortals after ages. Lord Agni appeared when Lord Indra disappeared.

"Well done, children," he said, looking with greedy satisfaction at the flames crackling up to the sky. "I am much indebted to you."

"Thank you for lending me this, Lord Agni." Arjun held out the bow. Karna caught the way he looked at it--full of longing and wistfulness.

Lord Agni must have caught it, too, because he smiled. "Keep it, child. The Gandiva has chosen you."

**************

The King of the Nagas, Takshak, attempted at least two dozen times to escape the hold of the tentacles of flame, but fire, when sparked, was unforgiving.

Eventually, like everything else in the forest, he began to be devoured.

"You shameless humans," hissed Takshak, writhing with pain. "You dare desecrate our home, granted protection by Lord Indradev himself!"

"Go away, Takshak, that is enough of your big words," said Karna. "Come on, Arjun."

As the brothers turned to leave, Takshak's voice tore free in a high pitch as he faded.

"I curse you! I curse you both with hell!"

Arjun looked around at Karna sharply.

"He is not powerful enough to curse us with hell," consoled Karna.

"BUT I CAN CURSE YOU WITH A GLIMPSE OF HELL!" Takshak had almost faded into nothingness.

"And a glimpse will not hurt us," added Karna in a whisper.

"A GLIMPSE THAT WILL MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE LIVING IN HELL! YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO ESCAPE IT. YOU WILL FOREVER LIVE IN HELL!"

A silvery-white mass of light poured out from the body of the King of Serpents and spread out all around and started to swirl. Soon they were blinded with the impact.

"Jyesht?" asked Arjun uncertainly. "What do you suppose--?"

The light enveloped everything around and closed around them. Karna just got time to grab Arjun's arm when they felt a jerk and the light vanished.

When they opened their eyes, blinking against the sudden dark, they found themselves facing an arena with two armoured warriors with bows facing each other at near-sundown.