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

Karna follows

Pov: Karna from the world of light

Karna woke up the next day with a resolve to treat today as a new dawn.

Yesterday's events were past. It would no doubt require continuous determination to wipe it from their mind, but he could certainly do it. He was certain Arjun could, too.

He was not sure how much of his admonitions had got through to Arjun last night. The first step to forgetting would be the desire to forget it, but his brother had seemed quite determined to hold on; that was what had led to his desperate anger to drive it into his head that they could not...

Now guilt set in.

He had yelled at Arjun several times yesterday; in the forest as well as back at their home. Of course, he had needed yelling at, and it was not like he had been very hurt, but Karna felt remorseful anyway.

He leapt out of bed and went out into the hallway. 

"Arjun!"

Yudhishthir came face to face with him. "Good morning, Jyesht--you are here? We thought you and Arjun had gone for practice early..."

"No, I just woke up," said Karna. "Arjun is probably still sleeping--we were up till late last night."

Yudhishthir frowned. "He is not there in his room."

"He will turn up, jyesht," said Nakul. "He has taken his bow; he must have found a new tactic to practice."

Since this was nothing out of the ordinary for Arjun, in the beginning no one but Yudhishthir--because he was overprotective--and Sahadev--because he got hit really bad by omens--worried. When Arjun was not back by midday, Kunti and Draupadi joined in their worry.

Karna, who had condoned and accompanied Arjun in several impromptu trips in their lifetime, consoled them. 

"Don't worry about him, Maa, no one can touch him. He was upset last night; he has probably gone somewhere a bit far away."

When Arjun was not back by sunset, Karna, Bheem and Nakul were forced to worry.

"This is yesterday all over again!" said Draupadi. "At least you were with him yesterday, jyesht."

Karna looked at her and froze as her words sank in.

Yesterday all over again...

But surely Arjun would not defy his direct commands. Surely Arjun could not have been so stupid. Surely he had the sense to understand how dangerous going and living in a mind-blowing universe could be. Surely he knew that a hundred things could go wrong and that their whole lives could change infinitely for the worse?

But he had a horrible feeling that, whether he had the sense or not, going there was exactly what Arjun done.

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

It was confirmed when he found the portal in the Forest of Khadava.

Karna certainly had to follow. But he could not tell their family where Arjun had gone. They would freak out. Worse, they would insist upon going into that world, and he could not place them at risk. So he promised them he would bring Arjun back soon and returned to the forest.

He had often thought he would follow his flighty brother, who had tendencies to disappear in stretches, to the end of the world to bring him back to them. 

Today, it appeared to come true in the literal sense.

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

Karna ended up in a war camp.