In the Wake of the War

Chapter-13

Arjun's steps were hesitant as he finally made his way towards the chambers that had been given to the Angarani and Vrishaketu. Or rather the chambers that had already belonged to them. The Angarani's chamber specifically... had belonged to his brother. He wasn't sure if him even stepping in there would not be akin to blasphemy in Vrishaketu's eyes.

As it was, he didn't have to find out immediately, because a worried looking Angarani and Bhanumati stepped out. They stopped short seeing him. For a moment Arjun's heart squeezed painfully as he saw the look in Rajkumari Bhanumati's eyes. For just an instant, she looked like she wanted to run. Then her eyes cleared as her mask of neutrality came down.

"Arjun." The Angarani spoke, in a pleasant enough tone, but with an undercurrent of worry. Arjun realised that over the last week of their stay here, she had never actually spoken to him directly. They had never really even come face to face before.

"You wouldn't have happened to have seen Vrishaketu, would you?"

Arjun blinked as he registered her words. "I did see him in the archery practice arena. But that was about four hours ago."

Vrushali sighed. "It's been almost two hours since the Sun has set and we've yet to see hide or hair of him."

"Uh..." Arjun said, now thinking that he definitely should have called out to stop Vrishaketu, "He might have stomped off the archery field."

Vrushali raised an eyebrow. 

"We had a--uh--dispute." Arjun said, feeling awful. He was sure that Vrishaketu had gone off because of him.

"I'm not surprised." Bhanumati muttered under her breath.

The Queen of Anga surveyed him with narrowed eyes and pursed lips. "I see." she said, tone giving away absolutely nothing. 

It was not fair, Arjun thought for a moment, that she, just like her husband, who had been raised as commoners knew how to hide emotions better than him, when it was Royalty that was taught from childhood to put on a mask. Then he immediately felt terrible for thinking along the lines of commoner and Royalty. 

"Well." Vrushali said. "Thank you for informing us. I had sent servants to look around in the palace, but now it seems that Vrishaketu is not in the palace at all. I will ask the servants to look for him out in the forests at the outskirts of the city."

"The-the forest at the outskirts of the city?!" asked Arjun incredulously. "How did you even come to the conclusion that he has gone there?"

"You seem to forget that this is not the first time we are coming to Hastinapur." Arjun flushed. "Vrishaketu has always had a habit of disappearing into the nearest forest whenever he gets into a bad spat with someone. It has given me and my husband some trouble in the past. Last time he got into an argument with Vasusen in Hastinapur, he disappeared into the very same forest."

"But doesn't he know that there might be dangerous creatures there? Maybe even Rakshasas."

Vrushali gave a short laugh. "When have you men ever cared about any of that as long as you have a weapon in your hand?"

"And besides," Bhanumati added, "Our Vrishaketu has survived the Kurukshetra. I'm sure he thinks that there not many things he cannot survive now."

"Right." Arjun said. "What will servants do in the forest? They are not likely to know the place well."

"You realise that some of them actually probably live near the forest, right? And that they probably gather wood and fruits from the forests?" Vrushali seemed almost exasperated now.

"You're right Maharani," Arjun said somewhat sheepishly, "but what will they do in the face of danger? It is night time after all, not day. I will go look for him myself."

"Er, are you sure that's a good idea?" Bhanumati broke in. "You said that he stormed off after you two had a dispute, right?"

"Yes, but I'm still the best person for this. Who else would you recommend?"

Bhanumati looked at him dubiously, but clearly she realised that there was some truth in his words and the only people who would be fit to go into the forest in his place at this time of the night would be one of the Pandava brothers anyway.

"Fine." Vrushali said. "If you wish to go look for him, go ahead. Thank you. You didn't need to trouble yourself."

What a terrible world this has become, Arjun thought, where a woman tells her brother in law that he didn't need to trouble himself in looking for his nephew. What a terrible world we've made it.

Arjun shook his head. "It's no trouble." He said, and strode towards the stables.

Also, once again, is the Arjun characterisation ok?