Karna & Arjun - The Union of Brothers

5. The Glare of Warriors

Grabbing everyone's attention had become a habit for Arjun, and the ninety odd young warriors in the vimaan were no exception. Arjun had charged his arrow by chanting mantras to invoke Vidyutastra. The moment he released the arrow, he got pulled by its force, as his hand was tied to the same line that was tied to the arrow. He had precisely charged it enough to take him inside the vimaan and cause no further damage. His bow broke into pieces the moment he had launched the astra.

Sahdev happily hugged Arjun the moment he settled a bit, but his arrival did make other warriors either nervous or envious. All the young warriors were asked to be seated in
Padmasan and meditate, but Arjun's arrival disturbed almost everyone. Everyone had heard about Arjun being considered as the best archer of Dwapar Yug by Dronacharya. He even considered him better than his own son, Ashwathama.

The Nishaad Prince got agitated the moment he saw Arjun and started moving towards him.
"Not now," Rukmi said as he held his right hand that was missing a thumb.

There was a lot of respect for Ashwathama among all the warriors in Bharatvarsh. Not just because he was the son of one of the most respected teachers in Bharatvarsh, but also because there was a divine jewel on his forehead granting him superhuman abilities like accelerated healing factor and recovery. It was a popular belief that he was blessed by none other than the Mahadev himself.
A few warriors including Yudhmanyu from Panchal went up to him and wanted to touch his feet but he modestly signaled them to not do that.

Prince of Trigarta, Susharma was really excited to see Suyodhan. Suyodhan gave him a warm hug when he tried to touch his feat. Most of the warriors were under the impression that Suyodhan would become the emperor of Hastinapur in the future, and he looked like the warrior with the most strength in that vimaan.

Soon everyone settled down in padmasan and continued to meditate. The vimaan continued to fly normally until it got hit by something massive. It lost its balance and started moving in random directions. Some of its doors opened and it caused the air inside the vimaan to start rushing out of the window. Everybody inside the vimaan was instructed to meditate in padmasan till the time it reaches its destination. When the vimaan started to experience a vacuum situation, Sahdev was among the first few to get distracted. He was worried if his brother Arjun was alright. It was the first time when they to stay away from the protective Bheem and the father figure Yudhishtir. He was cognizant of Ashwathama's jealousy towards Arjun and Suyodhan's hatred towards all the Pandavs. He knew that they needed to look out for each other in that journey. After a point he fell short of patience, turned his head to the right and opened his eyes slowly to check if Arjun was alright.

He was delighted to see Arjun as stable as a rock and that led to him relaxing his feet a little. The moment he broke his aasan, he got pulled away from the floor. Even while meditating, Arjun had compartmentalized his mind to monitor his surroundings through the associated sounds. He realized that the mayavi energy had pulled Sahdev away, who was sitting much closer to the one of the doors whle Arjun was stationed closer to the center of the circular floor. But he also realized that while in the air, Sahdev was still inside the vimaan thanks to the warrior who caught his hand at the right moment. While maintaining his aasan, Arjun opened his eyes to see the warrior with a golden torso that shone brighter than the Sun as they approached twilight. While Karna was briefly a part of Guru Dronacharya's institute, Arjun had never noticed him during that period. Karna looked back at Arjun and assured him of his brother's safety, and Arjun thanked him by slowly nodding his head.