The Promised Princess

Relief

Aradhya slowly gained consciousness, it took her some minutes to open her eyes as the light was too bright and she blinked a few times and finally grew familiar with the light. Her fingers were moving, and she felt like her whole body was numb, blood rushed to her fingers and she finally opened her eyes fully to see her family standing around her with happy tears on their faces. She realised the throbbing pain in her stomach and tears came to her eyes as the pain was too much. She slowly remembered all that had happened before she fainted.

"B-Baahu, B-Baahu,"

Her survival instincts kicked in as terror took over her mind and she called out to her best friend, not realizing that she was safe and the said prince rushed to her side. The others stayed rooted to their place so that they wouldn't startle her further.

Aradhya gripped Baahu's kurta and dragged herself closer to his warmth, to his safe arms but stopped as the pain exhausted her. The Crown Prince gently stopped her from moving, hugged her tightly, and whispered soothing words into her ears.

"Chutki, it's nothing. Everything is fine. You are safe, no one is going to hurt you. Everything is fine. Shh, It's fine."

She slowly calmed down, but she did not let go of him, Devasena felt the ugly feeling of jealousy knock at her door but she ignored it knowing this wasn't the right time and knowing that Aradhya had gone through too much and needed her best friend at her side.

Aradhya fell asleep in Baahu's arms, her hands still fisting his light blue kurta which had some bloodstains on them, he slowly laid her down on the bed and tried to remove her hand when she started whimpering again. Rajamata Sivagami stopped him and told him to stay with her as she needed him now and told everyone to get some rest as it was almost going to be midnight.

Ayan kissed her forehead and stopped the tears that were about to fall, Baahu reassured him and told him that everything was okay, he nodded and walked out after looking at his sister one last time. Bhalla looked at Aradhya with relief and nodded at Baahu to take care of him who nodded back and left the chamber. Devasena squeezed Aradhya's hand and walked out of the chamber. Rajamata Sivagami closed her eyes and finally, a few tears left her eyes.

"Ma, it's all going to be fine, don't worry our Aradhya is going to be absolutely fine."

Baahubali assured his mother and she nodded and caressed Aradhya's head then walked out of the chamber, Kattapa followed her.

Baahu looked at his best friend who had still not let go of her tight grip on his shirt and he finally breathed out a sigh of relief knowing that she would get better as she was in the care of the best physicians in the whole kingdom and they were all there for her. He noticed that there were still some bloodstains on her neck so he took the wet cloth and wiped it off. He handled her like a fragile doll as he didn't want to disturb her sleep. The physician came in and gave her a concoction to heal the wound better and left after giving some instructions to Baahubali so that she doesn't get a fever as it can happen after getting stabbed.

Baahu called a maid and asked her to bring a cloth with some water and a change of clothes for Aradhya. He tried to remove her hand from his kurta so that the maid could change her but Aradhya held on tight, when Baahu finally removed her hand she let out a soft whimper but she didn't wake up as the concoction the physician gave her helped her to sleep better.
The maid changed her and was about to call the prince when Aradhya started whimpering in her sleep and thrashed around the bed, the maid rushed to call Baahu, he ran in and saw that she was flailing, he held her down knowing she shouldn't move too much as the stitches were still new.

The maid helped Baahu hold her down, but tears were falling from Aradhya's closed eyes and Baahu felt helpless, he wanted to do something, anything to assure her and he wanted to make her fears vanish but he couldn't do anything as it was her own mind. He felt hopeless and he couldn't think of anything to do except hug her so he did that. He hugged his best friend and whispered soothing words to her ears and she slowly stopped moving. Her body fell to his chest and he held her there closely and he felt so glad that it was over.

He laid her down and was about to get up when he saw that she once again had fisted his kurta and he wouldn't stop her as he understood it gave her some reassurance. He took the cloth that the maid brought dipped it in water and kept it on her forehead all while he was leaning near her as she gripped his kurta. He was in an uncomfortable position but he didn't think about all that and just took care of his best friend like she did many times before when he used to get hurt or sick.