Hidden behind those red blindfolds, were curious eyes that once saw the world, soaked it's hue and carried dreams like every other girl. Gandhari, mother of 101 kids, sister of Shakuni but most importantly, she was yet another bird shackled by rules...
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"She was not afraid of me."
The rest of the night was spent with me turning the pages of my diary. The pages that were initially covered with blotches had now words written on them. My thoughts, the musings, the happenings and the impact was written down with a breath of sigh accompanying them. The sigh that escaped my lips when the passion of the moment embraced me and my words for the first time felt apt for the emotions that I wanted to relay. Small beads of sweat covered my forehead that glistened under the light from the earthen lamp and my throat felt parched despite the cold air occasionally entering my tent. The maids were dismissed, this time Sugdha too was along them and I was all alone jotting down sentences, no, rather they were phrases, phrases that I heard earlier. The phrases that I am trying to escape, forget but they seem to knock at the doors of mind again and again. Though the lack of sleep from the prior night demanded me to sleep, they only took rest when my wish to write things down was sated. With the last blotch from the nib, my eyes started to feel droopy and the sleep dragged my consciousness to the dreamscape as soon as I closed the diary.
The next morning, rushing for our return started at the first break of dawn. Everything was packed and I was arranging a box of trinkets when I felt I was missing something, something that should have-
"Rajkumari! The sedan is ready!" Sugdha trotted by my side and stuffed everything in my box hurriedly. When everything was packed and secured in trunks, I was guided inside the palanquin. The last phase of our journey commenced with the constant rocking of the sedan and the footsteps that now started to have a monotonous feel to them. Unlike the mixture of anticipation and apprehension I felt at the beginning of the journey, in return I felt most of the storm brewing within me died down and I was mostly at peace after this journey. Perhaps due to the break from regular customs or maybe due to the things that were now clear to me on a large scale, at least that is what I am believing currently.
I closed my eyes, feeling tired from the long nights, filled with lack of sleep and too much musing in order to get some rest in the cradling sedan and my dreams didn't fail me at all. I was deep in sleep for the most part of our journey, hardly registering anything happening. It was evening by the time we entered city gates and by now I felt fresh and wide awake. The palanquin slowed down while the crowd on streets parted to give way. There was silence, whisperings that this time had a gloomy touch instead of joviality. I peeked outside from the curtains and witnessed some fingers pointed at me, no, they were aligned back to my sedan. An ominous feeling started to creep up in my mind and subconsciously, my fingers tightly held onto the soft cushion beneath me.
With a thump, the doors of the palace parted to give us access and unlike previously we didn't have to stop for anything, neither at the city gates nor at the gates of the palace. At the entrance did we halt finally where maids and helpers were lined to deal with all our needs. My mother too was standing there, ready to welcome us. I stepped outside the palanquin sans any help, the medicine indeed did wonders and I no longer felt unease from the wounds which allowed flexibility. I turned around to arrange my dupatta that was sprawled from the back when I noticed the absence of Nityasha's palanquin.
