सुखान्तः - A Happy Ending

||CHAPTER 2||

“His gentle heart, carrying the storms of past, quaking his mind”

~•~

Near The Outskirts Of KuruRashtra

He sighed, finally the day has come! He has to leave this place and go back. He has to face that man again. He has to get jealous again. He has to see his brothers getting hurt again. He has to fight with his cousins again.

But amidst of all this, he was happy, he didn't know why? But he was happy! A part of him badly wanted to go back. He was feeling like something good... Really good was going to happen. Which would change his whole life! What could it be? Meeting with his parents and sister? No! He love his sister so much, but he was sure that, this feeling was not related to her. His parents would ignore him again just like they used to. It couldn't be related to any of these peoples. It was something else. A different kind of feeling. A feeling which he had never felt before!

A feeling of happiness, satisfaction, excitement, peace, warmth, liveliness... All at once!

This was his happy place. This was the which gives him satisfaction, peace, warmth. This was the place he'd be always excited to come. This was the place which was keeping him sane here, at his gurukul.

He looked around. Big trees full of leaves, flowers and fruits. A small pond at the end of the garden-looking-jungle. The moonlight directly falling on the whole place and at the pond, making the place look more heavenly. He was sitting near the pond, staring at his own reflection, with a faraway look on his face.

He again looked around and smiled. He had found this after the next day he came to gurukula. This place was a little away from the gurukula. Which he was glad for!

When he first came here, this place was full of insects, snakes, and other kinds of creatures he still didn't know the names of; wine glasses were scattered everywhere; the pond's water was almost black; the sunlight or moonlight hardly touched the ground because of the long height of trees and depth of the jungle; the soil here was also not so good; trees held dangerous looks.

Speaking honestly, he was scared a little. But still he had roamed around the jungle to examine everything. He then had a talk with his guru's wife, whom he call gurumatae. She had suggested him to clean the place and also had given him tips on how to do it. He had listened to her. And now this place appeared no less than heaven.

He smiled staring at the fishes, inside the pond, playing with eachother. The fishes reminded him of his brothers. He looked towards the sky to know the time. It was going to be dawn soon. He sighed again.

He came here to clear his mind. But seemed like even his heaven couldn't clear the newly arose confusions about the feeling. He wanted to talk. Talk to someone about his life. Talk about his depression. Talk about the miserable situations he had faced till now.

He took a deep breath to calm his racing heartbeat and then stood up. He glanced over. His eyes moistened. He moved towards the tallest tree and then took a stone. He wrote his name upon the tree by the stone.

"I'll miss you all", he muttered taking glances of the gorgeous nature. Wiping his tears off, he started walking back to his gurukul.

••

He came face-to-face with his gurumatae as soon as he reached. He smiled sadly looking at her. Her face wasn't much visible as it was still dark. But he knew there were tears in her eyes. He wiped away her tears. She burst into soft cries. He embraced her gently.

"Gurumatae, don't cry please. I can't see tears in your eyes. Please don't cry".

Gurumata Kripi, moved out of the hug slowly and then caressed his cheeks. "How will I live without you all putra? I'm habituated to all of your presence now. Why are you going away, leaving your gurumatae behind, in this lonely ashram putra Duryodhana. Who will take care of your needs? Who will calm you all down after you cousins fight with eachother? Who will save you all from your elders scoldings? Tell me, who will?!!", Kripi asked whimpering inaudibly.

Duryodhana took a deep breath before speaking, "calm down gurumatae. I know, it's going be hard for all of us. I know, neither you can live without us nor we can live without you. We all are habituated to eachother. But this is life, right? We have to leave our beloved things and people behind to move ahead in life for greater success. Don't worry much about us gurumatae. I promise, I will take care of my brothers. I'll never let any harm come upon them. I'll forever be their shield. And nobody will ever able to distant me from my brothers". Duryodhana smiled at her but still she wasn't ready to stop her cries.

Suddenly Duryodhana heard footsteps approaching them. His warrior side woke up. He turned around with a jerk, covering his gurumatae protectively behind him. But the man whom he saw infront of himself, surprised him. "Bhraata Yudhishthira?".

"Yes, it's me only, anuja Duryodhana". Yudhishthira stood infront of him with a calm smile on his ever calm face. Duryodhana's posture stiffed a little at Yudhishthira's sudden presence.

"What are you doing here?", Duryodhana asked sharply. While Yudhishthira was hurt sensing the sharpness of his tone. This wasn't anything new. Whenever Yudhishthira try to talk to him politely, the reply would be sure to come rude. Yudhishthira was now used to it.

Yudhishthira smiled lightly before speaking, "I couldn't sleep so I was roaming around. And I heard noise from here so I came here".

"You did good putra Yudhishthira. Now come and sit both of you. We will talk till sunrise", Kripi finally smiled at them.

Duryodhana, although unwillingly, but still agreed to sit with Yudhishthira. The trio chattered till sunrise.

Duryodhana clenched his fist to give a halt to the unstoppable emotions demanding to emerge. The feelings again enveloped his senses. "Let's see what's ahead in my way", he muttered closing his eyes.

~•~

Word count: 1050+

Glossary:

Gurukula: a place where a bunch of students study under a master, in ancient era.

Gurumatae: Guru- teacher. Mata- mother. Gurumata- wife of the teacher, whom a student can consider as his own mother. Gurumatae- more affectionate way to call gurumata.

Putra- son.

Bhraata- brother.

Anuja- younger brother.

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Hey, my lovelies! How're you all doing?

So, this was Chapter 2. Hope I was able to express Duryodhana's emotions in words. Hope you all felt it was worth to read. Do tell me in comments.

Well, I feel this chapter is better than Chapter 1 XD. Let it be, whatever happened has happened. I don't wanna remember that Chapter 1 and spoil my mood again.

So, at last I'd say; Do vote, Do comment, Do share this book with your close ones.

So, will meet in the next chappy! Till then, bubyyee! 💕

Your dumbo author
Neha cum SoulOverBeautyy