Kurukshetra: The defining Krishna-Arjun journey

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟜: 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕓𝕖𝕕 𝕠𝕗 𝕒𝕣𝕣𝕠𝕨𝕤

Arjun's pov

A familiar dark shadow slinking out of camp forced Arjun to compose himself a bit.

"Where are you going, jyesht?"

"Madhav said I should go and ask for Pitamah's advice regarding how we could defeat him." Yudhishthir sounded very, very defeated. "I never thought it would come to this, did you?"

Arjun shook his head.

"Do you want to come with me?" asked Yudhishthir.

Arjun shook his head again, for he knew, whatever Pitamah's advice was, he would be the one forced to deal out the final blow himself. He had promised as much to Madhav today to protect his honour; he could not go back on his word.

His older brother patted his head and went along his way, in the direction of the Kaurava camp. No sooner had he disappeared from sight and Arjun turned away than he came face to face with his son.

Abhimanyu wordlessly came up and put an arm around him. An intrigued Arjun noted that it was not the way children hugged their parents, more the way parents hugged their children.

"What's the matter, my dear?" he asked, slightly apprehensive.

"Everything will be fine, Father," was Abhimanyu's unexpected reply. "Don't you worry."

"Er--what will be fine, d'you mean?"

"Everything, in general," said Abhimanyu. "You should not be so sad when you are simply doing your duty. You never know how things might work out."

For the first time since he'd raised his bow on Pitamah that day at dawn, Arjun smiled to himself.

"You're absolutely right, Abhi," he said.

Abhimanyu brightened.

"Er, Father, perhaps you would like to play a round of slingshots with me and Uncle Madhav?"

The mention of Madhav's name, for the first time, chilled Arjun to the bone, whereas normally it would be warmth. Madhav's fury was not like the anger of anyone else, where there was some hope of pacification. Madhav's fury was paralyzing, unearthly.

Arjun remembered the glimpse of Madhav's divine form, and felt colder. Dare he face him in such a towering rage?

'You promise to always see me as Madhav, not the Lord of the Universe, don't you?'

But maybe he was perceiving Madhav's rage as unearthly simply because his rage affected him the most. Maybe linking that to the knowledge of him being the Lord of the Universe was unfair to Madhav. If it had been Yudhishthir or Draupadi or Kunti--mortals he loved--who were furious with him, would he be so terrified to face them?

No.

Surely, then, he would be going back on his promise if he refused to screw up the courage to face his best friend?

"Why not?" Arjun grinned at his son.

Abhimanyu looked extremely gratified and pleased with himself. He retracted the arm around his father in favour of linking their arms as they walked back to camp.

"Did you play slingshots in your childhood, Father?"

"In the forest, sometimes," said Arjun. "Not since we went to Hastinapur, and certainly not once I was grown up and married, unlike your Uncle Madhav, who still has not grown out of that sport."

Abhimanyu chortled. "But everyone in Dwaraka envied me for having him for an uncle, too."

"Everyone in the world envies you for that, probably," murmured Arjun affectionately.