Vakṣaṇī Dharmā : The Song of Mahabharat

9| The Trickster

Mrithika was cornered by Arjun while accompanying Kunti to a temple. She had staggered away from the royal woman and her maids to inspect a lotus pond by the temple in an attempt to pluck some flowers. It was an object of wonder for her since Rajasthan wasn't exactly stocked with much water bodies let alone a pond.

"I have finally guessed your age and I'm pretty sure that's it right"! He proclaimed with pride, a grin sweeping through his dark face.

"Oh really"? She asked with sarcasm dripping in her cadence as she crossed her arms over chest, her gaze piercing straight into Parth's copper ones. "I doubt you can do that", she rebuked him and smoothed out her skirt to bend over towards a lone lotus bud whose magenta petals were sprawled above its pads.

"You cannot doubt it when you're twenty", Arjun retorted with a perfectly angelic smile, watching with satisfaction when Mrithika's hands stopped midway from reaching the lotus's stem. She snapped her head so fast that she might've twisted it in the process.

"How did you..."? She trailed off, her face dumbfounded before it contorted into that of accusations.

"Madhav must have told you that, didn't he? Don't lie to me Arjun"! She warned, getting up from her place with narrowed eyes.

"Oh no no. He never told me I found it on my own after an entire FIVE DAYS"! He exclaimed, his voice raising at the end. Mrithika didn't believe him but she couldn't deny the fact that it must be a wild guess either, and to be honest even she was feeling tired on ignoring Arjun. It just wasn't the same without his stupid taunts and comments.

"Whatever", she rolled her eyes before something in a distance caught her attention, "Hey, look over there, what's that weird bird"?

Arjun furrowed his brows before turning in the direction of her pointing finger, "Oh that, that's a Koel, do you not have that bird in Kal-" before he could finish his sentence, the force of cold water gushed through him.

He fell in the pond.

"Pfft, hahaha", a loud cackle erupted from Mrithika's lips as she doubled over at the comical sight of Arjun being drenched with pond water. His gaze, however, was furious.

"MRITHIKA!!" he hollered which only made the girl laugh harder. He pushed aside the lotus stems from tangling him and got to the edge of the pond, his glare intact. The water soaked him nicely and Arjun wrenched his angavastra to extract the moisture.

"What? You think you're the only one who can have fun. Of course not, you forgot about me", Mrithika snickered, eyeing the son of Kunti who was trying to dry his hair in vain.

"Is this some sort of revenge? I can not believe I got off guard like that", Arjun shook his head in despair.

"Oh there's more to me that meets the eye", she replied, smiling awfully mysterious that made the Kaunteya to arch an eyebrow.

"You're impossible", He shot back, rolling his wondrous copper - hued irises that resembled pools of molten gold in the summer sun -light.

Mrithika stuck her chin out and placed her hands over her hips, "Mister, I'm impractical, improbable but never impossible".

"Yeah we'll see about that but first, Mata might be searching for you so you better get going. And I have to dry myself", he grumbled at the last sentence making Mrithika result into another series of snickers.

─── ⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅ ───

The Pandava brothers scrutinised Arjun from top to bottom at his drenched visage. Sahadev scrunched his eyebrows in a verily intense manner when Arjun dismounted his horse.