𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 || ArDi ||

35. Setting Sun.

MY SINCERE APOLOGIES, I FORGOT TO UPDATE THIS PART BEFORE THE CHAPTER "THE UNKNOWN AND MYSTERIOUS."

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Draupadi strolled in the garden. The setting sun and chirping birds calmed her senses. Somehow, she liked sunsets more that sunrise. The sun painted the sky in its farewell, leaving ripples of light. She let out a soft sigh. A weird feeling had settled like a heavy weight in the pit of her stomach. A nagging feeling tugged at her heart, alarming her of something that was about to come. Something inauspicious. It felt as if this was the calm before the storm- A hurricane that was about to approach them. The one which would turn their lived upside down and wreck the happily sailing ship. 

"May I join you, Indraprasthayini?" A voice suddenly pulled her out of her thoughts. She fliched and turned back to see Yahvi looking at her expectantly. 

Draupadi nodded and added with a smile, "How many times have I told not to call me Indraprasthayini?"

Yahvi blinked, her large eyes conveying something she couldn't understand, "Jiji." 

Draupadi laughed and nodded her head. Yahvi stood beside her silently. Both of them looking at the sunrise. 

"Thank you." Draupadi was surprised at the sudden confession. She turned to look down at Yahvi who was still staring at the sunset, "For what?"

Yahvi finally looked up at Draupadi who stood a head taller than her, "For being to kind to me." Yahvi replied, not meeting Draupadi's eyes as she stared back at the sunsets, "I love sunsets. Do you know why?" Draupadi did not answer and waited for her to continue, it was a rhetoric question. Yahvi continued, "I had an elder sister,"

Draupadi masked her surprise, no one knew that there were two Manipur Princesses, "Where is she?" She asked. 

"Dead." Yahvi smilled. Draupadi looked at her with wide eyes. Her sister died, and she was smiling?
Yahvi looked at the sunset, The sun's rays reflecting from the sad eyes on the happy face, "She was my best friend. The one I could rely on through highs and lows. She was my lifeline. She used to say, "Remember me with laughs and smiles, If you can only remember me with tears, don't remember me at all." And that is what stuck to my mind. She loved sunsets, according to her, It was a reminder of how beautiful endings could be. I still look at the sunset, for it is akin to death. A person never dies, it is an illusion, an appearance like the setting sun, because somewhere else the sun is rising with its beautiful hues creating a dance of passion." Yahvi stopped, she averted her eyes from the sunset and looked at Draupadi intensely as if unravelling the depths of her heart. Yahvi's eyes brimmed with tears. She gulped, the emotions clogging her throat made it difficult for her to breath. She took a step closer to Draupadi, "And I did find my lost sister," Yahvi took Draupadi's hand in hers, "I found her in you, Jiji. You provided me the love and care that my own father did not. T-Thank you."

Draupadi looked at their hands and then at Yahvi. Her brown eyes had turned to a softer shade, they had melted into golden rays of sun circling an eclipse. It was the first time that she saw what was hidden beneath the mask of the sunshine princess. It was the first time that she saw the sadness hidden deep in her heart. "Hey," Draupadi cupped her cheek, her eyes filled with tears that she blinked back, "I'll be always there for you. You will always have me as your elder sister."

Yahvi dived in Draupadi's embrace, she could not stop the tears from flowing. Draupadi's ams wrapped around her in a comforting manner. She patted Yahvi's head as she let out the emotions she had managed to hide so long. 

She hushed Yahvi, "Don't cry, Yahvi, just like your sister did not like it, neither will I."

Yahvi laughed through those tears and looked up at Draupadi, "I wish I could stay with you forever."

"You can," Draupadi said, noticing that the swirling pink and orange in the sky had faded to blue and purple, "Let's go back." 

Yahvi smiled. I cannot, she wanted to say but didn't. There were a lot of things she wanted to say but she couldn't. Some things are better left unsaid. Like the letters on her nightstand, the ones that held her tears, her wanted someone to read them, to understand her pain. Because some things are better left unsaid, some stories better left unknown...

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