After the Cacophony-||6||

                                    

                                          
Warning: Emotional reaction portrayed. Proceed on your own will.


                          
The yagy was over. And they all started towards their camp. The incredulous behavior of the birds was behind any comprehension. Yudhisthir's thoughts created a maze in his head which he was ready to hide with perfection, only if he knew that sleep shall be away from his eyes for the coming several days.


Sahdev's quietness wasn't gelling well with Draupadi, she knew him. His pattern of speech before the yagy was so different from his present show of perplexed forbearance. 



                          
Nakul walked around, looking at the river beside them, ripples created in an unearthly fashion. 
'Whose throwing the stones?' He looked around in stupefaction. 'Maybe it's a mild earthquake.' Arjun added according to his own knowledge, oblivious to the fact that when stones are thrown away for a plunge, they may drown- unexpectedly.



                          
'I have been myopic.' Sahdev mentioned his concern to Panchali. 
'You are not fine.' Draupadi pressed on her observation.
'I shall be. Keep your health sane.' He instructed as the warmth in his voice was seemingly dead.

Lier. 
His intellectual acuity was too high- that it could be equally useful and harmful.
                          


---------------------------



                          
'You must go inside. See if Dhristdyumn has wakened up the children.' Yudhisthir instructed Panchali. 


                          
'We need to set out faster.' Bheem's voice was always honey to her ears.
                          
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"DHRSTHDYUMN!!!' Draupadi's voice lacerated the Pandav camp into pieces. The brothers standing outside were startled- would be an understatement. The sheer intensity of the scream made their core shiver.

'Oh, Lord!' Arjun mumbled, before finding the energy to enter the camp.



                          
'What have you done Dhristhdyumn!!! Wake up! Wake up!' Draupadi's lips went shapeless in agony. The blood of her brother, which was a clone to hers, was painted over the floor. She sat on it, her clothes soaking the scarlet color of death and separation.

Nakul hurried to his spot beside his wife, who sat examining the features of her brother. Some clue? Some hint? He may flutter his eyes, some movement?



'Why is he not moving Arya?' Draupadi asked with a chilling calmness. Nakul rushed his fingers across his neck- and looked deeply at the wound on his chest- the split of his heart. 


                          
No breaths. His body had already entered a contracted stage. The energy of each muscle was unanimously paused.

'His hands are warm.' Draupadi held her twin's hand in her's. 'You came with me Dhrist! Forgot about the deal? You should have called me before...before...' Draupadi burst into more tears.

Nakul sat like a statue. He knew what it was like to have a twin. How much ever different you would be- you still know that you were together much before people knew your face. Much before people knew that you could sustain a breath, that your lungs won't give up once you enter the world of mortals. 'His hands are cold Panchali.' He announced, making Draupadi lose her sanity. 


'Then.' Her eyes emitted fire 'Bring him back.' She said, her eyes making the other brothers feel the flame of heat and anger.


                          
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"Prativindhy!' Bheem called out his son, as he sat beside Panchali. All distraught, they surrounded Dhristhdyumn. 

Silence. NO ANSWER.

'Prativindhy! Sustsom!' Bheem again called out, oblivious.

Silence. NO ANSWER.


Yudhisthir's head ached. Their uncle is killed and his children are still in their slumber? What has come over them?

'Prativindhy!!' Yudhithir screamed his son's name for the first time.

Silence. NO ANSWER.

Sahdev slowly held his head in the air. His eyes traveled to the disturbed faces of his brothers. Arjun saw him in a fleeting second of ill-fated destiny, and he suddenly wanted to be as myopic as possible. 

'Sahdev. Call them.' Arjun's command was cold. Indifferent. 

Draupadi's forbearance was nowhere near her. She lifted her head, to look at her youngest husband trying to find words in his mouth. He should agree and leave.


'Sod off Sahdev! What's the matter with you? You never delay following your elder's command.' Bheem's irritation was at par with the others.


 Their brains couldn't decode what was much present in front of them! Their handsome warrior children could never be such sleepy heads. Only if they were alive!



'Leave him Arya Bheem. We don't know how grief can loom over minds.' Draupadi scrutinized each twitch of Sahdev's face. 

'Let me see for my children.' Draupadi got up in her place.



She had already seen mountains of misery and heartbreaks.

Some more or some less.

Now, does it even matter?
--------



'NO!' Draupadi shook her eldest. 'Prativindhy? Prativindhy?' 

'Shaitainik, wake up your elder!' Draupadi coerced her son, whose warmth was long gone.


                          
'Arya Sahdev! Arya Nakul !' She screamed out her husband's names. Their run was frantic.

'Look at your children. Look at them! How easily they are mocking their parents! Wake them up!' Draupadi felt her body going limp steadily with each passing second. She was burning inside out, her chest getting more and more congested- making it difficult for her to breathe lest stand. 

Arjun looked around the ounces of blood splattered on the floor. He walked over the wet beds of his children and immediately a chill ran down his spine. He exited the chamber as soon as his legs permitted. Now- he was away.

Maybe now- is the time to die as well.


Yudhithir's throat was tied with his tongue. A few monosyllables passed out. The faces of their sons, which looked like their replica a night ago were just lifeless entities of some different kind. He looked at the fainting figure of his wife, and suddenly a series of all the screams and agony made way to his ear, the pain of his wife's body during childbirth was what they all experienced right now, right where they all stood.

Nakul and Sahdev hovered over there children, looking for a sign to catch up a treatment. They won't check there pulse. They say it's a curse to outlive your children.

They should all have stayed.

They should have died instead.


Bheem scrupled, as he touched Sutsom's cold body. But for him, his son emitted the same life, synonymous with the windy day he was born. Even in the darkness of a starless night, he could remember Sutsom's face, a moon in disguise. Then what has God done? Such luminous faces were put to such a rest? So he picked him up, cradling him in his arms. He had cried in those giant hands, breathing for the first time.  Maybe, he could do the same now as well?

will he?




Draupadi passed out.
                          
Arjun somehow dragged his wife to a diwan. Looking back at his stupefied brothers, he whispered some hymns in her ears.

'Pardon us Drau!' his words were a mixture of sobs but were the only cure to a dead mother.





                          
-----------------

They say that it was a crime to outlive your children. That nobody should see it, it's much more than letting your heart get split into pieces, it's much more than having a sword pierce your spine.
                          
But somehow, future always plays in the present. None could have stopped it.

Already the parents were dead.

What remained of them was the King and Queen and 4 crown Princes of Hastinapura.
Maybe, their daughters could keep them alive. But still, their last journey was already over in their subconsciousness.

Physically- they all will pretend to be alive.
                          
============================





It was about the Pandav-Panchali reaction.
In the next update, I will shortly narrate Ashwathama.


                          
Uttara, Suthanu, Pragati, and Subhadra's reaction will be covered in Hastinapur. That's it about the grief. I could write this only.  I can't be present at the death scene anymore.