Chapter 8

                                    

                                          
A/N: A thousand apologies for not updating sooner! Things have been a mess lately and I have been dealing with a solid burn out and writer's block after participating in... 4 prompt weeks back to back. And college exams were a mess. Hope this makes up for the delay 🤞 (And who knew I made a mess of this fic the first time around. Rewriting it is a bigger mess than I thought it would be so it is taking longer than I anticipated)
                          
The following two weeks were filled with wary glances and doubts sent towards each other, not knowing how to break the ice down, especially after the whole "Kartik ate a nut and almost died" scenario.
                          
A few of them did try to reach out with the olive branch, like Dussala, but people were still walking on thin ice, much to the frustration of the two of them.
                          
Apart from that though, Bhishma and Vidura had taken it upon themselves to teach the cousins about politics and warfare,  at least the basics of it and they'd absorbed it like a sponge, just like they'd absorbed the knowledge of the foreign language. (thereafter cousins in general implies Kauravas and Pandavas until specified)
                          
It seemed like it also included horse riding lessons. It did make sense, all of them were teenagers, or nearing their teenage after all. It made sense to introduce horse riding lessons at the moment.
                          
Nakula was enraptured by the majestic creatures, running around all over and petting each and every single horse in sight, whispering stuff and giggling at them. Sahadeva just shook his head, resigning to the fact that he was going to have to accompany him for nightly visits very soon.
                          
Not that he really minded those late night sneak outs. He would do anything to get some alone time with his brother. Oh, his other brothers were great, as were Kritika and Kartik. But sometimes you just needed the twin time and me time, which was rare when you are surrounded by so many people.
                          
Though it did seem like the person who was to train them was either a sexist or a person who wasn't really looking forward to teaching people from some other place because he gave a tough time to the duo quite frequently by giving them horses that weren't really fit for them, especially for first timers, which really confused them all because the two of them were technically older than most of them.
                          
Kritika's horse refused to let her get on him, always lashing out at her each time she approached it. The trainer wouldn't let anyone help her though, stating that each student of his must learn on their own, while he clearly helped most of the boys get onto their horses.
                          
Kritika wasn't really deterred though, for she clung onto a tree and waited for the horse to approach her and jumped on it the moment it was nearby, scaring nearly everyone who was over there as they were afraid that the horse will throw her off its back. But the horse seemed to have calmed down and had let her ride on it. In fact, it didn't let anyone else ride on it. Maybe except Kartik, only if Kritika coaxed it enough though. Go figure that she is the one who would get a horse like that.
                          
<Time skip>
                          
The two of them were slowly getting bored, cooped up in the palace. They missed the freedom they had when they were in the forest, or even back at home. At least they were occupied in some way or the other with the abundant number of chores there. Here though, servants were there at their beck and call for every single mundane thing was annoying. They were suffocated and needed a reprieve.
                          
So they hatched a silent plan, sweetly asked Kunti for permission to roam around the city, and promptly ditched the guards once they were out of the palace. They had borrowed some clothes beforehand and changed into them, finally letting out a sigh of relief. 
                          
The streets were so much like the marketplace back at home but at the same time, it was not. It was interesting though, watching people go about their day to day lives. In a way, it reminded them of their old home, the one before all the accidents.