The entire army of Hastinapur was moving through the forest. Though the forest was dense, but it still had a clear unpaved road through which the entire army along with the horses, elephants and chariots could travel. The villager was forced to show them the way. After the sunset everyone was settled as they could not travel at night. Aswatthama ordered the soldiers to tie the man and keep watch on him.

It was almost midnight, suddenly Aswatthama felt some discomfort. He woke up and came out of the tent. He realized that the entire forest was silenced, even he could not hear the insects or nocturnal birds.

'That's strange,' he thought. 'It is very unnatural. How could a forest become so silent?' He took a Mashal and looked around but did not find anything abnormal. But still, he decided to check on the soldiers especially the ones' who were guarding. So, he went towards the other side of the camp. After taking a stroll at last he came near the place where they had imprisoned the poor villager. He was shocked to see that all the soldiers who were guarding the man were sleeping, and the man was not there.

Aswatthama shrieked, 'Guards, wake up you imbeciles. Our prisoner ran away and you idiots are sleeping? If we cannot find him, I will peel off your skins.'

The guards woke up with a jerk. They were surprised as they themselves did not know when they slept. Soldier 1, 'Please forgive us my lord. We don't know what happened and why we were feeling so sleepy?'

Hearing their screams Dusshashan, Shakuni and others also came there. They were also surprised as even though the soldiers were sleeping but they had tied the man with strong chains. Then how did he escape?

Shakuni, 'Where did that man go? It is not easy to escape from the chains and escape from such a dense forest in dark. Soldiers, he may not be able to go far. Find him and bring him here. Without him, we cannot go out of this forest.'

Most of the soldiers started searching. Only a few left to guard the camp.

Inside Dusshasshan's Tent,

Dussahsshan, 'Those imbeciles, because of them we lost our guide.'

Vindha (a Kaurav), 'Brother, we told you before. We should ask the man nicely and give him money to show the way. But you forced him, we did not even give him food or water. So it is expected that he ran whenever he got the chance.'

Dusshasshan, 'STOP, how dare you giving lectures to me? If you are not my brother, then I will give you a death sentence right now.'

Other Kauravas felt disgusted. It was true that they were not very Dharmik but they did not like unnecessary violence. And many of them did not even like their father's treatment to their eldest brother. Since childhood, Their brother Duryodhan played the role of a father to them. But now this Dusshasshan treated them like slaves. So they were also angry on him, but they could not do anything as Dusshasshan was the Yuvraj and he had the power.

Suddenly they all heard a huge roar from outside.

Aswatthama, 'What was that?'

Shakuni was so sacred that he jumped into the bed and covered himself with a blanket. He cried, 'Bhanje, mere honewale Samrat, please help me. What is that...a tiger...or a lion.'

Suddenly they heard the sound of heavy footsteps and it was so intimidating that the ground was shaking with each of the footsteps.

Vikarna, 'Oh God, why did I come with this brainless Dusshasshan. The one whose footstep has such an impact, I don't know how dangerous he himself can be. I don't want to die here away from my country and family.'

Dusshasshan yelled, 'Half of you go out and look and stop whatever it is and others stay with me. Though I am a great warrior who doesn't need any protection but I am your master and you have to protect me.'

Everyone gritted their teeth but Aswatthama and some of the Kaurav brothers went outside to check everything. But outside what they saw could be enough to lose their minds. Outside the tent, in the dark, there stood a silhouette who was atleast 20 feet tall. It has two large horns in his head, with two huge canine teeth came out of his mouth. It also had a huge club in his hand.



The demon again roared. Just hearing the roar. some of the Kauravas ran away and some though afraid but still tried to raise their weapons.

Aswatthama was a great warrior, so somehow he composed himself and raised his bow. He used his divyastras like varunastra, pavan-astra, agnibaan etc but nothing effected the demon. Instead, they all heard another roar and the demon approached them. Now the warriors could not stand it anymore. All of them ran in different directions.

Aswatthama and few others ran for some time and then stopped. They came inside the forest and here the forest was very dense. They could not find any way to return to the road. They were very thirsty so they tried to find water. After some time they saw a lake in front of them. They went near that.

Aswatthama looking at the lake, 'The water seems good and clean, let us drink water from here.'

They drank some water but suddenly they realized that the water tasted different. Looking at it, they saw that the water turned into blood. Screaming they all jumped out and again ran for their life except Vikarna who did not see any blood and was wondering why everyone was running away.



On the other hand, the Dusshassha, Shakuni and Yuyutsu were running like frightened hares. Shakuni as he was old and did not do any exercise for a long time stopped and almost doubled over to catch his breath.

Shakuni, 'Bhanje, I cannot run anymore.'

Yuyutsu, 'WHat was that thing?'

Dusshasshan,'I am hungry.'

Yuyutsu (irritated), 'In this grave situation all you can think of food....I just can't believe it?'

Shakuni, 'I am also hungry, Hey Dasiputra, go ad fetch some fruits for us.'

Yuyutsu was angry but still he did not want to anger Dusshasshan. So he was searching and after sometime saw a tree with juicy Gwavas on it. He brought some of them and gave it to Shakuni and Dusshasshan. They all sat on the ground and started eating. Dusshasshan and Shakuni tried to take a bite the fruit seemed so hard that hey could not bite it. So they took a closer look and screamed in horror. The thing they were trying to eat was not a fruit but human skulls. Hearing their screams Yuyutsu was surprised as he was eating his fruit without any problems. He asked, 'Why you guys are screaming?'



But Dusshasshan and Shakuni could not answer anything. They saw that the skulls were alive and were moving towards them. One skull said, 'Soon your skulls will also join us on the tree...Ha..ha...ha.'Both Mama and Bhanje jumped and ran away from there leaving a stunned Yuyutsu behind.

For how long, all the Kauravas, Shakuni and Aswatthama were running through the forest were unknown to them. At last exhausted they all fainted.

In the morning the soldiers woke them up. After waking up Dusshasshan jumped, 'Where is that monster and the fruits...no no skulls.'

Shakuni, 'The skulls wanted our skulls.'

Aswatthama, 'The blood lake. I drank the water..no no blood...Yak thu!'

All the soldiers were stunned. Actually they saw nothing. They just saw Aswatthama and some Kauravas came out of the tent and started fighting with an invisible enemy. Then everybody started running. The soldiers who went inside the forest to search the villager, did not find him but they felt sleepy and slept for the entire night. When they woke up they got the biggest shock as all of them were sleeping on a vast field, not inside the forest. Even they found the royalties except Vikarna and Yuyutsu were unconscious.

Everyone got the shock of their life as they saw that all of them were in the middle of a vast field, not in a forest. And there was no lake, no skull trees.



Far away from the confused army, inside an actual forest, stood two figures. One was very tall, dressed like Rakshasa tribe and the other was the villager whom the Kauravas imprisoned.

The Rakshasa, 'Jyasht pitashree, thanks to you as last night I had the entertainment of my life. Oh God! what a sight. The way the Kauravas were running like rats....Oh my stomach still hurts due to all the laughs I had.'

The other man, 'Putra Ghatotkach, thanks to you as you helped me a lot with all the illusions. I alone cannot divert all of them. But did you send the information to your father that the army will reach the border within next 5-6 days as we bring them away quite far away from the Matsya border?'

Ghatotkach, 'Yes I did, they all are ready. Tomorrow your Agyatvaas is over. Then you can fight in your appearance and the Kauravas can not do anything.'

Karna, 'Putra, now it's time for you to go back to your home. Thank you again for your help.'

Ghatotkach wanted to help them in the war but Karna assured them that they themselves were sufficient enough. Ghatotkach touched his feet and he blessed him wholeheartedly.

Back in Kaurava camp

All the royalties were taking rest as because of the whole night adventures, they all were tired.

Dusshasshan, 'I think we were possessed by a ghost. I think it's better to return.'

Shakuni, 'Not ghost you fools...I think it is the Pandavas and Karna''s doing. I heard before that Karna was a student of Asurguru Shukracharya. Everyone knows that Asurs were famous for illusions so it is highly possible that Karna also knows to create illusions. So I think it's all his doing.'

Aswatthama, 'But why did he do that?'

Shakuni, 'Instead of watching girls and eating all day if you guys pay attention to other things then it will be beneficial for us. Karna was trying to delay our journey. First because of the weather and now due to these illusions he took us far away from Virat border. As now it will take more time to reach there and in the meantime, their Agyatvaas will be over. They can fight us openly. So my intuition was true. The Pandavas were present in Matsya.'

Sama (another Kaurav), 'So what will we do now. If Karna knows about us that means Virat Raj also knew. That means they are ready for us. I think we should go back.'

Dusshasshan (scared), 'Yes, it is not good to fight with the Pandavas and Karna was also with them. He alone is sufficient to make our Chutney.'

Shakuni, 'No, I have a plan. The Virat army along with Pandavas will wait for us in the warzone. We will send half of our army in that direction and engage them, while the other half will take a secret path that Keechak once told me to reach to the capital directly. They will not have much soldiers there, so we can easily capture the women of the royal palace and innocent citizens. And as you know the Dharmvaan person like Karna or the Pandavas will never let anything happen to the innocent citizens and women. So we can force King Virat to surrender and hand over the Pandavas and Karna to us. Then I myself will kill them.'

Vikarna, 'Mamashri, what I remember is that you made a similar plan with Jayadrath as well to kidnap Draupadi bhabishri and force them to surrender (no one knew about the connection with the asurs). You yourself saw the result. Now you again want to fight with them. Please, don't poke the sleeping lion's tail.'

Dusshasshan, 'Shut up you coward. Mamashri I like your idea.'

Little did they knew that Ghatotkach did not leave but he made himself invisible to hear their conversations. He had an idea that the Kauravas would again cook some conspiracies and he was right. Ghatotkach (in mind), 'So that's your plan you ugly toothed monkey. I have to send the news to pitashri and Jyasht pitashri.'

Meanwhile in Hastinapur,

Bheesm roared, 'This is insane Dhritarashtra, I cannot support you in this.

Vidur, 'Maharaj, your greed is increasing day by day. You forgot that by torturing the common people, you cannot last long in the throne.'

Dhritarashtra, 'Silence, I am the Samrat and I can do whatever I want. I want to double the taxes so that my son can make his Golden statue. And I want to fulfill his desire at any cost. My new mantri will help me in this.'

Dhritarashtra was confident that his son Dusshasshan would win over Matsya, so he decided to make a gold statue of himself and Dusshasshan. He also appointed Shakuni's sons Uluka and Vrikasura as his ministers. Together they started forcing people to pay more taxes and give all the gold jewellery they have. They even forced women to give up their Mangalsutras as well. Seeing this all the Kurur elders protested but Dhritarashtra was adamant. He was blinded by greed and as he knew that soon Pandavas would be removed from his path and his son would be the king. He became a complete puppet at Shakuni's hands. Because of his tyrannical nature now the citizens were leaving Hastinapur and went to other kingdoms. Many other kingdoms also started rebellions against Hastinapur. All these incidents agitated the Kuru elders.

Bheesm roared, 'Enough is enough. Dhritarashtra if you don't stop this madness then we will be forced to take action.'

Uluka, 'What will you do? Rebel against your king? Do you forget or vow old man?'

Bheesm, 'I did not forget anything but understands one thing. No vow is better than man's life. One should think about their subjects before taking any vow and now I am regretting my decision.'

Dhritarashtra, 'Tatshri, I can arrest you for this.'

Drona, 'If you try that then you have to fight against us.'

Vrikasura whispered to Dhritarashtra's ears, 'Maharaj calm down. We cannot fight them. We have to think of something else.'

Uluka, 'Mahamahim, you go from here and stay in your chamber. Think tonight that where your loyalty lies. We will talk tomorrow.'

In Bheesm's room

Vidur, 'I just can't believe it. I know that Dhritarashtra is greedy and shellfish but I have no idea that he can behave like this with tatshri.'

Kripacharya, 'What do you expect from the one who tried to destroy his own nephew's life and humiliated his own Kulvadu. Dhritarashtra is completely under the control of Shakuni now.'

Bheesm, 'What will we do now?'But they don't have any answer to that question.

In Hastinapur city, in the houses of the common people

'How could we pay those taxes? We have nothing left,' cried a poor man. He was a rich merchant once but the royal ministers took away everything from him. It was becoming a common practice now a days and everyone was scared of the royalties and praying to god to help them. But that night their prayers were answered.

All the citizens saw a vision.

They all were standing in a field. Everyone was thinking about their future.



'Leave Hastinapur,' a voice said.

Everyone turned around and saw Dwarkadhish Shri Krishna was standing in front of them.

Citizen 1, 'Dwarkadhish Shri Krishna, how do you come here? The soldiers will imprison you.'

Krishan smiled, 'No worries. No one can see me except you. I think it's time for you to leave Hastinapur and come to Dwarka. A huge storm is coming towards Hastinapur. If you stay here then you all will be either killed or imprisoned. The Asurs have made a very dangerous plan to take over Hastinapur.'

Citizen 2, 'What? But how could we leave our home?'

Citizen 3, 'Why? We have a huge army. We have Maharathis.'

Krishna, 'This time no one can protect you. Not even Gangaputra or Dronacharya'

Then Krishna vanished and everyone came out from the trance and found themselves in their own house. But most of them decided to leave as per Bhagwan's instruction.

Later in the middle of the night, most of the citizens used the secret passageway to leave Hastinapur. The passage was shown to them by a bright light shaped like a mourpankh. It was moving in front of them as if showing the way. All the soldiers were asleep and no one stopped them to leave Hastinapur.

In Dwarka.

Balram, 'Kanha why did not you warn Kuru elders? They will be defeated by the Asurs.

Shri Krishna, 'No one can run away from their Karma Dau. I want to break the false pride of Kuru elders. Now Bheesm will face the humiliation of defeat as faced by the Gandhar family. Now Drona and Vidur will understand the pain of vulnerability and humiliation. It was all their pride and arrogance that covered the entire Hastinapur but now it's time for amelioration. But don't worry Dau, at the end the True Dharmsthapan will take place as my sahayoddha is almost ready.'