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***

"Did you hurt yourself?"

"No, I've painted my ankle black for sympathy." Aarohi scoffed. A painful looking bruise was forming on her ankle.

When people you don't know behave so rudely, it doesn't bother you that much. However, Aarohi's behaviour was on a whole another level of strange. Anyone who would look at her face could clearly tell something was wrong. She was wincing in pain but still argued back. Her saviour shook his head at her audacity as he watched her struggle to walk away.

"Why are you jumping around like a monkey? Come here." He pulled her against her will, not that she had any more strength to resist. He helped her sit down on a bench at the side of the arena and then quickly rushed of to fetch what seemed like a paste with a cloth that looked like a bandage.

"My brothers, Nakul and Sahadev made it, it'll help with reducing the inflammation." He told her, while Aarohi's mind quickly put the two and two together and realised it was Arjun she'd bumped into.

"And you are Arjun... right?"

"Didn't realise I was famous."

"You're not, I just met your mother. Doesn't exactly take a genius to guess." She answered back, knowing damn well how famous he actually was.

"Ouch, way to break my heart, Madhav's rude sister." Of course, the news of her arrival had reached every ear in the palace by now.

Aarohi couldn't help but roll her eyes at the comment. Everyone expected her to behave or act a certain way when they'd come to know who she was 'related' to, as if it was a standard that was necessary to maintain.

"Tell me where it hurts." Arjun asked as he came towards her.

"I'll do it myself, you can go back to practising archery. It seems like you need it..." Aarohi spoke, asking for help was against her every rule because it would only entail a favour that she'd have to return. Also it felt so silly, after all she was the doctor. 'But not in this era I guess.'

"And it seems like you need to practice how to shut up." He said as he began preparing a bandage then bent down in front her to treat the injury, but halted as he saw her very strange footwear.

"No wonder you got your ankle twisted, look at these shoes! Do you willingly choose to wear and walk in these?" He commented, taken aback. Who in their right mind would torture themselves like this? He thought.

'Shit! I totally forgot about the heels'

"Look, if you wanna comment on my shoe choices, then maybe it's better I'd go!" She said, as if he was the one who was acting crazy, boring her obsidian eyes into his.

But instead of saying something, Arjun simply went on to examine the ankle and pressed it a bit, causing Aarohi to break the gaze and grip the stone bench even harder. "Where are you gonna go to? Hmm?" He asked nonchalantly while Aarohi hissed and bit back a snarky retort.

Arjun then carefully removed her complicated heels and tried rotating the ankle. What surprised him was how the girl didn't let a even a single sound escape her mouth. She honestly just looked like a spoiled brat who would throw a tantrum at the mildest of inconvenience, but it looked like she had some resistance to pain. Or perhaps, showing it in front of someone.

He wrapped the medicated bandage tightly onto the injured area and found Aarohi with a serious expression, examining his work. 'Hmm... not bad but it's just a bit sloppy.'

Arjun then got up, feeling his stomach doing a funny flip, which was unusually weird. Aarohi stood up too, sandals in hand, it hurt but not that much that she wouldn't be able to walk. But she came out of her thoughts when she heard a chuckle.

"I think I get why you wear these uncomfortable shoes." He smirked, towering over her, directly pointing out the height difference. She would have reacted in her own petulant way but as she tried to take a step back to put some space in between them, she stumbled letting out a hiss of pain, only to be held in the arms of the Gandivdhari before she could hit the ground.

"Do your ankle a favour and wear something comfortable." Arjun remarked and went on to his practice session, to which Aarohi grumbled and rolled her eyes.

"Wait, could I have your name?" Arjun asked, stopping.

"Don't you already have one of your own?" Aarohi sneered at the man and whirled away, not waiting for a response. She prayed she'd be able to walk barefoot without any more injuries and that nobody else would notice.

***

It was late in the evening now and Aarohi was sitting idly in her room, her lunch left untouched on the table near her since hours was now being cleared up by the maids. She had nothing else to do but stare out of the window, resting her foot. She had her phone of course, but she knew if she unlocked it, her fingers would automatically move to open the message from Rudra, which meant all this distraction proved to be for nothing.

The empty room was already a stark reminder of how alone and lonely she actually was. So, with nothing but her negative thoughts and anxieties spinning her mind out of control, Aarohi twiddled with the pearls on the bracelet and noticed how more than half of them had already turned black. She would be back soon.

Her theory that this was all a dream was proved wrong as she could feel the burning sensation in her ankle. She sighed wearily and wished she had some painkillers right now.

"Aarohi, can we come in?" A gentle knock on the doors sounded and she nodded her head, looking up to find maharani Gandhari, mata Kunti along with an excited Dushala entering the room, all three dressed up.

"Are you all going somewhere?"

"Yes in fact we came here to invite you along!" Dushala exclaimed, barely containing her enthusiasm as she takes Aarohi's hands in her, shaking her.

"So you know how there's the Kalapradarshan day after tomorrow? That means we won't have free time tomorrow because we'll have to look over the preparations and entertain the very many guests. So in short it's going to be pretty boring- -"

"Dushala! You get so carried away sometimes!" Maharani Gandhari scolded her daughter for being so all over the place, but the princess ignored her mother and kept on talking.

"Sorry, I got distracted didn't I? Well as I was saying-" As she rambled on, both older ladies chuckled shaking their heads, meanwhile Aarohi's mind stopped differentiating between the girl in front and her sister. She couldn't believe how two people could be so similar in behaviour. Whenever she looked at her she was reminded of the carefree Akshara. A slight smile involuntarily tugged at her lips.

"We're all going to the temple to pray- -"

"Huh? A t-temple?" The word snapped Aarohi back into the moment.

"Yes putri, you could come with us too." Kunti said.

"Kunti maa! What is this 'you could come', she is most definitely coming!" Dushala never let a startled Aarohi utter a word and instead dragged her out of her room. The latter barely managed to balance herself on her good ankle, so they wouldn't notice. She didn't need the unnecessary attention or concern.

The carriage ride came to an end and all the ladies along with several maids holding puja thaals went on inside the temple. But Aarohi was unusually quiet, feeling nervous and tense about going into that temple. Or any temple for that matter.

Ever since her mother fell to her death from the stairway of one such temples, she didn't have the courage to go without her family, especially her siblings. All those terrible memories would come back running, making her senses numb and her limbs paralysed. She stood on the first stair step, not being able to get herself further.

"Aarohi, why aren't you coming?" Dushala frowned and came down the stairs to get her but Aarohi told her about her injured ankle, since she saw no other way out of this.

"What! Oh my gosh. Me and the maids can help you up, don't worry." The princess gestured to the maids, but Aarohi gave her a firm no.

"Dushala. Stop. Look- I know you're trying to help- but I can't- - I just can't!" She replied, breathing heavily. They were all nice people, but it just wasn't the same as her own family, not that they would care after she left anyway.

Dushala stopped, seeming to have understood that this was much more than her injury, she could see it in her friend's eyes. So she left giving Aarohi a soft pat on the cheek.

"I'd better get out of here." Aarohi sighed, coming down the one step she managed to get up on. Her eyes fell upon a beautiful garden in front of the temple and she decided to go and sit there to calm down while the others offered prayers. She could wait for them there.

But she stopped as she saw her reflection in a vessel of water. With the jewels, the dress and accessories, she looked very royal while the others in the garden looked like common folk. Not wanting to garner anymore attention, she called a maid and took her dupatta to wrap around her self. The astonished maid gave it to her, wondering how this princess was herself asking for the clothes of a commoner. But Aarohi couldn't care less, she just wanted a moment of peace.

She sat there, on the soft grass which felt like a fluffy cushion, watching the sun set down the horizon, leaving a golden glow that melted perfectly into the starry night sky. You couldn't get these views even if you tried hard to find them in the future, a river flowing nearby, mountains in all directions, a beautifully lit temple nearby where she could hear the faint melodies of prayers being offered. It was heaven.

Aarohi let out a breath, touching her neck, it was the thing she did most often when she felt overwhelmed and away from the feeling of familiarity.

Why you ask?

'2010' Aarohi's silver glowing tattoo said, which was right below her left ear. Her mom's death year it was. Something very personal... with a lot of unexpressed feelings and emotions. It might be a reminder of that dark day, yet she felt weirdly comforted by its presence, like her mother was right there with her. She smiled sadly, whispering 'I miss you' to her mom and brought her arm down, only to be alerted after seeing the last pearl on the bracelet turning black.

"Shit! There's too many people here, I have to go somewhere so they don't see me disappearing into thin air!" She said as she walked out as fast as she could with her injured ankle.

"Wow, limping like Shakuni mama huh? Never thought I'd do this." She taunted herself.

She reached an empty space just near a tall, thick tree which had the most beautiful flowers, she had to get behind it quickly.

However her wish to go unnoticed was left unfulfilled when she stumbled on her ankle and collided into a man. That scarf she had borrowed flew away with the wind behind her, letting her soft brown hair flow freely, the flowers from the tree fell all over them because of the breeze. The beading on her gorgeous dress shimmered in the moonlight and the tattoo on her neck showed as the well built man held her, it was like the time had slowed down, quite literally.

The man's breathing got ragged as his honey brown eyes looked in unknown girl's. They were pitch black, like an empty void waiting to be filled with countless stars. She looked so strangely delightful in the glittering night sky, like he could just stare at her forever.

But of course that was not to happen...

He could only watch as the girl's small form gradually faded away into the moonlight, while he was left figuring out if it happened for real or was she just a dream he had imagined.

He looked down, only to spot a golden anklet lying in the grass. "So it wasn't a dream..." He whispered to himself picking it up, thinking he'd return it. Whereas, the only things he could identify her from was the strange mark on her neck or the other matching anklet.

But where would he find the girl who's vaporised into thin air?

***

Thoughts on the Arjun-Aarohi banter? Also, do you like the new cover? Who's the man in the last scene? 👀

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