Jyesht's strife for kinship (A Karna-Arjun what-if story)

The archers

Arjun's pov

One winter evening, Arjun was shooting arrows into the sky outside the woods on the outskirts of Hastinapur. They were a new variety of coloured-light arrows he had acquired after helping out a Brahmin with a little matter of misplaced cows. When matched with his cloud arrows, these new ones made an impressive display against the darkened sky.

He would not say he was doing it for the village girls who had emerged from their huts to watch the display and were applauding every shot. He never did it for the girls. It was not his fault girls always gathered around to watch when he practiced, and it was certainly not his fault, as Nakul accused, that the women of Hastinapur preferred warriors to pretty faces.

He shot a spiraling arrow that left behind a cloud of white in rings. Above the rapturous squeals of the teenagers came the sound of an arrow being released.

The sky lit up in gold, rendering his cloud invisible. The girls shrieked again, for the effect of the sparkle of gold in the night sky was perhaps even more enchanting than light arrows; Arjun turned to spot the originator.

The King of Anga grinned at him--impudently, he thought--and drew back his bowstring to release a set of seven arrows that streaked like a rainbow across the golden background.

Arjun accepted the unspoken challenge.

Initially, he tried to cancel out the effects of Karna's displays, using the wrong colours and smoke. But Karna, after his initial foiling, attempted to enhance the effect of everything Arjun did, which meant Arjun had to find ways to cancel out his own displays. Eventually, they fell into a collaboration.

Hastinapur's sky had never been rendered so beautiful at night.

It did not even feel that irksome to Arjun to share the admiration they were receiving, now not just from the young girls, but also many of the grown-ups of the village. After all, he alone could not have pulled off something so spectacular.

Then the attack began.

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An army of frenzied ogres, who appeared to have been struck by insanity weapons, barreled through the forest towards the village, uprooting trees and setting them to fire. The villagers started to scream and run for cover.

"Where the hell did they come from?" Arjun asked them in a shout.

One of the village leaders stammered that they had been plaguing the borders of Hastinapur for a couple of days now, and had already killed over a hundred people.

"Why did you not inform the king?" demanded Karna.

"We--we would have gone tomorrow..."

"Get inside your homes immediately," commanded Arjun. "Do not venture out till we tell you."

Arjun turned to the ogres and lifted his bow. Beside him, the King of Anga did the same.

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It was easier by far to defeat human challengers than demonic ones, if only because humans could predict the exact thought process of humans. Being brilliant warriors, both Arjun and Karna could predict their fellow humans' actions a bit better than others. Frenzied ogres, however, were impossible to predict.

Several times they came close to being overwhelmed; several times a couple of ogres escaped the range of their arrows and ventured dangerously close to the village before one of them shot them down, the other covering for him.

During the time they fought, Arjun did not for once think who he was fighting with. It was not possible to say, if you saw them standing shoulder to shoulder, taking down enemies by the hundred, that they were fighting together the first time in their lives, for their moves were perfectly in sync, like they had grown up training together.

There was yet no conclusion about who the best archer in the world was, but that these two was the best pair of archers in the world was certain.

The ogres stood no chance.

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There was a ringing silence after the villagers had expressed their gratitude and tried to shower them with gifts. Since Karna politely declined them all, Arjun did the same, though he might have accepted them otherwise.

For Arjun, fighting with the King of Anga had been a surreal experience. He had known no one who thought so exactly the same on the battlefield, he had known no one to fall in together with him in the same formations, without words, with so much ease.

Sometimes, it was necessary to separate the artist from his art just so you could savour the art in peace.

But even if he had appreciated the art, he was not cool with the artist, and he needed to leave. Under normal circumstances after having won a fight together, warriors shook hands and congratulated each other. 

This was not normal circumstances.

Arjun had just taken a step towards the Hastinapur when--

"You fight extraordinarily well," said Karna. "Though I daresay you know that without being told."

He returned Arjun's guarded glance with a mild, frank grin. Arjun considered the pros and cons of smiling back at him. There appeared no cons.

"You too," said Arjun, a little bashfully. "Though you also know that without being told."

Karna offered him a hand to shake. Recognizing it for the banner of peace it was, Arjun took it.

He had been stubborn far too long, and he thought he knew why, which went deeper than just hating him because he was on Duryodhan's side and had openly taunted him and his guru in the arena. It was because the King of Anga had always been nice to everyone--even their mother--except the five of them. He had even, indeed, been nicer to Arjun's brothers--including Bheem, who never wasted an opportunity to insult him--than to him. 

Maybe that was why he had held back so long from returning the King of Anga's niceness that eventually started to extend to him as well. Even though he had always wanted a skilled archer to talk with, someone who too held the bow like it was his God and saw archery as a concept of worship. Even though he couldn't help liking the King of Anga from the very day he dropped his hostility. Who could help liking someone so likeable?

Karna was looking at him warily now. Arjun didn't know what to say now that they had fought off an army of demons together and shaken hands afterwards.

Did it mean they were collaborators? Did it mean they were acquaintances? Did it, perhaps, mean they were friends?

Could you be friends with someone about half a decade older, wondered Arjun, before he recalled that he and Duryodhan were practically the same age, and Duryodhan and Karna called each other their best friend.

Just about when the silence got too long for comfort, Karna asked, "Are we cool?"

"Oh--yes," said Arjun, relieved. "Yes, we're cool."

"In that case, since that thing we did--" Karna waved at the sky, which had been lit up by their arrows not long ago. "--was beautiful, do you want to put on a show for Hastinapur on New Year's eve together?"  

Arjun had never before fully appreciated the privilege of having a companion with the same prayer.

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A/N: Last bit, if it is too vague, I read in a book 'An Ember in the Ashes', a warrior saying to the battlefield and his weapons:

"You are my temple. You are my priest. You are my prayer. You are my release."

Of these, I like prayer the most. For Karna and Arjun, archery and their bow would be kind of a prayer, wouldn't it?