A Different Destiny - A Mahabharat/Karn Fanfic

CHAPTER 32 : MELODY

Drupad was the first one to rush towards the site where the incident happened, followed by Dhrishtadyumn, the six pandavs, Lord Krishna and Bheeshm while Kunti, Gandhari and Bhanumati stayed back along with a devastated Draupadi. One of the people who witnessed the incident and tried to help Isha walked towards Drupad and informed him about what exactly happened.

Drupad's head immediately snapped towards the river whose pace seemed to be only increasing minute-by-minute.

"Isha...!" croaked out Drupad, almost like a wail.

He almost collapsed down, but Dhrishtadyumn and Karn held him up. Just then a man who ran after the assassin came back, limping towards Drupad and informed him about what happened and how the assassin attacked him and ran away. But the man managed to see the assassin's face and informed the King about it while the rest of them heard about it. 

Seeing his father's condition, Dhrishtadyumn decided to take the reins and started ordering. Firstly, he ordered a few soldiers to go towards the direction where the assassin went, while he announced that he'll follow the river's coast. Karn said that he and his brother will help, but Dhrishtadyumn declined saying that he cannot ask for help from his sister's in-laws.

"We're a family now, Yuvraj Dhrishtadyumn. We're supposed to be for each other at tough times" said Karn and ordered Nakul to go along with the soldiers to track the assassin.

He ordered Yudhishthir, Bheem and Sahadev to stay back so that someone will be present for the King and the remaining family members here and said that he himself will track along the coast of the river along with Dhrishtadyumn. Arjun said that he'll also come along, but before Karn could say anything, Dhrishtadyum declined stating that he can't ask that from him, but Arjun reassured that he's doing this for his best friend. Krishna too said that he'll come along and everyone started going through the coast.

It came to the point where everyone had to be divided and Karn was alone with a few soldiers while Arjun and Krishna tagged along with each other and Dhrishtadyumn and Nakul were with each other with some soldiers  following them.

*****

A man was standing by the river, looking at it with a peaceful smile on his face. His face was framed with a few stray strands of hair while his head was adorned with dread locks. Just then, he saw a flutter of red cloth in the water and reached towards it, grabbing the arm that the cloth was wrapped around. Pulling the arm out, he dragged the whole body of that person out of the water, towards the shore. Laying the person on the ground on her front, he performed CPR to the person. Just then, another woman walked towards them, holding some cloth.

The drowned woman coughed out some water but remained unconscious. The older woman crouched down beside her and looked at her with tear filled eyes. She gently cupped the younger woman's face and looked at the man with happy tears while the man too looked at her with a smile with a million emotions swirling in his eyes. The woman quickly wrapped the cloth around the drowned woman and the man carried her. The two of them along with the woman in his arms walked away from there, into the forest.

*****

It's been a few days since Isha was attacked and search for her is still going on. The royal family of the Panchal kingdom is in desperate need of the good news, but on the other hand, some people are losing hope. Despite everything, the search for Isha is still going on upon King Drupad's orders while a few have volunteered on their own will - the Hastinapur royals being a few of them. Among them, Karn was the one who has been searching for Isha restlessly. 

Karn was with a few soldiers, following the river by the shore when he found a gold bangle on the shore that he was pretty sure belongs to Isha. Seeing that, he  got all the energy in the world and with renewed vigor, he followed the path to the woods where he found the bangle and in the process, he found a earring that he saw Isha wearing the day she was attacked. His hopes got high seeing the path but then he reached to a stop seeing a junction in the woods.