➸ 𝓦𝓸𝓻𝓭 𝓬𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓽: ２ ２ ９ ０ 

➸ 𝓢𝓾𝓶𝓶𝓪𝓻𝔂: 𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓅𝑒𝓃𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝒟𝓊𝓇𝓎𝑜𝒹𝒽𝒶𝓃𝒶 𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒹𝓈 𝒴𝓊𝒹𝒽𝒾𝓈𝒽𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓇𝒶 𝒾𝓃 𝒶 𝒷𝓁𝑜𝑜𝒹𝓎 𝓈𝒾𝓉𝓊𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃? 𝒲𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝑒𝓁𝓅 𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝓊𝓇𝓃 𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀?  

➸ 𝓑𝓪𝓬𝓴 𝓢𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂:  𝒩𝑜𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓈𝓅𝑒𝒸𝒾𝒻𝒾𝒸. 

➸ 𝓡𝓮𝓵𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓼𝓱𝓲𝓹𝓼: 𝒩𝑜 𝓇𝑜𝓂𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒾𝒸𝑒 𝓇𝑒𝓁𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓅 𝒸𝓊𝓇𝓇𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓁𝓎. 

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DURYODHANA DID NOT KNOW WHY HE DID IT. But at that point of moment all he could think was the trauma the man must be going through to take such a step. And he just could not turn his back to the man, he could not walk away from the man or the situation. It was just too adverse. Seeing the broken man, all he could feel was horror and pain. It was as if all his hatred melted away, he only felt bad for the young man.  

Yudhishthira's state made his heart forget their year old enmity. 
Why was the man who always spoke truth in such a state? 
Why was this pinnacle of truth wavering? 
What made Yudhishthira take such a big step? 
Why did the man who kept dharma in front of him take such a harsh decision? 

Why did Yudhishthira cut his forearm?
Why was he punishing himself, if he was doing it for that reason?
What monster pushed him to take such a decision?  

Thousands of questions sprung in his head. At the split moment, Duryodhana did what he could think would be the best step. 
He took Yudhishthira to his room, ensuring that nobody saw them. Once he reached there, he shut the door and turned to the elder prince. He then wrapped Yudhishthira's ang- vastram around the injured man's arm applying some herbs before covering the man's face and body with a blanket he snatched from his own bed. He could not let anyone know about Yudhishthira's presence in his room. 

Picking up some supplies from the side table before he sneaked off the secret passages of the palace, Yudhishthira with him.  
Having a hundred brother's got on his nerves at moments, thus at a very young age he had located this secret passage in the hallways of the palace, he would use to escape. He used to sneak off a ton of times from here undetected. 

He was anyway supposed to leave in a few Prahar, leaving a little early would not change much, just the fact that he would not be able to see his mother once before leaving or his sister for that matter. And of course, his brothers, all ninety-nine of them. 
He decided to take an unconscious Yudhishthira to that only place where no one would learn about him or question Duryodhana much about it. No one would even realize the fact as to what he did. 

Anga.

The kingdom of his friend.
The friend who was much more of a brother than his siblings were.

The friend knew many more secrets of Duryodhana.
This friend knew the real Duryodhana, not the masked one.

They had a common friend, Ashwatthama aka Panchal Naresh. The trio were any way supposed to meet in Anga. Him reaching a little early would not be a problem.

The path was dark, very dark but the way was familiar to Duryodhana like the back of his hand, he would have no problem in riding on this path. And the point of him reaching as soon as possible made him race at yet higher speed. Normally it would not be recommended to take such a speed in the darkness of night, but Duryodhana doubted there was something remotely close to normal on this trip.

Duryodhana looked down at the calm face of his elder cousin. There was not much difference in the face of this young prince when he was awake and asleep.
When Duryodhana started from Hastinapur, he had placed Yudhishthira on the horse, before sitting behind the unconscious man. So, now an unconscious Yudhishthira's head rested on Duryodhana's chest.

It was a Prahar ride from Hastinapur to Anga, he hoped that all this while this guy would not wake up because even though he had brought Yudhishthira with him he had no idea how to confront the man himself. He would feel much better to have his friends- Karn and Ashwatthama- with him. At least they will have his back at that time. Especially with Ashwatthama being a friend of Pandeva's too.

Suddenly the gravity of the situation hit Duryodhana, it was like someone had dropped two buckets of ice water on him, he had primarily kidnapped an unconscious Dharma Raj.

Fuck!

He was so screwed.

Duryodhana wanted to hit himself on his head but the fact that he held the torch in one hand and had the reins as well as Yudhishthira leaning on the hand, he could not do the same. Less the man fell, it would just lead to another mess.

When he was nearing the border of the kingdom of Anga, he was hit with another strenuous thought. Ugh! What was with him today? Why was he realising all the things of utmost importance so late?

He had just realised that all around the entry of Anga, Maha Shree Shakuni had placed his spy's, when he was not able to place them inside Anga. Shit! They would not spend moments before reporting everything to Hastinapur.

He would need to enter Anga un- noticed by these spy's, if he wished to keep the kidnapping of Yudhishthira a secret from the people of Hastinapur. Of course, he needed to do that else they all would have Duryodhana's head then ask questions.

What to do now? Oh god! Why was kidnapping someone so hard?

Well, there was one thing he was sure of and it was that he could not enter the state of Anga with Yudhishthira with him. He needed to find another way and it better come to him fast. Else he would be royally screwed.

He was struck with a lightning bolt of thought when he remembered the secret passage, one that was built on the back of the palace for the royals to escape if they were under heavy attack. It would be a little longer walk because he had an unconscious man with him but at least this way he could discretely lead Yudhishthira into the palace. No spy will learn about it.

And thus, Duryodhana changed his path and led his horse deeper in the forest diagonal of the path he had been taking before. It took him a little time but he reached the escape tunnel.

When the rock that needed to push to reach the escape tunnel was visible to him, Duryodhana tied the horse to one of the trees in the forest and extinguished the torch before picking some of the luggage he had brought with him.

He picked Yudhishthira bridal way and started to walk deep into the secret passageway. People tend to underestimate his strength, yes he was not as strong as Bheema but he was no less. Picking up Yudhishthira was picking a little heavy sac.

On reaching the other side, Duryodhana did not exit the passage path rather he left Yudhisthira there, praying to every God that the elder prince would not wake up until Duryodhana returned from the other side. It would take him at most fifteen minutes to reach the other end of the secret path after crossing the city and entering the palace to make sure that the spy's report only his arrival in Anga. Less they doubt him.

He made sure that Yudhishthira would not panic much if god forbid he woke before Duryodhana pulled him out of here into the palace. Duryodhana hastily rushed back on the path he had just taken and headed for the palace.

Entering the gates of Anga he raced his horse towards the palace, the before dawn risers of Anga stared at their King's friend who was also the prince of Hastinapur. He seemed to have caught his tale on fire but then the three of them were always up to some new weird antics, the people of Anga had stopped questioning it a long time ago anyway. There was no point in it truly.

Duryodhana left his horse and luggage with a surprised guard and threw a haphazard order of placing them in their actual places. Before racing into the palace, towards the secret path, surprising a ton of soldiers who stood on their guard.

"Suyodhana!" Karn's voice reverted across the room as Duryodhana raced into it.
It was the sitting room where the secret passage was placed, because that was the place people would least expect it to be present.

The king looked surprised to see his friend but his lips were stretched in a genuine smile, "I did not know you were coming here this early, I would have made the preparations for the same."

"Yeah- um- hm." Duryodhana shutters out.
He wondered how he would tell his friend about the pinnacle of truth he brought with himself. He did not really plan this at all.

But before he could say anything the door of the room opened once again and their third friend entered the room. His hands were filled with Besan Laddu.

Karn was an absolutely fine sweet maker, his friends teased him nonstop that the man should have opened a shop of Besan Laddu. It would earn him better luxurious than being a king did.

And Duryodhana knew from the shape and size of the Laddu that it was made by Karn. Damn! He was hungry now!

In the meanwhile, Ashwatthama's eyes had landed on Karn and the former froze while the latter narrowed his eyes, "I thought you left for your morning prayers!"

"So, you decided to steal and have a few sweets in the meantime?" Duryodhana asks, Karn's Laddu's always lead to fights and tug of wars between the three.
They had many times injured each other too just to have the Laddu's. At such moments Karn would simply roll his eyes and wander away from there.
So, forgive Duryodhana for being possessive of the Laddu.

"I thought you were not supposed to be here until later!" Ashwatthama exclaims, surprised for a second time since he entered the room.

"I left early." Duryodhana shrugged, his nervousness of kidnapping Yudhishthira returning, he tried his level best not to fidget.

Karn was honestly not surprised of Ashwatthama sealing the Laddu, yet it did not mean it made him less irritated by it.
So he answered sharply, "And I did not leave, yet.",
Adding on the three way weird conversation. Most of their conversations went in this way but that did not mean it would make sense to anyone half the times.

Sighing, Ashwatthama placed the Laddu's on one of the plates kept on the table of the room. Before folding his hands on his chest and staring at his friends. A simple look on his face said, what next?
"Why are you so nervous, Suyo?" He questions.

"I ... I ... brought ... some ... thing for you guys." Duryodhana answers, wringing his hands, a nervous habit he had.
His friends knew it very well, but what confused them was the fact he had brought them gifts before also, so why was he so nervous?

"What is it?"

"I am ... I am not really sure if ... if it is a ... gift truly." Duryodhana looks at his friend sheepishly, biting his lips a little.

Karn sighs, and rubs his forehead, "What did you do, Suyo?"

"I ... uh ... I- kidnapped- the- pinnacle- of- truth- of- Hastinapur." Duryodhana says in one breath, it was said very fast. But his friends were really well versed in what language they had come to call 'Suyo- boli'.

Their mouths fell open in shock, in perfect sync, had Duryodhana not been nervous and worried at the moment he would have burst out laughing at their reaction. But laughter was far away from him at the moment.

"Why?" Karn asked finally, he had tried speaking a few times before he could push this sole word out of his throat.

"More important question," Ashwatthama raised one of his fingers to stop Duryodhana from answering Karn's question. "Where is he currently, Suyo?"

"In the escape way." Duryodhana points at the cupboard that held some antique pieces of Anga, Hastinapur, Panchal and other state's from which Anga traded. It was sort of behind the cupboard that the secret passage path was present.

Karn opened the escape way and Ashwatthama who was beside him caught the man who had moved and settled against the entry of the secret path.

"Why is he not conscious, Suyo?" Ashwatthama asks his friend, looking at the man, currently resting in his arms.

"I found him like this in the garden between our room's garden." The Prince answers.

"So, why did you bring him here, Suyo?" Karn frowns, looking at the Pandeva prince.

"Look at his fore-arms!" Duryodhana removes the ang- vastram he had tied around both forearms of his elder prince. "He had cut himself. And I suppose it has been going on since a while, just look at all the marks on his arms."

The two kings looked at where their friend had pointed. And they could see the map of cuts present all along the eldest Pandeva's forearms.

Yudhishthira was really cutting himself. 

ᴄᴏᴍᴘʟᴇᴛᴇ ꜰᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴀʏ!! 

ρℓєαѕє тєℓℓ мє, ωнαт уσυ тнιηк. 
ι αм єαgєяℓу ωαιтιηg ƒσя уσυя тнσυgнтѕ. 

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