Arjun's POV: Life in the Forest—
The last two years in the forest had changed us. We were no longer princes in exile. We were survivors. Warriors. A family stronger than any palace could shape.
It was in this time Bheem met Hidimba.
The memory plays like a quiet fire inside my mind.
We were resting near a dense grove when we heard her growl.
She stood like a shadow among the trees-wild, fierce, beautiful. At first, we thought she was a threat. But the way she looked at Bheem? It was not hunger.
It was destiny.
Bheem fought her brother Hidimb, a rakshasa, and emerged victorious. Hidimba watched every blow with bated breath.
She didn't run when her brother fell. Instead, she walked to Bheem and said simply, "You are mine."
He looked to Mata. Then to me. Then back to her.
"I know," he said.
They married under moonlight, deep in the forest, with no fanfare. A quiet union. Powerful. Eternal.
They had a child-Ghatotkacha.
Bheem wept when we had to leave them. He still does sometimes, in the middle of the night.
---
Scene: Krishna and Draupadi in Panchal—
In the court of Panchal, Krishna arrived like a monsoon breeze. With laughter and wisdom and eyes that saw too much.
He found Draupadi easily. She was not someone you missed.
"So, you're the Krishna everyone speaks of?" she asked, curious but distant.
"Only when they speak the truth," he replied, smiling.
They spoke often. About kingdoms. War. Dreams.
And one day, about Arjun.
"He was a warrior of dharma," Krishna said. "A soul that strikes only when the wind stills."
Draupadi frowned. "He was?"
"The river may vanish," he said, "but only to return stronger."
Her heart ached for someone she never met.
Later that week, Draupadi went to a Shiva temple. Alone. She sat in silence, offering prayers, unsure why her heart was heavy.
It was there they crossed paths.
He stood before the lingam, clad in simple robes. Arjun.
She felt the air shift. As if the universe had stopped to watch.
He looked at her.
She looked at him.
Neither spoke.
But their souls remembered something their bodies did not.
She stood beneath the stone archway, a lamp flickering beside her, casting golden light across her features-and Arjun forgot to breathe. It wasn't just her beauty-though she was the most radiant woman he had ever seen-it was something deeper. A quiet gravity in her eyes, like the world spun slower around her. Her presence stirred something ancient within him, like his soul had known hers before this life, before time. For a moment, he wasn't Arjun the exile, or Dhananjaya the warrior. He was simply a man who had stumbled into the orbit of a goddess, and in that silent glance, he understood: this meeting was no coincidence. It was destiny remembering itself.
When they parted ways, neither turned back. But the silence between them echoed longer than words ever could.
---
Scene: Draupadi's Wish—
That night, Draupadi sat beneath the stars and whispered to Shiva:
"Give me a husband with strength like Bheem. Wisdom like Yudhishthir. Skill like Arjun. Beauty like Nakul. Grace like Sahadev."
The wind stirred.
And far away, Krishna laughed quietly to himself.
"You shall have them all, Krishnaa," he whispered.[Krishnaa=Draupadi's another name]
"You shall have them all."