At Night – A Private Meeting by the Riverbank
Arjun's POV
The moon hung low, its silver light draping the earth like soft silk. The forest was unusually still tonight. No rustling leaves. No hooting owls. No murmurs of night creatures.
Only silence.
As though the world itself was waiting for something.
I stood near the riverbank, where the waters shimmered like liquid stars. My thoughts twisted and tangled like the branches above me.
"Why do I feel like I'm two people at once?" I murmured to no one. "Why does every step feel… rehearsed?"
The breeze picked up.
And just like that—
He appeared.
"Madhav…"
I wasn't surprised. Somewhere inside, I'd been waiting for him.
Krishna smiled, the stars seeming to glow brighter around him. "Parth," he said warmly. "Always near water when you're lost."
I turned to face him fully. "You always show up like this. Just like that."
"Time is not linear to me, you know that," he said, sitting cross-legged as if we were back in our youth. "To me, everything is happening at once—your past, your present, and your decision to come here again."
I sat beside him.
"Tell me about her," I asked. "About… my grandma. About Satyavati."
Krishna's eyes turned misty. "Ah… the matriarch of your bloodline. Do you know, Parth, she was once the Empress of Hastinapur? And in this life, she chose simplicity—so she could whisper strength into your heart."
"Why did she come back?"
Krishna looked up at the sky. "Because she couldn't bear to see her legacy drown in sorrow. She asked me for one wish—that she may see her family smile again, even if it was in another yuga… even if the world had changed."
I swallowed. "And you gave her that wish."
"I always grant the wishes born from sacrifice," he said softly.
I looked at him then. Really looked.
The lines between my lives were blurring. The pull between what I remembered and what I was becoming—it was too strong to ignore.
So I asked the question that had been burning within me like wildfire.
"Who am I, Madhav?"
"Am I Parth… or Arjun?"
Krishna turned to me. His voice became the wind, the river, the moonlight itself.
"You are both," he said. "You are Parth, reborn in a world not entirely the same. But your soul—your very essence—is Arjun."
He placed his hand on my head.
And the vision came.
---
[Vision Sequence]
The fields of Kurukshetra lay in ruin. The sky was grey, ashes fell like snow.
Bodies everywhere—brothers, sons, kings. Even victory looked like defeat.
Arjun knelt at the feet of Shree Krishna—older, weary, heartbroken.
His Gandiva lay forgotten. His eyes brimmed with regret.
"I won the world, Madhav," he whispered. "But I lost everything else."
Krishna looked at him with endless love. "What is it you desire now?"
"To do it differently," Arjun breathed. "If there is another world… another chance… I wish to protect them all. My brothers. Draupadi. Even him—Karna. Let me try again."
Krishna smiled gently. "That wish… has already begun, Parth."
---
[Back to Present]
I gasped, the weight of memories pressing down on my chest.
I looked at Madhav—Krishna—my sakha.
His smile hadn't changed in a thousand years.
"So I am…"
"You are Arjun," he confirmed. "The one who returned—not to win the same war, but to stop it before it begins."
He stood up, offering me a hand.
"The thread of fate is in your hands now, Parth."
---
Arjun stood still for a long time, letting the wind wrap around him like a prayer.
The stars, the river, the trees — everything felt different now. Not heavier. Not lighter. Just… true.
He looked down at his own hands, steady and calloused from countless battles.
Then he whispered, more to himself than to Madhav—
"I remember now… not just who I am. But why I came back."
To be continued...