"Nitiksha," She heard a soft voice, Nitiksha frowned, it didn't sound like her mother.

Nevertheless, out of curiosity she walked over to the source of the voice. Standing there was a little girl, probably a couple of years older to her, "You are Nitiksha?" The girl asked, looking at her.

"I am, and you are," Nitiksha curiously asked, looking at the girl. The girl cheerfully smiled and pulled her cheeks, "You are so cute." She said and booped her nose, she had an adorable smile on her face as looked at Nitiksha. "I am the Princess of Kekeya, and my name is Parnika."

Nitiksha's eyes widened, she had never met another princess before, "You are also a princess," She asked in wonder.

Parnika nodded, "Yes. Just like you are of Ahichhatra, I am the only princess of Kekeya." Nitiksha nodded her head not understanding what she said except that she was a princess.

Nitiksha held Parnika's skirt and said, "You are so beautiful."

Parnika smiled, "Yes, and so are you." Parnika couldn't help but pinch her soft cheeks again. "And you are so cute also."
Nitiksha gave a toothy grin and tried repeating the new word Parnika was using constantly, "Cute."

Parnika was overwhelmed with the adorable little girl, "You." She pointed her index finger at Nitiksha, "From now you will always stay with me." She spoke out loud, she then mumbled to herself, "I have heard Pitashree saying that Rakshas and Danavas come at night. I will protect you from them."

Nitiksha nodded vigorously, "Yes yes." She sounded too excited to understand what Parnika meant. She then took Parnika's hand and dragged her to her room, obviously to show her set of toys to her newest friend.

Soon after, numerous soldiers appeared, frantically looking here and there. They took a breath of relief when they spotted the Kekeya Princess, one of them rushed to inform Adhiraj, the King of Kekeya.

When Adhiraj, along with his youngest daughter Parnika had come to Ahichhatra for a political alliance with Swarnsheel, the young Princess took the first opportunity she got to explore the new place. The only catch here was, she forgot to inform someone, or anyone and left without any guard.

Ultimately leading everyone to believe that the young Princess had somehow got lost or worse, kidnapped. Adhiraj had ordered each and every soldier to search for the youngest Princess.

Swarnsheel was no less, being a father of a daughter, he was frightened to even think of Nitiksha getting lost, he had his own soldiers looking for the princess everywhere.

"Parnika," Her father ran to her, lifting her small body in his embrace, worry plastered all over his face. "I was worried."

Parnika rested her head, "Pitashree, I want to stay with her." she pointed at Nitiksha, who was standing literally a feet away from them, still holding the end of Parnika's skirt.

The two fathers had a laugh, though at the moment it was merely a childish persistence, they could see a friendship that would survive more than decades.

Adhiraj allowed his daughter to stay at the palace for few more days before leaving for Kekeya. And Parnika's couldn't hode her happiness and excitement.

"Don't touch that," Parnika said in a scolding tone, looking at Nitiksha wanting to touch a rose. Parnika feared that the thorns would hurt her fragile skin.

Nitiksha pouted and like a duckling she followed Parnika around the gardens, touching only those flowers that Parnika deemed safe. Though she felt sad, Nitiksha didn't complain and was happy to go along with the elder girl.

Nitiksha recited the incident of flowers to Pritha when the girls were having lunch. Parnika shrugged it saying, "the thorns could have hurt you."

Pritha smiled at Parnika's protective behaviour, "sometimes to understand the beauty of flowers, you have get hurt." She said.

Parnika shookher head, "No flower is worth the pain." She insisted. Her answer made Pritha smile, "that means you just haven't found the right flower. Because for everything that is good and worth, you have to go through slight pain for it. Because nothing worth ever comes free."

"I don't agree. If it's worth, it comes easily, and if it's not then it hurts." Parnika spoke stubbornly.

Pritha pointed at a lamp nearby, "you know it is emitting light but to do so, it has to burn." Parnika narrowed her eyes at lamp and said nothing.

Pritha pointed at Parnika herself, "you want to stay with Niti, but to do so you have stay away from Kekeya and your father. And if you wanted to stay with your father you couldn't stay with Niti."

Parnika was at loss of words, and she merely looked down at her food and continued eating, trying to ignore the logic Pritha was speaking of.

Understanding the little girl, Pritha didn't push it further, rather she diverted the topic and indulged the girls into different topics.

Far away from Ahichhatra, in the Kingdom of Vaidarbh, two sages were seated in a temple of Devi Rukmini.

The two sages, Mridul and Mukul were in between a serious discussion, "I feel bad for Naagdutt," Said Mukul, his tone filled with pity.

Mridul agreed, "Draupadi is his niece's best friend, right under his nose yet he won't find her. He will look for Draupadi all around the world, and fail to find the divine fire child."

Mukul nodded, "She is after all Krishna Sakhi, how can a mere mortal like Naagdutt even touch her shadow?"

"Mere mortal or Kali Purush himself, nothing can harm her, not in this birth." Mridul commented, "Draupadi may have forgotten her past birth when she was born as Ahichhatra Kumari, but Arjun did not. Should Naagdutt get a hint of Draupadi's presence, he will crumble under Vibhatsu's wrath."

"You are too confident in Arjun. But I have other beliefs." Mukul contradicted his friend'd statement, "I think by the time Naagdutt finds Draupadi, Nitilsha would have learnt a lot. And before Arjun could touch his Gandiv, Nitiksha would kill him."

Mridul raised his eyebrow, "Let's stick to our predictions and see who's prediction turns out correct."

Mukul nodded, "yes, let's see who has a better foresight." He suspiciously looked at Mridul agreeing to the bet.

A/N:

Parnika- I feel ya girl..... Niti is too precious for anything~

Me to Mukul & Mridul: ye kya chal raha hai?

Waise you guys wanna know who they are? I am asking cause I can't keep in a secret anymore.... So I kinda wanna reveal 🌝🌝🌝🌝🌝🌝

And now-
Time for some memes:

Me giving update and waiting for people to read be like:

Me looking at the villain-ish characters of my story:

Readers ready to go to Ahichhatra after Niti's birth:

Mukul and Mridul discussing having the same vibe as this (↓) and you cannot unsee it once you see it