Prakriti P.O.V
Next day, we bid farewell to lord Vyasa and set out to go back to Kamyaka Vana. By mid day, we arrived on the bank of Saraswati fording the river in the same ferry, we were back in the old forest. We found our way back to the clearing where we had built the first asrama of our exile and saw the hardy wooden huts had withstood the seasons well. Pandavas started few repairs they had to do in the asrama and finally we settled back down in the Kamyaka. After staying there two or three days, I made my way to Elder Brother and take the permission to start my own journey alone. He nodded his head giving me his blessings "Prakriti, find your inner self and come back soon" he said with a small smile on his face. I nodded my head and went to take my fare well from others. Krishne has tears in her eyes as I hugged her tightly "What will I do without you?" she asked in low voice, I broke the hug and wiped her tears, "You will serve sages and saint with Elder Brother and calm your mind in the time" I gave her the advice, she needs to understand the situation and compose her mind. She slowly nodded her head and I made my way to Brother Bhima who was ready for his own journey. I joined my hands together and gave him a calm smile, he put his hand on my head "Prakriti" he uttered my name, "Brother Bhima, impress Lord Hanuman, I believe in you" I said, for the first time a small smile appeared on his face, bidding him farewell. Twins walked towards me, they touched my feet and I gave them the blessings "Our army need you both the most as healers are very important part of war" I said, they both nodded their head.
At last, me and Arya left our family together going inside the forest, we were silent thinking about the situation.
Finally we reached at the foot of Gandhamadana, I turned my head towards Arya, he was already looking at me. Without saying anything, I hugged him, he sighed and returned the hug, I could hear the rhythm of his heart beat. His arms were around me, he wasn't ready to let go of me just yet and neither was I. "I believe in you, Arya, you will surely succeed in your quest" he broke the hug and after months gave me a soft smile, "And when we meet again after years, I know you will find your inner self" he said, I nodded my head and he embraced me one last time. We parted away after that, he climbed on the Gandhamadana and I changed my path walking forward passing the mountain. I stopped and closed my eyes, I have already found my fire, now its turn for other elements.
"Thank you". She smiled "We will meet again my dear Prakriti" she said and vanished from the view.
I remembered river Ganga telling me this when we were on exile period. She is part of my water element that I know now. I have to gather all my essence and complete myself. For that I have to do tapasya, I walked to the Amarnath cave for mediation, I could feel it calling me. I traveled to the north moving through the mountains, the temperature started decreasing as I further moved forward, my teeth started chattering with the drop in temperature. But I moved along nonetheless. I finally found the cave which was surrounded with ice, I slowly made my way inside the cave, a nostalgia feeling hit me all of a sudden, but I brushed it off. I saw a rather large shivling in the middle of cave covered by snow. I made my way to it and joined my hands together in respects "Mahadeva" I uttered, suddenly I felt air grazing my skin softly. I sat in front of the shivling folding my legs together and joining my hands in the process. "Mahadeva, I came in your shelter to search myself, help me" I said and closed my eyes reciting the mantra again and again.
"Om Namah Sivay"
Third Person P.O.V
Prakriti finally lost herself in the tapasya forgetting about her surroundings.
On the other hand, Arjuna was climbing the Gandhamadana, the scent of wild herbs reached his senses as he crossed the place and saw Himavan ahead of him, he joined his hands together and worshiped the mountain King, father of Goddess Parvati. He pass through the mountain, through white, breathtaking terrain, through endless snow-drifts, across pristine icescapes. Until he saw a solitary peak before him, thrusting at the sky in splendid isolation: a mountain apart. Arjuna had never come this far north before. But he knew the name of the massif before him: it was the Indrakila. He finally found a suitable cave for himself to do the tapasya, he set himself down at the cave-mouth, Crossing his legs, he shut his eyes and began to chant the Kotirudra, Siva's thousand names.
"Siva, Sankara, Sarva, Bhava, Mahesvara, Isana, Rudra, Mahadeva, Pasupati, Sambhu, Lokanatha..." chanted Arjuna, quickly becoming absorbed. Then, he grew restless. He felt this was not really the place for him to meditate. He climbed down the Indrakila again and returned to the forested foothills of the Himalaya. He went on to sacred Mandara. Arjuna found a fine aswattha tree to sit under and began his tapasya once more.
"Namah Sivayah," he chanted, silently, interminably, "Namah Sivayah, Namah Sivayah, Namah Sivayah..."
Soon, when he found it too easy to meditate in padmasana, he got up and stood on his toes, with his arms raised to the sky.
***
During Prakriti tapasya, fire surrounding around her as she was engrossed in her worship. Her fire element showing because she has already accepted it. Draupadi could feel the change inside her, a bright light went out of her unknowingly and the light light made its way to the Amarnath cave and merged into nature itself truly becoming part of her.
The fire caressing the nature's human body, playing around her, she could feel her fire surrounding herself. For months, she sat in the same position eating only leaves for food. After conquering the fire element, she froze, ice surrounded her body as she utter the mantra, slowly her body adapt to the environment and after sometime she also conquered the water element, River Ganga made an appearance in front of her when she was in tapasya, she joined her hands together and smiled, a bright light coming out from her and going into Prakriti becoming part of her. The ice melted around her in time and slowly the area started surrounding by nature. Flowers, plants, tendrils started growing inside the cave, thorns started appearing around Prakriti and pricking her skin drawing blood but she ignored the pain as she was too absorb in her worship to notice anything, time flew by and a wilderness being created around her and she was in the center of it sitting calmly with closed eyes.
***
Arjuna was engrossed in his tapasya when a savage boar, big as a hillock came running towards the warrior to gore him into pulp, it charged at Arjuna with a loud roar. At speed that defied the eye, Arjuna picked up the Gandiva, fitted it with an arrow and aimed at the boar. In a wink, he shot the arrow into him, cutting him in half, boar sank on the ground, dark blood springing from him. His truncated body lay twitching for a few moments and then he was still. Arjuna moved towards the boar to take his arrow out when he saw one more arrow embedded in the boar. He looked around and saw a hunter clad in tiger skin with bow and arrow came near him.
The Pandava said, "Who are you? This jungle is not safe even for men; how are you here?".
The hunter smiled slightly and looked at the Pandu's son, "The forest is our home; but what about you? You look as if you have been raised in luxury, in a palace even?" he said coolly, Arjuna turned his gaze at the boar again "You look like a hunter, but you shot the boar after I killed him" he said getting a little angry with the way hunter was behaving. "I aimed at the boar before you saw him. He was already mine when he charged at you and my arrow killed him. Your shaft struck him after he was dead. You are impudent, for a stranger to the jungle. In fact, your life is in danger. I am the king of the vetalas and you shot my prey after I killed it. What sort of rishi are you, anyway, at tapasya with a bow and arrows?" The hunter said in calm voice, a soft smile on his face. Arjuna growled and began to draw back his bowstring. Hunter bent down and drew out both arrows from the dead boar's carcass. Holding them up and grinning, "Look, Muni, both arrows are mine now. Let us see if you are man enough to take yours back from me." he said in loud voice.
"You don't know who I am that you dare challenge me. Does the jackal challenge the lion, fool?"
"We shall see who the jackal is and who the lion: in battle. Even if you are the lion at words!" replied that suave hunter.
Arjuna loosed a blinding volley at him. Arrows from the Gandiva enveloped the hunter in a shroud of darkness, those shafts would have felled any kshatriya on earth. The rough hunter merely raised his arms and the Pandava's arrows fell away from him. The smile on the fellow's handsome, insolent face was as bright as a slice of the sun. Arjuna shot another, fiercer salvo, humming from the Gandiva. These were astras, shafts of light and flames, enough to consume a small army. Now some of them struck the hunter and blossoms of blood sprouted on his body; but the astras' fires were extinguished against his skin.
The hunter still stood before Arjuna with the same smile, Arjuna paused, he was confused how a a mere hunter can beat his arrows. He shot at the blithe forester again, while the man stood unresisting before him. Again, the missiles from the Gandiva fell harmlessly around the hunter. It was as if he knew each of them and they would not harm him. In a storm, the greatest archer on earth shot shafts of white flames at the hunter. He shrugged them off as if they were flowers flung at him by a child. There was blood on him, surely, but his wounds cleared miraculously.
Then Arjuna reached behind him into his twin quivers and found them empty! These were Varuna's inexhaustible quivers; this was never meant to happen.
Arjuna gasped and next moment, he realized who this hunter was. "Lord!" cried the Pandava. "Forgive me."
He fell at Siva's feet, his tears flowing. The hunter's smile was the same: serene, dazzling, the smile of Siva. "I am pleased with you! Even when you were beaten you never gave up. What shall I forgive? That a kshatriya worshiped me as he knows best? With arrows and blows! There is nothing to forgive. I enjoyed your worship, more than any other in a long time! Arjuna, I have never seen a kshatriya like you. Ask me for anything and I will give it to you" Siva said.
Arjuna knelt before Siva, "Lord, I worshiped you for your Paasupatastra, for the war that will be" he said.
"And I came as a hunter to test you, Arjuna. Only a man who is a master of himself should have the Paasupatastra, or he could call an apocalypse down on the earth. I have tried you now, Arjuna and your heart is pure. You are truly a kshatriya" Mahadeva said with a soft smile on his face. Arjuna stood up and bowed his head in front of God. "You shall have the Paasupata. Indra, Yama and Kubera know nothing of that astra; it is beyond them. But, I warn you, summon it only as a final resort, perhaps against someone who can be killed by no other weapon" Siva told him, the pandu's son sincerely nodded his head.
Siva laid his hand of grace on Arjuna's head. Arjuna felt his body fill with tumultuous light. He felt as powerful as a God and the greatest of all astras was his. With just a thought, Siva taught him the mantras for summoning the weapon, for discharging it at an enemy and calling it back. The earth trembled when Arjuna received the Paasupatastra from the Lord. Mysterious conches sounded in the sky.
"The Paasupata is yours, Kshatriya. It will obey you even as it does me." Shiva said one last time and the next moment he was vanished from the view taking his radiance with him and leaving the archer alone.