Days passed, when one day Padmaja returned, Madri immediately ran to give her a hug,making Padmaja blush. She went ahead to greet the rest of the family. As promised she brought them some laddoos and made sure to pack extra for Bheem as well. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed her company, especially the young Pandavas who seemed to develop a special bond with her. Each of the five brothers came up with a special name for her, and were growing incredibly fond of her. Padmaja herself was slowly growing closer to the Pandu clan,especially Maharaj Pandu.  She now understood her parents weren't with her, the reason she did not know, but Pandu treated her as her own daughter and she loved the feeling of having a proper family.

A year later....

Kunti's pov

I was sitting near the shore, just listening to calm waves, when I heard Dharini call me,"Kaki.....where are you? "Here Putri, by the river, what are you doing here? Why did you leave the hut, that too alone ?", I asked, concerned. "Kaki, everyday I come here, I search the sea for something precious that I could gift others.",she replied brightly. I was speechless. How was she going in the deep river ? She is not old enough to swim anyways....I saw Aarya coming towards us with Sehdev in his arms whose eyes sparkled at the sight of Dharini. "Putri, don't go in the water, it is dangerous, you don't know how to swim, don't walk too close to the water either, especially when you're alone.", I told her, I don't want any trouble for her. Aarya frowned as he listened to us,but nodded to agree with me.

Suddenly I heard an angelic laughter,"Kaki, it is not dangerous, I do this everyday" And in a second she left my grasp and ran towards the river. Aarya panicked and ran towards her asking her to stop, but she just kept giggling and jumped in the river. I screamed as I thought she might drown by the force of the river. To our surprise she was in the river but somehow still afloat. She kept running around, playing with the fishes and trying to search for sea-shells. How is this possible ? Suddenly she looked behind her and yelled,"pitashree". Once again rendered speechless, did she meet her father ? We looked in the same direction to find Samudra dev standing there. Immediately she ran into his arms and he picked her up, smiling at her lovingly. We went towards them and bowed in front of Samudra dev. He looked at us and said," I understand that this must be really confusing but don't worry. Very soon all your questions will be answered." We bowed down once again, in respect, before he disappeared, leaving Dharini but not before placing a beautiful sea-shell in her hand. She yelled goodbye to waves before coming back on land and walking towards Aarya. "Kakashree, this sea-shell is for you, I wanted to gift you something for your birthday", she giggled. Aarya was still in shock but smiled at her, gently picking her up he replied,"This is the most beautiful sea-shell I have ever seen, Thank you for such a lovely gift." Soon she ran away with Sehdev, probably to play with animals and prank Nakul. I walked slowly with Aarya, still processing everything. "Aarya, how is this possible?", I asked. "What do you mean?"

"Aarya if she is the daughter of Samudradev then why would he leave her alone like this ? Surely the innocent girl had no fault, then why is she suffering? ", I asked, I was deeply saddened for Dharini, if she is the daughter of a god, then shouldn't she be free of misery, she is such a pure soul. "We don't what fate has in store for her priye, the only thing we can do is support her, love her and make sure she always has us to rely on.", he replied calmly.

That is true. I will make sure Dharini will never feel alone.

If only Kunti had known that Dharini would be left alone when she would be at her most vulnerable state.

"God isn't about making good things happen to you, or bad things happen to you. He's all about you making choices exercising the gift of free will. God wants you to have good things and a good life, but He won't gift wrap them for you. You have to choose the actions that lead you to that life."

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