CHAPTER 3
Amashanae put away her blade and walked to the restless, neighing horses, approaching them with hands held low and speaking to them in a soothing voice. She began searching the saddlebags without even a glance at the girl, who, behind her, was struggling to push the dead bandit off her. There would have to be water here. There was a lot of junk in the bags, and she even found a little bit of silver, but astonishingly enough it seemed the bandits had been riding out in the desert with almost nothing but hard liquor on them. They must have left their food and water skins in their camp and rode out in a hurry to chase the girl – or her caravan – that had probably happened upon it. The girl made more sounds, but Amashanae, busy in search of water, did not lend an ear. There would have to be some water here, nobody rode out here with just liquor no matter how rushed they set on the move. Finally she found a small skin of water. She grabbed the skin and started to open it, when she again heard the girl. With a sigh and a glance to the sky she threw the water-skin on her back, stepped over and kicked the still bleeding bandit off the girl’s body.
“Are you all right?” She asked. The girl was still quite shaken by terror, and it seemed the sight of Amashanae, arms gleaming with fresh blood and a wild look in her eyes did little to soothe her. But she was too dehydrated from her desperate run to stay quiet.
“Water”, the girl begged. Amashanae checked the water-skin, but there was just enough water left for one good sip.
“Figures” she muttered to herself, knelt down and let the last drops of water on the girl’s dried lips. Then she stood up, tossed the empty skin aside and turned back to the horses, pondering which one of them would the best choice.
“Please, help…” the girl whispered behind her, collecting herself and making her way up. She had obviously overcome her fear of this blood-covered elf very quickly – apparently being lost in the desert alone was even more frightening a scenario. Amashanae turned and gave her a long, hard look.
“You are free to go, they shall not disturb you anymore.”
“Please, take me with you”, the girl said, much more urgently this time, moved closer to Amashanae and looked down at her bloody hands. The blood appeared pitch black in the low light of the desert. “I have no place to go.” But Amashanae still ignored her and started to reach out the bridle of the nearest horse she judged to be the best of the lot when her eyes suddenly attained the last horse of the pack. Amashanae stared into the eyes of the horse. There was something of the same kind of fear and loneliness in its eyes that she knew her own eyes also possessed. Even if the horse was dirty enough to belong to the filthiest of the bandits, it seemed to be of much more powerful build than is common to its kind. The horse returned her gaze and tilted its head. Carefully she started to walk towards the fine animal, which stood motionless as a statue on its hooves and followed Amashanae strictly with its eyes.
Amashanae reached the horse and slowly and gently extended her arm and touched the side of its head. Its nostrils quivered a little but it did not pull away.
Amashanae smiled and let her hand stroke down the horse’s neck, and the horse seemed to relax, looking over her shoulder at the girl standing behind them patiently with an expecting look on her face.
Amashanae turned to face the rest of the horses and said coldly to girl:
“You grab one of those and ride home, girl. The desert is not a place for you.” Amashanae took the reins and whistled softly, and the horse followed. She began walking the horse away from the corpses, intending to leave the girl standing there. No water, but at least I now have a horse, she thought.
But the girl appeared not to give in so easily.
”What do you mean?” Amashanae heard an angry shout behind her. ”I am not a child! Who are you to tell me what to do?” Amashanae did not turn around, only rolled her eyes and continued walking the horse into the desert. What a spirit, defiant even under such circumstances, she thought. The girl ran after her, stumbling on the sand and face all red and excited, and continued,
“What is your problem, anyway? Are you just going to leave me here?” Then, as suddenly as it had flared, her spark died. She broke into tears, but quickly swept them away and again ran after Amashanae who kept a steady pace towards the desert and paid no attention to her antics.
“Listen. Listen. I’m not staying here with these corpses. I am going to follow you no matter what, so you might as well let me tag along with you.” Amashanae stopped with a sigh. Well, the girl seemed to have some spark in her, and it would perhaps not harm her to let her come along. After all, she felt some sort of responsibility for the girl now that she had already saved her from the bandits.
“Very well, but only until we reach a town of some sort. After that you’re on your own. And make sure you do not weigh me down. There's no water and I certainly will not be waiting around if you cannot keep up" She went quiet for a moment, pondering their situation. "Makes no sense to try accross the desert to Katamayaport without water or caravan for protection. Best to head west or northwest; should be less than two days to reach the end of the desert that way, or at least find water. Those bastards hardly had anything on them besides hard liquor.”
To Amashanae’s astonishment the girl jumped on her, hugging her, her face lighting up.
“Great! We’ll have a great time!” Taken aback, Amashanae did not know what to make of the girl, who seemed like she had been born yesterday, switching from one emotion to another so quickly and with such intensity. Nobody had approached her without prejudice and so openly as far as she could remember. Instinctively she pushed the girl away with more force than necessary.
“Hey, listen, I am not looking for an inexperienced companion to get me killed any time soon, so just stay off my back and we will manage. Understand?” She turned her back to the girl, picked up her pace and muttered to herself in confusion: “Something innocent, phew!” The girl ran back to get a horse for herself, heels kicking up sand as she ran, and while she was doing that she shouted at Amashanae’s back:
“What should we do with the rest of the horses?”
Now that was a good question. She had not thought of it herself. Perhaps the cold and tiresome night spent on the desert had dulled her senses more than she wanted to admit.
“We shall take them with us. There is always a possibility that they might return to their stables…and there might be more bandits. They might come after us. And if we do not find water…” she made a small pause, “…we can always kill one of them and drink its blood. Its best to leave with haste. Scavengers will be arriving when the morning sun warms up the bodies and the smell of death becomes stronger. If not sooner. We do not want to be here when that happens”, she said, looking at the bodies and then the sky. Her glance dwelled on the still gloomy canopy of the sky for a while and she fell in her thoughts for a passing moment.
The morning was just about to break, painting the stars off the sky, but there was something strange about them still. All the stars appeared too milky for this time of year, she somehow knew. Still she did not give much attention to the matter, because the sudden dimness of stars did not rank among her biggest troubles. To start with, she was astray on a desert without any water, and now she also had obtained this girl as a burden. To top it all off, the girl did not seem to have much intellect, or perhaps she was downright a little dull-headed. At any rate, she would have preferred to travel without her company. She shook her head in a fleeing moment of despair. Now she had a horse, at least, or they had horses. Better get used to having company.
”Oh by the way” the girl panted as she ran after her, holding the reins of the rest of the horses following behind her. ”My name is Asaryen.”
Somewhere near them, a small creature slipped into shadows created by the very first light of dawn.