The New Princess of Egypt

Part 15

(Azizi)

I wriggle around for a bit, determined to escape. Then I'm blessed with a quick stroke of luck. I find a weak spot in the ropes binding my wrists and manage to break free. With use of my hands, it's easy to get the ropes around my ankles off. Now I just have to get out of this cave. 

I get closer to the hole-riddled wall and notice how thin it actually is. I twist back around, glad of the extra sunlight that allows me to search the cave with ease. My captor's stupid camel doesn't do anything, it just looks up, snorts grumpily at me and goes back to it's food. 

Then I get an idea. 

I rush towards the camel's trough, drag it over to the wall then back up. With the power of pure adrenaline, I succeed in throwing the trough at the wall. With a grand crack, the trough splits open and the surprisingly thin wall crumbles into pieces. I clamber over the rubble, coughing as I inhale handfuls of dust and sand. 

Running out into the middle of the desert, I desperately cry out for help. Where is the person who's supposed to be coming to save me? I can't protect my kingdom if I'm stuck out here in the middle of nowhere where everything looks the same. The wind howls and waves of sand go flying everywhere. 

Then I hear the familiar cacophony of a complaining camel herd. I spin around but I'm not quick enough to avoid the muscular arms coming for me. Men in dark baggy clothes atop camels surround me. A man who's face is wrapped in a navy blue turban picks me up and tosses me on the back of his camel without breaking a sweat. He ties me down and covers my body with a blanket before sitting on my leg. 

"Hey!" I yell, surely these can't be the people who were coming to help me. My new captor doesn't respond. 

For hours, we ride on. I feel the camel's back hump press into me for ages before I roll over just a bit and land in between my captor's back and the hump. At around what I expect is midnight, we finally stop for a while. 

Everyone slides off their camels and my captor drags me off his camel, slinging me over his shoulder. I wriggle around as he carries me into a circle of men around a hastily-lit fire. The fire crackles weakly and everyone sits in silence while removing their turbans. Each and every one of them were young men, just of age to marry. 

"So who are you all?" I ask innocently, batting my eyelashes. 

The youngest speaks up first, "I'm Dakarai!" he chirps. 

Then he gestures to my captors, the oldest of them all, "And he's my brother, Darius!". 

"Okay..." 

No one else introduces themselves, they all just sit eating their dried meat and stew quietly. I keep my trust in the gods and don't bother asking where they're taking me. We sit there a while, all crowded around a dimming fire. I tilt back my head and gaze at the stars twinkling in the sky, pressing my back into the sand. My eyes trace the barely visible curves of Nut's celestial body. When the brisk night wind finally extinguishes the fire, Darius tosses me over the back of his camel and ties me down again.