My Dream

📖 The Sorcerer of Black Sands

When Gwen first met Fahim, she was surprised at how young he was. He was only fifteen to her thirteen.

Gwen couldn't remember how she got to the Land of Black Sands, nor how she managed to reach his palace.

She just knew she was wandering the dark corridors until she came to a door that was half open. Peeking into the room, she saw piles of what looked liked toys.

Gwen knew the boy she was looking for was close to her age, so maybe he was in there. She pushed the door open and walked in.

It was set up like a huge game room. There was a large tv plugged into a back wall, with a lot of game systems surrounding it. There were two bookshelves full of books ranging from comics to full on novels.

In the middle of the room was some kind of board game, set up like the game had been abandoned in the middle.

Gwen wandered over to the board sitting next to it and examine the marbles.

"Ah, mancala." A voice said, disrupting the silence. "My brother and I forgot to clean up the board before dinner."

Gwen looked up to see a teenage boy taking a seat on the other side of the board. "Are you Fahim?" She asked.

The boy had messy looking black hair and looked in need of a haircut. There were deep bags under his eyes, like he hadn't slept in a while. His clothes looked disheveled, like he hadn't changed in a while either.

But what really drew Gwen's attention was the fact that a few inches before the elbow, the arm ended in a stump.

"It happened last year." The boy said, noticing Gwen's wide eyes. "It doesn't really bother me anymore."

"Oh..." Gwen didn't really know what to say. "I'm Gwen."

"Fahim Al-Sad... er... I'm Fahim." The boy said, starting to move the marbles around. "Do you want to play?"

"Sure!" Gwen replied. "How do you play?"

Fahim explained the rules, and the two began to play. They played for several rounds, and eventually Fahim's eyes began to droop and he started to lay on the ground. He fell asleep in the middle of one of their rounds.

"Uh... Fahim?" Gwen didn't know if she should poke him awake or find someone to get him.

Her dilemma was answered when the door opened and a man with red and blue hair walked in, the lower part of his face covered with an orange scarf.

The man put a finger up to his scarf, his other hand holding a blanket. He knelt down to Fahim and laid the blanket over him, gently lifting up Fahim's head to tuck a pillow underneath it.

The man gestured for Gwen to follow him out of the room, turning the light off on his way out.

"Thanks for that kid." The man said once they were in the hallway. "Fahim's been pulling more all nighters in his library. If you hadn't gotten him to sit still, I was ready to knock him upside the head with that mancala board. Name's Othello."

"How long is he gonna sleep?" Gwen wondered.

"I dunno, record's three days." Othello shrugged. "I'll make a big meal once he finally wakes up. Force him to shower, give him a haircut, the usual."

***

One of the problems with Fahim using the sand to help him out, was that he didn't have ladders. Gwen was very short.

Therefore the only solution was to climb the shelves.

Fahim rounded the corner to see Gwen starting to slip.

"Ah! Watch out!" Fahim slid underneath Gwen, using the sand to form an extra arm so that he had two to catch Gwen with.

"Oof!" Gwen landed safely in his arms. "Thanks for catching me!"

"Why were you climbing the shelves!?" Fahim demanded, standing up with her. "I have ladders!"

"No you don't. I checked." Gwen replied. "You just use your magic to pull books down."

"............Oh. Thats right." Fahim cleared his throat, looking sheepish. "Well then... let me pull that book down for you."

Fahim used the sand to pull down the book Gwen was wanting.

***

"Are you ever jealous?" Gwen asked one day.

"Jealous of what?" Fahim asked, invested in his book.

"Your brother." Gwen said. "He's got a girlfriend, and you're surrounded by books. He's gonna get married, and you practically live in your library."

"..." Fahim's shoulders began to shake, and he burst into laughter.

"Hey! Don't laugh! It was a serious question!" Gwen pouted.

"I know, I know." Fahim wiped a tear away from his eye. "I'm sorry, it's just... books are the only thing that interest me!"

"What does that mean?" Gwen asked, confused.

"Oh boy." Fahim sighed. "I've got some books about that somewhere around here."

That was the day Gwen learned about aromanticism and asexuality.

***

A common problem with Fahim was that he would get so invested in his research and experiments, he would completely neglect to take care of himself.

Another things was that Fahim could easily forget things to make room for new information.

Gwen looked around the room for something to distract Fahim with, when her eyes landed on the mancala board.

"Hey, what's this?" Gwen asked, holding up the board and pretending she had never seen it before.

"Hmm...?" Fahim turned his head, and his face lit up with excitement. "Oh, mancala! My brother and I play this all the time."

"Oh, it's a game?" Gwen asked in fake surprise.

"Mmhmm!" Fahim put down the book to sit across from her. "It's a fun one too!"

"Can we play?" Gwen asked, setting the bored in between them.

"Of course!" Fahim began sitting the board up. "You know, you keep joining in my family traditions, and my brother is going to end up putting henna tattoos all over you."

"Oh golly that would be awesome! Can he?" Gwen asked.

Razi had such beautiful tattoos across his skin. Gwen loved henna tattoos and had always wanted to get one.

"Well... maybe when you're older... I don't think we should be giving ten year olds tattoos." Fahim replied.

Gwen blinked slowly, wondering how Fahim had forgotten she was sixteen.

Fahim must be more sleep deprived then she thought...

Gwen was gonna have to call Othello...