Water in the Desert

Chapter 3

It was around noon when Zhe'om woke up with a startle. Tsoe'am had shaken her awake. Before Zhe'om could yelp in shock, Tsoe'am grabbed her snout and kept it closed. "Soldiers," Tsoe'am whispered, "Be quiet." Zhe'om noticed Kon was already awake, quietly trying to bury himself in the sand. Not the best tactic but it could work, Zhe'om reasonned, subpar camouflage is more likely to succeed than no camouflage.

Zhe'om could see soldiers approaching their location; it didn't seem like they had spotted them. Tsoe'am let go of Zhe'om and they both began burying themselves under the sand. Zhe'om pulled a part of her robe that functioned as a mask over her face. She didn't like how her tusks scraped against the fabric but it would be fine. The mask would prevent her from inhaling sand so she could better bury herself.

Soon all three of them had covered themselves in sand. Zhe'om and her friends made sure she had buried herself so she could still see what was happening. The soldiers that walked by were of the Dzo͌nts Empire. Zhe'om could tell by their blue-green skin and have brown eyes but with no black circles around them. The tigs of the Kingdom of Rivers lived in the desert and looked just like the tigs of the Desert Coalition, Dzo͌nts tigs look very different and speak Western-Speak.

The Dzo͌nts soldiers didn't look comfortable in the desert heat. To Zhe'om's horror she saw that they were making Desert Coalition tigs pull the wagons that belonged to the soldiers. In the front wagon sat what looked like the soldier's general. He wore an iron helmet with four leaf-shaped crests sticking out from the sides. This design was to mimic the head of a dangerous animal native to the Dzo͌nts Empire. This creature is called an o͌mẽb, it is like a theropod dinosaur with large leaf-shaped flaps also used for mating displays and as primitive ears. There was a desert variety that was smaller but still had big ears to vent heat.

The general was clearly grumpy and looked at the Coalition tigs with disdain, like they were nothing more than bugs. That made Zhe'om mad, he was forcing them, her people, to pull a wagon in the middle of a desert day, yet he was looking at them like they were scum. One soldier stopped and looked in her direction and squinted. "Shoato͌i͌ntig qitsta͌n tsa͌m!" the soldier suddenly shouted in his language as he pointed to their hiding spot. The nearby soldiers ran towards their dune. Kon and Tsoe'am ran in the opposite direction but Zhe'om was so afraid she stumbled and was tackled.

"Weti͌a͌mãd'dig yovik!" yelled one of the soldiers who tackled her right in Zhe'om's ear-hole. She yelped in pain, both from the shouting and being tackled. She flailed her arms and tail, even moving her head around rapidly, hoping her tusks would hit one of them, but it was no use. Tsoe'am and Kon looked back at her.

"Run!" Zhe'om screamed, reasoning that if they went back for her none of them would escape. Kon hesitated but Tsoe'am grabbed his robe's sleeve.

"Don't worry Zhe'om!" Tsoe'am shouted, "We'll come back for you!" Tsoe'am pulled Kon forward and they ran away. A few soldiers ran after them. A few seconds later another soldier brought over some rope to where Zhe'om was pinned and tied her up. She was then tossed into one of the wagons and saw that other members of her people were also in the wagon and tied up and guarded by Dzo͌nts soldiers.

An elderly female tig scooted forward. "Are you all right?" she whispered.

"I'm as all right as someone being held prisoner can be," Zhe'om whispered truthfully.

"Good to hear," the elder responded, "What's your name?"

"I'm Zhe'om," she told the elder.

"Tsihang Zhe'om," the elder greeted kindly, "My name is Dzuan, but please, call me Dzuan." This was kind of ironic since "Dzuan" means "New" but Zhe'om knew it probably made more sense when she had been given the name.

"Tsihang Dzuan," Zhe'om greeted in return, "What's going to happen to us?"

"We're going to be their slaves," Dzuan responded grimly. That sounded horrible. Slavery had been outlawed in the Desert Coalition, as well as the Chon'go and Soje Empires. The other countries had slaves. Zhe'om began worrying. The soldiers were probably taking them to the Dzo͌nts Empire. So Zhe'om started remembering what Tsoe'am had told her about Dzo͌nts Imperial history. In the 24th year of the Iron Age, the Dzo͌nts Empire had gone to war with the Chon'go Empire over iron mines in the Jots mountains, but after the Battle of the Iron Pass, the only battle in the war, the Chon'go Priestess Ogo (who had autism like Zhe'om) had convinced the Chon'go Empress of the time, to make peace. After this the Dzo͌nts Empire had cut themselves off from the rest of the world until the 304th year of the Iron Age and went to war with the Chon'go Empire which ended in a stalemate after three years. After that they stayed cut off from the rest of the world, until now the 507th year of the Iron Age.

The Dzo͌nts Empire was the only purely patriarchal society on the continent. Women couldn't make decisions without a male guardian, were considered inferior, and Dzo͌nts propaganda portrayed foreign women as power hungry and decadent. They were known for being extremely intolerant of other religions and xenophobic (prejudiced of foreiners). This may make the men of the Dzo͌nts Empire sound all evil but Zhe'om knew better than to think that. Sure they had their problems but they had been fed propaganda for their whole lives, they weren't born evil. There had to be at the very least some who didn't believe the lies. Besides, the Dzo͌nts Empire may be the only purely patriarchal society but it certainly wasn't the only place where you could find religiously intolerant and xenophobic people.

After a while Zhe'om heard the soldiers who had gone after her friends come back. Thankfully it sounded like they had failed. Soon after, the carriage started moving again. Zhe'om began to feel angry towards the tigs who had decided to invade the Desert Coalition and enslave her people. She still didn't hate the tigs of the Kingdom of Rivers and Dzo͌nts Empire, she just hated those who had decided to invade.

For days Zhe'om sat in the wagon. The newly enslaved tigs would take turns pulling the wagons under the blistering sun. Eventually they got some desert dzan to pull the wagons. Massive bird-like lizards with their only limbs being their two legs. Desert dzan store fat and water in their tails and have a dewlap (flap of skin on their necks) that had blood vessels coursing through it and could be used to vent heat. Sadly some of the tigs forced to pull the wagons had died before the desert dzan had been acquired.

Dzuan was a good friend. They would talk about the things they missed about their homes. Dzuan said she had a daughter and a son who had both been soldiers and she tearfully recalled that they had tried to evacuate her village. She said how they had been slain and the villagers taken captive.

The guards barely gave the prisoners food and water. The soldiers eventually decided that the elderly were the most expendable and were a waste of food and water. Zhe'om watched in horror when they tossed the elderly out of the wagon and left them to die in the desert. This included Dzuan. She remembered the screams of the elders, their protests, their pleas for mercy, and she watched as the guards looked at them with disgust and threw them off the wagons.

Zhe'om screamed and cried in anguish. A soldier walked up to her and creully backhanded her, making Zhe'om's face sting. She tried to fight back but he grabbed her snout and tied a rope around it. He then backhanded her again and Zhe'om could do nothing but watch as they tossed the final elders out.

Zhe'om felt like someone had just torn the world to pieces and couldn't be fixed. She missed Dzuan. She felt awful for what had happened to the elders. She hated the guards. She missed her friends. Kon would have given Zhe'om a hug and told her she would be fine. Tsoe'am would have done anything to protect Zhe'om and the elders. But, they weren't here. Zhe'om felt lower than she ever had before.