Kala Wukar.
She who walks the desert.
She who is one with the sand.
She who is one with Arrakis.
The girl who he dreamed of long before she came to him in reality.
Aphra of Arrakis. The Desert Walker.
(Dune; Paul Atreides)
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chapter one: prophecies seek to be answered
YEAR 10191
~
When night fell upon the planet Arrakis, it was quiet. An unsettling quiet, like the calm before the storm. It had been that way for the past week since the Emperor had changed the hands of the oppressor who would harvest the spice from the planet. From the Harkonnens to the next.
Aphra had little care for whoever the Emperor placed in power. She only worried about the survival of her people. She wished for freedom. Freedom from the oppression and the violence that had been thrust upon them long before she was even born.
Aphra's blue eyes stared into the water cup sat before her. The ripples that had once covered its surface had long since stilled to a smooth liquid, made dark by the color of the cup itself.
A young Fremen girl pushed the cup closer to her, "You should drink, Aphra. Even you are not immune to dehydration. It's been 3 days."
Chani Kynes was the girl's name. She was only a year younger than Aphra and a good friend to her all her life. They were almost sisters. Chani was perhaps one of the only people who had seen her beyond her prophecy. Beyond the Kala Wukar. They had grown up side-by-side. They had trained together, fought together, played together, and they knew that if it came down to it, they would die together too.
Aphra's finger traced the rim of the cup lightly, "He feels so much closer than he did before."
"You're still dreaming," Chani stated.
"Every time I close my eyes he is there. He is just within reach. It won't be long," Aphra paused, "You know, sometimes I think he can see me too. As if he is dreaming with me. I feel that he must. If he is who he is claimed to be, then he must. I hate this. The waiting is so agonizing."
Chani nearly laughed at the expression on her friend's face, "You've never been patient, Aphra. The Lisan al-Gaib will come soon enough. And you, the Kala Wukar, will guide him just as you have guided us."
Aphra sighed before taking the cup in her hands and drinking from it. Her eyes closed and she felt an all too familiar tugging at the back of her mind.
Eyes once dark brown turned the bright blue of someone who had consumed spice for so long. His pale hands reached up to her as he kneeled, as if he was worshiping at an altar. She could feel her heart pulling her closer towards him and she held her hands out to him. Their fingers were almost touching, so near that she could feel them brush. But before they could truly touch, her eyes had already opened back to the world around her.
"He's coming soon. Much sooner than I had thought before," Aphra said as she wiped the drop of water that had spilled down her chin.
This boy was so close to her reality that it was almost just before her. The anticipation brought chills up and down her spine and made her heart soar. Aphra wished only to run and run to her destiny with the hopes that it would come quicker. She had waited 15 long years already and did not wish to wait any more.
