A Legend Time Forgot

Chapter 4

Anbay melded with the crowd as he searched for Nahla. Following the same path she'd taken, he turned into the side street. She was nowhere. Sighing he continued down the side street, he was an idiot for thinking it was going to be so easy. Then out of the corner of his eye he spotted movement.

On top of a worn rug sat a dirty child playing with rounded rocks. The boy looked up at Anbay and skipped up to him with a smile.

"Are you looking for someone?"

Anbay knelt down to the boy's level. "Yes, have you seen a petite woman in blue robes pass by?"

The boy nodded, "Uh-huh, follow me!" He skipped back over to the rug and glanced around before lifting it, revealing a door to a secret passage.

"Hurry! Get in before someone sees!" Anbay quickly climbed in and down the stairs as the boy shut the door.

Walking down a short hallway, he entered a colorful room with intricate patterns along the walls. Candles placed around the room giving it a soft light and creating shadows, where a petite figure sat among them.

"I've been expecting you Anbay," she stood from her seat of cushions in the corner and walked over to him. "Why don't you take off the mask?"

"I don't know you well enough yet."

She stopped and looked at him confused, "You don't remember me?"

He shook his head, "No, I have this feeling that I do but I can't remember. The only thing I can remember is your name... Nahla; I don't even know who I am."

Nahla didn't reply, frankly she didn't know how to. She was expecting to talk to him about everything, but if he didn't remember... Then should she tell him anything? Who he is, how he helped her, the time they spent together? Or should she not say anything and leave him to figure it out for himself?

Anbay looked at her, she definitely knew something.

"Do you... know anything about who I am?"

Snapping out of her thoughts she gazed into his eyes and sighed. "Yes, I know who you are, but this is something you have to discover for yourself."

Anbay was silent, he had a feeling she would say something like that and he knew that she was right.

Nahla gazed at his thoughtful and somewhat disappointed figure; she couldn't risk it. He was more important to this world then he knew and telling him something like that could end up changing everything; for the whole world.

"Look, I can tell you this. You're the kind of being who I know I can trust with my life. I also know that you erased my memories and now that I remember them again, I know that you need me. You can trust me." She held her hand out to him, "Take a leap of faith and trust me, as I do you."

Anbay met her eyes, she was telling the truth; besides, it was about time that he had a friend to share his memories with. Being alone can change a person. Reaching his hand out, he grasped her hand. Smiling, she led him over to the corner with the pile of pillows.

They sat down across from each other in silence for a moment. "Why don't you take off your mask? If we're really going to have complete faith in each other, I think you should take it off."

Anbay narrowed his eyes slightly before nodding and undoing his mask. He glanced at Nahla, her smile growing even bigger before she let out a giggle.

He raised an eyebrow in confusion, "What's so funny?"

"Well, I figured it would be kind of like some big revealment, you taking off your mask, but you look just like any other human. That is except for your eyes, and that's the only thing you don't keep covered!"

She laughed again and Anbay smiled for the first time that he could remember. He could tell that they were going to get along, he felt so at ease with her. Looking at her smile he knew that he'd be able to trust her completely, their bond was strong. If he'd had any doubts before, they were long gone now.

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Meanwhile, the man that accosted Anbay was speaking with Fatin.

"What?! What do you mean he had 'that' sword? That's impossible!"

The man covered in black knelt on the floor. "It's true boss, he wielded Zuflagar."

Fatin paced around the room with a scowl, his boys really did have mush for brains. "That's just a legend, it isn't real! So how can he possess the sword of Ali? Besides you can't make a good sword from just gilded gold and diamonds, it's not possible!"

Fatin stopped pacing and told the man to stand. "Describe it to me, in full detail."

The man nodded and went on a descriptive tangent of what happened and what he saw, Fatin nodding every once in awhile.

"Very well, you're dismissed. Get changed and get your wounds looked at." Bowing, the man exited the room leaving Fatin to his thoughts.

What he described was practically exactly the same as the way they described Zuflagar in the legend. I wonder if that legend was actually a true story; if it was, then how did he come across it? The last person to possess it, found it in a secret cave and gave it to a god after he grew old. But the gods aren't real, how can they be?

Fatin's eyes widened as he ran over to his desk and dug around the pile of books. From the pile he pulled out a worn children's book of tales and flipped it open to a colorful page with a poor man.

Ali Baba, the last one to possess Zuflagar. He obtained it from the mystical cavern in the mountain where the forty thieves hid their loot, and after he became an old man; he gave it back to the god it rightfully belonged to. A wandering god, one of justice and the people, and one who often frequented the earth; it was a short story that wasn't very well known. One that had been overshadowed by its predecessor and forgotten; a story lost in time. But now, Fatin wondered if there was some truth to the legends, what if the impossible... was real?