Loretta of the Lamp

"Your girl Loretta"

At first light the long and twisted ram's horns of the caravan woke the entire camp with a bellowing note that Loretta's sleep had no hope of escaping. She groaned and crawled out from under her blanket. Hess, Akil and Bennou were already awake. Bennou was packed up completely and nowhere to be seen.

"Where is Bennou?" she asked as she wiped the sleep from her eyes.

Akil shrugged.

"He did leave very early," said Hess, whilst stroking Nakahi's head. The snake was coiled around her waist and resting its head on her knee.

"Really?" Loretta looked at Akil, "You know, he's been a bit funny since we all got locked in, hasn't he?"

Akil continued about packing up his belongings, indifferent to her question.

"Locked in?" Hess asked.

"Yeah," Loretta rolled her matt and shoved it into her pack, "When we woke to leave the house we'd be staying at, we found we'd all been locked into our rooms."

"Why?" Hess asked with a frown as she licked the crumbs of her breakfast from her fingers.

"We don't know. We didn't stay to find out," Loretta told her.

Hess raised one eyebrow, "Really? I would have wanted to know."

"We would have missed the caravan," Akil said.

"Did it not worry you? At all? Why would someone do that?" Hess asked as she began to wrestle a begrudging Nakahi back into her sack.

Akil stood and began to pack his bag, not bothering to respond.

"You expected it, didn't you?" Hess said suddenly.

Loretta looked up in surprise, and she saw every muscle in Akil's back tense as he pulled his shirt on and turned back to face Hess.

"Of course not," Loretta said, her eyes flicking between Hess and Akil.

Hess ignored her completely. Her eyes narrowed questioningly at Akil instead, but then she smiled, "Look, I know your girl Loretta is not from around here, that much is easy to see. And I know that you are being very careful to avoid making a scene about the fact you are clearly high born Te Ahi." She nodded at Akil's expression, "Yes I have spent long enough in Doua to know that, and it leads me to believe that for some reason you are expecting trouble," she smiled sweetly beneath her thick black eyelashes as she stood and hoisted Nakahi over her shoulder. "But it's a long day's walk ahead, I suppose I should get moving."

Akil stared at her and blinked once before he walked over to the camels and began to untie them without saying a word.

"What did you eat?" Loretta asked, looking around for signs of breakfast. She was hungry, and keen to change the conversation.

Hess tore her eyes away from Akil as she responded. "Cakes, I bought them off the family just across from us."

Loretta took the small basket she handed her, and claimed both of the crumbly green cakes that were left in the bottom.

"If Bennou is not here by the time the caravan moves, Hess can ride his camel." Loretta stated, adjusting her pack on her shoulder as Akil lead their camel over.

"If who isn't here?" Bennou asked suddenly, walking up to the campsite.

Hess smiled at Loretta, "Better get my walk on," she said, turning and strolling away.

"Hold on, what's going on?" Bennou watched Hess' retreating back.

Loretta shrugged, "I offered her the use of the spare camel because you keep disappearing, but you rather ungraciously decided to show up again," she told him.

Bennou frowned and bit his lip as he watched Hess walk away, "Wait!" he called suddenly, jogging after her.

Loretta looked at Akil and let out a silent laugh which he seemed to appreciate. He gestured for her to come over and gave her a leg up onto the camel. As he took the reigns and climbed up in front of her, Hess and Bennou returned.

"Alright, I'll ride with you then, but I'm driving," Hess was saying. It only amused Loretta more that Hess had turned Bennou offering her a ride into her doing a favour for him.

Bennou pulled a face at Loretta when she started to snicker, and then turned to offer Hess a leg up. Hess dumped Nakahi's sack into his open arms and flicked her long black hair back over her shoulder before springing lithely up onto the camel.

Bennou rather meekly climbed up behind her and placed the sack full of snake on his lap, cradling it awkwardly.

Hess glanced over her shoulder as she nudged the camel into a smart trot, "Nakahi won't cause you any problems, so long as you sit still," she told him sweetly.

Bennou grimaced before turning to give Loretta and Akil a pleading look. Loretta smiled and waved to him as they set off.

Akil's camel snorted as it lurched into a walk, and Loretta had to muster all her confidence to wrap her arms around Akil and hold on. She felt him jump beneath her touch as the connection between them was made, the sparks of energy not at all dulled by the layers of clothing separating them. Bennou and Hess quickly disappeared into the throngs ahead of them, while their camel insisted upon sauntering forward at a leisurely gait,m.

"Did you sleep well?" Akil asked her.

"Not particularly," she admitted.

"You should have told me about the dreams sooner."

"It's not like we haven't been keeping secrets from each other," she pointed out, not intending for it to be unkind, it was merely the truth.

He nodded. Silence fell between them for sometime before he said, "Well, if you do need to sleep, you can lean against me."

"That's very sweet of you," Loretta told him, trying not to sound unnecessarily sarcastic.

"I don't know if you are sincere or not when you say things like that," he said, half looking back over his shoulder to see her face and judge her expression.

Biting down on her own nerves, she leaned forward into him and reached her chin up to rest it carefully on his shoulder. "It was as sincere as I get," she told him with a tired sigh.
She was sure she felt him shiver at her breath on his neck. It made her own body tingle, to think she had a power over him in this way.

She really was exhausted, and the rocking, rolling motion of the camel was quick to get the better of her. When she did slump completely into a dreamless rest against his back, the last thought she remembered was wondering if Akil would realise she had drifted off, and whether he would be quick enough to catch her if she fell.