Secrets of Ramlat al-Sab'atayn

Chapter 3

Raysa was peeking outside from the window-hole of the tent.

"I think...it's working."

"Ow my butt ha ---oh hurts Atchoo!"  , Tasmiya was complaining between sneezes from the flying dust.

"That's because you were doing a 360 in the smallest space ever!", shouted Raysa,"You should've let me do it"

Tasmiya just answered with a trail of sneezes.

"Do you hear that?" asked Mariam.

"Hear what",Raeesa replied,"I don't hear anything."

"Exactly",said Mariam,"The tornado's dying"

They all rushed to that one hole,shoving eachother.

"I can't...  hatchu see"

"You're stepping on my foot!"

"Raysa, you're taking all the space up!"

Eventually, they stopped bickering and Raysa was the only one who could see."They're gone",Raysa let out a sigh of relief,"I guess they were too scared to even look back twice".Everyone relaxed.

"Good job, Tasmiya", Mariam put an arm around her,"Your tornado saved us."

Tasmiya stopped sneezing but her nose was red , her eyes were still watering and she couldn't help rubbing the life out of them to get rid of the dust."You should be thanking Khashura , she's the one who created the storm" .Khashura neighed as if she understood."And don't forget Samaawat, if he hadn't warned me.We'd be in trouble for sure."

The 3 girls found Samaawat as a fledgling dying a little further away from the oasis.They gave him some water and food but they couldn't find his mother anywhere so until he grew up, they looked after him.But it so happened ,after the bold hawk grew up, and had his own set of strong wings.He always came back to them.So they've trained him as best as they could and gave him a home, and even the horses got along well with him.

"Double treats for both of them",Raysa announced.

"If we can go to the market" said Tasmiya exhausted.

Samaawat flew out of the tent.He had amazing sensing skills.

A few moments later, a feint voice called out to them, "Atfaal, may I enter"

Tasmiya sprang up, " It's Faisal Jiddu"

"Jee, jiddu. Please come in",Maryam replied.

He walked in with his donkey and Samaawat was with him, on the donkey, there was something wrapped inside pieces of materials.

"Food!",Raysa exclaimed.

Mariam and Tasmiya looked at Raysa like, "what was that for"

Raysa met their gaze and blushed...and then her stomach grumbled loud enough for everyone to hear.She was very fair, so the red colour on her face showed even more.

Faisal bin Abbas laughed,"It's quite alright",he started unwrapping the knots on the cloth."I was wondering why you weren't at the settlement,you are usually there before the sun leaves the middle mark so I figured you were too tired to come"

"Yes, but something happened before we were tired",said Mariam.

"Some Ashadans were coming this way, we had to hide ourselves and that took all our strength,I mean Tasmiya did all the work, but all that stress made as tired too."

Faisal bin Abbas seemed confused,"I have never known the people in my clan to travel beyond the oasis.And here, I thought this was the safest place for you."

"Wait..." said Raysa very softly.

"Well it does make sense if they still come, it is still their territory" , said Tasmiya.

"I have a confession to make",said Raysa loudly this time,"The people I saw, well it was difficult to see but I could see well enough, they didn't have the Seal of Ashada."

"What do you mean? No-one else is in this desert besides them...and us",implied Mariam.

"I'm sure of it,they had an insignia of a scorpian on their backs,there were 5 of them , wearing the same clothing."

"I have never heard of people with a scorpion insignia.",said Faisal, finally realising that there was another enemy besides the common Ashadans.

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Translations :)

Atfaal : Children

Jiddu : Grandfather