Altha'ari: Burning Sands

Chapter 1

                                                                  

                                                               OF PLACID WATERS

      Life, so full of twists and turns. Maybe even more so than the actual Nile itself has to offer. Life emulates the might of the river Nile in more ways than one would think it does, and while drowning in self inflicted heartache or the like might sound bad, it isn't quite as terrible as literally sinking to your demise among the hippos and crocodiles as was the everyday life of the commoners along this great body of water. Fishing and trapping were major parts of the every day routine among the reeds and shallow water along the banks of clay.

    This is exactly where our story begins, with a young boy called Altha'ari. This particular boy lived with his parents in a small hut, his father a fisherman, his mother good with cloth and skins. Altha'ari was always full of mischief, full to a fault in some instances.

    His parents were overprotective in his eyes, and he had a hard time trying to grasp why they always needed to be so hawk like in their care of him. The boy was full of adventure , and loved running the long dangerous banks of the Nile watching life unfold. He lay awake at night time yearning for the sun to come again so that he make sneak off into the deceitfully full wilderness that was the sahra.

    It was a relatively cool day on the water's edge , sun directly overhead in the noon sky. Young Altha'ari and his family were living modest lives among the regular rabble of fishermen,hawkers and townsfolk. Altha'ari and his family were on the waters edge, his mother intently washing some cloth in the water. He felt the need to relieve himself, and what better place to do so than in the water ? So he traipsed to the waters edge away from his mother's activities and started to relieve himself in the water, splashing as he did so.

" Altha'ari, cut that out before you get eaten by a crocodile!" His mother shouted.

"Go get my cast so that I may reign in some dinner for us." His father ordered.

Altha'ari started towards the hut. How could his parents be so overwrought with worry? They were always so cautious with him. He had to sneak off to explore the banks of the Nile or be warned of the snakes and hyenas, they wouldn't even let him hunt with his father in fear that he would be mauled by lions. So he groaned his way up the bank, and started towards the hut mumbling each step of the way to fetch his fathers net.

He walked up the trail, a horse hoof worn path to the families hut on the outskirts of Alexandria , who's upper class were among the most powerful in Egypt. He gazed at the not so distant large city dreaming of one day having a life of his own inside those walls. He reached his hut, a crudely made building of clay and straw, with bare minimal necessities. He entered the home through the cracked door, which was constructed of dry rotted old wood and creaked with every movement. He entered the empty abode, in search of his father's net. A sudden chill creeps down his back, but he disregards it and searches away. He finds the net under a pair of shibshib ,or shoddily made shoes. He picks up the net , folding it so that he may avoid tangling or tearing it along the way back to the water.

He starts out the door of the hut , staining the sijada on the floor with dirt ,but keeping the net off the ground and making sure to close the door on his way back out. He runs down the trail and back to the bank he and his family had gone down before. That's when he noticed something that gave him chills. He could no longer see his parents, and there were ripples in the water from a previous commotion, not moments before his return.