A Tale of Red Sands

The Last Story

"Papa? Can you tell me of the sands? One more time."

Doruk's father smiled slowly, with a shine in his eyes.

"Of course my son, my strong little man"

He placed his hand Doruk's shoulder, and turned his son around, away from moon and sky, and clouds of dust below, and began.

"The days after me and your mother came here, before we had you, and after we left Melethia, I left her in the tent we fashioned from whatever cloth there was outside the City, and feared greatly."

And as always Doruk asked, "Why?"

"We had spent a day without food, and our water was so little remaining that it could not sate the thirst of a hummingbird, I went out of our tent into the empty desert, in search of something to hunt, a stream, a river...anything."

He swallowed and exhaled, the swallow made a large gulp, and his breath came out jittery and nervous, as if to echo the fear he felt that day.

"I spent a day away, searching above and below, searching near and far and came home to a thirsty wife and an empty water skin"

He motioned Durok to look ahead into the expanse of sand and Durok saw, he saw how unfathomably wide the desert was, he saw the flat terrain that meant nothing could hide or escape from the naked eye, he saw the waves of sand like great beasts rising from the ocean, only to dive again into the depths of cool, dry, sand, to sleep beneath the earth, in the land of the dead.

Durok shivered and focused very hard on his father's story.

"The next day I took the skin, went out again, and searched once more, going farther than I should have, and fearing the danger of becoming lost."

"I stayed till the sun was setting once more, and I knew that if it did, and night fell, I would not be able to return to your mother, until I saw..."

As always Durok and his Father smiled and said together.

"A small. Desert. Mouse."

"I was so hungry, and so thirsty, that I gave it no thought before I ran and jumped, seeking to grasp it and bring it home. Till this day I thank every god there is that I failed."

"I could not even run fast enough to reach the mouse in time, and I fell flat on my face. The mouse moved forward and I followed it, when I could not see it, I followed the shadow it cast in the light of the setting sun."

Doruk could almost hear heavy footsteps, thudding in the sand, fast and strong.

"Till the mouse came to stop at the lake"

Durok's Father was crying

"It was a small thing as lakes go, but it was glorious, a circle of purest water, so pure that I could see the sand underneath, with a palm trees weighted by dates, a tall stone pillar to the east of it, and the mouse nowhere to be seen."

Durok started crying as well

"I filled the skin, and took so so many dates, and managed to go back to your mother right as darkness fell. In cool weather and under shining moon I brought your mother what saved us, and while he did find other lakes, and learned how to find bounty in living sands, I could never again find that first oasis."

"And then we had you, my brave brave boy, and I wish I could have you forever"

And while Father and Son embraced, the horde of vicious monsters, whose foul steeds made the dust clouds with their hooves, and who's thundering footsteps - fast and strong - Durok could hear. While Father and Son wept tears of fear and loss, the horde came upon them, and on living sands, they ripped their bodies apart.