Adventures of the Lightborn Squad

The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend

(Written for MGL).

***

"Can you not help?" Khaleed demanded. "These are innocent people being slaughtered."

"Don't pretend this is only about them. This is about avenging your brother." Esmeralda sat back, crossing her arms. The gold jewellery decorating her arms glinted in the light from the lamp, the only light source in the room.

"They took him!" Khaleed stretched across the table. "That tyrant took him, and they killed him!"

"No, they didn't."

"What?"

"Khufra didn't kill your brother. He is alive, but in the Shadow Abyss."

What?" Khaleed was stunned. He gaped at the mysterious woman, her heavily hooded eyes gazing back at him. Hope surged through him. Was it possible? What had this astrologer seen?

"But beware, your brother is not the same man that you once fought alongside."

Huh. This astrologer. Always speaking in riddles.

He focused on the task at hand. "Will you not help us?"

Esmeralda sighed. "It is not in the stars for me to interfere with the Wildsands Clan. I'm sorry, but I cannot help you."

***

Khaleed was on his own, but undeterred. He searched the sands, following the paths of destruction till he found who he was looking for. The Thornwolf Clan appeared on the horizon, a familiar face leading them.

"All shall succumb to my power." Khufra sneered. But before Khufra could move, Khaleed had raised his scimitar.

"The sands will take you!" he cried, and Khufra was swept up by Khaleed's sandstorm. Khufra was forced to wrap himself into a ball to escape the situation.

Khaleed raised his scimitar, but before he could do anything else, he spied another familiar face.

"Moskov?!"

"Hello brother." the man stepped forward, but he was but a shadow of the man Khaleed once knew. His body was mottled grey and the top half of his body, which was uncovered, was littered with scars.

"Fight with me brother!" Khaleed implored his brother, his heart soaring. His brother was alive. "Onward! Let us end this tyrant once and for all!"

But Moskov did not move into a fighting stance. He simply stood next to Khufra, looking at Khaleed.

"Brother?" Khaleed said, confusion on his face.

"For years, our Clans have been at war. So much blood has been shed. But for what?" Moskov steps forward. "We should not be fighting the Thornwolf Clan. We should fight alongside them. Why not combine our strengths? "

"You want to align yourself with this tyrant?!" Khaleed is flabbergasted. "That will only end in terror, and death!"

"Your thinking is too narrow. As it always is." Moskov stepped up to his brother's face. "Was it not you who dreamed of a prosperous world? Why spend all our time fighting when we can make that a reality?"

Moskov tentatively touched his brother's shoulder, an act they used to do all the time. "Imagine all that we can do for this world?"

Moskov's honeyed words caused Khaleed to sway for a moment. But suddenly, the desert prince caught sight of Kublai, the previous leader of the Thornwolf Clan.

Kublai stood behind Khufra, his face sneering, and Khaleed's rage returned. He remembered the savage man who declared open war, slaughtering hundreds of innocent men and women simply because he could.