Inkblots: A Tale of Magic, Adventure, and Romance

XXI. Culture Clash

Alia was still asleep—unusual for her, but probably a result of the restless night that had just passed. When she came awake groggily, it was to the sight of her breath on a soft, peach-colored dawn, and the sound of Kit in conversation in a low, guttural language.

"Kit?" she asked, sitting up sleepily. At her side, Darine was curled into a round little bundle of a bedsack, and she could hear Caddock snoring across the few coals that remained from the fire. Whatever language he was speaking (or sounds he was making), she didn't understand, and she looked around in confusion until her blurred gray eyes fell upon the back of Kit's head—a rumpled apricot in the light—and a slim, robed figure.

Oh. She recoiled silently into her wool blanket, hoping she hadn't been heard, but Kit was already turning toward her. His crooked, sharp nose caught the light, and he tilted his head to the side. After another strange line of speech to his companion, he strode back over to the fire.

"Alia, you awake?" His voice seemed softer than usual, and reluctantly she sat up and hoped she didn't look too ridiculously mussed with sleep. She nodded, and he motioned over the person he was speaking to.

"Alia, this is Bakhar. He is a scout for the Gutin'lagta tribe."

She shoved up awkwardly, conscious of how many days it had been since a bath, and peered toward the hooded figure before her. She wasn't sure what she'd expected—an exotic skin color, or alien features, but the man who peered out of the folds of fabric might have been another Librum servant. His face was blank, and he looked somewhere around her mother's age. "Hello," she said uncertainly.

Apparently he understood their language, because he smiled, crinkling the corners of what appeared to be green eyes. "Hello," the man—Bakhar—returned. The vowels of the word seemed clipped or rounded oddly, but it was perfectly clear. "I have come from my tribe to see whose smoke we scented on the air. Your companion says you need water. We will show you."

She looked questioningly at Kit, awkwardly unsure if the scout meant that he would show her or all of them. The hero seemed to ignore her look, but he said "Wake Caddock and Darine," and she suppoed that answered her question. It was an awkward thing to nudge someone out of sleep, leaning in to see their peaceful expressions and fluttering eyelids, before moving a gentle hand against their shoulder—but having the others awake meant more companionship and help in understanding the desert tribe man, so she did it gladly.

Caddock came immediately awake, almost as quickly as Kit usually managed, while Darine just curled up further and groaned.

"Come on," Alia whispered to her friend. "There's a desert tribesperson here." The blonde groaned grumpily again, so Alia tried a tactic she knew would work. "Caddock was asking if you were awake."

That did the trick, and Darine shot upward, shoving a tangle of curls away from her face. "Did he?"

Alia nodded with no hesitation. He'd asked, "Is everyone else up?" so it was basically true.

Bakhar and Kit chatted quietly at the edge of their camp, glancing over a the other three every once in a while, and finally Kit strolled over to speak to the group. "Break camp," he said easily. "Bakhar is going to lead us back to his people."

A keen spark of academic excitement woke Alia the rest of the way up. A chance to meet the desert people, to hear their language and see their customs! Certainly now the adventure would fulfill what she'd always dreamed of. She quickly rolled her bedsack and stuffed everything back into her pack. After kicking out the coals, she just stood there soaking in the warm gold of the freshly risen sun and waiting impatiently for Darine and Caddock.

At last, the camp site was cleared, leaving behind only the disorienting and empty patch of land that they left every morning. Bakhar greeted the other two and gestured off to the north of the rising sun. "Follow me this way," he said in that rough accent, and so they did.