Akiefa sat in the sand. Korra, his best friend in all of Egypt, recently passed away. He was never actually allowed to know, but he overheard his parents talking. As soon as he had heard Korra and dead in the same sentence, he ran off. He never even stayed to hear how she died. She was dead, and that was all that mattered to him.
He held a ball in his hands. Him and Korra would toss this around, and eventually get tired and lie back in the dunes, talking about nothing, words just spilling out of their mouths.
It was fun, but Akiefa felt right now that he'd never be happy like that again. He threw the ball in frustration. It rolled away in the gentle breeze, over a sand dune untill it evaded his line of sight. He lied back and cried. What else could he do now? If he went home, his parents would question and scold him. Or try to comfort him, which usually backfired. The ball came back, but he shrugged it off, assuming that the wind had changed direction.
"What's wrong?" Akiefa shot up as he realized that someone was watching him. He was about the same age, possibly younger, judging by his size.
"N-Nothing." He could hardly speak with the lump in his throat. He wiped away tears, and got a better look at the child.
He was Akiefa's age, by the look of his face, but a bit short. He had black hair that stuck up in an unnatural way, but what was even more unnatural was the colors that resided in it. The main color was black, but the tips were a pink tint, and his spikey bangs were almost golden. He was dressed unlike most other people in Kul Elna, instead of simple drapes, he wore a tunic of higher quality cloth and bore many accessories that most people couldn't afford at these times.
"I think you dropped this?" The newcomer sat down next to Akiefa, picked up the ball, and handed it to him.
"No, I threw it away." Akiefa's head felt heavy, his thick hair always trapped sand when he lied down. He hated that feeling.
"Why?" The child asked. He tossed the ball up in the air and caught it. "It looks fine to me. Who throws away a perfectly good ball?"
Akiefa responded by turning away.
"Oh. Is it because you don't know me that you don't want to tell me?"
He thought about this. "No, but can I know your name, anyways?"
"Only if you promise to tell me your problem!"
He hung his head. Whoever this kid was, he sure was stubborn. Akiefa sighed. "Fine."
The boy held out his hand. "Atemu, but you can just call me Atem. Most people do, anyways."
Akiefa stalled, then grabbed it. "Akiefa, but you can just call me Akiefa." He smiled at his own joke. So did Atem.
"So why are you out here?" Atem inquired, still eager to know.
"I guess I could ask you the same. But, i you must know, a very close friend of mine died recently, and-" The lump in his throat returned, "-And this was our play spot."
"Oh, Ra! That's terrible! I'm so sorry!"
"Yah. We came out here almost every day-" He held up the ball "Usually, we played with this, but we have other things, too. Sometimes we just used our imagination." Akiefa proceeded to tell Atem of his and Korra's adventures together. One of their favorite things to do is play tomb robbers. Akeifa would leave and let Korra hide the ball, somewhere on the edge of the city, and he would try to find it, without letting Korra see. One round could drag out from a few seconds to all day. They always joked that he would make an excellent thief when he grew older, to sneak past her like that, with nothing but a hill to hide behind.
Atem stood up. "So, can I try that game with you?"
"Okay, but I warn you, I could sneak past Ra himself if I had to!" They played their game untill the sun began to sink below the horizon. Once Atem had been shown the ropes, he caught on quite fast.
Akiefa shivered. It was getting cold out. Uh, I have to get home before my parents start to worry about me."
Atem nodded. "Oh, yah. Me too."
Akiefa suddenly realized: "Do you even live in town? I've never seen you around."
"I just got here. My father wanted me to see what this place is like, he said it was a bad place, but it can't be if everyone is like you! I'm here with some of his friends, and I'll be staying a while."
"Where are you from?"
"Sorry, I'm no allowed to say."
"Oh." An awkward silence followed.
"Well, bye, I guess." Atem began to run off.
"Wait!" Akiefa shouted. Atem stopped.
"What?"
"Can I- Can I see you again tomorrow? Same time, same place?"
"Atem smiled. "Of coarse."
