Disclaimer: I own nothing. Sad but true.
A/N: This is a story I came up a week ago. OC in it, please don't flame me, it's my first fanfic and I hope it is not a wholly Mary Sue! R&R!
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"Malik!" the woman cried over the streaming people. She waved continuously and tried to jump a little to look over the crowd to her destination.
"Maïssa!! You finally made it!" answered the tanned man happily. He started to jog to her.
The crowd was parting unwillingly first but when they got sight of the white uniform the man was wearing they halted shortly and stood aside to let him get to her.
Finally he stood in front of her. She had changed again since his last visit on a mission in Jerusalem twelve months ago.
Suddenly he remembered her what she looked like in her childhood: Almost black thick hair like his own that was always billowing furiously behind her when she chased after chickens in her infancy. The huge sparkling black almond-shaped eyes, the tiny figure, barely molded. Her skin tanned by birth and without a mark. The image of this past let him smile wide.
Now there stood a young woman with the very hair spilling under her loose veil and the very eyes but the infantile expression was gone and replaced by true beauty and a wholy feminine appearance.
After endless seeming seconds they embraced each other.
"Welcome to Masyaf, little sister!" Malik introduced her and held out his hand, pointing at the huge castle that loomed over the two.
The sun was high in the sky and blinding the siblings. It was getting hotter each minute they stood while the crowd of the ascending folk flooded around them. They brought large packages and boxes from the next city to Masyaf to supply the inhabitants with fresh goods they could not make themselves. It was a huge convoy with which she had come. A lot waggons with oxen clamped in the front rolled dully passed by and even some new animals were dragged behind.
"You look very well. The brotherhood is very becoming to you," Maïssa said.
Malik nodded "Yes, but I also have a lot of work to do to even out the outstanding treatment by the kitchens," he stroked his almost not existing round belly with one dark hand, winking.
"Wait until I get a say in the food dispensation!" she laughed and he joined her in her humour.
"Come!" He snatched her medium-sized bag from her.
They walked arm in arm to the castle that now shaded them of the merciless sun.
He was thrilled beyond belief that she had eventually given in his constant begging that she would move close to him. The time of the third crusade was on its maximum, the apparently never ending war was taking its toll and everyone tried to secure his family by some means or other.
And so Malik had tried to convince Maïssa, his beloved younger sister, to relocate since his first day in Masyaf. There was a lot of labor around the brotherhood especially for women like Maïssa, trained very well in the assignment of housekeeping due to their mother. But not in her own houshold had she worked the solitary person that she was. Instead she had worked in several taverns for the last four years. Even she had gathered experience in a bathhouse in Jerusalem before.
No, the upcoming tasks that were to be asked of her were not of her concern.
She hoped that she would not often have encounters with many of the brothers besides her own brother in blood. Her future, like she invisioned, was leading a calm life around the rural character of the village outside the castle with chores she did not have to adjust to.
Little did she knew that all her life was to turn upside down from the moment she set foot on the terrain of Al-Mualim.
XXX
Away from the big city Jerusalem Maïssa once called home and where she lived the most part of her twenty-two years, in her first two weeks in Masyaf she found out that it was a sheer fathomless territory with its endless hallways and passages, never-ending stairways, huge dining rooms and the big library of Al-Mualim. Let alone the landscape around the castle.
But eventuelly she managed to blend in the female workers employed at the kitchens and starting to enjoy her new life.
Malik visited her almost every day and she was quickly absorbed in the circle of females.
Infact her intention to occupy a house in the village came to nothing but nevertheless the tiny but neat room she was given served the purpose.
It was early in the morning and Maïssa was on her way to her workplace. She was delayed by a wrong turn she took a few minutes ago, scolded herself for her lack of attention and tried to clear her mistake by running to the quarter she asumed to be the right way to the kitchens.
She didn't want to dissapoint Raul, the man in charge of the group of servants of Al-Mualim's brotherhood.
The next thing she knew was the brick wall she bumped into and the imense pain that shot through her shoulder and hip when she hit the floor with a thud.
"Oww… Didn't think this one was a dead end..." she muttered under her breath.
"That would be because this is no one," said a smooth deep voice in front of her.
She blinked and tried to focus. A male hand came into view. She recognized the outstretched limb, took it and let herself be lifted.
The man in front of her had a white robe on just like Malik's and was heavily armed. Unmistakable an assassin.
"Oh I'm so sorry, sir! I'm inconsolable!" she rambled.
His face betrayed a least sign of a smile. Now this made her angry and she frowned. Did he make fun of her?
He still had her hand in his and gazed under his hood what looked like ridicule to her and curiosity. When she noticed this she quickly withdrew her hand and tried to walk around him agitated. This one was unnerving, she thought.
She took off running and all he could do in his puzzled state of mind was look after her retreating form.
Around the next corner Maïssa came to a halt when she saw the familiar entrance of the serving area. Taking a deep breath and readjusting her attire her independent nature quickly berated herself for letting herself intimidated by this appearence.
What was she thinking? 'Get over with this and let's work!" she thought immediately.
The rest of the day was as always, much to her liking.
XXX
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