She jumped and ran like a horse, running, running through the chambers. A knife whittled by her head, and she head the deep footsteps running after her, rumbling and crashing. Tamina made it outside to the royal stables. Grabbing a deep ebony horse with a white mane and tail, she mounted the beast, like a man, and grabbed onto it's thick muscular neck, and cried a command, and the horse took off into the streets, packed with throngs of people trying to see the wedding. The horse's familiar clop on the stone streets comforted her, and when she was almost out of the city, she saw him. Tamina knew it was Dastan, she knew that burgundy sash and lively eyes anywhere. They made eye contact, and Tamina looked away, urging the horse to go faster. In seconds, she was away from the city, the horse's hooves kicking up the fine sand in a trail, soon whisked away by the sweeping desert wind. Horse steps soon greeted her, and Tamina turned around, to see a figure slowly approaching, the tiny backdrop of the city fading before her eyes. Her hair was already loose, the gold chains and jewels long lost in the sands. Soon, the silhouette closed in on her, and she had a faintly good idea about who it was. Maybe fifteen minutes later, it was evidently Dastan, on horseback, in wedding clothes, but extremely dusty and torn-up.

Dastan soon caught up to Tamina, and grabbed her shoulder roughly.

"Why the hell did you run?" he gasped, a slight anger burning furiously in his eyes and expression.

"Why the hell did you come after me and why are you like…this?" she spat, pinching his shirt up, in disgust. But, she had to admit, he was kind of handsome.

"Hassassin." He said, looking disturbed. "Why you decided to run off, again, we were attacked! And I, like a fool chased after you, but they.."

His voice failed him, and he looked the other way harshly.

Tamina withdrew her hand, and was afraid what she was going to hear.

"And they what?" she whispered, her eyes bright with worry.

"And the killed my father!" Dastan screamed, tear tracks running down his face. "And I had to see him dead again!" He tried not to sob, the strain evident on his face.

"And maybe, he could have still been alive if I hadn't been a fool and chased after you…" he nearly sobbed.

Tamina momentarily felt extremely bad for Dastan, but then her mind was over taken by other thoughts. Was the dagger safe? She would have to take it. She didn't want to, but it was her duty, something tied to her so closely, the line was blurred between her and her responsibilities. Maybe, for the first time ever in her short life, Tamina realized something.

Without her duties, she had no idea who she was.

Tamina's whole life revolved around this dangerous Dagger, and if the Dagger did not exist, Tamina would not exist. She was born for the sole purpose of guard the Dagger, and if she failed, well, let's just say that things will not be pretty.

"Yes, he died, again, but he wouldn't be dead, again, in the first place, if you hadn't used the Dagger!" Tamina said in an angry tone.

"Oh, no, don't you blame it on me, Princess." Dastan sneered. "If you hadn't run off, I would have fought them off!"

"Yes, the brave and noble Prince Dastan, leaping to the rescue of every single cursed thing like they couldn't protect themselves!" she said, sarcasm dripping audibly in her voice.

"Like you could have survived in the desert without food, water, or a single weapon!"

"Like you could have let me go, instead of jumping to the rescue of the fair Princess who doesn't know how to take care of herself!"

"Who said you were fair?" Dastan snorted.

"Well, there must be a reason why you can't stop looking at me." Tamina replied coolly.

Dastan scoffed, and rode ahead, making Tamina almost push her horse to canter over to Dastan.

"Well, do you have the Dagger?" Tamina forged ahead. One thing that Tamina would probably never get over Dastan was how he always forget the, oh, yes, the Dagger was the most important thing in the universe and that, oh, it could destroy the world. But no, it was more important following Tamina, she thought mutinously to herself.

"Yes, I have the Dagger." Dastan said icily, in a slightly brittle voice.

"Where is it?" Tamina said in the same tone, almost mockingly.

"Look, I have it, okay Princess?" he said, in a voice that was tinged with just a bit of worry.

"If you have it, show it to me." Tamina said sharply, her experience picking out the sliver of nerves in Dastan's voice.

"No, I will not, because, um, because…" Dastan said, his voice trailing off.

"You lost the Dagger! Please, please do not tell me you lost the Dagger! Of course you did, you illiterate barbaric imbecile! You and all of the Persians are the same, camel-stinking, war-crazed mongrels that are nothing better than street rats!" Tamina raged, her voice becoming higher and higher. "I cannot believe you, Dastan! You lost the Dagger. You lost the Dagger. You. Dastan. Lost. The. Dagger. The most important Dagger in the whole Persian Empire, and everywhere else, and you lost it! You're nothing more than scum picked out of a gutter!"

Now, at least, Tamina wasn't lying. Now, it was like the before the before, when they were travelling to the King's funeral. The first one. Gods above, she loved him yet she wanted to squeeze his head until it exploded. Or, until the growth that is pressing on his non-existent brain be destroyed.

Then, the magnitude of the whole situation dawn, if only little by little, on Tamina.

The Dagger of Time, the one she had sworn to protect, the one that so many lives had been killed and worse for it, the one that could possibly turn the Gods' anger over to a giant sandstorm to envelope the world.