Daniel and Ahmed sat on opposite walls of the small cavern they had sought shelter in during the storm. For a long time, neither of them spoke. Finally, Daniel, questions burning within his mind, broke the silence.
"So…" He started, trying to recall all his experience with the Ancients. "You can…heal people and all of that?" He asked, remembering the time when Jack healed Bra'tac.
"No." Ahmed answered simply.
"But I thought you were an Ancient?" Daniel said. "I know for a fact the Ancients can do that.
"Our ancestors were able to." Ahmed clarified. "We are their descendants." He said. "Because of the evolution of the environment as well as the lack of challenge we've faced over the centuries, our physiology has simplified. It is no longer a necessity to heal our own, therefore it is no longer an ability of ours. Although…we are still able to do so with the aid of a few devices our ancestors have left behind." He explained.
"So…in a sense…the Ancients- the ones who lived here thousands of years ago- they're truly extinct?" Daniel asked, naturally curious as to the answer he would give.
Ahmed studied the younger man for a long while. "No…they are not." He answered simply. Daniel furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head to the right in a confused manner. Sighing, Ahmed looked the boy in the eye and considered him for another long moment. "Young one…" He began, "Not everything in this universe has to do with science." He said. "An individual's physiology does not make them who they are." He leaned forward farther and continued, using hand gestures. "In this world, when a child is born, he is automatically destined to do three things in life- live, learn, and leave." He said, listing them off with his fingers. "Live life. Learn from it. And leave himself behind."
"Leave himself behind?" Daniel echoed with furrowed eyebrows.
"A man hasn't truly lived until he has left himself behind…in the memory of others." Ahmed explained to the boy. "A person's legacy is their life everlasting. It's the whole point of living in the first place!" Shifting his position, he moved to sit next to Daniel on the opposite wall. "It is the same thing with entire peoples." He continued. "The descendants carry on the lives of their ancestors. As more and more generations come and go, the people grow older, wiser." He looked at the boy next to him. "A man's whole purpose in life is to pass on his memory to his children, so that they may know…who they are, where they came from…who they're meant to be. If he does not do that…then when his soul journeys on, he will truly be dead. Because a man who has lived and left himself does not truly die, he just…fades away." He clasped a hand on Daniel's shoulder. "My ancestors are not extinct. And as long as their descendants walk the earth, they never will be." With that, he stood and left the boy to contemplate on all he had just said.
Daniel watched the man's retreating form until he was no longer visible. Releasing a long, weary sigh, he leaned his head on the wall behind him and stared at the ceiling. Within seconds, he became lost in thought. The boy's thinking drifted on how much has changed in the last few days. The trip wasn't even halfway over and yet, his entire world has been turned upside down! Everything's changed now! When he started out this whole expedition, he thought he had everything sorted out. He thought he knew everything there was to know about his life! Now, though…now he wasn't so sure. Why was this happening to him?! What did he do to deserve this?! His head was swimming in thoughts. It was like the moment he stepped onto the plane, life decided to take him and play her game. His entire world had transformed from the comfortable, simple life that he always knew, into this jumbled, garbled mess of a confusion he lived in now! What was happening to him?! Everything was so…different now! Down was up, up was down! Beginnings and ends merged together! Once-definite lines were now all blurs! God! It's like over the course of the last few days, his entire life had come crashing down on him; and he had no idea how to pick up the pieces!
Releasing a frustrated groan, Daniel drew his knees up, rested his arms over them, and laid his forehead on them. Right now he just felt…lost. Everything was a puzzle to him now, and he didn't want to put it together. He just felt tired! The living mayhem his life had seemed to become had robbed all his energy and left him to the vultures! All that he just wanted to do now was—
"Come, Jae'im! The storm is over. We must continue on!" Ahmed announced as he approached him.
Daniel looked up at the other man through tired eyes and studied him with confusion for a moment, before nodding his consent. Ahmed offered the boy his hand and helped him to stand. They walked over to the cave entrance and crawled through the narrow opening in the wall. As soon as the cool desert air hit his face, Daniel inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. All of a sudden, an image of a campsite flashed in his mind with frightening vividness! His eyes snapped open. "Whoa!" He muttered to himself, both surprised and worried that he was losing his mind. "What was that?" He asked himself, equally as quietly.
A few feet away, from where he was leaning on the canyon wall, Ahmed watched the boy off the corner of his eye, smiling to himself. The desert was beginning to give him visions. Perfect. He thought to himself. He is awakening. Pushing himself off the wall, Ahmed slowly walked over and stood directly between the canyon walls, facing inward towards the inside of the canyon. Cupping his hands over his mouth in order to project his voice, he called out in the loudest voice possible. "Ba'rej! Ba'rej!"
"Who are you calling?" Daniel asked with furrowed eyebrows. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he heard a deep groaning from around the corner. Turning his head in that direction, he looked just in time to see their two camels come bounding around the corner. "Oh." He muttered, feeling like an idiot.
Ahmed lowered both camels and the two riders climbed on and coaxed their rides onto their feet. "One last thing." Ahmed said.
Daniel looked to the man and saw him unsheathe his knife. All of a sudden, his heart started pounding in his chest. What was he doing?! "What are you doing?" He asked, putting his worries to words.
"Hold out your hands, Jae'im." Ahmed said. Swallowing, Daniel raised his bound hands. Ahmed slipped the knife under the rope and quickly pulled back. The sound of slicing filled the air and Daniel's restraints promptly fell to the ground. "You will not be needing those anymore." The other man simply said before turning and propelling his camel to a walk.
Daniel glanced at the rope on the desert floor, then to Ahmed's retreating back with confusion. Now's your chance to escape! His brain told him. Looking around, Daniel glanced to his left and saw nothing but open desert. Subsequent inspections to all sides of him proved the same result- with exception to the canyon he just crawled out of, he was in the middle of the open desert, with no means to tell which way was home. Sighing with frustration and weariness, Daniel forced his camel into a jog and caught up with Ahmed.
"Do you believe in the ways of the Na'jai, young one?" He asked, keeping his line of vision to the distance.
"What do you mean?" Daniel asked resignedly.
"Do you believe in our way?" Ahmed repeated, more forcibly. "Do you believe in the wind being the spirits of our ancestors who have passed on? Do you believe in being able to speak to the wind? Do you believe in the wind being able to speak to you? To guide you? To show you things?" He questioned, looking pointedly at the younger man.
Daniel sighed once again and glanced at the black man. "Ahmed…the wind is but moving air and nothing else!" He yelled, wracking his brain for some kind of explanation to give the other man. When he found none, he sighed frustratingly and ran a tired hand over his face. As soon as his eyes shut, another flash came to him! For the brief moment that he saw it, he recognized it to be the same nomadic campsite he saw earlier. Snapping his eyes open, he sat up straighter on his camel and started glancing around him, seeing if anyone noticed the sudden change.
Beside him, Ahmed gave the boy a wholehearted laugh. "If the wind is nothing but moving air…where did that come from?" He asked with a knowing smile. Without waiting for a response, he continued. "Jae'im, I thought I convinced you in the cavern that not everything in this world is science." He said more seriously. "Happiness is surely nothing scientific, nor is love. Yet you believe in it anyway, do you not?" He fixed Daniel with a serious stare. "That is what you must learn to do here!" He told him. "You must learn to let go of everything you know, and see the world with your heart! Not your eyes, your heart!" He stopped both their camels, grabbed Daniel by the shoulders, and fixed him with an even more serious stare. "Close your mind! Let go of everything you know and feel the desert! Feelit, Jae'im! Open your heart and feel the wonders of the mother!" Releasing Daniel, he sat back on his own saddle and stared at the boy. "Feel it." He whispered once more, before turning and walking away from him.
For the third time today, Daniel stared at the other man's retreating back. That was the…umpteenth time he had been told that throughout this entire trip! He didn't get it! What wasn't logical about the desert?! It was like any other form of open space. Deserts, forests, jungles, hillsides, plains, valleys- they were all the same! He didn't understand why the desert had to be so special! Surely there wasn't any big difference between it and the others, other than the fact that they were…different. Of course they were different, but then…that was just physically and…well… Oh, great! Now I'm confusing myself! Daniel mused as he rolled his eyes at himself.
Suddenly, a light breeze blew in his face. Daniel… He heard someone call. Daniel… Furrowing his eyebrows, Daniel spun around and looked to see where the voice came from. Upon finding no one, he looked to Ahmed, but found the man was way too far to be able to be heard. Daniel… He heard again. Looking around a second time proved as fruitless as the first, and Daniel just clamped his eyes shut and shook his head in frustration. Daniel… He heard a fourth time. With a loud groan, Daniel pressed the palms of his hands to his ears in an attempt to shut out the voice. "I'm going crazy!" He muttered to himself. "I'm definitely going crazy!" Quickly grabbing the reigns of his camel, he pushed the animal into a run and caught up with Ahmed. "What's going on here?!" He asked, frustrated to an extreme. "Did you do something to me, 'cause I'm hearing voices and I'm seeing things… WHAT'D YOU DO TO ME?!" He screamed, his voice seemingly echoing for miles.
Ahmed turned to the boy with a small smile on his face. "I did nothing. You do it to yourself." He said cryptically. Good. He is approaching the final point.
"Do what to myself?!" Daniel retorted angrily.
"When it comes time to find out, you will." Ahmed replied calmly. "Now come! We are close to our destination!" Without waiting for a reply, he sped off into the distance, Daniel having no other choice than to follow.
Ahmed led Daniel across the desert for at least an hour more, before stopping at the top of a rather tall dune. Once the younger man had caught up, he smiled down at him and waved his arm towards the valley below. "Now you may count yourself privileged." He said. "You are the first outsider from across the ocean who has ever seen the spirits of the desert."
Daniel, partially pissed, partially confused, and partially exhausted, stared at the other man for one, long minute, before turning to look towards the valley of sand below them. What he saw amazed him.
It was the nomadic campsite! The one he'd seen during both visions! Tan-colored, rounded tents were tightly grouped together in a small community. There were…twenty or so, as far as he could tell. At one edge of the community- the edge nearest them- was an even larger tent than the others. It was at least twice as long, and a half a tent taller than the rest. All the tents were facing towards one edge of the site, where sat a small pit that, he assumed, was used for campfires. People, in clothes similar to the ones he and Ahmed wore, were walking in and out of tents, chatting with one another, or, in the children's case, playing. What was unique between this nomadic camp and others like it, Daniel noticed, was the fact that not all of them were of the same race! There were blacks and whites of a multitude of colors. Some were Arabic, some were Spanish, some were Asian, some were English, some were…well…you get the point. It was like a meeting of the United Nations! Only, these people lived together- and apparently in harmony as well. It was World Peace bottled up and scaled down to size! "I've seen this place before." He said aloud, completely baffled now.
"Yes." Ahmed said with a small laugh. "The wind has shown it to you." Daniel opened his mouth to speak, but Ahmed cut him off. "Ah! The wind!" He emphasized.
"Ahmed!" A man called from below, at the edge of the campsite. "Shefmar nettu mappi!"
"Nineweh!" Ahmed responded. Turning to Daniel, he clasped the boy's shoulder. "Come! They call us!" As usual, without waiting for a response, he turned and started walking down the steep dune. Daniel, curiosity overpowering everything else, followed closely at his heels.
