Ardeth groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. He blinked several times before he could really see anything before him. When he sight fully cleared, he saw that he saw in a room. Two windows donned this room as well as several shackles around the entire room. He rubbed his head as he began to stand and fully look around the place.

"I wonder where I am?" he wondered as he heard the door open.

"You're awake. Good," came a man's voice.

Ardeth turned to see a group of three men standing in the doorway.

"Where am I?" demanded Ardeth.

"In an abandoned building that's about a half day's journey away from your tribe. We modified it to our liking. You will probably be sought after by your people and we will stop them before they even find us and you," the lead man told him. "We're just outside the city."

Ardeth gave a gasp. Nobody would think of finding him near the city. The man gave the other two the signal to leave and they did so, closing the door behind them.

"Before I do anything to you, you should know my name. It's Naseentay. You will follow my rules or else be punished for it," the man sternly told him, holding a whip in his hands.

Ardeth stared at it. He remembered the last time he encountered a whip. He still had the scars from it all over his back. Naseentay gazed over Ardeth's entire body. Ardeth wondered why he was appearing to be so amused until he looked down at himself.

It was then that Ardeth realized he was nude. All his robes had been taken from him while he was unconscious. He felt angry inside as he stood there, his body exposed to a strange man. He gave a deep breath as the man walked towards him.

"I think you'll do well. All we have to do now is wait. For what, you may ask? You'll see. We're waiting for someone," the man replied before he walked out of the room.

He closed the door behind him as Ardeth crawled into a corner. He put a hand through his hair and closed his eyes.

'Catlanda, I hope you stay away this time,' he thought to himself.

***

Catlanda hurried to see Marok, her eyes red and swollen from the crying.

"Marok! Marok! Where are you?" she called out.

She stopped as he walked out of a tent.

"What is it?" he demanded. "I've got a job to do. I have no time to be your shoulder to cry on. Go find your grandmother or somebody like her."

"Marok, I've got a job too. I wanted to warn you that you shouldn't try and stop me for I won't stay or come back for anyone until I have Ardeth," she told him.

Marok looked at her, dumbfounded.

"You can't be serious. You have to get over this with Ardeth as your father. I know how much he means to you but you can't keep worrying about him each time he leaves to fight or disappears after a battle," he told her.

Catlanda grew very angry at this statement so she grabbed him by the collar and brought him inches within her face.

"How would like it if the man you called father disappeared without a trace during a battle? Wouldn't you want to know where he is and if he's safe or not? You may understand but you do not fully understand how deep our bond goes," she angrily told him.

She shoved him away and started towards to where the horses were kept. Marok followed her.

"Catlanda, where are you going?" he asked her.

"To find Ardeth, what does it look like?" she replied as she found Geb and started to climb onto him.

Marok opened his mouth to protest.

"And noone's stopping me. It won't matter what Sharak will say, I've got more power than he does no matter what way you look at it," she told him as Geb whinnied and started to gallop off.

Marok sighed as he watched her go off into the distance. He gazed at the hand that slapped her before growling and balling it up into a fist.

***

Ardeth took the day to look over his prison. He noticed the many shackles all over the room, in many different places. Both on the walls and in the sand. His fingers were entangled in his hair as his eyes roamed the area. Naseentay hadn't been there in several hours and he was glad. He really didn't want to be stared at again.

He looked up at the ceiling, his head hitting the wall and sighed as he closed his eyes to sleep.

***

Geb was galloping across the desert, Catlanda showing him the way with help from the Spire. Isis was following close behind them. Catlanda soon stopped Geb and held up the Spire.

"Spire, where to from here?" she asked.

A map appeared before her and she looked at it. She saw the blinking light that indicated where Ardeth was.

"Alright, let's go," Catlanda said as Geb started to move again.

***

A man ran up to Naseentay, who was sitting behind his deak.

"What is it?" he asked, not looking up from his paperwork.

"A group of men is heading this way. By what we can see, they are from the battle we were in within the past day," he replied.

"What? How could they find us so quickly?" demanded Naseentay, standing up.

"I don't know sir but they're coming fast," the man replied.

"Then prepare youselves. We have to stop this troop before they get here!" Naseentay demanded.

The two ran out of the room to find the group of men on horses charging towards them.

"There's so many of them!" Naseentay gasped as he reached for his sword. He stood in a defensive position as the men came closer.

The men arrived at their position and they were both surprised when the man ran right through them. They lowered their weapons in confusion. They looked around at the other men, who were in the same state of confusion as they were.

"This is some form of trickery! It's causing us to look like fools!" Naseentay cried out. "There has to be a real man here controlling them. Now let's find him!"

He saw a horse gallop up to him. He snickered, thinking it was an illusion, like the others until he saw the figure on the horse lean over the side and gave a swipe of the sword at him. His eyes widened once as he barely got out of the way.

"Here he is! Let's get him!" cried the leader, lifting up his sword.

The figure jumped off the horse as it kept running. He held out his sword towards the man facing him. The started to walk around in a circle, getting closer and coser to each other.

"You will not win," Naseentay said with a laugh.

The figure shook his head as he kept his fighting stance. Naseentay shook his head and lunged at the intruder. They countered each other's attacks until a growl was heard beside them. The two looked to where the noises were coming from to see Isis, poised for action. She lunged and grabbed Naseentay by the arm, forcing him to the ground.

Isis ripped at his arm until she felt a stinging in her side. She yelped in pain as she limped away, allowing the man to climb to his feet and catch the strange man off guard. They both went to the ground. Naseentay found it a bit too easy to keep this man pinned to the ground.

'This is way too easy to do,' he thought to himself.

That was his thought until the hood came off the head.

"A woman did this? How can a woman possibly do this?" he cried to himself aloud.

"None of your business how I can do this," she replied through gritted teeth.

They struggled until Catlanda hit her head against a nearby rock, falling into a state of semi-consciousness. Naseentay quietly laughed as he climbed off of her. He roughly picked her up off the sand and dragged her into the building.

***

Two sets of hands roughly kept Catlanda on her knees. She was still semi- conscious as Naseentay gazed over her.

"She's a formidible opponent for a woman," he said to the men.

He leaned in towards her and grasped her chin, forcing her to look at him. Her dim eyes stared at him before he broke the contact with her.

"Strip her!" he ordered the men.

"Boss?" asked one, his eyes open wide.

"Do it now and then bring her with!" ordered Naseentay before heading out of the room.

***

He walked up to the door and opened it up, revealing Ardeth. He looked up at the man before him.

"You're going to have some company. Someone who was foolish enough to come after us," Naseentay finally told him.

Ardeth's heart dropped once he heard some movement behind the man. It dropped even further once he saw who the two men were carrying, fully nude as well.

Catlanda.

TBC...