Wow! 8 reviews!! Thats bloody awesome!! Compared to 1 I had last week! You people must be feeling generous or something!! Thankyou so so much!! Okay, replies. Skip what doesn't relate to you or just read them anyway! Sorry, that i didn't upload Friday, but for some reason it just wouldn't upload. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Kathy: Don't worry, I will continue it. Despite everything, every Friday, I'm going to try and upload a chapter and write more. So far, its working!

MedjaiAngel: Thanks for the compliment! *blushes* Don't worry, i'm sorry too. Having boyfriend troubles as well *sigh* Well, my English teacher hates me.....

Deana: Hey! Nice to see you back! I love your reviews! If i had enough time i'd read your new stories too, but its me just stressing out...I promise i'll read them in the hollies, how bout that? Your stories are pretty detailed too....If you want detail, you have to read, "Snow Falling On Cedars" by David Gutterson. 5 pages on how a forest looks....

Freakizimi: Ditto above!My mums getting better, still grumpy but shes working and driving a car now! I got 54% in my maths and passed by Bio so its getting better! Thanks!

Mommints: You're back too! It's like a school reunion! All me fave reviewers are back! I love all you guys! Thanks for your helpful advice on RL! And yes! I do have an outline for this story.(despite the fact it appears to just be cruising along...) I spent like a week before i started, writing out a plan and i'm refining it everyday. Heres a tip: Watch Shahin, very closely. Breath in, breath out. Haha! Well, i shouldn't stop breathing anytime soon!

Imhoteps Lover: I think maths teachers all over the world get together and make up the weirdest stuff possible just to torture us students. Thanks for the compliment! *blushes*

Trinitytheshedevil: Hey! Your name reminds me of Trinity off da Matrix! Sorry, had to say that, i'm listening to the 2nd Albulm as i type. AND i HAVE read some of your stories! And they ARE NOT boring! I LOVE lotr! I have a lotr story but its basically just toilet humour. I hate writers block. Ever since i started doing yr12 english essays, the damn thing traps me all the time.

Nakhti: I do like horses! Next time I go up to my boyfriends farm i'm going horseriding! I didn't delight in his pain! *thinks* In fact, i didn't really feel anything when i was writing his demise....Strange that...Bedioun don't hunt? Ohk. Well, *koffkoff* This is a Roz story and in Roz stories, things NEVER tend to add up! Humour me and just pretend that this is some magical world where things just happen....cause....they....do? (Or cause Roz is just too stupid to properly research her story.) I had to think up a reason for Ardeth going out of the village, alone, and as a youth so i just came up with that. Trust me, i've thought of the relations between Ardeth/Jawhar/Hashim/Shahin. Ardeth doesn't really need to learn from his hunt....that was just like a coathanger to hang the story on, just to get it started. Sort of like, "Once upon a time..." This story doesn't relate at all to the films, hes like 30 there and here hes 18. Hes just a boy. Oh ho! You'll see the origin for hate soon enough....hahaha! The chapters didn't have anything major happening in them, but i wrote them so that you could get an insight into my 2nd characters mind. To get to know them and predict how they'd act. Uhm, i don't like twisted rage...And i'm not going to kill off his daddy here. Maybe later though.....hehehe....

Sirithiliel: Thanks! I'm afraid i'm going to have to say, no. He doesn't meet up with Rick in this story. According to the movie, they meet for the first time IN the movie, so its a bit strange if they meet and Ardeth is 18 (considering they're like 30 in the movie.) For stories that aren't romance but have Ardeth Bay? Well, theres all of Deana's stories. They're like angsty, action, lets-see-how-many-different-ways-we-can-hurt-Ardeth stories, AND they have Rick in them too! Bonus! And ribbetfrog. He has little Ardeth spoofs that are quite funny. Check them out too! Hope that helped! Have fun reading!

***

Jawhar stood beside his father as he watched the Healer tend to the Med-Jai. After what seemed ages but in reality was only a couple of hours, the Healer stood up and dusted off his hands.

"How is he?" Ruwaid asked anxiously.

The Healer looked up, his grim, sun-tanned face, splitting into a huge grin. "By sunrise tomorrow, he will be as good as new. I dressed his wound, and cleaned it and gave him some fluids and a concoction that should help counter-act the fever. He had a high temperature, but I think it was mainly because his body went into shock, being overloaded with all the pain and infection."

"So he will be fine?" Ruwaid asked again.

The Healer rolled his eyes, "Yes, he will be fine. I've also given him a sleeping draught so his body can rest itself and heal. Don't disturb him tonight and he will be fine tomorrow."

"Good." Ruwaid nodded his head in satisfaction. "Tomorrow is when the real work starts then."

The Healer bowed slightly to the chief and then left, collecting his things while leaving.

"Father? What is going to happen tomorrow?" Jawhar questioned.

Ruwaid half shrugged his shoulders and rolled out a rug near the sleeping boy. "Tomorrow, we continue to head to our camp. There is no point in wasting a good horse on the scum, so we'll make him walk the rest of the way."

"The whole way?!?" Jawhar asked incredously. "That's a long way father. He might not make it."

Ruwaid stretched out and patted the sand next to him, indicating for his son to lay down beside him. Jawhar complied and Ruwaid continued. "He will make it, because we're going to make him. He is a strong boy, you saw him on his horse and him hunting. He isn't the leader's son for nothing."

Jawhar thought this over and slowly nodded reluctantly. "Uhm, father. This might sound like a stupid question, but what is his name? I know that he is Hashim's son, but what is his name? I've only heard derogative names for him." Jawhar wouldn't look at his father's eyes for embarrassment.

Ruwaid laughed a deep, throaty laugh. "His name is Ardeth Bay."

"Ardeth Bay." Jawhar savoured the words, trying them out on his tongue. "Ardeth Bay. Ardeth Bay, son of Hashim, leader of the Med-Jai, captured by the Sami-Nhir. Later found dead."

Ruwaid's laughter echoed throughout the wadi.

****

He was almost there. Shahin could see the faint glow emanating from the campfires of the Sami-Nhir just on the horizon. He had been riding hard all day long; the Sami-Nhir had made good time. The sun was just beginning to set but he was almost there.

Two hours later, saw a dusty Shahin riding into the oasis, a triumphant smile on his face and en evil glint in his eye. His horse stood there panting and stamping about impatiently. The smell of victory was easily smelt upon the air and it was making the large animal edgy.

He was meet by Mikail, the large man striding along the sand, his grey robe dragging in the dust behind him. Mikail was 2nd in charge, the leader of the men and obeyed orders only from Ruwaid and occasionally Jawhar. Unbeknown to Shahin, Mikail had been the one that had wounded Ardeth, his arrow the one piercing the boy's shoulder and causing him all pain and troubles.

"How was your trip?" Mikail inquired politely as he held the horse's halter to calm him down. He rubbed down the mammal's velvety nose as it slowly stopped fidgeting around.

"It was boring." Shahin stated coldly but continued in a warmer voice, "I saw the remains of your work about 7 hours away from here. By the time the Med-Jai send out search parties for their precious son, the stallion will be nothing but sun-bleached, white bones. Oh, and they'll find the letter."

"Ah, yes. The letter. We had no pen, and there was lots of blood lying around, so we decided to make use of it." Mikail grinned uncharacteristically.

"Yes. It was a good idea. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if the jackal's eat it as well."

"Then, the Med-Jai will just have to find out about their son, the hard way." Shahin crackled insanely, "Yes, and the hard way is always the most interesting to observe."

Mikail nodded reluctantly. There was something about Shahin, that seemed not quite…….right. He couldn't put his finger on it, but Shahin seemed just a little bit…..off. Strange. Myabe that was because he didn't know him that well. He had known most of the Sami-Nhir warriors ever since they had come of age, but Shahin had joined the tribe only about 6 months ago and he was still settling in and Mikail was still getting used to him. He shook his head and concentrated on what the man in question was saying next.

"Can I see our prize?" Shahin savouring and emphasising the word 'our'.

"Sure thing." Mikail gave the horse to a warrior standing near by and led the way to where the boy lay sleeping. "At the moment, the chief and his son are keeping watch over Bay as he recovers from his wound."

"His wound?"

"Yes, his wound."

"As far as I'm aware, he was unwounded."

"Ah, yes. I'm afraid you haven't heard of his little unfortunate almost escape."

"He almost escaped?!?!"

"Yes."

"I TELL YOU EVERYTHING!! And you still almost SCREW it UP?!?! What happened? Everything was right there for you! He was virtually unarmed and he had no bodyguards. He had no one to watch him. He would have been weak from hunger. What else did you want? I'm afraid I couldn't have made it any easier for you, unless I killed him myself!!" Shahin got a bit carried away, waving his arms around for emphasis and not even noticing the dark expression that Mikail's face had taken.

"You failed to tell us about his horse." Mikail's voice was dangerously monotone and soft. It carried a lethal edge to it, which could in reality become a sharp, metal lethal edge aimed at Shahin's throat.

Shahin realized this and lowered his arms, gulped nervously and looked at the sand. "I am sorry Mikail. I had indeed forgotten about the horse."

"It runs like the wind itself."

"Yes, it does."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"It must have slipped my mind."

"Be careful where you walk, Shahin my friend. The road you choose to walk can be extremely slippery at times."

Was it his imagination or did some expression seem to cross Shahin's face at that phrase? Something between anger, fear and contempt? Mikail dismissed it from his mind, turned his back and continued to lead Shahin on.

Behind him, Shahin kicked the sand and whispered menacingly, "You have no idea, Mikail, my dear friend."

****

Abel watched as the sun went down. One day down, only 4 more to go. The feeling hadn't gone away all day. It had just dimmed but sat like a lead weight in her stomach, still making her feel nauseous and ill.

Hashim watched her concernedly from his place across the table. Her face was drawn and pale and her eyes were dull. She wasn't eating but just played with her food, moving it around her plate until it became a mash of unidentifiable gunk.

"Abel, you must eat. Abel? Abel!!" He had to say her name several times before her head jerked up, and her eyes spun around to focus on his face.

"Hashim?"

"Yes Abel?"

"What did you just say?" Abel had been daydreaming or had just zoned out, her thoughts and fears situated miles away from the table they were currently sitting on.

Hashim sighed and repeated his command. "You must eat."

"I have been eating." The argument was softly spoken, not containing any of the fire that the old Abel might've thrown at him.

"You are not eating, wife."

"I am too."

"Two bites of that, does not classify as eating."

"Sorry Hashim. I was just thinking about other things."

Hashim sighed again and passed his hand wearily over his eyes. "Still worrying about Ardeth?"

"Yes."

The silence went on a bit longer then expected until Abel unexpectantly broke it with:

"I saw Shahin leave the camp today."

Hashim showed no surprise, he had known that Shahin was going to leave the camp, in fact, he had been the one that had told Shahin to leave, giving him an assignment to carry out. Hmm, he could use Shahin's departure as an advantage against Abel's worries.

"Yes. It was I that told Shahin to leave. After you were so worried this morning, I sent him out after Ardeth, to see if our son is alright." Hashim lied easily.

"You did?" Surprise tinted Abel's face. "But what about what you said? About Ardeth's independence and giving him a week?"

"Well, you seemed so worried and stressed that I gave in." The lies were coming easier now.

"Oh. Thank Allah. Thankyou Hashim. You have no idea how much that eases me." It was true. Abel looked a lot happier and lot less stressed now that she thought someone was going out after her son. It was amazing how much good a little white lie could do.

Oh, how wrong could Hashim have been?

****

Ardeth awoke to a strange place, the outlines of people still fuzzy and his head pounding with an Allah-sized headache. He closed his eyes and wished that his headache would just go away, where to an extent it did after a couple of minutes. After the mental pain went away, he was struck by the fire in his shoulder. It was ached and felt like someone had poured acid into the wound. Unable to help himself, he groaned and tried to move his body into a position that would be more comfortable on his shoulder and offer less pain.

A hand rested itself upon his forehead before it was snatched away and angry, muttered words were spoken. After a while, Ardeth decided to open his eyes again, and despite the fact that his eyelids seemed to way a tonne and his eyelashes were glued together, he managed to finally force them open using what little strength he had.

As soon as they were open, he was struck by the brightness of his surroundings but his body didn't have the energy to compensate for this fact and his pupils remained hugely dilated.

A fuzzy indistinct hand shape floated towards him and he caught a whiff of a foul smelling liquid before someone or something forced some of the liquid into his mouth. He didn't want to take it, it smelt foul, made his mouth tingle and he knew from the messages his stomach was telling his brain, that his stomach would not accept ANYTHING at the moment. Despite all this, the person didn't pay any attention to his weak attempts to get away and forced his mouth shut and held his nose tight. Another hand appeared out of nowhere and massaged his throat giving him no choice but to swallow the foul liquid.

Ardeth could feel it travelling all the way down to his stomach. As soon as he felt the liquid hit his stomach lining his stomach rebelled instantly and the Med-Jai found himself vomiting and retching onto the sand.

I told you so. It was the last thought that Ardeth could remember and the last sight he saw was his own black bile before he passed out.

****

Jawhar gritted his teeth in anger as the Med-Jai child weakly tried to refuse taking his medicine. His anger making him slightly more rough then necessary, he shoved the liquid in the boy's mouth and watched in satisfaction as he forced the boy to swallow the liquid. It smelt foul, he had to agree with that.

Seconds later, Jawhar's anger increased tenfold as he found himself covered in Med-Jai vomit. He just managed to keep himself under control but found to his surprise that he was shaking under the emotion of his angry feelings.

"HEALER!" Jawhar yelled, losing all remaining patience as the boy passed out.

The Healer was quick in arriving, noticing the chief's son's anger. "Yes Jawhar?"

"The Med-Jai woke up but wouldn't take his medicine as you instructed me to give him. I gave it to him anyway and he chucked it back up all over me." Jawhar ground out through clenched teeth.

The Healer had to stop himself from letting a grin play about his lips. "Ah yes. I thought that might happen. You go wash yourself up and get yourself cleaned up and I will deal with the child."

Jawhar glowered for a minute longer then necessary, trying to impress on the Healer how unhappy he was with the whole situation before giving up and heading resignedly to the watering hole.

"Stupid Med-Jai child. Devil spawn of that cursed evil race. Allah should've ground them to dust after he realised what type of evil he had unleashed on his land. Sons of the jackals whose mothers were the vultures that pecked out the eyes of Osiris himself………Not worth even the scum that is found under the rocks in the cursed oasis of Abhel Share and…….." the muttered curses followed the Sami-Nhir boy all the way to the water.

The Healer allowed himself a small smile as he watched the technicoloured boy grumble while walking to the oasis. His face turned grim and dark as he turned to his charge. He placed his hand on the boy's forehead and checked his breathing. He lifted the child's eyelid and peered into the glazed dark eyes before once more placing his hand on the child's chest to feel the strained pumping of his lungs.

"Well now, child. You seem to be going pretty well. Too bad you had to throw up all over Jawhar. He won't forgive you in a hurry. Not that he was going to be nice to you when you woke up anyway." The Healer murmured softy to the boy while his external examination worked its way up to the injured shoulder.

"Hmm, it seems that you're shoulder is healing quickly and rapidly. There seems to be no infection and the wound doesn't seem to be inflamed but I do see a bit of pinkish and detect some heat around the cut itself. This isn't unusual, after all, your body has gone through a lot. I'll put some herbs and place a poultice on the wound and bind it up again." The Healer had gotten into the habit of muttering to himself while tending his patients and it annoyed his conscious patients to no end. To the people watching while he tending his unconscious patients it was quite……..disconcerting.

"You fever has dropped quite a bit. That is good. I feel, that you will be back to normal, or quite close to whatever normal can be in these circumstance, the next time you awake fully, young one." With this, the Healer dropped his head and a sad look lined his eyes.

"I fear, that this will only be the first out of many times that I will treat your injuries while you stay in our camp. Why must your tribe have done such a hateful thing? I'm afraid that our chief will take out his anger and thirst for revenge upon you. Sometimes to be born in the wrong place or to be born to the wrong people is the worse punishment that Allah can bestow upon us mortals." The Healer sighed, and suddenly looked older then his years. "Rest in peace, young one. For once you awake, there will be no peace."

***

So there, another apparently boring chapter with no impetus, but i mean, Ardeth is severely injured. I can't exactly just make him jump and dance the Sabre Dance now, can I? Can you pick whats gonig to happen? Hehehe! And my life is slowly, oh so slowly, destressing. But i'm having boyfriend troubles but i sort of let it out at school...