Hello everyone! Yes, a new chapter after soooo long. Well, the trial exams went as planned. Since we had no revision time, my average mark was around 62% and i failed my chem one. IN fact, it was pretty funny as the chem class was in with the geography class and all the geo ppl were really going for it, writing essays, reading maps, making notes while all the chem ppl stared at the ceiling or went to sleep at their desks. Pretty sad.
O, i'm also really sorry that this is pretty short but its all that i was able to write after being so stressed. You'd think that after exams you'd destress a little but the teachers have just piled on more work and on top of that, i have to break up with my boyfriend in a week. But i guess, life was never meant to be easy yah?
Anyway, onto the reviews:
Deana: Oh! The Princess Bride. Is that the story about where the old man is telling the romance story to the boy and the boy doesn't want to hear the mushy bits till the end?? With the 'near-dead' guy that can't support himself?? If it is, OH MY GOD! I've been trying to think of that movie for aggggeeesss!! I watched it years ago and had NO IDEA what it was called. Just thought it was really funny. And, i live in Australia, therefore its NOT summer. Uh huh, its just gone spring...therefore i was at school during winter. We have summer during Christmas/New Year time.
Nakhti:Hey, i left out the animals due to cruelty. The RSPCA would've fined me and put me in jail if i had mentioned the affair with the pet labrador....not to mention the camel. Well, i'm giving a bit of the plot away here but Zen is actually Jawhar's. Like, they're togethere, therefore no one can touch her. Unless they want to die a horrible, gruesome and painful death. Uh yeah, they are the same words. I'm just plain stupid. If your dictionary works a little off, mine lives in a totally different dimension altogether. You'll know whos behind it all soon enough!
MedjaiAngel: Thanks for your support but what i really needed was a NEW BRAIN!!! Too bad i can't find a shop that sells them!
Mommints: Good to see you again!
Freakizimi: You know i only just realised that yu've reviewed my other stories as well. How SLOW am i?!?!?! SOrry! Thanks for all your support!
Sorry for the spelling. I was too tired to go through and check it! Please forgive me!
****Ardeth was aware of noise. Noise and the air…….the air…? The last time thing he remembered was the air being full of sand. His mind tried to comes to term with everything. No, it told him, it had not been the sky full of sand. He had collapsed onto the sand. So that dealt with the sky-full-of-sand thing. But the noise?
It was a harsh, painful, jeering type of noise. And the atmosphere buzzed, it positively hummed with rotten electricity. The evil vibe in the air made the Med-Jai shiver inwardly with uneasiness. Something was not right. Had he been having a nightmare? Was he still in a nightmare? Where was his mother? His mother had always appeared after a nightmare, wiping his forehead with a cloth and murmuring calming words into his ear until he had dropped back to sleep.
He tried to force open his eyes…..they felt like the eyelashes had been glued together. He finally opened them and stared at the sand that went slowly past below his eyes. The sand was moving? He was not walking. That meant that……… He was on a horse. Now that his mind was beginning to catch up he could smell the animal's peculiar odour, it's sweat and it's dusty coat. That didn't explain the noise though…..
Muzzily, he lifted up his head and concentrated on making his eyes focus. There were people around him, they were…..smiling and cheering? No. As Ardeth's eyes focussed, he realised with growing terror that they were sneering and yelling. The hateful aura around the crowd made his spine tingle and almost cowardly Ardeth automatically closed his eyes, feigning sleep. But the move came too late as Jawhar's triumphant voice could be heard over the angry crowd.
"Yes! You see here! We have captured the Med-Jai! He is awake!" A hand closed over a fistful of hair and roughly jerking Ardeth's head up at the same time pulled him off the horse's back. The sudden pain made Ardeth gasp and made his eyes water. The horse snorted and pranced sideways a little as the boy slide down it's flank.
Jawhar had been walking the horse into the town, his old hate of the Med-Jai ignited as he saw the villager's faces or more importantly, DIDN"T see the faces of the slain villagers. He noticed the boy's rise of consciousness and witnessed his facial expressions as he surveyed the angry villagers surrounding him. But all sympathy had been washed from his mind and like Pontius Pilate, he had washed his hands of this boy's blood. His tribe had slain his friends and many other villagers. This was only justice. In fact, if you looked at it clinically and coldly, the Med-Jai were getting off lightly.
One life for repayment of many lives taken.
But that was the problem. Jawhar wasn't a clinically cold person. He was a boy of rages, tantrums and bitter anger………and while something didn't feel quite right, who was he to say? It was his father that was arranging everything and after all……….he owed his father everything. If it were not for his father, he wouldn't have been here today, leading the boy into the village like a lamb to the slaughter……..
NO! STOP IT! Jawhar screamed to himself. To distract himself he said the first thing that came into his mind, announcing that the Med-Jai was awake. This made his father swung off his horse and walk sternly towards him and his prisoner. Unconsciously, Jawhar shrank back, his memory replaying his beating, his body unconsciously sweating, remembering the vicious blows that it had taken. But his father ignored him, instead dragging the boy off the horse, showing him to the townspeople and then throwing the terrified teenager at their feet. The violent roars of the crowd grew louder and Ardeth fleetingly glanced back at Jawhar before someone grabbed him by the neck and hauled him further into the crowd.
The quick look had packed more emotions then a hug or a kiss. The Med-Jai didn't comprehend anything that was going on around him and he was terrified. Well, who wouldn't be? Bruises already marred his tanned skin and the cut on his cheekbone had turned a horrible dark red, the skin around the cut black and swollen. It would be painful to the touch.
The cries of pain cut through Jawhar's thoughts as the crowd vented its anger on the defenceless child. Insults were screamed, punches thrown, kicks swung and the general atmosphere of the crowd made Jawhar's skin tingle. He noticed the sand slowly turning red beneath the feet of the villagers and the body of the captive. One of the blows must have reopened his shoulder wound.
The boy was hardly recovered from his desert ordeal. If they weren't careful, they could kill him. Beaten to death, blood loss. It was all the same. It all ended up with a dead Med-Jai. Maybe the beating would be more merciful then the slow torture that he would be subjected to….that is if he died. Dead. What was the point of dragging him all this way across the desert, so that he could be beaten to death, when they just could've thrown him back under the horses and let him be trampled to death? Why didn't they just shoot him? Instead of the arrow aimed at his shoulder, why not his heart?
It was because his father had a bigger agenda here, he had said so himself. But that could be ruined if the boy died now. Jawhar battled with his inner anarchy as he tried to weigh out loyalty to a parent and mercifulness. Loyalty won.
"Father! Father! If you let them have their way any longer, then they will kill him!" Jawhar grabbed his father's arm and tried to shake some sense into him. It took a couple of seconds for his father to take notice of him and the face he turned to his son was full of grim satisfaction. Jawhar felt sickened yet proud……..why was he so full of contradicting emotions???
"Once again, you are right my son." He waded into the crowd, making them fall silent, breaking up their lust for blood. "No one will touch him until he has stood trial. That is the way of our tribe. Unfortunately, we let our emotions run away with us……but it will not be so. No one may touch him, unless my son or I say so. Now go back to your homes and return to whatever duties you were doing before we arrived back. The trial will be held tomorrow, starting when the first rays of the sand kiss the sand. It is good to be home."
The crowd bitterly broke up and people wandered off in twos and threes, angry murmurs continuing and fading as the villagers kept on walking.
"The boy?" Jawhar questioned the retreating back of his father.
"Ah yes. Take him away for the night, tie him up securely somewhere. Make sure he will able to stand the trial tomorrow."
"Yes father." Jawhar inclined his head, sighed under his breath and walked resignedly towards the small lump of dusty, shredded black cloth on the ground. As he neared, he saw the tuft of black hair move and a hand uncover its bruised face and a fearful eye look up and out at him.
"J-Jawhar." Ardeth tried to lever himself up off the ground and cried out aloud at the pain that it re-awoke in his injured shoulder.
"Don't say my name." Jawhar snapped tiredly while helping the boy to his feet.
"W-why? Why are they so…..s-so…a-angry? W-What have I d-done??" Ardeth's voice trembled and appeared to be as weak as the boy himself.
"You'll find out tomorrow." Jawhar looked clinically at the boy beside him, coldly calculating if he needed any medical help.
If he dies, he dies. Let Allah do what he wish, Jawhar surmised. Stumbling often and accompanied by pained gasps and cries from the injured boy, Jawhar slowly escorted the boy to a small thatched hut, which had a small clearing beside it and driven deep into the ground in the middle of the clearing was a wooden stake, with a chain and shackle attached.
If Ardeth had been in a proper state of mind, he would have been slightly more worried as the stake, chain and shackles suggested the idea that the idea of kidnapping him had been carefully thought out, planned and executed.
But Ardeth was barely conscious and obviously not in the right state of mind. "T-trial….what…t-tomorrow?" He was virtually incoherent and Jawhar had to rearrange the boy's sentence and insert words before realising what Bay had asked.
"Trial? Oh! What's the trial tomorrow?" Ardeth nodded slightly and groaned in pain as Jawhar put him on the ground. "Well…..it's where we……." Jawhar just couldn't make himself say the words "try and execute you"……..he just couldn't. Not to a boy this badly hurt. "It's where…….where….things get decided", he finished lamely while gently shackling the Bay's ankle to the stake.
"Oh." And with that final word the boy passed out virtually in Jawhar's arms.
"Allah damn you Bay! None of this would've happened if -" Jawhar stopped suddenly as he could hear himself repeating himself over and over. "Well, tomorrow it will be decided."
He looked down at the boy once more and walked away.
****Hashim returned from his duties to find his wife in the same, worried state that he had despairingly begin to notice for the last 3 days. He paused just before entering the doorway and surveyed her as she went about her work – cleaning.
Ha. Work. That's what she did when she was worried. Some women cooked, some women complained, some women didn't eat. Abel cleaned. It was beginning to grate on Hashim's nerves. Coming home everyday to a extremely clean home where everything was put away and everything gleamed….well, gleamed as much as it could. He couldn't find anything anymore! He'd begun taking anything important with him when he left, unless he wished for it never to be seen again, stuck in some pile, Allah-knows-where.
"Abel." He said reproachfully as he entered. "I thought we talked about this! I can't find anything when you re-organise this place. I had a great balance of organised chaos here!"
"Yes Hashim. That's why you were continuously tripping over things that you left on the floor and always complaining that you could never find anything."
"My point exa---No! Abel! That's not right!"
"Tell the truth……"
Hashim grimaced, remembering the old days, "Well……..m-maybe just a liiittttlleee bit….."
"See! Proves my point exactly!"
Hashim exhaled, "I guess you're right."
"I'm always right. That's why I'm a woman!" Abel finally stopped whatever she was doing and looked up at him. With that look.
Hashim winced once again, recognising that look and bracing himself for the battle that was about to occur.
"Hashim. Its already been almost 4 days, can we go look for him now? Please? We've almost waited a week."
"Well Abel….." Hashim ran his hand through his hair, "We did say we'd give him a week remember? And think about what he'd say if we sent someone after him."
"But Hashim…."
"No Abel. I say we let a week go past….its only 3 more days." Hashim turned to go back out of the house but was startled as his wife rushed in front of him and stood in his path. Her eyes were ablaze ferociously with a look that Hashim had never seen before, the insane look of a mother willing to protect her young at the consequence of her own death.
"HASHIM BAY! You will send out a search party tomorrow, as I'm your wife and you will do as I say! I carried that child for 9 MONTHS! My grandmother could SENSE the future and I CAN TOO. And as your wife, I DEMAND YOU SEND THE SEARCH PARTY!" With insane strength, she slammed him onto the ground and glared at him.
Hashim had never seen Abel like this before, in fact, he'd never seen any woman like this before. Frankly, he was scared. Now he knew why they said that, "There is nothing more dangerous then a mother protecting her young." He looked at her wild eyes and beautifully contorted face, ran through his options and relented.
"Hashim…." Her voice was a low, sinister growl of a lioness. "What is your decision? If you do send someone, I will go myself." Her voice had still carried the growl and was soft but contained a lethal edge.
Hashim snuck in a look once more, allowed himself a small mental grin and replied, "If you let me up, I'll send someone out tomorrow morning. First light."
Hashim had a good view of Abel's face and the varying emotions that flashed past and allowed himself a shaky laugh. "You will? You swear that you will?" Abel gasped then glared, "You're not lying are you?"
"No. I promise." Hashim truthfully replied.
"Thankyou! Thankyou husband!" Abel threw herself on top of him and gave him a hug, her long hair covering their faces.
"You're welcome. Now let me up!" Hashim's voice came out muffled and nothing like the commanding tone he was searching for.
****Ardeth opened his eyes and in a half unconscious gaze, dreamily saw a face in front of him. An angelic face, framed by chestnut hair with vacant eyes. Eyes that saw through him…..through him…..into his soul……
Like a demon, like an angel…….like a guardian.
Beautiful, so beautiful………she was………
Gone.
The swirling grey mist enveloped his sight once again and the image disappeared.
Ardeth slept on in a dreamless sleep.
****Dawn saw activity happening in the two villages. Activity of two different sorts.
In the Med-Jai camp, the sun bathed the camp in a golden yellow light, the air held a sweet, fragile fragrance and contained the gently-strong smell of relief and fear as a group of early-risers bid farewell to the group of men astride their horses that had been set loose upon the unforgiving desert in the non-apparent futile action of bringing Ardeth home safely.
The departure of the guards did nothing to lighten Abel's heart. If anything, she felt even worse then before, her churning stomach forcing her to leave early. Hashim found her vomiting violently in the sands.
"Come wife. You need a sleep, you need to stop worrying. He will be found. Wait and see." Hashim gently knelt beside her, pulled her hair back away from her face and rubbed comforting circles on her back.
Abel wiped her mouth and whispered, "I'm just so scared." She collapsed against Hashim, crying softly. "Oh Hashim! I'm so scared! I'm so scared!"
"Shhhh. Shhh. Everything's going to be alright. Calm down, just calm down. Shhhh." He crooned to her and gently scooped her up into his arms and walked away from the rapidly departing figures of the guards. "Lets get you to bed."
"I'm terrified."
"I know. I know." Cradling his wife's head against his chest, he turned and looked at the sun which held a blood-red tinge. "Shhh. Everything will be alright" He spoke once again as fear crept into his words. "Everything will be fine."
Allah. If you are listening, please protect my son. Fold him unto your robes and gently swathe any injuries or hurts he has obtained. Lay your tread upon him gently, please do not forget – he is only a child. Please Allah. Please protect my son.
The sun threw its red spectrum over the Sami-Nhir camp, its rays covering the camp like a cloth covered in blood. The whole tribe was out watching a small figure roughly drag another figure after it. Jeering and sneering filled the air and the metallic taste of blood filled the air and was twisted with the vile emotions of hate, angry and vengeance.
Ruwaid watched with sick satisfaction as the boy repeatedly stumbled and fell as his son callously dragged the boy to the trial plain. He looked once again at the blood-red sun, its image already beginning to grow fuzzy while in the lower horizon.
Mikail noticed his gaze and answered his question, "Red sun sire. Means we will have a storm here soon."
Ruwaid showed his teeth in a mirthless grin, "How soon?"
"Soon enough my lord." Mikail asked worriedly, "Are you going to continue the trial even through the storm?"
"Nothing will stop this trial. We will continue." Ruwaid stubbornly set his jaw and glared at his second in command, daring him to disobey him.
Mikail knew that dangerous look in his chief's eye. "As you wish my lord." He watched the blood-lust of the crowd, the callousness in their treatment of the Med-Jai teenager and the helplessness of the boy himself.
Allah. Even though I know this boy's tribe murdered our tribe's members, please watch over this boy. Remember that he is only a child and have mercy on him.
Ruwaid had never felt this great in his life. He had never realised just how powerful and dominant having the power to control, actually hold the fate of a human beings life, was. It made him feel like a god. It was dark feeling but it was a fantastic feeling.
Oh yes, it was good. It was great. This boy was going to pay for al the sins of his tribe and Ruwaid was going to enjoy making him pay.
Allah. With your gracious goodness you have blessed me with the gift and sacrifice of one of your worthless servants Ardeth Bay. I, your loyal servant, will use myself as one of your predators, ripping apart this piece of filth and forever honouring your name. This boy's blood will be spilled to honour you and your wonderful works.
As an afterthought Ruwaid added:
Please watch over my beloved wife and daughter in their afterlives.
****Okie dokies people! I don't think i'm going to get much written up again for a while as I have to really study for my real exams (they're in 8 weeks, and i only 5 weeks of school left) and i'm going to the city (700km away) in 2 weeks for lectures/tuition.
But, no matter what i should be able to put up another chapter in the hollies coming up in two weeks.
Thanks for all the help from everyone and I love your reviews. Coming home from a crap day at school, they just MAKE my day. Seriously.
