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Chapter Six
Changes

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Seth propped his head up with his hand as he leaned over the neck of his horse, trying to make himself as comfortable as physically possible without falling off, quite a feat. He was out of sight of any villagers who may recognize him, and thus could afford to slouch without any negative effect on his reputation. His tall Royal Priest's hat was stuffed inside one of the saddlebags. It was hot enough without having his head trapped in a hellish hat-sauna.

His horse huffed over the rolling dunes, the heat and long distances apparently taking their toll on the poor creature. Seth, however, was not in a forgiving mood, and kept the horse moving, slowly, crawling, back to Mahado, little knowing Mahado was coming much faster in his direction than vise versa.

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In the desert, Kisara was having an increasingly harder time keeping pace with Akifa. Akifa now had to yell in order to talk to her at all, though conversation was limited to basically:

"Hurry up, would you?"

"Stop rushing me, or I'll drop dead! How would you like that, you inconsiderate jerk!?"

"You must be getting worse; your comebacks certainly are."

Kisara was now ten-something yards behind Akifa, and moving slower then hell. Her back wasn't hurting so much as it was killing her from the outside in. She wanted to fall down on the sand and flop around like a fish out of water, but the little bit of sanity she still possessed restrained her.

"Hey, you, girl, we're here!" Akifa called back to her.

"Where exactly is 'here', anyway?"She mumbled. Kisara looked around, but only saw sand and more sand, a graveyard of a place….

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Seth looked up as he saw a small could of dust headed his way. He sat up straight as the cloud produced a small, fast-moving dot. The dot steadily grew, until the white robes of the sorcerer were recognizable as Mahado. Seth was curious as to what Mahado was in such a hurry for, and called out to him.

"What's the hurry, Mahado?"

Mahado's horse skidded to a stop, breathing heavily, foam dripping from its mouth. Seth grimaced at the sight of it, "If you don't relax, your horse is going to die." He commented.

Mahado was also breathing hard, but due to lack of foam, it was obviously not due to physical labor. Seth sent him a questioning look, waiting for him to say something.

"Seth! You'll never guess what I've just learned!"

"Surprise me."

"Well, a body was found, a young stable girl. But no sign of Akifa, except for the blood you pointed out earlier. I did a ka test on it, and you were right, it's his."

Seth nodded, "I knew that snake couldn't have died so easily…"

Mahado nodded as well, "But there's something else too."

"Hmm?"

"It wasn't just his blood there, there was somebody else's."

Seth's eyes narrowed slightly, "Who's was it?"

"I don't know, it couldn't have come from any of the villagers, that's for sure."

"How do you know this?"

"Their ka was too strong, it was a white dragon….The White Dragon…"

Seth's eyes widened, "Are you sure?"

Mahado gave Seth a flat stare, "No, It must have just been a white rabbit instead. Of course I'm sure!"

"Then what are you doing here? Why didn't you follow them?"

"I thought it'd be best to report to the Pharaoh first…"

"Bah! Atemu can wait! Let's go find them, besides, he'll be much more pleased with Akifa and this person live, rather than just the fact that they're out there."

"True. Let's head out then!"

Seth and Mahado both got a strange look on their faces, seeing as how Mahado's horse had just hacked up something revolting.

"Perhaps you should get a new horse first."

"Good idea."

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Akifa tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for Kisara to catch up. He'd finally found his band's camp, and was eager for some rest. The fact that there was no smoke from the campfires, or sounds of talking from below did nothing to upset him.

The camp was located in a sandy valley, just between two dunes, and surrounded by high sand walls on every side. Akifa was standing at the edge of the valley.

Kisara, however, saw nothing but a flat plain of sand, and was quite irritated that this person had brought her to a remote place in the desert, with no other signs of human life. It was only after she'd finally caught up to him, did she see the basin below.

Kisara blinked, "Well then."

Akifa looked at her, "Indeed."

"Are we going down there?"

"You bet."

"How?"

"Like this." And with that he jumped over the edge of the basin, landing on the sandy slope below, and coasting smoothly to the bottom on his rump.

"Your turn!" He called up to her, "Move it!"

As Kisara was about to jump, however, another person yelled, "There he is! See? I told you if we waited here he would come! And there he is; Akifa the Theif Lord!"

Kisara didn't know what to do, as from behind the two dunes poured over fifty men, all royally garbed, save for twenty or so.

From the basin below, Akifa snarled, "You traitors! I'll have your hides!" And began to run quickly to the opposite end of the basin, where an escape exit had been dug.

"Quickly, men! Don't let him get away!"

The men slid down the sides of the basin, from almost every angle, swords drawn. The twenty or so men who'd once been Akifa's trustworthy band were among them, all dreaming of the mountains of gold and women they'd been promised. Those who hadn't agreed with the mutany had been slaughtered.

Kisara was frightened, she didn't want to be here any longer, or they'd spot her for sure. But, there really wasn't any place to hide. Unfourtunatly for her, the leader of the Pharaoh's guards(that of which were still cornering Akifa), had spotted her from across the basin, seeing as how he'd never jumped over the edge like the others, preferring to stay a safe distance away and watch.

Their eyes locked for a moment, and she froze, goose bumps traveling her skin. His eyes were nasty, like a demon's, and yet, there was something vaguely familiar about them, something she couldn't place, and had no real want to do so. His gaze was not pleasant, to say they least. He started to circle the rim of the sand-bowl towards her.

Upon this realization, she did her best to flee with her injured back, however, he seemed to notice that she was in pain, and ran over to her instead of walking cautiously. He knew she couldn't run from him.

Of course that wouldn't stop her from trying. No, desperately she tried to get her legs to sprint, and only ended up ripping the healing scab of a back open once more. He caught up to her quickly, and grabbed her by her arm, her very hurt arm. She hissed in pain and fright as the tender flesh was roughly handled.

She heard him chuckle at her in amusement as he said in a kind voice, "Well now? What have we here? A goddess of some sort, perhaps?" She growled at him, he was mocking her. Kisara tried her best to wriggle away, when that didn't work; she clawed futility at his hand that was holding her. "Let me go, you bastard!" He frowned, "...or just an albino rat?"

He seemed to remember something. "…Speaking of which…" He said this quietly first, then yelled to the men, "Have you got him yet?"

One man from the bottom called up, "No sir, he went through some secret door, we can't find him anywhere!"

The leader snarled, squeezing Kisara's hurt arm harder, and causing tears of pain to trickle down her cheeks, though she made no noise, her brain feverishly working to find some sort of plan, some idea, anything that would get her away!

The man looked back at her and said, all the mocking kindness gone from his voice, "At least we'll have one albino freak to give the Pharaoh." Their eyes locked again, and Kisara went numb with fright, her legs shaking beneath her before she collapsed, the strain too much for her. The leader chuckled, and turned to the men who'd gathered behind him, "Take this girl to the wagon, chain her there and make sure she doesn't move."

"But what about Akifa, sir?"

"We've dealt with him for months; a few more hours shouldn't make a difference. And besides, "He looked at Kisara, "I want to know who this girl is."

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Seth and Mahado had returned to the village where the barn had burned, Mahado on a new horse. It had been obtained, traded for the old one and a few golden peices of jewlery. The people in the village were gathering pieces of charred wood together, and sweeping up the smaller bits…wait, sweeping?

Both Seth and Mahado leapt off their horses and raced over to the old man with the broom. Seth, angry as hell, snatched the poor old man up by his robe and said violently, "Just what the hell do you think you're doing? Pathetic fool, who told you that you could sweep here? Here of all places! Did the Pharaoh command you? Well, did he?" The man was scared shitless, but managed a weak shake of the head. "No? No, I didn't think so. Someone of your stupidity isn't worthy to sweep under the Pharaoh's command." He tossed the scared old man down and nudged him aside with a foot as he moved over to the place where he remembered the blood to be. He was livid.

Mahado tried to comfort the old man, who was crying, clutching his broom, having no idea what he did was wrong.

Seth glared down at the freshly swept sand. All traces of blood and footprints alike were gone. And who knows how long it would take to find even the barest tracks in the desert? He growled, and was about to go take his anger out on the man again, when Mahado called to him.

"Seth, I think you were a little harsh on the old man."

"Hmph, every action I take is justified, he deserved whatever he got."

"Weeel, maybe not…." Mahado's voice had a worried tone.

Seth glared at him, "What do you mean 'maybe not'?"

"He stole our horses."

Seth paused a moment, his eyes narrowing to pinpricks, "He WHAT?"

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