The Boy of the Desert Pt. 2

 Sorry, I know it's late. I was just being both lazy and writersblocky. Now on the the sand.

The Boy of the Desert

            The thing with camels is that they can run very, very fast. El Deloua was exceptionally good at running and was in fact the fastest racing camel in the area. So, Azad was in for a long trek. And he knew it.

            “The dumb thing is already out of sight.” Azad grumbled. The deserts rolling dunes made it hard going and hard to see anything that may lie in the valleys between them. So all he could do was follow its trail of deep tracks.

            The sun rose higher and the day grew hotter. Azad, being of the desert people, was dressed well enough to handle it. He worried however, that the day would get too hot, even for him.

Several hours and many kilometers later, he crested a large dune and gasped. It seemed the whole world had turned to sand. The gritty waves marched on from horizon to horizon. And still no sign of El Deloua; even his trail was fading in the dry winds.

 Azad was worried, and was starting to get hot. He took a small swig from his canteen, being careful not to spill any. It was his only source of water and if he lost it, it could be his death. He began to wonder if this was such a great idea.

Just as he was about to head on down, a flash of light caught his eye in the distance. He couldn’t be sure, but it seemed to be a mirror, or shiny piece of metal. It struck him it might be one of the decorations on his father’s camel. So, he followed in its direction.

At the top of each dune, Azad could pinpoint the shiny object and correct his bearings. It seemed to never move. He suspected it wasn’t El Deloua after all (because of its stationary nature) and wondered aloud what it really was. “It might be an old car that got lost and left in the sand. Or maybe some trash left by a tourist.” But the few remaining tracks led in that direction and in view of that he kept going towards it.

After an hour of doing this, and 4 hours since he left home, Azad stopped in the shade of large mound of sand and had a small lunch. He put some of the cured goat meat inside of the flatbread and savored the taste. The food made him feel better and revived his faith that he would find the “blasted camel” soon.

Making sure he still had ample water and food, he started out again, climbing the nearest dune and looking for the glint of light. It seemed as far away as when he had first seen it. The random thought of “I wonder if it moves when I can’t see it.” passed through his head.

Looking again, eyes straining against the glare of the sun, he could see what appeared to be mountains of rock behind the elusive shine.  Spurred on by curiosity, the boy continued on. He knew of a few mountains in his part of the eastern desert and had always wanted to see them first hand.

The dunes gradually flattened out into a vast empty plain. He could now watch the mysterious sparkle continuously and he finally was getting closer to it. The mountains got closer and larger and the shine grew brighter with every step.

Azad passed through a wide pass between two low hills and saw a lone scrub tree directly between them. As he approached it he saw the shine was coming from within its branches. “What is this?” he asked out loud.

Standing directly under the tree he saw a round, flat disk of glass attached to a necklace of colorful stones he had never seen before. How had he seen this small thing all those kilometers back? The question of it having moved crossed his mind again and he began to feel he was being watched. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He started glancing around nervously and thought he saw a streak of white fur dash between some rocks.

Azad heard a loud rushing of wind stir up behind him. Already unnerved, he whirled around to face whatever it was. What he saw nearly made him scream in terror. A dark wall of windblown sand almost a kilometer high had come in across the desert. A sandstorm.

He did what any sensible child would do. He ran as fast as his legs would carry him. He angled towards the rock around the bases of the mountains, hoping it would shelter him from the choking sand coming ever more quickly towards him. As he ran he remembered to wrap his keffiyeh headdress around his face to keep the sand out of his nose and mouth.

Two odd things happened just as the front end of the storm hit the boy. First, the strange necklace struck him in the back of the head, blown by the strong wind. And, when he bent to pick it up, it caught the last ray of sunlight and reflected into a hidden alcove in the rock. Azad now had a place to hide away.

He crawled in and wrapped up as much as he could in his clothes. The wind was fierce and sand was still getting in, but not near as much as if he had been stranded outside. This did little to comfort the boy. “This camel better be alive when I find it.” Azad moaned. “Because I sure want to kill it.”