I knew calling it a weekly story would be a bad idea. But, ah well, life happens. Now, on to the the sand.
After what
seemed an eternity, the wind slowly ebbed and the coarse grains of sand stopped
trying to wear Azad down to bone. The sun was low in the sky. In his rock hole,
the boy realized he was exhausted. And, without even trying, he fell into a
deep sleep.
Azad dreamed of ruins carved from
stone. Ancient places, worn down by centuries of sand. He also dreamed of a
single, white rabbit.
When he awoke, the sun was just
rising above the horizon. His head was filled with fading memories of places he
didn’t know. He collected himself, and stepped out of the alcove to stretch. He had a thick layer of sand in his clothes
and was desperately wishing for a bath. At least he had some water to clear his
dusty throat.
“What do I do now?” Azad asked no one
in particular. He was, despite his willingness to voice it aloud, lost. The
tracks he had spent all of the previous day following were long gone. Meaning
his father’s camel was too. And He was ill prepared to spend more than a day or
two in the desert. Azad was miserable.
With no real direction to take, he
sat down in defeat.
“Ow!” he yelped.
Azad had sat down on the mystery
piece of jewelry from yesterday. Taking it out of his dusty robes, the boy took
the time to examine it in the sunlight. The necklace itself was made of two
shapes of translucent stones, one square and the other triangular, strung
together on a golden chain.
The square stones were red and seemed
to be on fire when the light hit them right. The triangular stones had a yellow
cast to them, almost like amber. Azad then studied the central reflective piece
of glass. It was azure, the color of the sea. And on its surface were etched
images.
“Huh, I didn’t see these yesterday.” He
spoke aloud, to nobody in particular. He then thought that of course he hadn’t,
he’d been running for his life from the sandstorm.
On the lower part of the glass disk were
two outlines of what looked to be mountains. In between these was the likeness
of a tree, from the roots to the branches. A circle was in the very center of
the tree. The upper part of the disk had three images. On the left, what
appeared to be a crescent moon and on the right, the sun.
It was what was in the center that
sent new chills down his spine. The head of a rabbit. He bolted up to his feet
and scanned around the rocks again, looking for the white rabbit he knew was
following him. Haunting him even.
Questions bloomed in his mind. What
was going on here? Why a rabbit? What did this have to do with father’s camel? Why
had I not just stayed home? Why is my stomach growling?
“Ah, at least I can answer that last
one.” Azad said to himself. Maybe eating would help calm him enough to think of
a way home, or to find El Deloua, preferably both. He hoped it would take his
mind off of what had become a frightening, confusing and mystifying situation.
Finding his satchel (glad he had not lost
it in the blinding sand) with the few remaining pieces of bread and goat meat,
Azad set about dusting off bits of grit and chewing his way through the rest. Twenty
minutes later, his stomach placated, the boy decided to go back and look at the
tree where he had first seen the necklace.
He did not realize he had run so far
and it took him another ten minutes to get back to the desert tree. Standing in
front of it, hands on his hips, Azad stared. Hoping something would occur to
him. Then an idea did strike.
“This is the tree!” He exclaimed loudly.
“And over there and there are the mountains.”
The scene from the necklace disk was
now before him. Looking up, he saw the faint crescent of the moon to his left.
And the sun was now to his right. The whole thing was coming together before
his eyes. But where was the rabbit?
Azad was not sure if he actually
wanted to see it again, or where all of this was leading. But within him, a
desire for adventure welled up. He had never truly thought of himself outside
of his family life. Away from the camels and his siblings. If he could figure
out what all of this meant, his father would for sure notice him.
He turned his attention back to the
tree. A flash of white beyond it caught his attention. The rabbit? Whatever it
was had gone in a straight line from the tree, between the mountains and
between the sun and moon to a valley beyond. Now why hadn’t he seen the valley
before now?
Sighing, the boy said “If I want to
know what is going on, I better follow. The blasted camel can find its own way
home.”
Azad then set out, not knowing that
what he would find would be life altering.
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| A rough sketch of the necklace |
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