Chapter 1

 

    The young boy ran from his pursuers, wincing as the hot sand burned his pale feet. His stomach complained of constant hunger, but he ignored it. It would be worse to get caught. The guards in Ariant weren't known for being particularly merciful to offenders. Even if they were children. And he was a repeat offender. He had seen them beat up plenty of kids his age. He didn't get caught as often as some of them, but he'd had his fair share of beatings too. Being a fast runner helped.

    How was he going to lose them? The guards were close behind, and he was too tired and hungry to outrun them. He wasn't allowed in the market. That's why they were chasing him in the first place. No, the market was for respectable people, not poor, homeless orphans like himself. He darted around a lady carrying cloth, but the guards shoved her to the ground as they chased him. He couldn't help her, because if he slowed down at all, he'd get beaten into a pulp. Repeatedly. There wasn't any place in town that he could hide, and trying to go back into the market again would get him in even worse trouble. The only place he could go was outside of town... and that was dangerous. All sorts of monsters lived out there. But, he thought to himself, which seems scarier right now? A bunch of monsters I've never seen in the endless desert, or the very real, armed guards just inches off my heels?

          Well. There wasn’t any contest when he thought about it like that. He raced towards the archway in the wall leading out of town and into the desert. The guards wouldn’t follow him out there. Probably.

          The boy blew through the archway as fast as his feet could carry him. The guards, hot and sweaty from the chase, stopped at the gate and shouted at him. After all, what was the point of going to search for a boy not even ten years old wandering around in the desert without food or water? And if the day’s heat and the night’s cold didn’t get him, the monsters surely would.

          After he was far enough away from the town that he couldn’t make out the features of the guards still hanging around the gate, the boy slowed his run to a walk. He had lived in Ariant all his life, and knew the heat was dangerous. He was so thirsty, his mouth was so dry that his lips stuck to his teeth and his tongue was hot. He was so thirsty he had even forgotten about being hungry.

          He wandered around, scanning for signs of water. There was a well back in the town, but even if he could get there without being harassed by the guards, likely the people at the well would chase him away with barely a sip. No servant would risk returning late with water, and therefore earning a beating, for a nameless boy that no one cared for.

          In all honesty, he wasn’t sure of his own name. Not that it mattered what his name was. Most people, if they deigned to talk to him, called him ‘boy,’ ‘hey you,’ or ‘pale kid.’  Usually it was clear when they talked to him, because he had light skin the color of chalk, rather than the earthier colors of the other inhabitants of Ariant. His golden-white hair also stood out as quite different from everyone else’s black hair.

          There were a few people who actually referred to him by name. Or at least, a name that wasn’t an insult. There were a variety of names, but the two main ones people called him by were ‘Medhi’ and ‘Lotem.’  Medhi was a little more common, but personally he preferred Lotem.

          But the matter of his name wouldn’t matter at all if he couldn’t find water. He had seen mirages before, and a couple already after he ran out of town a short, well, probably short while ago. It felt like forever ago, but the sun hadn’t even set yet, so it must still be that same day.

          Because of the mirages, Lotem wasn’t particularly excited when he saw an oasis sitting off in the distance. He didn’t bother to get his hopes up, but he trudged towards it anyways. He tried to force his mind to wander away from his parched throat, and was therefore surprised when he felt something brush his leg. It was a blade of grass. A real blade of grass, not a mirage.

          Lotem whooped with joy- it was a real oasis, not a figment of his imagination. He ran down to the tiny pool and slurped the water greedily until he could drink no more. After he had slaked his thirst, he looked around. It was quite a small oasis, the pool barely wider than Lotem’s outstretched arms, and three small trees provided scanty shade. Several smaller plants had sprung up near the pool’s edge.

          The day, though nearly over at this point, was still quite hot, so Lotem splashed into the pool. It was quite shallow, not even up to his waist at the deepest. He couldn’t believe his luck. He had found his own tiny paradise, away from guards and nobles and people who might throw stones at him. He had as much water as he wanted to drink, shade to escape the heat, and there was bound to be something to eat around here.

          His stomach grumbled. Thinking of food reminded him he was hungry, and hadn’t had anything to eat since that bread crust yesterday night. Lotem splashed back ashore, glad for the coolness of the water. He removed the tunic-like cloth he wore and the belt that held it together and hung them on a tree branch to dry, then scanned the area. Two of the three trees were palm trees, and one of them looked like it had fruit at the top.

          Lotem walked over to the tree, looking up, shielding his eyes from the sun. The bark was rough, and probably scratchy. But he was hungry enough to be willing to get scratched up for a bit of food. He took a deep breath and began scrabbling up the tree. His thin arms trembled with the effort of pulling himself up. He inched upwards, mouth watering at the prospect of food. He had several scratches from the bark, and he was shaking from exhaustion. Not only had he not eaten all day, but he rarely got much more than a mouthful of food a day.

          By the time he reached the top, Lotem was dizzy with fatigue, and gasping for breath. He steadied himself and reached for the closest coconut. He grasped ahold of it with one hand, but couldn’t get a good grip, so he grabbed it with his other hand. He began to pull on the fruit when in a sudden moment of terror, his stomach flew up into his throat as he began to slip off the tree and fall.

          The next thing he knew, he was on the ground, half in the pool, covered in mud and scratches, bruises on his upper arm where he must have fallen, and a coconut in his hands. Liquid sloshed inside as he lifted it up. His stomach growled in anticipation.

          What to crack open a coconut with? Lotem didn’t see any rocks near the water’s edge, and he doubted he could break it against a tree. Perhaps there were some a little ways away…?

          Lotem got up, looking around for some way to break open the coconut. There was nothing but empty desert the way he had come to the oasis, but maybe there was something on the other side.  He grabbed his tunic and belt, walked over to the tall grasses on the other side of the pool, and pushed through them. He was astounded to see a short, rocky cliff face, topped with sand and with a cave in the side.

          The cool cave was all he needed to make the perfect day. His private paradise was complete. He shouted with joy, his voice echoing back on a rush of cool breeze. He ran in, the chilly air and shade enveloping him. He quickly opened the coconut with a sharp rock, guzzled the sweet juice, and proceeded to pick out the fruit’s flesh. Full, drowsy, and content, Lotem drifted off, watching the sunset streaming through the leaves of the oasis plants.

 

Chapter 2

          Sometime in the middle of the night, Lotem awoke, shivering despite the fact that he had wrapped his tunic around himself. The harsh cold of desert nights was untamed, with no fire to provide shelter. In the town of Ariant, normally he could curl up against some wall, out of the wind, of a house that had a fire inside. This cave he had thought so perfect was now drafty and icy.

          Lotem stood up, bundled in his tunic like a blanket, his breath fogging up in the cold air. He stepped out of the cave, and the temperature dropped several degrees; sharp sand blown on the wind stung his legs. Perhaps he could make use of his situation. Maybe he could get something to eat? There had to be lizards somewhere around the oasis, and lizards don’t move fast in the cold. Lotem stumbled around for a few minutes, peeking under rocks, but soon gave up and retreated into the cave. He lay down against the wall and shivered there the rest of the night.

          By the time he awoke, after a rough night’s sleep, the sun was blazing overhead. Lotem tripped towards the oasis pool, still tired. He slurped some of the water and splashed some on his face. A flicker of movement in the corner of his eye grabbed his attention. A lizard’s tail peeked out from under a rock. Lotem crouched down by the rock, his young eyes wide with anticipation. He flipped the rock over and pounced.

          The lizard darted away, and Lotem chased after it, leaping and tumbling, tripping over his own two feet trying to catch it. After several tries, he finally sat up with a wriggling lizard in his hands. His stomach rumbled and his mouth began watering. He was pretty sure that the other people in Ariant didn’t eat lizards, but when you lived your whole life taking what was offered or getting nothing, lizards for lunch were treats.

          With practiced skill, Lotem soon had the meat sitting on a rock in the baking sun. It soon began to sizzle in the hundred-degree heat. While the meat cooked, Lotem lounged in the cave, which was slightly cooler but still very hot. Normally, at this time of day in town, he would be searching around in the scorching heat, begging for bread crumbs or trying to sneak into the market. Today, though, this… this was a wonder. He had eaten last night and had food today as well, and had a shady place to escape the heat. For the second time in his life, he began to doze off without any worries.

          Lotem jerked awake suddenly when he heard a strange shuffling of feet. He peered out of the cave, through the plant fronds hiding the entrance. A lizard-like creature with an oversized head and tiny legs was waddling around in the sand outside the oasis, looking for nothing in particular. For some reason, it had an orange and yellow striped scarf around its neck.  Was this one of the rumored monsters of the desert? It certainly didn’t look very strong. Or fast, for that matter. If he needed to, Lotem was sure he could outrun it.

          Another strange creature appeared. It looked a lot like the other one, but it was sand-colored rather than teal and striped. It had on a pair of brown earmuffs and a green striped scarf. It bumped into the one with the orange scarf, who smacked it away. The earmuff one charged at the orange scarf one, and the orange scarf one charged at the earmuff one.

          Earmuff and orange scarf crashed with a loud thud that shook the ground. Their fight escalated into a blur of attacks, sending sand flying everywhere. After what felt like hours, they separated enough for Lotem to see that orange scarf had fallen on the ground. While it was trying to pick itself up onto its spindly legs, earmuff charged hard into it. Orange scarf vanished with a wail, leaving behind nothing but its scarf and a handful of money. Earmuff wandered off as if nothing had happened.

          Once earmuff was out of sight, Lotem crawled out of the cave and walked over on shaky legs to the spot where the orange scarf-wearing lizard had vanished. Even though it burned his fingers, he grabbed up the coins, then picked up the scarf and scurried back to the shade of the oasis.

          Lotem examined the coins. They looked real enough. Where had the monster gone? Why did it leave behind its scarf and money? Why did it have money in the first place?

          He fingered the scarf. It appeared to be some sort of wool, it was kind of scratchy, and sand was caught in the knit. How could the monster stand to wear something so hot when the air shimmered with heat? Maybe it kept the scarf for nighttime. Maybe he could use it to keep warm at night.

          He was certainly not going to sleep with it as sandy as it was. Lotem carried the scarf over to the pool, and struggled to try to get some of the sand out. It just stirred up the sand in the bottom of the pool, so he clambered back out and hung the scarf on a tree. As he let go of it, dripping wet, he spotted a rock with something on hit. He walked over, and saw that it was lizard meat. Oh, that was right. He’d been getting ready to eat when the monsters came.

          Lotem snatched the meat off the rock, blowing on it since it was hot. He tore off a chunk and began to wolf it down. It wasn’t cooked, exactly, but it was better than raw, and besides, he didn’t get much cooked food anyways, so it was fairly normal.  Besides the fact that he never had enough to eat.

          After he finished off the meat, he looked around for more to eat. He didn’t particularly feel like climbing the coconut tree again, but that was okay, because the other kind of tree in the oasis, the one with low branches, had some kind of yellow fruit. He could eat that.

          After gorging himself on sweet fruit, Lotem drifted towards the cave to nap while the day was at its hottest. When he awoke, the sun was much lower and the heat less intense. He wandered outside, and looked around. There was desert stretching back towards the way he had originally come, from the town of Ariant, but he didn’t know about the other side, near the cave. He decided to go exploring.

          The cliff face the cave was in appeared to be a huge, long sand dune, just one among many. There didn’t appear to be anything else in the area besides the oasis, so Lotem kept walking, careful to keep track of where he’d been.

     After a long expanse of nothing in particular, he noticed something. A curving line stretched across the land, from one side to the other. He hurried towards it. It was a path, covered in sand blown from the dunes, but still a path. Some kind of tracks crossed it, but they were strange. There were many long, spread-out toes and a wavy line as if something had been dragged across the ground.

     Lotem followed the tracks up a hill, and when he crested the dune, he saw what had made them, and ducked back behind the sandbank. It was more like Earmuff. Their long tails must have made the dragged mark on the ground. As stupid as they looked, those things were scary. He had seen what they could do. Earmuff could’ve torn up the oasis if it’d wanted to. Not wanting to provoke them, Lotem hurried back to his cave for the night.

     The next morning, he awoke feeling much better. When the night had grown cold, he had wrapped the orange scarf around himself, and it had helped a lot. It was still uncomfortably chilly, but much better than the night before. How could he get himself more scarves? He couldn’t hope that an Earmuff and an Orange Scarf would fight and leave him something. Going back to Ariant was out of the question.

     Lotem continued to ponder this while he fetched and ate a coconut. He wasn’t likely to find anything just lying around. He couldn’t hope to somehow beat one of those things and take its scarf, nor did he care to just leave it be and spend the nights shivering. But maybe he wouldn’t have to. He had, back in Ariant, occasionally discreetly pocketed a bite of bread from someone’s basket of food. It had been either that or go another day without anything. Maybe he could swipe a scarf from an Earmuff or an Orange Scarf.

     After washing off his face and drinking from the pool, Lotem headed out to try to find a monster lizard. He returned to where the Earmuffs had been the day before. They were still there, wandering around aimlessly. The boy crouched low to the ground, stepping as softly as he could, creeping towards the Earmuffs. If they noticed him, they didn’t care. Soon he stood within an arm’s reach of the herd, and still they did not react.

Lotem reached out a hesitant hand toward one of the Earmuff’s green scarves, tiptoeing closer. It still did nothing. However, as soon as the boy’s small hand grasped the scarf, it whirled around to face him. He stumbled over backwards, scrambled to his feet, and ran away while the Earmuff chased after him. Lotem stopped when he reached the oasis, panting and out of breath. He wasn’t going to be trying that again anytime soon; he had barely gotten away this time.

     The next morning, though, he had changed his mind. Being chased by a monster who wasn’t as fast as he was

was worth it to not be so cold at night. So he ate, then headed out to where the Earmuffs lived. He again was able

to approach within arm’s reach without them reacting. These monsters were weird. Instead of grabbing the scarf

like last time, he reached out a single finger and brushed the edge of the scarf. It either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

So he grasped the scarf’s corner by two fingers. This time, the monster did notice. Lotem high-tailed it out of there

quicker than a jackrabbit.

     Many days continued in this fashion. In the morning and evening, when the sun was low and the air cooler, Lotem

refined his technique to stealing a monster’s scarf. In the hot midday, he could be found relaxing in the oasis or

looking for food. At night, he slept in the cave.

     One day, he succeeded. He had the scarf off from one of the monster’s neck before it noticed. That night, he was

warmer. The next day, though, he couldn’t swipe a scarf. He didn’t need more scarves, but they were nice and this

was getting fun. He enjoyed seeing how often he could get them, especially if he could pull off some cool move.

One time, he did a flip off of one of the monster’s heads. He didn’t actually get the scarf, but it was fun

nonetheless.

CHAPTER 3

 

     After what felt like a joyous eternity in paradise, Lotem noticed two things. Firstly, he was getting good at stealing the scarves. He now had a pile of them in his cave, a warm heap to sleep on. And he’d managed to get some other stuff too. He’d swiped several pairs of earmuffs, red ribbons with bells on them from some sort of fat green snake monster, a diaper from a little cactus, aprons from bigger cacti, and a turban from a huge cactus that had a vest and a cane.

     The other thing he noticed was that he was hungry again. It was getting hard to find food in the oasis anymore. He had eaten all the coconuts and the yellow fruit, and there wasn’t anything else edible there. All this stuff, more than he’d ever had in his life, meant nothing without food. You can’t eat a scarf, after all. Or earmuffs.

     Lotem supposed he could try to see if the lizard monsters were edible like normal little lizards, but he wasn’t about to try. Escaping from one or snatching something from it without it noticing was one thing; trying to beat it up was another. He’d seen those things fight. He didn’t want to be its opponent.

     All of the monsters in the desert were called monsters for a reason. Even the desert rabbits, which were poufy balls of fluff with ears and a cute face, could do some real damage. One of them had charged at him, and when it missed him and hit a sand dune, the sand dune had been obliterated. Yeah… no way was Lotem messing with any of the monsters, even for food.

The only other place he could think of to get food was someplace he never wanted to set foot in again. Ariant.

 

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     Lotem wandered around nervously. It had been weeks since he’d been here, and the guards weren’t likely to remember the most recent incident, but that wouldn’t necessarily stop them from trying to beat him up. He was a repeat offender, after all.

     Lotem clutched tightly the scarf he had wrapped his stuff up in. The few coins left behind from that first time he’d seen a monster, when orange scarf and earmuff had had a fight. A small, hard, under ripe fruit he’d discovered when he searched over the yellow-fruit tree one last time. Another scarf in case he didn’t get back to his cave by nightfall.

     He apprehensively approached a lady in the street who carried an armful of food. He opened his mouth to address her, tell her that for once, he wasn’t begging, but rather could pay-

     “Get out of here, you filthy little thing!” she spat at him. “I’m tired of you pestering me. Go back to wherever you’ve been hiding!” She hurried off before he could say anything. A fairly typical response.

     He’d forgotten how frustrating this was. Chased away for the umpteenth time without a single word. Lotem knew he’d get a better reaction if he showed them the small amount of money he had, but revealing money in public was a bad thing. He’d never seen it turn out well. If some common criminal didn’t bowl you over and snatch the money before running off, the guards would come and demand it and more. If by some miracle that didn’t happen, then a cat would come out of nowhere, leap, and snatch the coins from your hand. He’d seen it happen more than once.

     Not that it’d ever happened to him. Lotem had never owned money before, but he preferred to learn by other people’s errors, not his own. So if he wanted any food at all, he’d have to get back to searching around and hope someone’d stop to listen to him. For once.

     “Hey kid!” a voice interrupted his thoughts. It wasn’t unkind like many people who addressed him, just loud and self-confident. “Been a while since I seen you lurkin’ around here like ya usually do. D’ya spend a coupla days lyin’ low or somethin’?” Lotem turned to see one of the village kids approaching. Amar was one of the few people who didn’t mind Lotem’s presence, and occasionally even struck up conversation. Quite a relief after being kicked at by passersby on the street.

     “Amar. I’ve been gone. Away from Ariant.”

     “Gone? Gone where? The desert’s so huge that ya couldna crossed it in the few days ya weren’t here.  That is, if there even is an end to it.”

     “But… I’ve been gone more than a few days.  It’s been weeks and weeks.”

     “Has it?” Amar yawned. “I dint notice. Me mom’s keepin’ me busy. Helpin’ in the mines an all.”

     “The mines?”

     “Yeah. The work sucks, but mom says I hafta make money somehow cuz food’s so ‘xpensive.”

     "I’m trying to get food but nobody will listen to me, and I can’t go in the market.”

     “The market? ‘s that all?” Amar snorted. “Ya hafta bribe the guards ta let ya in. Then they’ll ignore ya unless ya start causin’ trouble. Anyways. I gotta go, so see ya later, kid.” Amar walked off, yawning, grumbling about having to go work.

     Amar wasn’t much older than Lotem, probably only around two years. Lotem didn’t know exactly what his own age was, so he just had to kind of guess. But it wasn’t a big deal. Your age isn’t really an issue compared to not having a name. Or food.

    Well, no harm in giving Amar's suggestion a try. It wasn't as if he had anything to lose. Lotem slipped a coin out of the scarf and into his hand, then headed towards the market.

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     Lotem walked freely among the market stalls for the first time. The guards had taken the offered bribe, and had demanded to know where he got a plead scarf. Lotem hadhad no idea what 'plead' meant, until he listened to the guards' jeers at his ignorance and figured it out. So that's what Earmuff and Orange Scarf were really called. Pleads.

    In any case, Lotem had gotten the drop on the guards, even though they took one of the scarves, which he claimed he had found. It amazed him that none of them had noticed when he had taken a slight risk and dipped his fingers into their bulging, overfull money-bags. If they ever eventually noticed a few coins were missing, which was doubtful, they'd never know it was him.

     Lotem came to a stall selling bread, and bought a loaf before quickly wolfing it down. Unfortunately, most of his coins were now gone. Amar had claimed food was really expensive, but Lotem had no way of knowing, since he'd never had money before to know how much it was worth, and besides, he didn't know numbers anyways. He'd never had anyone to teach him.

     Judging by the amount of coins it had taken to buy a single piece of bread, there was no way he'd be able to get some more food without getting more money. Since it was so easy to pilfer a few coins from the guards at the market entrance, perhaps it'd be just as easy to swipe some money from other guards. Lotem began to wander around the market to see if there were other guards lurking about. What he found instead was better. Much better. A stranger.

     The stranger had set up a table in the shadow of a building, and seemed to be playing some kind of game with stiff squares of paper. But that wasn’t the interesting part. He clearly wasn’t from Ariant. His pale skin was as light as Lotem’s own, perhaps even lighter. His yellow-gold eyes were bright and confident, despite the fact that Ariant was crawling with guards who’d arrest you for anything up to, and including, ‘being where I can see you, you filthy rat.’ In fact, the stranger even looked ready, willing, and able to get in a fight with the guards.

     Lotem had never before been certain if there even was anyplace beyond the desert. It had stretched endlessly far, with no indication that anything existed past it. But now he knew for certain. This stranger, wearing black and a thin scarf despite the heat, couldn’t possibly be from the desert. And if he could cross the desert, maybe Lotem could too, and leave Ariant behind.

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     “Who wants to see if Lady Luck smiles upon them today?” Raven called out. “Only two pennies to play, but twenty pennies to any winner!” Even though he was by profession a thief, Raven was playing an honest game with the people of Ariant. Well, mostly honest anyways. These people didn’t look like they could afford to spend the two pennies the game cost.

     Raven was playing the well-known game Find the Lady. Ariant was so poor that Raven didn’t bother putting anything up his sleeves to cheat. Heck, he was even wearing short sleeves. He might slide one of the three cards under another before snatching it back, but anyone paying enough attention could catch that. It wasn’t really cheating. If one of the citizens did have a lucky guess or sharp enough eyes, kudos to them. They probably needed every cent they could get.

     Those guards on the other hand…. Well, if they came to play, Raven would bar no tricks. He didn’t like the look of those guards. Those guards had the look not of people paid to do a job, but like well-fed thugs who didn’t mind relieving someone of their money.

Raven turned his attention back to the game, and noticed a pair of wide eyes staring at him. They belonged to a skeletally thin boy, who was about as pale as a skeleton too. As ghostly pale as he was, and with those violet eyes and silvery-blonde hair, there’s no way that this kid was from Ariant.

     The kid watched him intently as Raven played Find the Lady with some of the people in the market. He had sharp eyes, that’s for sure. Every single time, his gaze rested on the correct card, even when other people had lost track of the card. When the crowd around Raven’s table grew large, a couple of guards came lumbering up to investigate.

     “What’s this?” one of them demded.

     “Find the Lady,” Raven replied, filled with smug pleasure. He could tell by the look on the guards’ faces that they would play, just because they thought they could win because they lorded over the rest of the town. “Ever heard of it? No? Simple. There’re three cards, see, and these two are the same. All you’ve gotta do is keep track of where this card is- the one with the picture of a queen- while I shuffle them. I’ve got nothing up my sleeves- see?- so it’s just a test of how sharp your eyes are.” Raven had no intention of playing a fair game with these thugs. They needed to be taken down a notch or two. Let them think it was an honest game. “Ready, boys?”

     This round, Raven opened every bag of tricks he could while wearing short sleeves. He flipped cards into the air, spinning end over end, to try to confuse the guards that were playing. He swapped them out with other cards he had hidden under the table; he feinted on some of the card swaps; he used every sleight-of-hand trick he knew. And he suppressed the devilish smile that wanted to spread across his face when he saw the guards were thoroughly lost as to which card was which.

     He also had to resist the temptation to give a derisive snort when he palmed coins from the guards’ money-bags, and they didn’t notice that either. Were they not used to being pickpocketed? Apparently not, since Raven saw a flash of movement and a quick gleam from a coin as someone, he wasn’t sure who, also decided to help relieve the guards of some of the weight in the money-bags.

     There was only one thing— that purple-eyed boy, the really skinny one who looked about 10 years younger than Raven, his eyes had followed all the cards as Raven had played the game with the guards. He had even managed to keep track of the cards when Raven switched them out, palmed them, and everything. Right now, even, his gaze rested on the correct card. Raven would need to keep an eye on this kid while he was here in Ariant.

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