Chapter 24 The Unwanted Guest

Chapter 24 The Unwanted Guest
I woke up the next morning to Alaric cooking eggs and some kind of meat. 

“Where did you get the egg from?”. I asked him as I moved with a stick. 

“Well I saw a byrd’s nest up on the barn, and decided that would be our breakfast”.  I shook my head. I wanted to feel bad for the byrd, but I was so hungry that the byrd had to pardon my stomach for it aching for some food. Then I looked at the meat and saw it was the shape of the byrd. 

I looked at Alaric questioningly, he just shrugged and said, “Now no one will mourn anybody”.  I rolled my eyes at this and continued chewing. We had to move quickly for going through the desert would be harsh on the steeds and supposedly me as well. 

“Do you know exactly where the Mujari’s castle is?” Alaric asked as he was hunched over at the table in the barn looking at the map. 

“Well I just knew it was somewhere in the desert. Flying over the desert would’ve been my only option to finding it”. But since I can’t do it at day time, it’ll have to be done at nighttime I said to myself. 

Alaric must’ve had the same idea for he just nodded and said, “We’ll try to find this statue of this strange looking nythari as a base camp for us to stay throughout the day  and we can start our search at night”. I shook my head to this and started to mount my steed, preparing myself to save my sister.  

“Have you ever encountered a nythari from Mujari clan when you here doing whatever it is you were doing?”. 

Alaric smiled and simply answered, “Thankfully no for the Mujari clans is known for their ruthlessness for foreigners. Also claiming that we had no right to be in their desert”.

“So why did you come here?”. Was it a punishment I wonder?

“That’s a story for another time Violet. For now just focus on getting your sister back”. I shook for I understand what it was like to not want to talk about a painful experience. 

We been traveling for a while, for the sun seem to have moved or maybe my mind was playing mind games on me. Then all the sudden I felt a sudden pain in my shoulder then in my stomach. I look down and I see two arrows, one in my shoulder the other in my stomach. I rip them out and look towards Alaric but he nowhere to be found. I turned back and found his horse stopped and Alaric on the floor also bleeding. Even with my injuries, I had to get to him first. They got him with three arrows, two in the stomach one in the shoulder. I looked around me and saw a dark figure in the distance then another pain in the other shoulder. And that’s when everything turned black.

“Ahh so you are awake my friend. I would welcome you to my kingdom but you came uninvited so I will now take you as my unwanted guests”. This nythari must be from the Mujari Empire. He has dark skin from where the cloth doesn’t cover the skin around his eyes.  Although most of his body was covered with cloth and clothes, his hands were free to hold on to the reins of the steed.  

“What happened to my friend?” Did Alaric always seem this pale or was he losing blood more than he could endure?

“Well I hit him with two arrows, put him to sleep right away. As for you though? I hit you three times and you still managed to wake up sooner than expected. I must say, you are a strong young one. My master will be pleased”. He said this with a dignified smile. 

“What happened to our steeds?”, I was trying to keep him talking and distracted till I had enough energy to throw him off his seat. 

“Don’t worry about them. We set them free. If they know what’s good for them, they won’t come back for you”. Well at least we still have this sled to ride with. 

“Where are you taking us?” I was almost done with untying the rope from hands. My feet were also bound, freeing those were also a priority in order to move around. 

“Your very chatt-“, I didn’t let him finish for I whisked him away as far I can throw him. Got on the drivers seat, grabbed the reins and had to haul out of there as fast as I could. 

I thought we lost our kidnappers for a face seem to form in the midst of the sand and wind. It was our kidnapper, and his body seemed to be regenerating on my side. I couldn’t feel his muscles or bones for he felt loose like the sand slipping through my fingers. 

“Miss me?”, he seemed to be smiling as he said this. He was hand was starting to materialize reaching for the reins in my hand when I felt an intense heat on my left side. 

“Don’t forget about me now”, it was Alaric and thank the heavens. He woke up just in time to get the creep away or at least I thought he did. Alaric did manage to burn him, but the burnt sand was falling apart and our kidnapper was slowly recovering his lost sand. “I don’t have time for this”, Alaric sighed before creating a ball of fire around our friend consuming him making the ball smaller and smaller before it became nothing but a puff of air. 

“I’m glad you finally woke up. What happened to your injuries. They healed completely, see?”, he showed me his stomach but I was mesmerized by his abs. “No scar to be seen”. 

“Right. Good. Great”, I couldn’t let him know that I know had a weak point for him. Is that what I feeling yesterday before I threw him outside.  Shaking my head to clear my head of confusion and need to feel those abs again, “Do you know where we are or where we should be headed?”, we seemed to be lost but hopefully Alaric had more knowledge of this desert than I do. 

“Yes, keep going straight until we reach something useful to us. Then we’ll keep moving from there”, I sighed. We might die out here and I’ll have the memory of Alaric abs to remember him by along with the empty head he has.