Germanium Sky

Desert Eyes

   I was the youngest and strongest of three brothers when I set out on my own, a pilgrim fording the great desert in order to seek my fortune in the cities about which I had heard myriad and mystical tales as a boy. With tired bones and burnt skin, barely alive but for the dream filled soul that kept me going, I came upon an oasis. There I shared water with a small caravan of men and beasts, headed by two strong mercenaries wielding broad swords that glistened in the sun. Under the shade of a palm tree leaning close to the ground stood a pearl white sedan surrounded by resting attendants and caretakers of beasts. One servant held a fan at the end of a long pole, providing shade for a lady wrapped in gold and who wore a veil thin and rippling in a devils wind that appeared as from nowhere. She had large, gentle brown eyes, dark yet pale. I saw that her fingers were adorned with golden rings, nearly the same color as her skin. The wrist was entwined in a long, serpentine bracelet, and the hands were delicate yet seemed to indicate inner strength.

   As I knelt at the edge of the spring, dipping my cloth and refreshing my weary skin, the two mercenaries approached with the distinguished, silent woman between them. I could not wrest my gaze as she also knelt, dipping a ladle into the still fossil waters and bringing it to her lips, all the while gazing downward, into the earth at the foot of her flowing gown. Our eyes met there at the spring and though hers were disciplined, revealing only enough of her soul to show that it possessed essential knowledge, they appeared to relax as they gazed into my own, which could only reveal my innate curiosity and sense of assertive adventure. As the brawny escorts brought their own gaze upon me, shifting their weight ever so slightly forward, I bowed my head, quickly filled my canteen and strapped it to my back. Departing in bridled haste, I did not look back and though I listened intently, heard only occasional sighs from the beasts of burden.

   My feet slid in the sand as I descended a great dune, into the setting sun, with the tuft of palms stemming from the oasis setting too, though behind me. I walked in peace until emeralds of the heavens shone brightly and as if they were very near, suspended in their magical other world that could never be reached. When it became too dark to walk without stumbling, I curled up at the foot of a dune, covered in my own tunic lest slithering or stinging creatures in darkness might feed on my flesh. As the air cooled I fell asleep and dreamed.

   I could see the golden woman with her beautiful, deep brown eyes in the heavens above, gazing down. They filled the cosmos like twin almond moons, yet as darkened silhouettes, illuminated only by a far off sun that remained lurking beneath the horizon. Under her long golden wrap was the answer to a question that my heart could not help but ask and I began to see a flame burning beneath the soft place where her heart should have been.

   I awoke briefly to the sight of a smiling yellow moon, obscured by an ocean of madness that swirled above. A storm was upon me so I covered up tightly and again retreated into darkness. When the sun came up, though I could not see it, I could feel the growing heat above me. If only the seasons could have changed in the time it took me to claw out from beneath the newly born mountain of sand. Infinitely fine particles flowed back into the earth like lifeless water where I had just emerged. I had my canteen, but the stopper had come out, dangling by it's lanyard and all but a few drops had evaporated.

   I started to walk with the sun at my back, but remembered the oasis and so turned toward the sunrise and hoped to get some fresh water. Before long I could see the palms on the horizon as I stood atop a high, albeit distant mount, but then I saw something that arrested my spirit: Spars of the sedan roof parting the sands as the waves of an ancient sea turned to stone. Then the serpentine bracelet, as if someone had dropped it there, shining in the gentle light of the new day.

   In my heart I wanted to weep, but did not. Instead, considering what I had seen, I was thankful to be alive. Before long, the two mercenaries approached from behind and told me that they would spare my life if I vowed not to tell anyone what had been revealed. I foolishly asked why they would bother to spare me and they replied that for all they knew I was an innocent and honorable man, but as for the woman, she had been the private mistress of a rich and powerful Khalifah who had wished her to pay the ultimate price for her moral indiscretions. The brutes admitted that they had tied her to the sedan when they heard the storm coming and though they did not revel in their deed, they would collect their rewards, enjoy their own pursuits and hoped only to feel occasional regret for what they had done. I promised to keep their secret and so they left side by side. When they were well past the crest of the third dune, I went back to the roof of the sedan and began to dig.

   Well after the sun was resting again and the smiling moon had risen, I reached the still and graceful woman. Though comatose, she continued to breath and within her body there remained life. I then carried her back to the oasis whereupon I nursed her back to health and vowed to provide care until she was safe, back in the village where my family lived.

   Though I never found fortune or adventure in the strange cities at the far ends of the earth, I had found a faithful companion. A lifetime later, the two of us had raised three sons and not long after our own parents had passed into paradise, we saw our own progeny seek their fortunes. Two remained in the village and became shop owners, but the third and most endowed became a merchant, eventually acquiring great wealth and stature. He hired detectives and later an assassin to seek the one who had nearly ended his mother's life. Afterwards, that particular Khalifah was never heard from again."

<-Back