☼ First Sun ☼

In the harsh climate that claims most of Saddle Arabia live the nomadic Badawi. Proud, noble, and—most of all—free, these horses roam the ever-shifting sands of the great desert, ar-Rub Wafir. They live and die by the choices they make, for they are in charge of their own destinies.

Aisha bint Sahar followed the winds wherever they led, and they always urged her forward into the horizon. Though she belonged to the herd that served the Djinn of the Wind, Al-Seglawi, she was free. She was alive.

A mare's voice pulled Aisha out of her slumber, light pouring into the darkness. "Get up this instant."

With a groan, she lifted her head off the pillow to stare blearily at Sahar, who hovered at the entrance to her family's tent. It was large enough to fit all of her family at night, with pillows strewn about on a simple rug that had been in their family for generations. Off to the side sat a few baskets, one filled with dried dates while the others held their spare and ceremonial clothing.

"What, Ummi?" Aisha ran her parched tongue over dry lips and winced. "I have worked my shift already. I am due this sleep!"

Sahar lowered her head to allow more sunlight to filter through the front flaps and snorted, her nostrils flaring with a dangerous impatience. "My little blossoms have wandered from camp again. Go find them before they are lost to the sands."

At Aisha's side, her quiet and gentle younger sister stirred and nuzzled closer. "Aisha?"

Aisha held her mother's gaze before relenting with a frustrated groan as she pushed herself upright. "Go back to sleep, Basma. I have to track down a pair of weeds."

Sahar withdrew with another snort, the flaps closing behind her, the tent growing dark once again. It was a momentary reprieve from the sun that Aisha was about to endure for Al-Seglawi knew how long. If those two really were to get lost, however, she would be to blame for delaying, so she hurried to her discarded clothes, still stained with the powder of ground gemstones.

"I'll help," Basma said in her voice as sweet as honey and as soft as silk.

She was at Aisha's side in an instant, reaching her head down to grasp the black robe with simple blue embroidery and tossing her neck to drape it over Aisha. It covered her from shoulder to hoof, woven in such a way to breathe well but still keep out the scorching sun and biting sand.

Meanwhile, Aisha pawed a hoof to slide the headdress along her leg and skillfully dipped her head to catch it as she tossed it up. Her ears wiggled until they slipped through the holes in the long black-and-blue cloth that draped down her neck and rested over her muzzle, leaving only her eyes and ears exposed.

Aisha never, ever left camp without a veritable tent of clothing to protect her. No grains of sand, carried along the life-giving and life-taking wind, would mar her so long as she wore proper protection. She cherished her dark chestnut coat that differentiated her from her light-colored family—save for Basma, whose white coat was marked with matching chestnut patches.

"Thank you," Aisha said, turning her head to nose Basma's fondly. "Enjoy your rest for the both of us."

Basma smiled and took a step back, away from the flaps that Aisha walked toward. "Please come back safely."

Beneath the cloth that covered her muzzle, Aisha smirked. "I will, but I cannot guarantee the same for the weeds."

And with that, Aisha stepped into the harsh world outside the safety of her family's tent. Under the suffocating heat of the midday sun—which chased away the very idea of shade—life in the herd of Al-Seglawi carried on as normal. Mares sat together with the piles of gemstones that they ground beneath their hooves, creating a fine powder that would become expensive dyes. All of the tents were set up in a circle to shield their work from the wind, each a different color and pattern to designate the family that owned it.

Among the working mares was her mother, who stared intently at her. Aisha returned the stare by curling back her lips in a hidden sneer, then tore her head to the side and moved between the tents to leave the safety of camp and venture out into the vast, endless expanse of desert she called home.

Already, she felt the effects of the heat that caused the horizon to shift and shimmer into mirages for those that wandered too long under the sun. The backs of her exposed ears felt hot if she kept them still, so they flicked and swiveled in each direction to listen for her youngest sisters.

The wind whispered as it dragged across the sand, and she could still hear the idle chattering of mares. She picked up the pace to put distance between her and the camp until all signs of it slipped behind the dunes so that she could focus on her search.

There was an unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach when she was surrounded by nothing but sand and distant black mountains. It was as if she was the only soul wandering the desert, completely alone and at the mercy of that which lurked just out of sight. The mere thought of being lost and separated from her herd sent the hairs of her coat standing on end, so she urged her senses to work harder.

She started with sight—but all she could see was sand in every direction, and any traces of her youngest sisters had already been brushed away by the tireless winds that shaped ar-Rub Wafir's dunes. She closed her eyes to block out the vision and shifted her attention to sound.

Other than her beating heart, the only noise she could hear was the occasional ruffling of the cloth that kept the refreshing air from reaching her coat, but also spared her from the grains of sand that bit at her exposed ears.

Something scrabbled against the sand nearby. Her ear flicked toward it and she heard tiny movements, much too small to be her sisters' hooves. She cracked one eye open and caught a glimpse of a burrowing scarab just before it disappeared.

Aisha sighed and closed her eyes again. Taste and touch were of no use, leaving her only with smell. She had no choice but to ask the very same winds that were working against her for assistance and hope they complied.

After a moment of silent prayer, the stillness around her sprung to life from a sudden gust of wind. It caressed not just her ears, but seemed to reach beneath her robe to soothe her anxious heart.

Her eyes snapped back open when she inhaled the scents that drifted along the breeze. The smell of lavender and saffron were carried to her from somewhere nearby, and it brought a sense of relief as well as irritation.

Her sisters were close.

Aisha turned to face the wind and started forward to follow it to where it had brought the scent of her sisters' perfumes. It was an extravagance that annoyed her just as much as they did; their mother had traded one of the few necklaces she owned for bottles of oil to pamper the twins with.

"Nawar! Zahra! Where are you?"

Giggle. She skidded to a halt as her ears swiveled in the direction of the sound.

"Nawar, Zahra," she called, her eyes narrowing as they scanned the dunes that sailed off into the azure horizon. "If you don't come out right now, I swear—"

"We're right here!" Nawar chimed, a flash of white flickering in and out of Aisha's peripheral vision, accompanied by more giggling and a thundering of small hooves.

Just as Aisha jerked her head to the side, something—someone collided with her. She fell to the ground, her assailant tumbling down with her.

Aisha gave a whinny of surprise, then grunted in pain. "Zahra, you little shi—"

The filly squealed and scrambled to her hooves to escape the impending wrath of her older sister. "Dirty words! You're it!"

"This is not a game!" Aisha chased after the fleeing filly with anger guiding her through the newfound ache in her side. "Get back here before—"

Cheerful laughter gave way to a cry of surprise when Zahra's hooves hit the top of the dune, where the loose sand shifted beneath her. Aisha, with more experience guiding her, slowed her pace and dug deep to get a better grip, then peered down at her fallen sister.

Nawar bounded into view and—because the twins just always had to do everything together—followed right in the hoofsteps of her sister by tumbling over the dune to land beside the whimpering Zahra.

"Oh, don't be such children about it," Aisha chided with a derisive snort. "You two fall all the time. Get up, follow me, and don't make Ummi send me after you again."

Nawar rolled around on the sand, kicking her legs in the first stage of a tantrum. “I don’t want to! If we go back, Ummi will make us do chores!”

"We want to stay here and play!" Zahra did the same, careful not to collide with her sister.

Aisha watched them as they rolled, squirmed, kicked, and whined. Finally, she snorted and turned to descend the dune back in the direction of home. “Fine. Then I'll leave you two here. Without food and water."

"We'll be fine!" The sound of the fillies scrambling to their hooves followed by them running after her gave Aisha pause. Zahra bounded forward into view and stuck out her tongue. "We found water. We can find food!"

"Yeah, we can stay out here forever!" Nawar giggled and pranced around her twin.

Aisha's brow furrowed and the muscles along her sides twitched in agitation. "What do you mean, you found water? Where?"

Zahra looked at Nawar, who looked back at her. They said nothing, and yet by the wiggles of their ears, she knew they were having a full conversation within the silence.

"Where?" Aisha repeated, taking one threatening step forward.

"Okay! Okay, we'll show you, but you can't tell Ummi!" Nawar started bounding off in the direction opposite of the camp, Zahra running after her.

With a sigh, Aisha trotted behind them. "If this is just a mirage or an excuse to avoid going home, I swear to Al-Seglawi..."

Zahra glared over her shoulder. "It's not! It's real! We really found water!"

Aisha just snorted in reply. Neither of them had a scrap of cloth on them, leaving them exposed to the desert's harsh touch, and yet neither seemed fazed by it in the least. They would be sorry later, though, when the numbing joy of having fun wore off. Then they would have something to actually tantrum about.

"Here it is!" Nawar cried, disappearing behind a dune with Zahra. "We found it!"

Aisha frowned, but held her tongue until she saw what they had found for herself. There was no scent in the air of the precious, life-giving liquid; there was, however, a strange, musty smell instead. And when she caught up to the twins, she saw why.

The entrance to a cave sat before her, gaping mouth open. Waiting. Entreating. Demanding.

"We went in and found water," Zahra proclaimed with a proud swish of her tail.

Every nerve along Aisha's back and sides jolted to life and she glared down at the twins. "You went in?! What if a follower of Al-Hamdani found you encroaching upon their territory?!"

Nawar jumped forward before Aisha could stop her, crossing the threshold between their world and another's. The clattering of her hooves against stone echoed off the cave walls, sounding like a whole herd of little horses.

"It's just right ahead!" Zahra bounded right past Aisha and after her sister. "There's no one of Al-Hamdani here."

Aisha felt her heart pound, urging her to flee. It was unnatural for her to go underground. She was of Al-Seglawi. She belonged to the wind.

Her sisters turned a corner and vanished from sight, though she could hear their giggles chasing after them. Each resonating sound grew further away and, fearing she might lose them, Aisha stepped all the way into the cave.

She could still feel the heat and the wind at her back, pressing against the flanks of her robes and whispering for her to return to the world she knew. Ahead of her was a darkness that threatened to devour her, with no sun nor moon nor stars to guide her deeper into the caverns. She sucked in a breath of the cold, stagnant air, and forced her legs to move forward.

Her shadow stretched out ahead of her on the uneven surface that was the color of sand, but harder than the gemstones she crushed daily. Each fall of her hoof against the stone resounded loudly into the darkness only to return as a hollow echo.

She could still hear her sisters' giggling, but the sound bounced off the walls so many times that the cacophony was almost maddening. The howling of the wind grew distant as she pressed further into the tunnel that widened and, eventually, split into three.

A frown tugged at her lips. She looked off to her right and saw nothing but shadows. Ahead of her curved away from the entrance's light and seemed to grow narrow and unwelcoming. When she looked at the remaining path, she knew at once that it was the right one—for better and for worse.

Crystals were embedded in the walls of the leftmost tunnel, all glowing with a dim light that cast the sand-colored stone in a blue hue. If she had doubted whether the herd of Al-Hamdani lived within these caves, then she certainly didn't anymore.

Aisha sucked in a breath and coughed when her lungs tried to reject the heavy, unfamiliar cold. "Nawar," she rasped, her voice coming back to her twice over. "Zahra! Come back!"

The only response she received was an eerie quiet that was anything but silent. The air thrummed with something—alive. It almost sounded like music, though there was no rhythm she could catch. Each note was almost like a distant tapping of a drum, but something was off and it set her further on edge.

She pressed forward, her side brushing up against the wall as she tried to steady her trembling legs. A strange softness greeted her, and, when she leaned down to squint at what it was, she found sprawling patches of moss clinging to the damp stone.

Damp. That was the word. Everything around her was damp. The world she knew was hot and dry, but this cave felt how the stallions looked when they returned from a day of labor. There was a slight sheen to the walls where the crystals' light touched them, as if everything was coated in sweat.

At the very least, Aisha certainly was. She had traversed dunes in storms and faced scorpions at her hooves with less fear than was coursing through her veins at that moment.

"Nawar! Zahra!" she called again. "Where are you?"

Something growled off to her right and she kicked out her forelegs in surprise, but instead of some manner of creature, her hoof struck water. She blinked as she came back down onto all fours and caught sight of a dribbling stream in the dim light. Her gaze followed it up to one of the tapered structures jutting from the ceiling, but just as she realized that it was water and tried to drink it, it was gone.

Her ears twitched and swiveled as she worked to discern the sounds all around her. She heard her own breaths that came out in erratic puffs as well as the frenzied pounding of her heart. The strange drums still resounded from somewhere ahead of her, but she didn't hear any hoofsteps drawing near.

At any moment, she could be found by someone from the Al-Hamdani herd, the only one that had no code of hospitality, if not the very opposite of it. Their role as the Keepers of the Water was to ensure the underground reservoirs remained clean and pure, so they reacted to anyone in their caves as a threat.

That included two stupid fillies and their aggravated older sister.

Aisha continued forward and finally realized she wasn't hearing drums at all. It was the sound of water falling and splashing into some sort of pool. Her steps hurried to carry her faster and she felt the tunnel going wide before she noticed the walls at her sides falling away to stretch into a large cavern.

It was a lake. An entire lake filled the space in front of her, its surface almost perfectly smooth save for the occasional ripples when a drop fell from the jagged ceiling. Her throat went dry from the sight and sound of water, and it beckoned her closer with the promise to quench her sudden thirst.

The moment she was close enough to catch a droplet on her tongue, something moved in front of her. She froze and prepared herself for the worst, muscles tense and ready to bolt at a moment's notice.

In the wavering darkness, she saw eyes. Equine eyes that glowed like twin golden suns. They moved toward her and a long, beautiful face materialized around them. Delicate chains dangled down from a pair of ears and connected to a veil of silver coins, but as the figure moved, there was no familiar sound of metal ringing on metal.

Aisha chanced a downward glance to see that the form had no hooves at all, but instead, the ethereal horse's legs simply faded away. She did notice, however, a strange protrusion on the center of the horse's head—a spiraled, curved horn adorned with what looked like a tassel.

A voice like a plucked qanun resounded in her mind and filled her with a warm sensation. "يمكنكِ رؤيتي؟"

She didn't understand, but her knitted brow seemed to be enough of an answer as the eyes in front of her widened. All at once, a series of awful noises clashed together against the inside of her skull and she staggered back.

"What do you want?!" Aisha winced at the throbbing sensation of her own voice echoing off the cave walls. "What are you?!"

Everything went silent and the horse's rippling movement stilled. Nothing for a moment, and then it retreated into the darkness before Aisha could regain her senses.

She gasped for air. Air that was too still, too cool. Sweat matted her coat and chilled her to the bone. Shivers seized her muscles.

"Hello?" she called in a voice that had suddenly gone raspy and weak. "Are you still there?"

Only the trickling of water and the pounding of her heart replied. Perhaps she had hallucinated it. The darkness was an unfamiliar entity, but if it was anything like the bright desert sun, then she could have simply seen a mirage. That would explain everything.

Hoofsteps echoed somewhere from behind her. Her ears flicked, seeking out all the information they could glean. They weren't bounding or accompanied by giggles, and there were several of them. Was it a patrol of Al-Hamdani's horses?

With shameless greed, Aisha leaned down and lapped at the water. It was cold. Pure. Wonderful. She could have remained there and drunk from it for all the suns and moons that stood between her and the afterlife.

As the hooves drew closer, she pressed herself against the wall and prayed under her shallow breaths. She hoped that the dark colors of her robes would help her blend in, but when she saw a pair of strikingly bright blue eyes in the darkness, she realized it was a hopeless cause.

"You are trespassing," a masculine voice hissed.

Aisha pulled away from the wall to stand tall and proud despite the tremor in her legs. "I'm seeking my sisters."

"We're here," Nawar squeaked, stepping out from behind the stallion.

Zahra appeared on his other side. "He found us."

"Diversions," the stallion of Al-Hamdani said with an icy tone. "Diversions so you could steal our water and contaminate it." His gaze flickered to the pool beside her and he peeled back his lips to bare his teeth in a sneer. "Leave. Now."

Aisha gave a low chuffle, summoning the twins to her side. They practically stumbled over themselves in their hurry to flee from the stallion and ducked between Aisha's legs to seek shelter. She could feel their trembling disturb the air around them.

She took a step forward. Nawar and Zahra scurried around her hooves to use her as a shield as they passed the stallion, his eyes never leaving them, their eyes never leaving him. Once they turned a corner, Aisha hurried her gait when she heard the distant wind calling for her return.

The soft, rustling whistle of freedom. She could taste sand on the air. Heat mixed in with the cold that licked at her sides. Light illuminated her path until she jumped across the threshold from the cave into the open desert.

"We're so sorry!" Nawar dropped down and rolled in the sand, burrowing into its biting yet comforting embrace. "We didn't mean to get caught!"

"I missed you, I missed you," Zahra chanted, digging a hole and sticking her head in it.

Aisha watched them with stern eyes, though she shared the sentiment entirely. Sand felt right under her hooves. Wind was a blanket that guided and protected. "What did you learn?"

Zahra popped up. "No more caves!"

"The stallions of Al-Hamdani are pretty," Nawar mused as she lay on her back. "Did you see his eyes?"

Aisha let out a long sigh, then breathed deeply. Replacing the stagnant air in her lungs soothed her irritation. "Come on," she muttered, turning to follow the wind that urged her forward. "Ummi is waiting."

The sounds of their whining as they reluctantly followed were drowned out by the memories of the strange vision. She could hear the words echoing like a distant howl, though they still made no sense. It was like trying to remember a song she had only heard once.

A shiver ran through her. Those ethereal eyes were etched in her memory. The discordant noises were burned in her mind. Fear and uncertainty clung to her soul.

She would have to consult with Sheikha Wardee about the experience. For now, her focus had to remain on getting her sisters home before they stumbled into more trouble.

As they crested the third dune, the sandy expanse was overtaken by brightly colored tents. Relief filled her chest at the sight and she broke into a gallop, care for her siblings lost in the wind.

She was home.

Author's Note

For the record, there will be several lines in languages throughout the story that Aisha doesn't speak. They appear for flavor but only sparsely. Anything said in them is not necessary for your understanding of the story, plot, or events.

Don't panic, hold onto your towel, and enjoy the ride through Aisha's eyes!

This story is a part of the Quill & Blade universe.