Knights of the Arabia

Prologue: Unfortunate Events

"Rasheed." The old lady stumbled forward holding a wooden cane. Her hair was so grey, it almost looked like strands of snow weaved into her tiny head. She kept hurling different kitchen utensils at a young man who succeeded in dodging all of them.
"Get out of my house!" She wailed and her face turned red in a rather comical way.
"Don't kick me out mother! I am your son!" The young man, Rasheed who was clad in a dark winter outfit that contrasted to his storming steel-grey eyes and pale skin tried to reason with her.
He took her hand, trying to stop her from harming either of them. She quickly jerked her hand free and sobbed.

"I don't have a son, please leave me."

Rasheed stared at her, unable to explain things to her. He knew of his mother's growing illness. Alzheimer's. The word itself carried a lot of sorrow and hopelessness. He was aware that his mother was slowly losing all her memories, but he never knew it would reach the stage where she forgot her own son. Her son who sacrificed all his dreams of studying in the city to get a proper job.

"But-" He was cut off midst his sentence as a small duffle bag was thrown towards his feet.
"If you don't get out, my husband will kick you out. I pity you for mistaking me for your mother. That bag has supplies that would last for a day or two. Never return to this place to call me your mother, Rasheed." She seemed momentarily confused and tugged on the ends of her hair before bursting into fits of laughter.
"Now I am assuming names! How funny."
She slammed the creaking front door shut as she walked in chuckling.

Rasheed's father went on a trip to some foreign country he could not even pronounce properly two years after he was born. The couple loved the raven-haired baby, he bought good luck to the family. When Rasheed was twelve, her mother got a letter from some officials that stated his father's death. The ship he was travelling on had suffered a lot in a raging storm and went down in some foreign waters. The ship took all the men along with it, leaving them in mid-travel. They could not complete their journey and their merry plans drowned. He could not believe that his mother still believes that his father was alive even after all this time. She always promised Rasheed that his father would come back before the sun went down when he was a kid. She stopped talking about him to Rasheed the day they received the letter, but he knew that deep inside she still thought he was alive.

He stared at the tiny brick mansion that stood high in the dull wilderness. The world is full of new opportunities and beautiful places but none of them matters when there is no home to go back to at the end of the day. He stared at the path ahead and sighed.

For the first time in his life, he was free. But he did not know which path to take.

For the first time in his life, he was lost.

Pulling his hood over his dark hair, he looked at the bazaar which was filled with the hustle and bustle of cheery happiness. Nobody was idle, every single person was rushing to either get back to their home or to enjoy their day. He wandered aimlessly for a few hours and then decided to take shelter under the roof outside the local mosque, where the evening namaz was being sung in the same deep voice that attracted people and made them stop what they were doing to just listen to the prayers.

"Are you lost?" A little boy wearing a Taquiah, the Muslim cap, asked him as he stared at Rasheed through his well-defined dark eyes.
"No, son. I am just waiting for my friend," he lied and grinned.

He tried his best to hide his sadness with the lie of his smile. The kid smiled back at him and opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by someone.

"Your friend is here now." The kid looked up and so did Rasheed to find the owner of the voice. It belonged to a tall lad with chopped messy hair. He was around Rasheed's age.
"Let's go, Rasheed. We'll be late otherwise." He gave a crooked smile. The kid grinned up at both of them and trotted back into the mosque after waving goodbye.
"Who are you?" He asked him, uninterested at knowing the answer and at the same time thankful that he sent the kid away.
"Details later. Come with me, Rasheed." After staring at him for a while, he agreed to go as he had nothing to do in this life anymore. Not after his mother disowned him.
"You know my name," Rasheed stated. As a reply, the taller one just smiled a little. Rasheed stared at the duffle bag that his mother had tossed at his feet not so long ago.
"Alright." He stood up and flung the bag over his shoulder and followed the other, off to an adventure that would change his life for good.