Of Magic and Sand

Chapter 3

"We had the kind of conversations that only great friends can ever share. They were touched with magic."

― Tahir Shah 

The next morning, Ziana and Oki had already begun on their favorite morning activity. Stealing juicy green melons from the marketplace for breakfast!

"Another successful snatch," Ziana said, settling down a bit more on the top of the stall while also breaking the melon open on her knee.

"Good job, Oki!"The two began to eat....although Ziana did notice something.

There was a young man, maybe around her age, wearing dark clothes and a cloak the shade of the dark night sky. He had fair skin, and blonde hair, and looked slightly out of place amongst all the other shoppers. It was this cloak that made him stand out from the other shoppers. Ziana had never seen such fine material before, and she suddenly had the urge to go and touch it. She watched him as he noticed a young girl, looking wistfully at the apple stand.

Without hesitation, he picked up one of the apples and handed it to her.

Ziana knew that shopkeeper and unfortunately for this well dressed young man, that shopkeeper had a very traditional set of rules when it came to shoplifting. She quickly pocketed her remaining breakfast, motioned for Oki to hop on her shoulder, and then leaped down gracefully onto the street. She could already hear the shopkeeper's rough voice as she quickly crossed the busy street to intervene.

"You'd better have the money for that." The shopkeeper said gruffly.

Ziana watched as the young man backed away slightly as if he suddenly realized his mistake. He seemed to freeze completely, his mouth opened and closed like a gaping fish but no words came out.

The shopkeeper then grabbed the man's arm and slammed it down onto the counter. He pulled out a large, black dagger—a dagger that he a threatened Ziana with several times. before and waved it in the face of the man.

"You filthy little thief!"

The man tried to pull out of his grasp, trying desperately to get away and explain himself at the same time, tearing the sleeve of his tunic in the effort to get away from the angry shopkeeper.

"W-Wait! T-The Grand Sultan knows who I am! Please let me go, I can get the money you need!"

"I'll just go right up to the palace because I am best chums with the Grand Sultan" the owner repeated in a mocking tone.

"This is how we deal with thieves in this marketplace!" He shouted and then raised the dagger. Ziana then decided that it was time to intervene and jumped in front of the man, grabbing the knife before the owner could cut off his hand.

"Thank you so much, kind sir! I've been searching all over for him! You found my brother, thank goodness! I don't know how I can ever repay you." She said as she pulled the man out of the owner's grasp and pushed him behind her.

"You know this thief then, eahirat eumya'?" The stall owner asked, looking between Ziana and the man with a rather distrusting look.

"Of course I do! He's my....brother!" She lied. She then cast a glance at the man, who was just standing there and staring at her with wide blue eyes.

"See, he's a bit....not all there, well actually he's just plain crazy. Lost all his coconuts have no idea what to do with him. He's always wandering off like this, the minute turn my back, BAM he's gone. We were just heading to the doctor's office to get him checked out."

"But he said he knew the Sultan!" The owner argued.

"He thinks the cat is the Sultan." She said, and then she pointed to Oki, who had leaped from her shoulder to the ground next to her feet, looking up at them with big amber eyes.