When I look up at the vastness of the night sky, I question whether the pattern of starlight is a result of chance, scattered randomly across infinite possibilities, or intricately orchestrated with a predestined purpose. There are celestial signs that hint at a purpose, yet I still question whether surrendering to fate is the true path or whether chance itself is so meticulously designed that it also has an orchestrated purpose.
Danan. The Third Great Age. 3031.
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Danan watches the sunrise, feeling the cold of the desert night melt away. Shadows retreat, and the wind becomes still. The oasis pool glistens like a jewel under the morning sun.
"Blast this infernal heat." Jain emerges from the oracle's tent, shielding his eyes from the rising sun. "What bloody time is it?" He mutters.
"We're approaching the far west. Thiel is a full turn behind our time, the Great Moon at its peak and dawn but a distant dream," Lord Varesh rubs his sleepless eyes.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Danan walks behind Jain toward the sparkling oasis pool.
"Beautiful?" Jain mutters with disdain. "I can think of many words to describe this sand hole, and 'beautiful' is not one of them. Diseased inbred filth—" Jain curses under his breath.
"Careful, Jain. We are still welcome guests and under Anut's protection," Varesh shoots Jain a silencing glare.
"Easy for you to say, Oh, Great Elim." Jain mutters with sarcasm. He kicks at the sand, which blows straight back into his own face. "They didn't try feeding you their tit milk all night. I didn't know if they wanted to feed me, fuck me, or eat me alive."
Jain crouches and places his hands on his knees, his eyes bloodshot. "That bird thing tried to, you know—" Jain starts dry-retching, fighting back the urge to vomit. "She wanted me to father her a —." Jain's voice trails off into a whisper. "She spread those little duck legs, and —" A thick glob of thick milky vomit splatters onto the sands.
"I recall you were more than happy with the audience." Danan pats Jain's back and helps him stand.
"Where are the camels?" Danan scans the sprawling camp with a quizzical gaze. "Where are all the brothers?"
"On a hunt." Lord Varesh removes his sandals and strides barefoot towards the oasis pool, his bright yellow robes fluttering in behind him.
"A hunt?" Jain rubs his newly formed stubble. "A hunt for what? There's nothing here but sand."
"It's best you don't know." Lord Varesh's icy eyes sweep the silent camp as he speaks. "There are at least three dozen brothers, and they seek a prize for their hungry sister brides. So, let us hasten."
Lord Varesh gestures toward a long, narrow dugout canoe in the oasis pool. "Don't just stand there. Get in." Impatient, he clambers into the tight-fitting dugout.
"How did you know this canoe would be here?" Asks Danan.
"Nubina provided it," Lord Varesh replies, a little sharply.
Danan follows Varesh into the dugout, rocking it violently from side to side. He grabs a carved paddle resting on the canoe's base.
"Who is Nubina?" Danan asks, trying to make himself comfortable in the narrow dugout canoe.
Jain pushes the canoe from the oasis edge and into the pool. It slides from the sandbank and comes to float. He takes a cumbersome step into the rear of the canoe when a curved ngbaka blade comes to rest at his neck.
"Not so quickly, moon skin," a voice hisses in his ear. "Wait for me, Lord Jain of House Adair." The cold crescent blade pulls away from Jain's throat.
"Welcome, Nubina," Lord Varesh says with a welcoming smile. "I didn't see you, although I knew you would be close. We must go, and with all haste." Lord Varesh gives her an urgent nod.
A forceful hand pushes Jain into the back, and he turns on his knees to face the woman. His words of rebuke fall silent as his mouth hangs open in speechless amazement.
Nubina, black as sculpted polished granite, glistens with a sheen of sweat. Her penetrating eyes, a striking shade of otherworldly blue, stare at him with unwavering intensity. Jet-black hair cascades down her shoulders in intricate braids adorned with a golden ring that hangs from a headband, accentuating her proud forehead.
"Are you sure about this one?" Nubina peers down at Jain as she slides into the dugout.
Her athletic shoulders transition into narrow yet powerful arms; the upper body is left exposed, revealing sizable breasts secured by a strapped kaducu tied behind her neck. A long, colorful skirt drapes down her front and rear, contrasting with the exposed jet-black legs that ripple with powerful muscles. An arched blade resembling a giant throwing knife dangles from her belt, its crescent shape forming a razor-sharp half-moon. At the tip of the arch, another blade spikes outward.
Nubina slips her second ngbaka blade into her belt and throws Jain a wink.
Jain sits speechless, bewitched by her exotic beauty.
Nubina grasps a paddle and punts it from the oasis pool and into a shallow stream. The dugout drags on the sandy bottom as she uses the paddle to punt them into deeper waters.
Jain averts his ogling glance from her long legs and looks to the dugout floor.
"Who are you?" Danan finds his voice.
"Quiet Danan," Nubina says, scanning the banks of the oasis stream. "Now is not the time for chatter. The brothers hunt a caravan of silk traders. Easy pickings for fresh meat." She lingers on the last word and gives Jain a stare, who fidgets with one of his daggers.
"But how did you know we'd be here?" Danan hisses in a frantic whisper.
"I came at nightfall. You cannot trust those who dwell at the mouth of the Hebend." She gestures to the river. "From the shadows, I observed many things." She stares at Jain, who hides from her perceptive stare. "I heard many things, for I am silent as the sands and can be as close as your own shadow."
Danan scratches at his head, his brow furrowing. "But, who are you?"
"This is Nubina. She is our guide, master monk," Lord Varesh whispers from the rear of the dugout, his searching eyes not leaving the stream's bank.
"Guide to where?" Danan can't hide the excitement in his voice.
"Later, Danan." The arid red desert gives way to sporadic thickets of bright green plants and looming trees. "I sent Nubina a message before we left Thiel. She's been waiting for us."
"You sent a bird over the ocean?" Dumbfounded, Danan almost squeaks.
"Don't be ridiculous." The mage scoffs. "Nubina is of the Elema. We have no need for birds. Now hush. Let us hope we go unbothered through these waters."
"Elema? What is going on? Ouch."
Jain prods Danan in the ribs and places a shushing finger to his own lips, nodding to shapes stalking them through the undergrowth on the left bank.
The sandy banks of the desert become thick with brush. The gentle stream gives way to fast-flowing waters, which broaden into a rushing river. Danan sits, staring in silent awe at the unfolding exotic world. The riverbanks become dense with impossibly tall trees. Monkeys chatter, bound, and call in the jungle's canopy. Bright tropical birds sing unknown songs, and small crocodiles loiter on the sandbanks. Danan's eyes widen in horror as a crocodile darts with a splash into the waters beside him.
"Don't worry, they're just babies. It's the mothers you watch out for." Nubina's head gestures to what looks like a floating log. The yellow eyes blink and then slink beneath the water's surface.
"How do you know my name?" Danan gives Nubina a puzzled glance.
"I know many things about you, Danan." She looks to Jain, who reclines in unusual silence. "I know many things about you too, Jain Adair."
Jain fidgets with his dagger but doesn't meet her captivating stare.
The jungle canopy arches overhead as monkeys clamber and leap from one side of the river to the other. "The outcasts won't venture this far down the river." Nubina ceases paddling and lets the dugout drift on the Hebend's current. She glances at Lord Varesh. "It's a dangerous game to trade with Anut. You got it then?" Excitement resonates in her voice.
"I got it," Lord Varesh says, revealing a small roll of parchment concealed within his robe. "I'm as surprised as you," he admits, "and grateful that Anut is as wise as she professes to be. Hidden within those tomes lies a slender chance of her rebirth. A hope even she cannot deny."
"Do you trust her?" Nubina inquires with a sardonic snarl.
"Trust, Anut?" The mage scoffs. "Never." He settles into the rear of the dugout and skims his hand on the water's surface. "I trust Anut as little as I trust these waters. However, Anut is no fool. I gave Anut the rarest grimoires of all the kingdoms. The irony of knowing everything about everyone, yet her own existence, remains a mystery to her."
Varesh tucks the parchment back in his robes with an appreciative nod. "The hunt is on." He slaps his legs with joy and guffaws in merry laughter.
"Alright," Jain finally breaks his silence. "What in the thirteen hells is going on?"
"Ah, there you are. I was thinking you'd lost your tongue." Varesh remarks, winking at Nubina.
"My mind was elsewhere." Jain gives Nubina a slight glance before averting his gaze. "Like, who was stalking us when we left that freak show in the middle of the desert?"
"You've got keen ears, moon-flesh." Nubina nods approvingly.
"Moon flesh?" Jain snorts.
"Yes, pale man." Nubina's eyes sparkle with amusement. "You've got flesh as pale as moonlight." She purses her lips. "I'll call you 'Moon Boy'."
"Boy?" Jain puffs out, "I'm a man. A lord."
"Ladies, I am Lord Jain Adair from the Kingdom of Thiel." Nubina gives him a mocking bow and mimics his voice. "I heard your charms with the sisters."
"What? How?" Jain can't disguise his intrigue.
"Nubina is the best tracker and hunter I know, Jain," Lord Varesh pipes up happily.
The mercenary spins to face the mage, unable to hide his disbelief.
"Surely you don't believe a woman is better than..."
"Better than you? Moon boy." Jain spins to face Nubina.
Nubina's face is a hairsbreadth from Jain's face. She gives him a disdainful sniff. "You stink of foul breast milk and rotten man meat. Out here, you're just a boy. You know nothing of my world or my kind."
Nubina sits again, resting her back in the dugout. "You wouldn't last a day in the jungle. It will swallow you whole, silent as the night, deadly as poison. "My name in our tongue is Nubina, which means 'black poison'." She looks away from an abashed Jain toward Danan. "Not all of Anut's children are so hospitable." She spits into the river. "One son for one daughter." Nubina shakes her head in disgust. "Inbred sand flies."
Jain snorts a laugh in approval.
"They cast those deemed excess to roam the red lands. They stick close to the water, for all animals need shade and water. The children of Anut are as wild as they are wicked." Nubina snarls, "They feed on their own kind, and all animals must feed."
The canoe falls into a somber silence, as the realization sinks in.
˜ ˜ ˜
The dugout canoe floats through a dense, exotic world inhabited by primates, water snakes, and cawing birds. Time slips away as swiftly as the tide. Unanswered questions wait for calmer waters.
Nubina breaks the tranquil calm and paddles them to a wide sandy riverbank surrounded by thick jungle. "We'll make camp here." She jumps from the dugout onto the shore and pulls the canoe onto the wet sand.
Jain stands and helps Danan to his feet. He does the same for Varesh, and as he turns to jump ashore, a tender hand takes his.
Nubina's touch ignites something unspoken. Like a flash of white light, a kiss of lightning, or the flicker of a flame. Their eyes lock, and for Jain, time stands still as he swims in her ocean pools and lets her glow wash over him.
"This is not a place to bathe unless you want to feed the crocs." Nubina drags Jain from the canoe with a rough pull. He tumbles face-first onto the sandbank and quickly composes himself, brushing off the sand.
Nubina gazes into the thick jungle beyond the beach. She then kneels and runs her fingers over the sandy surface. She places her two forefingers into a faint depression and rubs sand between her fingers. Nubina sniffs the air. "I'll be back at nightfall." She walks toward the jungle. "Get a fire going. You'll find plenty of dry wood and tinder near the base of the trees." With that, she steps into the dense jungle. "Watch out for the fire ants. Once they bite, you must burn them off before the poison sets in." She glances back at them, looking over her shoulder through the thick undergrowth. "Try not to die. We just got here."
Nubina then strides into the jungle, and within three steps, she disappears from their sight.
Danan turns towards Jain, smirking. "You like her."
"Shut up." Jain tries to hide his blushing face.