The sun started to light the ashen dunes. For once the winds were silent, taking their breath for they knew the storm was about to be unleashed.

  Sha’Raph had an uneasy sleep. All she knew had been taken for her by but a truth. Not an axe, but lies that cut deep. But there was peace in those lies. Because for once she felt the wind in her hair and on her cheeks. A warm breeze that was coming from the west. Slowly it woke the dunes and made the ash rise with it. Sir Raimond was still sleeping. He had offered to be on night guard but she knew he needed rest as much as she did. Humans needed more of it than orcs. She had learned that she did early on. Master Kru’Gan only ever called it “the curse”. Something that she was born with and that would weaken her. Something that made her an even braver warrior should she still beat the rest.

  Sha’Raph of the Dunes wasn’t used to hide her tears. So they ran freely when she thought about her master. He was the one family she had. There were some of the clan and few of the riders, but he was family. And yet he lied. Had her live that lie for all her life. Over the night she had told herself that it wouldn’t matter. She was still of the nomads and the dunes, a rider and watcher, but she knew it was but distant hope. There was no place for her here. Not anymore. At least once her duty was done.

  “Good morning.” Sir Raimond greeted her from behind. He was insisting on making a small tent while she slept inside Dustfang’s big scale. As she always did.

  “Morning.” She echoed his words and continued to watch the sun touch the grey dunes.

  As he walked next to her he saw her tears but remained silent. His armour was resting inside the tent for now and he only wore the leather beneath.

  He gave her a second of peace until he pushed his question. “Did the night offer you counsel?”

  She sighed and her gaze wandered down. Once it reached up to him again she answered. “I not leave when things undone.” She stated as clearly as she could. Her words were still disjointed yet her rough orcish accent calmed more with the day.

  He nodded. “The Khan.”

  She nodded back. “Aru’Gal.”

  “Then let us not waste time.” He stated. “He might be a day ahead of us.”

  She gazed over the dunes to the sun and then the north. “The beast followed. One may be dead.”

  He started to take his gloves back on and she walked in to help him with the rest of his plate.

  His mind and words were already in battle. “Do you think he might already be dead?” She moved behind him and helped him tighten the belt of his chestplate. “The Khan I mean.”

  She thought about his words and tried to imagine a fight between the two. “A beast, a bull be strong.” She finally said. “But bite of snake be deadly.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “You speak with wisdom, friend.” He said and made her smile. In orcish the words for friend and brother or sister were almost the same. Kru’Gan had tried to teach her that there was a different meaning in the human tongue, but she only remembered it to be the word for sister.

  He stood up and she started to bind the plate on his legs together. She may have never done it, but belts were easy to understand.

  “I thank you again for the aid.” He said with the most composed tone he could offer.

  She didn’t understand why and shook her head. “We fight as one. You need your armour.”

  He nodded and she finished. While he started to take his tent once more she took dried meat from the supplies they had pillaged in the mesa. After she whistled she threw him one and started to eat the other herself. It was the same for the waterskins they had gathered. To Sir Raimond it was a harsh meal, to her it was a feast.

  Once they started to fly a hint of a smile was born on her face again. Finally she felt the winds without her mask.

  She watched the sun rise the east, but soon took her gaze to the distant west where the dunes crept over the horizon. Behind it the earthen plains would be hidden, and behind them the sea. “Tell me, of home.” She ask Sir Raimond with a distance in her voice.

  He thought for a moment and leaned back behind her. After a long time he answered. “Well..where to start really?” He struggled for words and she found him some. “Your home, friend.” She said and made him smile now.

  It took another long moment until he spoke. “Portfall is but one of a thousand Isles around the central sea. Small enough that the entire isle carries the scent of the shores, yet big enough to get lost when you are young.”

  He smiled for a moment before he continued. “There are windmills on the highest hills right in the isles centre. And grand bridges from the city itself over the sea to the tiny towers and lighthouses on cliffs nearby.”

  He sighed and even though she couldn’t understand all his words, she could hear it made him happy. “The grandest bridge runs wide across the ocean to the isle Runach. The second of the two sister isles. Once a fortress of the highland dwarfs, before the land was drowned by the sorcerer’s war.”

  He continued to talk for quite a while and the more he spoke the less she could understand, yet the more she urged to see those lands with her own eyes. It was distant, a promise, an escape, but a new shore to conquer and call home.

  Finally he was done and sighed. “But I don’t know what they did to it after we were set off.” Bitterness crept into his voice. “Aurelian and his high council. They promised redemption for the houses’ treachery, but it was just the witch's grasp.”

  “He will pay.” She answered him unusually clean in her words.

  He made a bitter smile and nodded. “He will.”

  Their flight went north over the ashen dunes. Below Sha’Raph could see a group of nomads travelling to the next hidden cave. A long line of orcs and dragged supplies. Even a few giant ash beetles were with them and mounted by some. A few supplies were set on them but most were dragged over the ash. On a dune next to them Kru’Gan leaned on his staff. She could feel the Seers blind gaze.

  “Do you want to say goodbye?” Sir Raimond asked?

  She slowly shook her head as she gazed down. “Not yet.”

  As she felt tears creep up again she roared and Dustfang started to dashed for the north. “First Aru’Gal, then home.”

  Without a word Sir Raimond nodded in agreement.

  To Sha’Raph the world became bright with tears. There was Kru’Gan and her home. But also Aru’Gal. Once a friend and if not for her mark, for her being, he could have been more. Yet he chose his fate. “Beat me.” He had told them down in the fires before the dragon. And she would listen to her Khan.