The Long Journey Home; The Mummy; PG13
Aug. 19th, 2008 07:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morgynleriTitle: The Long Journey Home
Fandom: The Mummy/The Mummy Returns
Rating: PG13 (subject to change as I work on the story)
Warnings: None. Yet.
Notes: Italics are the equivalent of subtitles. So that we know what both sides say, without the whole "magically understanding each other despite being from different worlds and speaking different languages" that is a risk with this stuff. Besides, it's more fun that way, even if there aren't misunderstandings. Yet.
A Star From the Sky
The first thing Sale'ah noticed as she roused was the heat. Dry, like the deserts she once called home, before the demons had come to torment them. Welcome as a journey back to her own world would be, if she had the chance to but achieve it.
A chance she doubted she would, if this world held as little technology as her own. Prying open eyes that felt glued shut, she struggled out of the chair that had sheltered her as the stolen pod had crashed through the atmosphere.
Sunlight poured through a gash in the hull, sand trickling through it, driven by a gentle breeze. Sale'ah raised her hands, tilting her head back as she murmured a heart-felt thanks to the gods for delivering her from her masters onto a world so fine. Even if she died here, she had seen open sky once more, a sight she barely remembered, held so long in the metal cage of the ships.
Humming, Sale'ah gathered the items she had managed to steal on her way to the pod. A wide swath of fabric that once hung across her master's sleeping alcove, a carry-bag that held as much of her ration of water as could be spared over the last month, and the tiny carving her mother had pressed into her hands when the masters stole her away. Her personal protector, sent by the gods to guide her to her path.
She climbed from the wreck of the pod, wriggling through the half-buried and broken hatch, spitting on it once she stood on the shifting sands that had cushioned her fall to earth. "Gods be blessed, you have served your purpose. May your masters find nothing more of you than of me."
Wrapping the fabric around her head to hide her skin from the blazing sun, she turned to walk from the wreckage, her shadow a small pool of inky black in front of her as she trekked over the sands. Gods be praised, she could only hope the demons never found her here.
~ ~~ ~
Ardeth looked out over the desert with a faint frown on his face. A star had been seen crashing to the earth three nights before, close to the sunken ruins of Hamunaptra. Brighter than anyone could recall a falling star being in the past, perhaps an omen of some ill tidings. Ill tidings or no, he knew something waited in the desert, ever since the star had fallen. Something or someone.
A glint caught his eyes, and his frown deepened as he nudged his horse forward, his gaze drawn towards movement on the dunes, a figure sliding down the near side of one in an akward motion that spoke of someone unaccustomed to the desert, or perhaps parched from lack of water. He nudged his horse into a gallop, approaching the figure quickly.
The figure, a woman, let out a frightened yelp, dropping to the sand to cower there with upraised hands. Delicate hands, fine-boned and pale, with slender wrists bared by the sleeves of the strange jacket she wore. A scarf wound around her head, hiding her face, even as the rest of her clothing hugged curves that no woman of the desert would reveal.
"Who are you?" Ardeth reined his horse to a stop, imposing himself between her and the sun so she could look up at him. He met the gaze of a pair of fearful and confused brown eyes, peering up at him from between swaths of veil. "Where did you come from?"
She shook her head, a chaotic babble of sounds coming from her, dropping her gaze once more to study the sands at the feet of his horse. Or rather, the hooves of his horse, reaching out to touch the dainty hoof nearest her, the mare snorting and shifting slightly under him. The woman drew her hand back, still crouching in the sand, her manner reminding him much of a beaten dog.
"I will not hurt you." Ardeth switched languages from Arabic to English, hoping she might understand that language.
Again, she showed no sign of understanding what he said, and Ardeth let out a soft sigh, sliding from his horse with the hope that she might feel more comfortable with him on the ground. She flinched when he reached out to pull her to her feet, fear momentarily flaring before it gave way to surprise. As if she'd expected violence, or anger from him, not kindness.
"What is your name?" He fell back into the comfortable cadance of Arabic once more, even though she didn't understand.
She looked down, her hands at her sides curling briefly into fists, as if trying to bring emotions under control. The silence stretched out for a long moment before she let out a soft sigh, and brought a hand up to touch her chest. "Sale'ah."
Ardeth met her gaze as she looked up again, an inquiring light in her eyes. "Ardeth Bey. Where do you come from, Sale'ah?" He gestured to the desert around them, raising his eyebrows slightly.
Sale'ah tilted her head slightly, keeping her tone quiet as she spoke, looking up as she pointed towards the sky. "I come a long distance. That is what you ask?"
Ardeth felt a chill go down his spine despite the blazing sun. Perhaps the fireball streaking across the sky the night before hadn't been a falling star, but if not, what had it been, to bring this woman, who spoke no language he'd heard before, to the desert?
~ ~~ ~
Sale'ah frowned when Ardeth paled, keeping silent when his gaze darted toward the desert she'd wandered for the last three days, despite her curiosity. Too much a risk, no matter how kind he appeared, that her curiosity would be unwanted, and punished.
"You must come with me." Ardeth reached out to tug at her arm as he spoke, pulling her closer to the strange creature he had arrived on.
"I will not get on such a creature!" Sale'ah dug her heels into the sand as best she could, her gaze darting between man and beast. She wished she could understand him, or have him at least understand her when he gestured to the creature again. "I do not understand, and I do not trust your riding beast. What if it does not like me?"
"The horse is to ride upon. It will take too long to walk back to the camp otherwise." He reached out to hold the contraption on the creature's back, gesturing once more, as if encouraging her to climb onto the beast.
Sale'ah shook her head again, backing away. "No. Please. I do not like the look of it." She snatched her arm away when he reached for her again, scrambling away in a circle, keeping one eye on the animal. "I will walk beside it, but not ride it."
"She's perfectly safe to ride. She won't bite you." Ardeth frowned, watching her with an unreadable expression on his face. "Do you not know how to ride?"
"I don't understand what you are saying!" Sale'ah pressed the tips of her fingers to her forehead in frustration, closing her eyes for a moment. "Even your gestures are alien to me, more than not. And you do not know what I am saying anymore than I know what you are saying."
~ ~~ ~
Ardeth watched Sale'ah as she mumbled, her eyes hidden by her hands, frustrated by her unwillingness to get near to the mare, and with the mutual lack of understanding. She didn't appear to even understand his pantomime to ride the horse.
"Sale'ah." He waited until she looked up at him, her head tilted slightly as if in question. "Come here, please." He beckoned to her as he spoke, and her brows furrowed as she slowly approached him and the horse. He took her hand, and placed it on the saddle. "Saddle."
She was silent a moment, before parroting the word back, and moving her hand to tentatively touch the flank of the horse. The mare snorted, shifting, and Ardeth reached out to hold the bridle under her nose, murmuring to calm her.
"Horse." Ardeth paused, his free hand rubbing the mare's shoulder. "Mare."
"Horse. Mare." Sale'ah watched him, reaching out the hand she'd snatched away when the mare moved to touch her again, hesitantly stroking the flank. "It is like nothing I know."
Ardeth let go of the bridle, moving back to the saddle, holding it, and reaching out to cup her elbow in one hand, pulling her towards the horse. He gestured to the saddle again, tapping the stirrup with his fingers to indicate where she needed to place her foot. "You need to be in the saddle to ride the horse."
She looked at him with frustration, if he read her expression correctly, and he sighed, placing his own foot into the saddle, and swinging up onto the horse, before offering his hand to her. Sale'ah blinked, and shook her head, resting her hand hesitantly on the saddle. "No. I am frightened. The creature... I've seen nothing in my life like it. Horse..." She shook her head again. "No creature of the desert, this horse."
Ardeth sighed, recognizing only the words he had just given her. "It is faster to travel on the horse than to walk beside it."
"I know that you tell me that the creature is horse, and that the thing upon its back is saddle. I think, even, that you ask that I ride upon it, but I do not wish to." Sale'ah looked down, her hand still resting on the saddle. "I will walk beside it, though." She sighed, looking at the sand that surrounded them. "This desert is strange to me, and the creatures in it stranger. Gods give blessings that I learn this place quickly, because there is nowhere else to go."
~ ~~ ~~~ ~~ ~
Puzzles of a Human Nature
Sale'ah kept close to the horse as they approached a camp, the tents making her long for her home, though they were darker, and not patterned with the symbols of family and deity as those in her childhood memories. Nor was the murmur of voices in any familiar cadance to comfort her, alone now in this place so far from home.
"Sale'ah." Ardeth waited until she had looked up, keeping his horse to a walk as they approached the tents. "A woman alone here is vulnerable, and it is not proper for you to be alone with any man here, even myself."
She frowned, and stepped closer to the horse as they came closer to the tents, watching those who came out to meet them warily. Some of them looked at her strangely, others merely looked up at Ardeth, speaking to him as he came down from his horse - asking questions, perhaps, as she knew her people would if one of their own were to bring back a stranger from the desert.
"She is a stranger in the desert, and she does not speak our tongue. It would not be wise to leave her to die out there, not after the star that fell from the sky." Ardeth led his horse over to where others were tethered, and Sale'ah peered at them curiously a moment, turning her attention back to Ardeth when he spoke again.
"Mariam! I would ask that you look after Sale'ah, as she was alone."
A woman came at Ardeth's call, and Sale'ah ducked her head, looking at the sands at her feet for a long moment, uncertain what would happen now.
"Sale'ah." Ardeth nodded to the woman, and said, "Mariam."
Sale'ah looked up, meeting the woman's - Mariam's - eyes hesitantly. "Gods give blessings upon you," she murmured before bowing her head again.
"I will do what I may, but it will be difficult if she does not learn to speak Arabic, that she might be understood." Mariam reached out to tug at Sale'ah's hand, pulling her towards the tents, and Sale'ah looked back at Ardeth a moment before letting herself be tugged along.
~ ~~ ~
Ardeth turned away as soon as Mariam took charge of Sale'ah, taking care of his horse before heading back to his own tent, listening to the questions and worries of those who had greeted him, and seen Sale'ah.
"You should not have brought her back, Ardeth. If she was alone in the desert, she has no one to miss her, and so close to Hamunaptra, it is worrisome that she is in the desert at all." One of the older warriors, one whose advice Ardeth trusted, spoke quietly. "What is it that caused you to bring her back, and offer her hospitality?"
"I am concerned that she is more than just a woman alone." Ardeth ducked into his tent, settling onto the rugs, waving for Nadim to sit as well. "She came from out the desert in the direction the star fell, Nadim. And the language she speaks is like nothing I have heard, from anywhere or anyone."
A frown crossed the older man's face. "You think she may have fell along with that star? From where, Ardeth?"
"I do not know." A frustrated expression crossed Ardeth's face. "She was afraid of my horse, as if she had never seen one before. And she was surprised by kindness, as if it was something she has not experienced much of in her life, if any at all. Not as someone who has lived in the desert, and does not expect that help will be granted to a stranger, but as one who thinks ill-treatment is all that they will recieve."
"And she does not understand any language you speak?"
"I only tried Arabic and English, but she spoke in some babble that sounds like nothing I have learned. I doubted any other language would have made her understand me better. Even the movements of her hands were strange, though I think perhaps Mariam will be able to understand her expressions."
"Which is something." Nadim paused, leaning back a moment, watching Ardeth. "What will you do with this stranger you have rescued from the desert? She has no one, and there are few who will accept her presence as she is. Alone."
Ardeth nodded. "I am aware of this, Nadim. But there is little I can do, except to leave her in the care of Mariam and the other women."
"You could find someone who is looking for a wife, if she is obedient, and teachable." Nadim still watched him, and Ardeth raised an eyebrow at him. "She would be protected then, if you find her a patient man who would marry her."
"If there is any who would marry a woman of unknown virtue with no family."
Nadim smiled a little, raising an eyebrow at Ardeth. "I am sure there are some who would marry such a one, if they thought it the right thing to do. Alas, my sons are too young, or I might suggest that they would be such. And I am content with my Zahrah."
Ardeth shook his head, giving Nadim a knowing look. "You are meddling."
"Perhaps I am." Nadim flicked his fingers slightly. "But if this Sale'ah is more than just a woman alone, Ardeth, then perhaps it is not so unlikely an idea that you might provide her a safety beyond merely bringing her in from the desert."
~ ~~ ~
Sale'ah woke with a start, curling into a ball and closer to the wall for a moment, blinking. She relaxed as she remembered where she was, reaching for the fabric of her veiling as she sat up, looping it neatly about her head and shoulders, shifting slightly to settle the enveloping robes that Mariam had provided, a small smile curling her lips. It had been too long since she'd last worn anything like the clothing of her home, and for all that the robes weren't the dress of home, they were closer than the jackets and trousers of the clothing demanded by the demons.
Outside, Mariam was cooking over a fire, chattering with the others she had introduced Sale'ah to - Zahrah, Yasmin, Na'ima - and she beckoned Sale'ah over when she spotted her, sitting her down with tea and something said that Sale'ah couldn't understand.
"Did Nadim tell you any of what he spoke with Ardeth about? Anything more on our strange visitor?" Mariam was looking at Zahrah, and Sale'ah tilted her head, curious and listening - if nothing else, she could begin to learn their language.
"Nothing but that perhaps it would be wise to see what Sale'ah knows to do. If she might be able to cook and keep close watch of the goats. I think perhaps he is looking with an eye that she would be staying in one of the tents here." Zahrah met Sale'ah's gaze a moment, a smile in her eyes. "I think perhaps it would be well for her that a suitable husband were found, for I doubt it would be wise to send her on her way when she is rested. The world is not kind to a strange woman alone, and I do not think it would be any kinder beyond the desert."
"You speak of me, but I do not understand," Sale'ah murmured, shifting her veil to sip at the tea Mariam had given her. Nor would they understand what she said, if she spoke much at all.
~ ~~ ~
Mariam listened to the quiet babble from Sale'ah, wishing that the other woman at least understood what they were saying, even if she could not speak their language. She pressed her lips together a moment before holding out the spoon with which she had been tending the stewing meat. "Take the spoon, Sale'ah. All you need do is stir the pot." She gestured at the pot with her free hand, hoping the girl could understand the movements at least.
Sale'ah tilted her head, and smiled a little. "I can cook, that I learned before the demons stole me from my mother." She took the spoon from Mariam, stirring the pot as the older woman had, and Mariam smiled.
"At least you can understand that, even if you do not understand what I am saying." She watched Sale'ah a long moment more. "Your sons are too young to take a wife, Zahrah, and there are not many men who would take a wife who cannot understand what they say, even if she knows enough about what to do."
"I know. I think Nadim is meddling again, though I do wish that he would tell me why he is doing so, when she is nothing more than a traveler through the desert - though from where or where she is going is a question that may not be easily answered."
"Perhaps she is more than that, though." Yasmin glanced at Sale'ah a moment. "The star fell from the sky four nights ago now, and she was found in the desert alone after. Perhaps she is more than merely a stranger in the desert, traveling. Or she has traveled from further than anyone who has come to our desert."
"Perhaps." Mariam smiled, when Sale'ah turned a puzzled expression towards her, reaching out to gently press her fingers against her arm. "You are a puzzle to us, Sale'ah, as I'm sure we are a puzzle to you. But I should hope it does not remain so, for there is too much danger still in this desert for any to be distracted by a puzzle for long."
Fandom: The Mummy/The Mummy Returns
Rating: PG13 (subject to change as I work on the story)
Warnings: None. Yet.
Notes: Italics are the equivalent of subtitles. So that we know what both sides say, without the whole "magically understanding each other despite being from different worlds and speaking different languages" that is a risk with this stuff. Besides, it's more fun that way, even if there aren't misunderstandings. Yet.
The first thing Sale'ah noticed as she roused was the heat. Dry, like the deserts she once called home, before the demons had come to torment them. Welcome as a journey back to her own world would be, if she had the chance to but achieve it.
A chance she doubted she would, if this world held as little technology as her own. Prying open eyes that felt glued shut, she struggled out of the chair that had sheltered her as the stolen pod had crashed through the atmosphere.
Sunlight poured through a gash in the hull, sand trickling through it, driven by a gentle breeze. Sale'ah raised her hands, tilting her head back as she murmured a heart-felt thanks to the gods for delivering her from her masters onto a world so fine. Even if she died here, she had seen open sky once more, a sight she barely remembered, held so long in the metal cage of the ships.
Humming, Sale'ah gathered the items she had managed to steal on her way to the pod. A wide swath of fabric that once hung across her master's sleeping alcove, a carry-bag that held as much of her ration of water as could be spared over the last month, and the tiny carving her mother had pressed into her hands when the masters stole her away. Her personal protector, sent by the gods to guide her to her path.
She climbed from the wreck of the pod, wriggling through the half-buried and broken hatch, spitting on it once she stood on the shifting sands that had cushioned her fall to earth. "Gods be blessed, you have served your purpose. May your masters find nothing more of you than of me."
Wrapping the fabric around her head to hide her skin from the blazing sun, she turned to walk from the wreckage, her shadow a small pool of inky black in front of her as she trekked over the sands. Gods be praised, she could only hope the demons never found her here.
Ardeth looked out over the desert with a faint frown on his face. A star had been seen crashing to the earth three nights before, close to the sunken ruins of Hamunaptra. Brighter than anyone could recall a falling star being in the past, perhaps an omen of some ill tidings. Ill tidings or no, he knew something waited in the desert, ever since the star had fallen. Something or someone.
A glint caught his eyes, and his frown deepened as he nudged his horse forward, his gaze drawn towards movement on the dunes, a figure sliding down the near side of one in an akward motion that spoke of someone unaccustomed to the desert, or perhaps parched from lack of water. He nudged his horse into a gallop, approaching the figure quickly.
The figure, a woman, let out a frightened yelp, dropping to the sand to cower there with upraised hands. Delicate hands, fine-boned and pale, with slender wrists bared by the sleeves of the strange jacket she wore. A scarf wound around her head, hiding her face, even as the rest of her clothing hugged curves that no woman of the desert would reveal.
"Who are you?" Ardeth reined his horse to a stop, imposing himself between her and the sun so she could look up at him. He met the gaze of a pair of fearful and confused brown eyes, peering up at him from between swaths of veil. "Where did you come from?"
She shook her head, a chaotic babble of sounds coming from her, dropping her gaze once more to study the sands at the feet of his horse. Or rather, the hooves of his horse, reaching out to touch the dainty hoof nearest her, the mare snorting and shifting slightly under him. The woman drew her hand back, still crouching in the sand, her manner reminding him much of a beaten dog.
"I will not hurt you." Ardeth switched languages from Arabic to English, hoping she might understand that language.
Again, she showed no sign of understanding what he said, and Ardeth let out a soft sigh, sliding from his horse with the hope that she might feel more comfortable with him on the ground. She flinched when he reached out to pull her to her feet, fear momentarily flaring before it gave way to surprise. As if she'd expected violence, or anger from him, not kindness.
"What is your name?" He fell back into the comfortable cadance of Arabic once more, even though she didn't understand.
She looked down, her hands at her sides curling briefly into fists, as if trying to bring emotions under control. The silence stretched out for a long moment before she let out a soft sigh, and brought a hand up to touch her chest. "Sale'ah."
Ardeth met her gaze as she looked up again, an inquiring light in her eyes. "Ardeth Bey. Where do you come from, Sale'ah?" He gestured to the desert around them, raising his eyebrows slightly.
Sale'ah tilted her head slightly, keeping her tone quiet as she spoke, looking up as she pointed towards the sky. "I come a long distance. That is what you ask?"
Ardeth felt a chill go down his spine despite the blazing sun. Perhaps the fireball streaking across the sky the night before hadn't been a falling star, but if not, what had it been, to bring this woman, who spoke no language he'd heard before, to the desert?
Sale'ah frowned when Ardeth paled, keeping silent when his gaze darted toward the desert she'd wandered for the last three days, despite her curiosity. Too much a risk, no matter how kind he appeared, that her curiosity would be unwanted, and punished.
"You must come with me." Ardeth reached out to tug at her arm as he spoke, pulling her closer to the strange creature he had arrived on.
"I will not get on such a creature!" Sale'ah dug her heels into the sand as best she could, her gaze darting between man and beast. She wished she could understand him, or have him at least understand her when he gestured to the creature again. "I do not understand, and I do not trust your riding beast. What if it does not like me?"
"The horse is to ride upon. It will take too long to walk back to the camp otherwise." He reached out to hold the contraption on the creature's back, gesturing once more, as if encouraging her to climb onto the beast.
Sale'ah shook her head again, backing away. "No. Please. I do not like the look of it." She snatched her arm away when he reached for her again, scrambling away in a circle, keeping one eye on the animal. "I will walk beside it, but not ride it."
"She's perfectly safe to ride. She won't bite you." Ardeth frowned, watching her with an unreadable expression on his face. "Do you not know how to ride?"
"I don't understand what you are saying!" Sale'ah pressed the tips of her fingers to her forehead in frustration, closing her eyes for a moment. "Even your gestures are alien to me, more than not. And you do not know what I am saying anymore than I know what you are saying."
Ardeth watched Sale'ah as she mumbled, her eyes hidden by her hands, frustrated by her unwillingness to get near to the mare, and with the mutual lack of understanding. She didn't appear to even understand his pantomime to ride the horse.
"Sale'ah." He waited until she looked up at him, her head tilted slightly as if in question. "Come here, please." He beckoned to her as he spoke, and her brows furrowed as she slowly approached him and the horse. He took her hand, and placed it on the saddle. "Saddle."
She was silent a moment, before parroting the word back, and moving her hand to tentatively touch the flank of the horse. The mare snorted, shifting, and Ardeth reached out to hold the bridle under her nose, murmuring to calm her.
"Horse." Ardeth paused, his free hand rubbing the mare's shoulder. "Mare."
"Horse. Mare." Sale'ah watched him, reaching out the hand she'd snatched away when the mare moved to touch her again, hesitantly stroking the flank. "It is like nothing I know."
Ardeth let go of the bridle, moving back to the saddle, holding it, and reaching out to cup her elbow in one hand, pulling her towards the horse. He gestured to the saddle again, tapping the stirrup with his fingers to indicate where she needed to place her foot. "You need to be in the saddle to ride the horse."
She looked at him with frustration, if he read her expression correctly, and he sighed, placing his own foot into the saddle, and swinging up onto the horse, before offering his hand to her. Sale'ah blinked, and shook her head, resting her hand hesitantly on the saddle. "No. I am frightened. The creature... I've seen nothing in my life like it. Horse..." She shook her head again. "No creature of the desert, this horse."
Ardeth sighed, recognizing only the words he had just given her. "It is faster to travel on the horse than to walk beside it."
"I know that you tell me that the creature is horse, and that the thing upon its back is saddle. I think, even, that you ask that I ride upon it, but I do not wish to." Sale'ah looked down, her hand still resting on the saddle. "I will walk beside it, though." She sighed, looking at the sand that surrounded them. "This desert is strange to me, and the creatures in it stranger. Gods give blessings that I learn this place quickly, because there is nowhere else to go."
Puzzles of a Human Nature
Sale'ah kept close to the horse as they approached a camp, the tents making her long for her home, though they were darker, and not patterned with the symbols of family and deity as those in her childhood memories. Nor was the murmur of voices in any familiar cadance to comfort her, alone now in this place so far from home.
"Sale'ah." Ardeth waited until she had looked up, keeping his horse to a walk as they approached the tents. "A woman alone here is vulnerable, and it is not proper for you to be alone with any man here, even myself."
She frowned, and stepped closer to the horse as they came closer to the tents, watching those who came out to meet them warily. Some of them looked at her strangely, others merely looked up at Ardeth, speaking to him as he came down from his horse - asking questions, perhaps, as she knew her people would if one of their own were to bring back a stranger from the desert.
"She is a stranger in the desert, and she does not speak our tongue. It would not be wise to leave her to die out there, not after the star that fell from the sky." Ardeth led his horse over to where others were tethered, and Sale'ah peered at them curiously a moment, turning her attention back to Ardeth when he spoke again.
"Mariam! I would ask that you look after Sale'ah, as she was alone."
A woman came at Ardeth's call, and Sale'ah ducked her head, looking at the sands at her feet for a long moment, uncertain what would happen now.
"Sale'ah." Ardeth nodded to the woman, and said, "Mariam."
Sale'ah looked up, meeting the woman's - Mariam's - eyes hesitantly. "Gods give blessings upon you," she murmured before bowing her head again.
"I will do what I may, but it will be difficult if she does not learn to speak Arabic, that she might be understood." Mariam reached out to tug at Sale'ah's hand, pulling her towards the tents, and Sale'ah looked back at Ardeth a moment before letting herself be tugged along.
Ardeth turned away as soon as Mariam took charge of Sale'ah, taking care of his horse before heading back to his own tent, listening to the questions and worries of those who had greeted him, and seen Sale'ah.
"You should not have brought her back, Ardeth. If she was alone in the desert, she has no one to miss her, and so close to Hamunaptra, it is worrisome that she is in the desert at all." One of the older warriors, one whose advice Ardeth trusted, spoke quietly. "What is it that caused you to bring her back, and offer her hospitality?"
"I am concerned that she is more than just a woman alone." Ardeth ducked into his tent, settling onto the rugs, waving for Nadim to sit as well. "She came from out the desert in the direction the star fell, Nadim. And the language she speaks is like nothing I have heard, from anywhere or anyone."
A frown crossed the older man's face. "You think she may have fell along with that star? From where, Ardeth?"
"I do not know." A frustrated expression crossed Ardeth's face. "She was afraid of my horse, as if she had never seen one before. And she was surprised by kindness, as if it was something she has not experienced much of in her life, if any at all. Not as someone who has lived in the desert, and does not expect that help will be granted to a stranger, but as one who thinks ill-treatment is all that they will recieve."
"And she does not understand any language you speak?"
"I only tried Arabic and English, but she spoke in some babble that sounds like nothing I have learned. I doubted any other language would have made her understand me better. Even the movements of her hands were strange, though I think perhaps Mariam will be able to understand her expressions."
"Which is something." Nadim paused, leaning back a moment, watching Ardeth. "What will you do with this stranger you have rescued from the desert? She has no one, and there are few who will accept her presence as she is. Alone."
Ardeth nodded. "I am aware of this, Nadim. But there is little I can do, except to leave her in the care of Mariam and the other women."
"You could find someone who is looking for a wife, if she is obedient, and teachable." Nadim still watched him, and Ardeth raised an eyebrow at him. "She would be protected then, if you find her a patient man who would marry her."
"If there is any who would marry a woman of unknown virtue with no family."
Nadim smiled a little, raising an eyebrow at Ardeth. "I am sure there are some who would marry such a one, if they thought it the right thing to do. Alas, my sons are too young, or I might suggest that they would be such. And I am content with my Zahrah."
Ardeth shook his head, giving Nadim a knowing look. "You are meddling."
"Perhaps I am." Nadim flicked his fingers slightly. "But if this Sale'ah is more than just a woman alone, Ardeth, then perhaps it is not so unlikely an idea that you might provide her a safety beyond merely bringing her in from the desert."
Sale'ah woke with a start, curling into a ball and closer to the wall for a moment, blinking. She relaxed as she remembered where she was, reaching for the fabric of her veiling as she sat up, looping it neatly about her head and shoulders, shifting slightly to settle the enveloping robes that Mariam had provided, a small smile curling her lips. It had been too long since she'd last worn anything like the clothing of her home, and for all that the robes weren't the dress of home, they were closer than the jackets and trousers of the clothing demanded by the demons.
Outside, Mariam was cooking over a fire, chattering with the others she had introduced Sale'ah to - Zahrah, Yasmin, Na'ima - and she beckoned Sale'ah over when she spotted her, sitting her down with tea and something said that Sale'ah couldn't understand.
"Did Nadim tell you any of what he spoke with Ardeth about? Anything more on our strange visitor?" Mariam was looking at Zahrah, and Sale'ah tilted her head, curious and listening - if nothing else, she could begin to learn their language.
"Nothing but that perhaps it would be wise to see what Sale'ah knows to do. If she might be able to cook and keep close watch of the goats. I think perhaps he is looking with an eye that she would be staying in one of the tents here." Zahrah met Sale'ah's gaze a moment, a smile in her eyes. "I think perhaps it would be well for her that a suitable husband were found, for I doubt it would be wise to send her on her way when she is rested. The world is not kind to a strange woman alone, and I do not think it would be any kinder beyond the desert."
"You speak of me, but I do not understand," Sale'ah murmured, shifting her veil to sip at the tea Mariam had given her. Nor would they understand what she said, if she spoke much at all.
Mariam listened to the quiet babble from Sale'ah, wishing that the other woman at least understood what they were saying, even if she could not speak their language. She pressed her lips together a moment before holding out the spoon with which she had been tending the stewing meat. "Take the spoon, Sale'ah. All you need do is stir the pot." She gestured at the pot with her free hand, hoping the girl could understand the movements at least.
Sale'ah tilted her head, and smiled a little. "I can cook, that I learned before the demons stole me from my mother." She took the spoon from Mariam, stirring the pot as the older woman had, and Mariam smiled.
"At least you can understand that, even if you do not understand what I am saying." She watched Sale'ah a long moment more. "Your sons are too young to take a wife, Zahrah, and there are not many men who would take a wife who cannot understand what they say, even if she knows enough about what to do."
"I know. I think Nadim is meddling again, though I do wish that he would tell me why he is doing so, when she is nothing more than a traveler through the desert - though from where or where she is going is a question that may not be easily answered."
"Perhaps she is more than that, though." Yasmin glanced at Sale'ah a moment. "The star fell from the sky four nights ago now, and she was found in the desert alone after. Perhaps she is more than merely a stranger in the desert, traveling. Or she has traveled from further than anyone who has come to our desert."
"Perhaps." Mariam smiled, when Sale'ah turned a puzzled expression towards her, reaching out to gently press her fingers against her arm. "You are a puzzle to us, Sale'ah, as I'm sure we are a puzzle to you. But I should hope it does not remain so, for there is too much danger still in this desert for any to be distracted by a puzzle for long."