"Following in your footsteps,
you are all I see.
Please come near.
Please come here.
Fellow, talk to me.
I can not venture closer,
nor can I approach.
Turn around.
I am bound
by my dignity.
My heart is an angry gale.
(It)Shudders like the sea.
I will drown
'till i'm found
in the arms of thee."
------------------------Story: Aragad----------------------------------
Sand tumbled it's way onto the ground, scattering itself before his feet. It all gave him the mental image of a cracked hour glass, but he had all the time in the world. In fact, under previous circumstances, an exile into the desert, that sand would have been the entirety of his world. But now it was all flattened and displayed below him. It was no longer in it's homeland. It no longer threatened with the menace which only a sandstorm could bring. It was weak. He had the power now. He, Aragad Smith, was finally free.
The copper skinned ruffian was determined to rid himself of all sandy remnants of that place if possible. He was not completely satisfied that his ragged leather boots were entirely rid of the tiny grains, so he peered cautiously inside them, slowly and deliberately, almost as if expecting something to lunge out at him. During previous circumstances, such an event wouldn't have been all that surprising. There had been too many monsters, too many wounds, too many close calls. At any rate, satisfied at last that his boots were relatively clean and that nothing was going to attack him at the moment, Aragad gave his pair a shake just for good measure before forcing his feet inside. Grey eyes, the color of the clouds on the stormiest day, began to gaze at the grains left behind.
The sand glimmered white in the sunlight. It looked more like a pile of miniature diamonds, rather than the remnants of what once had been rock. If only that hellish place had carried true diamonds! Aragad wouldn't have had to steal everything he needed: food, money, and cut-up clothes on his back. And he wouldn't need to continue stealing either. He could just buy a new ship, new crew, new rations, new pardon, and new piracy license from the local monarch. Hell, he wouldn't even need to consider piracy in the first place! But, no matter how he wished otherwise sometimes, the sand was nothing more than sand in the very same, unfair way that he was nothing more than an exiled sea captain, a forgotten name, having finally returned to a place were he was obviously unwelcome. Home sweet home. Thankfully, he did not return alone.
He had not crawled out of that place empty handed. In fact, the ruffian brought treasure with him. This treasure couldn't compare with gold, rupees, francs, liras, or dubloons. It didn't involve any map, crown, or sword. And, it most certainly put most pearls, rubies, sapphires, and pearls to shame. His treasure was worth more to him that any of that, made of flesh and blood. His treasure was the beautiful Arabian dancer, Badieh, a woman more ruthless than he cared or even dared to be. And that was one of the many reasons why he loved her.
Badieh had shown the mutinied captain her world, lived with him in it, helped him survive it, but had also made him promise to show her his. Although Aragad thrived on adrenaline and adventure, he was reluctant to take his treasure with him. What if someone took her? Her life? Could he risk that? Could he possibly punish her on the decks of any ship? Could he even witness such a thing?
His full mind, filled with worries, and his flasks, emptied of every last drop, proved to be more than enough evidence in revealing that he was overdue for a visit to Port Sebation's tavern. It was there that the ruffian tended to cleanse his need for all manner of sustenance, and his mind from the problems which advanced and spread around him like the plague.
_________
