medjxi
Odd. Yes, perhaps. Yet not the oddest thing she’d ever done.
The desert isn’t exactly the best place for her to be, of course––being a place of Chaos––but she calculates the risks, decides that she can likely manage it. At least for long enough that the usual single-man patrol could come through, and he did, like clockwork.
When the man found her, she had to be careful, artful with what she said, let him lead the conversation.
“How did you come to be here?”
“How does one usually end up in the middle of the desert?” she had said with a smile.
The man had sighed and shaken his head with a rattle of disapproval. “Tour guides again? Always promising to take someone to some great secret, some amazing destination, and then stranding them.” He had seemed to look her over again, perhaps wondering how and Egyptian woman such as herself had been taken in by the ploy, but he had said nothing more on the matter. “I will take you to my leader. Perhaps he can see you returned safely to where you belong, yes?”
“I would very much appreciate your assistance.”
Truth without truth.
And that is how she finds herself entering the village, no doubt drawing some measure of attention. She imagines that strangers often do. After all, these are a tribal people, close-knit even for their occasional wandering and travelling.
Yet other than an occasional nod in greeting, she instead casually watches around her, searching the faces for one in particular as she follows the man who had found her...
