The stranger had a name—Shenzi—and he acknowledged her moniker with a light tilt of his head, the satisfaction of finally being granted a morsel of information that was so hard-won washing over him like a wave crashing down and soaking sun-dried sand. She went on to reveal even more, plunging them both deeper into the ocean of her mind and Maslakhat drank it in, the salt leaving him wanting for more. The game, however tantalizingly long and tragic, had come to an end only to allow the blossoming of something entirely new.

He could feel it, as she did. For him, a place and a people were entirely the same. He was accustomed to a nomadic life as well, though he infinitely preferred to wander across places that were befitting of his type. “Yes indeed,” he affirmed, following Shenzi’s gaze to the sensual shape of the rolling dunes that surrounded them. “I have always believed that the chaos of the desert gives as much as it takes, though only for the people it deems worthy—the capable ones like you and I, whose bones were built from the grit beneath our feet so that we may stand proudly now upon them.”

No other place could be home, and no other kind of person could thrive as purely here as their kind could. Her eyes returned to him and he listened intently as she spoke again, explaining the prelude to her arrival here—a tale of woe and war, and a perfect explanation to the turmoil that gleamed behind her eyes. Maslakhat knew the perils of war and loss of loved ones well, but he never quite committed himself to either fully enough to be affected in any significant, emotional way. He had always prevailed and defended his blood, and that had always been satisfying enough to sustain him.

She moved on from the past quickly, though there was something within him that wanted to keep her toe dipped in that pool for a moment longer, for nothing if not retribution for the wrongs that might be righted.

“I am more than humbled to accept you here. I did not pursue you so readily for so long, only to see that you be driven out. The path you have walked is long and trying, and you have earned the right to rest, rebuild and thrive among the sands of the dunes with a people in kind with your own soundness.”

He paused a moment and took a step closer to her, after her thirst was fully quenched. His eyes glittering with possibility under the white light of the moon, Maslakhat spoke again, his voice sincere and steadfast. “You deserve more than servitude, Shenzi. You deserve restitution. And I can offer it to you, if you wish to raise the sleeping dogs and unleash the fury of their teeth.”


MASLAKHAT

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