Journey through the sands

He began to speak as he looked around. "The legend says, she dwells in this very desert."  

"You don't say, Thornis?" The prince began to say sarcastically, as he drank from his silver cup under the giant blue leather tent that had been pitched in the sands of the Kamuri desert. "the magical witch or jinn whatever you want to call it, dwells in this very desert?" 

The commander, Thornis, stopped on his meal and gazed at the prince with a hurt look on his face.  "You think this is a joke your highness?"  Deep down, he felt nothing but pity for this naive crown heir to his throne as he lived in his own world of oblivion, dwelling in his own little bubble world where reality was an alternate perception.

"No no, no, Thornis, she's real of course, of course I believe you!"  

He choked his  own laughter and then coughed afterwards. 

"We don't call her that , my prince!" Thornis said and  he paused. "She is the princess of these very sands." He said as he scooped the moon white sand with his hands.  "She is the princess of the desert. The prophecy  of the shadows foretold by the high priests of the kingdom. She is  pre-fated to destroy our very own prosperous kingdoms. Including yours my king." He paused and shrugged off his fears. "You know it was exactly on a moonlit night like this when the first group of  wanderers to tread her turf  were devoured by her wrath!" Thornis continued.

"Haha, Thornis, that cannot be feasible. A woman can never fight a stable battle against any man, tell me how could she have been responsible for all those deaths? It simply can't!" He banged his hand with pride on the table. Other  soldiers roared in agreement. "Tell me more about this silly desert legend. No petty woman can come and grab my throne away from me, commander, never." He eyed the commander with zeal, pride  and firmness, but to his disappointment, the commander just looked down and shook his head.  "Tell me about this devious demon!" 

" Okay my prince, I could tell you about it but it's better if you read a copy of the  Oracle taken from  the book of our history!" He said as he handed the young prince the scroll where the prophecy had been noted in dark ink. The letters were magnificently written on the paper in their natural traditional form. The candles were lit  brightening the tent. The night was warm.  We all sat around a fire, a bit far from our rulers,  under the starry, cloudless grey sky. 

"Okay!" The prince said as he unrolled the scroll, reading out aloud the text. 

"The moon had set  high up in the dark sky illuminating the  cold desert  sands.  A chilled breeze blew  about  shifting thin dust  into farther horizons. Not that she could feel it as she was no longer one  amongst the living. Her life had long ended in that very desert. Thirty years! For thirty years,   her spirit lay and roamed  the  sands of the Kamuri desert; bound by a dark   curse, a curse  laid upon her by her very own   sorrows, the outcome of her very own hands.  Whilst far away on the footpath to  the kingdom of Angira lay the necropolis were  her lover now  dwelled from since the day he passed from the realm of the living into the afterlife bound in chains  of eternal death itself, laying in a grave, never to rise from his hauntingly daunting fate. Never to awaken from his cold slumber.  Her love, the prince of the great   Monka empire!" He chanted, as he recited the text. 

"Alright!" He nodded in disbelief and continued gazing at the scroll. "Oh really, so she is the one who brought this curse upon herself? Tell me Thornis, she trapped her own spirit in the desert? Because if that is the case, I have to know her secret to achieving it, as I have ex-lover princesses and enemies I would like to seek vengeance from." He clumsily chuckled as  his soldiers roared out in laughter as well. He broadened  his  shoulders in an arrogant manner. He looked to be about in his early to mid twenties. Hair; long, golden  and wispy curls,  covering his shoulders. His slanted eyes were green, ;glittering in the candles' light.  His muscles were glowing in the night, a bronze undertone as he continued staring at the scroll. 

The commander's hands shook with unease. 

"No, my prince, the curse was born from the wrath that resided within her and her unwillingness to die. She died in this very desert, from heartbreak and  starvation. She walked these very sands of the cold desert on that first night when her wrath materialized into an actuality. When her spirit became animated in the realm of the living, after all she had contained her anger for  long, far too long, since she was still a living human being on earth. Now she had become a demon herself as her spirit contained the essence of one. She had no compassion." 

"Well, if you think she has no compassion, then I'm far worse than her,  Thornis!" The prince continued to brag but the commander ignored him and so  the prince continued reciting the daunting tale.

"She opened the gates to the rivers of her rage that was maliciously lurking within her, and forever the desert hauntings came to be; were she would be seen patrolling the sands. Soldiers, valiant men, only those brave enough to walk the desert caught a glimpse of her. Chiffon, scarf and pants blowing in the strong and hot  breeze that accompanied her, her long hair clipped into a ponytail. Most of all, they were haunted by the sound of her anklets; golden anklets that tingled to her enchanting movements. Then the singing came, in the most beautiful voice. A voice that mesmerized, powerful enough to detouch one from the real world. Then her looks that would hypnotize one to the point that she would manipulate them to take their own lives. 

"So she is such a rare beauty?" He paused as the matter  sparked a deep interest in him. 

"Nothing like you have seen!" The commander said, gazing at  him. " 

"When she decided she wanted no more of her eternal slumber,  she vowed to return to this world, on this earth no matter the circumstance. Her reign of terror manifested itself in the lives of folks in the nearby kingdoms. She made her first kill. She had called herself the  desert jewel! She had chuckled deeply as he lay at her feet.  She mockingly asked him to be her lover. He didn't respond, his notion was only to gaze at this terrifying enchantress, this spirit of evil that stood before him."  He continued. 

"The desert jewel!" The prince chanted. "I like the sound of that! I really like it. A beautiful maiden in the desert, a rare beauty, a jewel herself." 

"No, my king to be, the notion of that name came from the very fact that a beloved of hers also  gave gold as a sacrifice to return her from the dead but left after she didn't return. Neither did he know his sacrifice worked because that is when her essence began to haunt the sands and her apparition was seen by many in that time. So this place was abandoned by nomads and the townspeople alike." One lead  soldier  said as he looked at him. 

"Tell me more about her looks, Thornis." The prince said with an unquenchable lust a desirous passion that was birthed at that very moment. 

"I haven't seen her myself, your highness, otherwise, I wouldn't be here conversing with you. There are some who have witnessed her presence and have lived to tell the tale. They say her plumb lips are like the wildest of  wild cherries; a deep purple. Her eyes are like the green emeralds; the kind you bear in your treasury. Her figure is slim and tall. Her skin glows, resembling the colour of the hairs of corn on corn stalks right before ripening; a sweet brown. Her hair is as black as night itself, smooth like silk, running long down her waist." 

"You don't say. Could this be true? A desert wanderer possessing such beauty. Tell me could there be a mistake in all this? Could she just be just  some lost nomad, a cave dweller who was mistakenly bestowed with this legend?" The prince said. His voice showed so much anticipation. His lack of judgement regarding the Oracle troubled Thornis deeply. 

"Well then my prince, continue…" 

"She had mocked him,  watched him beg for her mercy." The commander continued. "She  had watched a valiant man lose his composure; something that greatly pleased her. She knelt to the ground and opened her mouth wide and the man that once was,  dissolved  as she sucked him in. The witch had eaten him."   He paused, rolling his eyes up.

 "Oh come on Thornis, You expect me to believe such nonsense?" The  proud prince of Saheri began to say with a frown.  "You tell me the king sent us here to capture and kill a demon that doesn't exist? Something out of a fairy tale?"  He seemed annoyed, angry and betrayed. "So this is what your king thinks of me? That I'm a joke?" He banged his hand on the table, piercing into  Thornis's dark eyes with his. He was unable to control his deep anger.

"The soldiers that had accompanied us on the  journey, looked at each other. The fear on their faces was  very evident.

"My prince," the commander began to say. "This is no fairytale but a daunting reality. It seemed the graveness of this matter has not yet seeped into your mind. It seems you're taking this matter lightly! It is not so good to have so much doubt or courage, especially now in the face of something more sinister than a mere vain human being!" 

The prince gazed at him, his rage multiplied as he grabbed the commander by the collar of his long shirt and squeezed tightly, choking him in the process. The sweat on his face was visible. Cold sweat  in his  moment of fear; his lips quivering. " How dare you call me those things!? Vain? I am the mighty prince of Saheri! I'm not just mere!" He  then  raged pushing Thornis and he toppled over the table. Thornis took a deep breath as he stood up stumbling over himself. He spoke with his gaze low. 

"My apologies, prince!." 

"It seems making you a close friend of mine has been a mistake as you have learned to break boundaries and speak to me in that manner!" The prince heaved on his face. Thornis could feel the hot rush of the  air of his anger on his fearful face. His intimidating voice roar in this commander's ears. The smell of his breath was so  heavy with alcohol "Know your place, commander!" He said as he stood up walking towards his tent, and that had been pitched near the small man-made stall of horses, that had taken their rest for the night.  "Let's call it a night!" 

We all went to bed. My eyes were open at the crack of dawn; I got ready.  Other soldiers were already packing to proceed the journey. The long  journey in  the desert  began long before the sun commenced her own  journey in the sky. An army strolling in the desert on a quest stopping mid way for some rest.