6 Arid Winds of Change

Over 20 moons had passed since Zeyn had become the new warchief. Since his birth, he had been slowly nurtured for the role, and yet no matter how much time passed or how many raids he successfully performed, the feeling of inadequacy wouldn't leave him alone.

Right now he sat all alone, the sandy wind of the dunes softly brushing past his face as he observed the red moon up in the sky. His father used to tell him stories about it, such as how its color was a result of all the blood spilled by Zeyn's ancestors, or how it was said that the founder of the clan could easily hop to its surface.

However, that was not what busied his mind right now. Since the death of the previous chief, his father, the clan had kept decreasing in strength. First, some loyal friends of his father suddenly revolted, leaving the clan and taking with them everything they could. Then some of their biggest oasis had succumbed to the desert, leaving hundreds famished.

"Ohh father, I'm so sorry, I wasn't capable of carrying out your dream. My people... your people, look up to me aching for answers, and I have nothing to tell them." A hint of sadness mixed with unwillingness flew by his azure eyes.

As he quietly enjoyed the peace only a world of sands could give, muffled footstep came from behind him. Usually, he would have unsheathed his saber, suspecting it was an assassin looking to end his bloodline, however, not this time. He recognized the gait and relaxed, soon a pair of slender arms hugged him from behind.

The person who hugged him said nothing as if she didn't want to spoil the silence he had been enjoying while still conveying a single message: "I'm here for you."

Zeyn softly rubbed the arms of his wife, Azela, quietly enjoying her smooth skin the color of red gold, and just like the precious metal, her skin could make many men go crazy with the desire to possess her. However, she was his and he was hers.

Her lips pressed on his neck, where a blade failed to cut deep enough to be the last one. Moist lips brought him away from the arid dune he was sitting on and then parted shortly after, looking for another scar to cancel with the power of love.

"You know," he said ignoring her tender attention. "if we don't find a new oasis soon we will lose many clansmen." Her kisses halted for a moment. "Abib, if that's the will of God so be it, however, I trust you, we all do. We know you'll find a way." She said before resting her forehead against his back.

He audibly sighed and took a pebble from the ground. 'Oh great inshallab, if you still care about your people give me a sign, anything, please.' he prayed in his mind, flashes of his starving people flooded his mind as he observed the area hoping for a miracle.

However, nothing happened. The ground was still sandy and barren, the sky still clear, revealing a starry sky and the wind blew dry against his skin. He mocked himself mentally, if praying god could solve anything the desert would be full of life and he would be a farmer, not a warchief.

Throwing the pebble away he got ready to get up, however, something caught his attention. Where the pebble landed it bounced back as if hitting a wall. Suddenly the sand covering the dune in front of him avalanched revealing a buried stone structure.

Zeyn almost couldn't believe his eyes as he recognized what that was, a giant 5 meters tall gate.

Keeping Azela behind his back, Zeyn unsheathed his saber and slowly advanced towards the humongous gate. As he stood right next to it, Zeyn could notice patterns sculpted on the gate, images of battles and life, animals and plants. He cautiously poked the gate with his weapons and as if welcoming him, the gate opened up on its own revealing a long tunnel leading down into darkness.

Suddenly his ears perked up. "Azela, can you feel it too?" he asked with a hint of excitement in his voice. "Hmm!" from behind him came the short but energetic answer of the woman he loved. Yes... they both felt it. The humidity that would only appear next to a luscious oasis.

At that moment both of them felt that their god hadn't abandoned them!

"Run back to the camp, you have to warn the others, bring all the warriors. we don't know what's down there, however, it must be ours!"

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Soon after Azela left the roars of animals reached Zeyn's ears, a clear sign that his clansmen were coming. The first to arrive was a woman riding a giant ash colored bird, its beak emitting shrill cries as it recognized Zeyn.

"Aluc!" Zeyn immediately called out the woman riding the ishintir, and answering the unconcealed joy in Zeyn voice, Aluc jumped down the bird and landed in Zeyn's open arms while screaming "Warchief!". Unable to sustain her weight, the two fell down the sand while hugging with a chuckle.

"I knew you would be the first to arrive!" he said letting go of her, then his gaze moved from her to the ishintir. " I see you have been feeding it well, maybe a little too well?" he said, giving her waist a friendly elbow jab. Aluc bronze cheeks flushed, "Your mom has been fed too well" she replied with an enraged tone.

"Hey! leave my mom out of this!" Replied Zeyn outraged. Aluc smirked and then opened her mouth anyway. "No worries, she wouldn't have fit anyway." with a victory smirk she went back to her ishintir rubbing her cheeks against his sot and well-groomed plumage. "Don't listen to that dipshit Polly, you are perfect the way you are!"

Zeyn simply sighed and waited for the other warriors. Aluc and he had been like this since childhood, unceasingly bantering trough training and war. This was also why she had always been his best friend, she had never treated him any different even if he was the chief's son, and when he became the new warchief she became even more shameless.

Finally, the rest of the clan arrived one after another. First, the bird riders, they usually acted as scouts, performing recon on the enemy positions or looking for oases. After them, came the fourlegged beasts such as the kraders, giant lizard-like meat eater beasts, usually used to pull carriages or as main attackers during battles. Second to last came the two-legged raptors, omnivores beast armed with deadly claws and renowned for their excellent sprint, in battle they performed the roles of harassers.

Last in speed, the massive beasts made their entrance. 10 meter long worms carrying on their back long distance weapons and simple structures made mostly of clay. Their enormous mouths were as tall as raiders on top of their rides, easily exceeding 3 meters.

The warriors all showed a great deal of interest toward the giant stone gate behind Zeyn, however, they kept their distances until their warchief said anything. Dismounting from their bonded companions they formed a semicircle around Zeyn waiting for him to speak.

Zeyn looked at all his brothers and sisters, their numbers slightly over 400, 700 counting the beasts as well. He raised his left hand and waited until everybody quieted down before speaking. "Brothers! Sisters!" he addressed the crowd. "Tonight Inshallahb finally answered our prayers!" he waved his arms towards his back.

"He opened up the gates to the promised land, if you don't believe me just come closer and smell the air, you'll immediately feel the moisture that can only come from an enormous oasis." He took a breath observing his men's reactions, some of their unconsciously stepped forward others remained standing with an excited expression on their faces, while others simply stared at him with hostile expressions.

"Now, I haven't been down there yet, so I'm not sure what we will find, however, I'm sure of one thing, our God wouldn't just give anything for free." His eyes hardened. "Expect resistance, he probably left some kind of trial or test we will have to overcome together to prove that we are worthy. Nevertheless," His eyes finally eased down and filled with affection. " I'm sure we will all pass it, we spent all our lives surviving in the Khandar, risking our lives for a mouthful of water and our families for a bite of food. That's how I know that nothing will be able to stop us!"

His voice echoed in the empty desert shaking the hearts of his men. Suddenly cheers and battle cries overwhelmed his echo, men and beast were all riled up and ready to follow him into battle as they had followed him before and his father before him. From the ranks of the beasts, a lonely sand colored wolf came forward and with a leap arrived right in front of him. Zeyn looked at him with love and rubbed his face against its maw. "Took you long enough Malik." The wold who had appeared was his own bonded companion, like all the other members of his clan, when he was only 12 he went on a journey in the desert.

All alone he traveled for months, looking for a life-long companion, he alone captured dozens of different beasts, however, none of them was the right one for him, he couldn't form the bond. However, as he was about to give up and return to the clan, he found Malik. Following his howls from miles away, Zeyn found the remains of a battle between two giant wolves and a king of the dunes, the santighir.

One of the wolves had its head crushed in the giant pincers of the santighir while the other whimpered in pain due to a giant stinger embedded in its chest. The santighir, on the other hand, wasn't much better well off, claw marks littered his body, some of them even deep enough to pierce through its carapace, 3 of its little eyes had been cleanly mauled by sharp fangs and four of its legs had been half chewed up, powerlessly laying on the ground.

Zeyn carefully approached the santighir, even if it looked dead that was no reason to believe it to be so. Santighir standard hunting strategy was to burrow under the sand and locate its preys trough sand vibrations. When the prey approached his hiding spot he would use its stinger in a blitz like attack to paralyze it and then finish it off with its giant pincers.

Nocking an arrow, Zeyn aimed at its last undefended eye on the right, the other two who hadn't meet the fangs of the wolves had two horn-like protectors who could easily deflect the arrow. His breathing slowed down and when he was sure of the aim, he let go of the arrow between one heartbeat and the other.

The arrow flew true and impaled the eye of the santighir. Since the beast didn't react, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief. He moved from the dead santighir to the whimpering wolf, a real shame, he thought, had she not been poisoned by the sting he would have gladly made her his companion by rescuing her. However, all he could do now was end her sufferings.

He gave a quick pray and then stabbed the heart of the wolf with his saber, the blade made of the best materials and by the best artisan of the clan met little resistance before piercing the injured animal's heart. Before ti breathed its last, he could see some worry in the intelligent's wolf eyes.

Now he was alone surrounded by death, the silence had descended once again on the dunes. Or so it should have been, a muffled whimper still came from the dead wolf. At first Zeyn thought he had missed the heart, however, the whimper didn't come from the wolf's head, it came from below it. After unsuccessfully trying to move a 2-meter tall wolf, he dug a small hole beneath and finally found the origin of the whimpering.

A small golden furred wolf pup cried while rubbing its head against his mother, Zeyn felt a little bit of sadness seeing such a scene and leaned in to rub the little one's head, as his hand touched it he suddenly felt something, he could bond with it.

The origin of the bond wasn't really clear, however, for generations, the member of Zeyn's clan, the Sila Clan, had been able to create a connection to certain desert beasts. The raider and the ride could share emotions and with time even part of each other's strengths. Bonded animals usually showed far superior intellect than unbounded ones of the same species, while bounded Sila members had their physiques greatly strengthened.

Legends say that the ancestor of the clan had been able to bond a desert dragon and gain its ability to breath fire.

Thinking on how the two parents of the whelp had managed to kill the santighir, Zeyn decided that it would make a perfect partner for him. Without further ado, Zeyn picked it up in his arms and placed his forehead against the tiny pup and opened up his mind, if the pup could feel it and open its mind as well the bond would be successful.

Thankfully the wolf instinctively reached out for Zeyn's mind and finally completed the bond. Grief, cold, hunger, fear, thirst. A stream of emotions flooded Zeyn's mind from the pup, and he could do nothing but hug him stronger and transmit the image of family and safety. "From now on your name will be Malik and you will live as my brother."

8 years had passed since that fateful encounter, and since then Zeyn had never been separated from its companion, facing together anything Inshallab had thrown their way.

With a hop, he mounted Malik and turned to its warriors. "Follow me!" he ordered before charging inside the gate with a torch in one hand and his saber in the other.