Meeting Ends

Mirha

"What's this?" I asked opening the bag, some milk, sugar and bread were in it.

"stuff." Hadi replied with a shrug and took off his slippers.

It'd been 2 years after we had escaped from The Academy and came back to the Caliphate. My brother had suffered huge injuries from the travel. The money we had collected had been stolen from us by some thugs, my brother refused to let them take it away but a 17 year old without any defense tool couldn't stand against 5 grown bulky adults that had knifes in their hands. And Hadi had ended with severe injuries, when we came back we had to hide for some time for the noise of fathers betrayal to calm down untill we could visit an apothecary that'd help us ij anyway. Unfortunately it was too late and Hadi had Sustained permanent injuries. Although they were not serious. His thumb had been crooked and his abdomen recieved bad blows so he could still walk, eat, run etc. like a normal human but holding a sword was not possible for him unless he got special attention from better qualified doctors.

I always felt so sorry and guilty, he loved sword fighting; it was his thing. He'd always been good at it. And now he couldn't do the one thing he had left. My brother had been snatched off off everything he loved. I hated this feeling, this guilty feeling that crept up in my stomach: I could have helped him fight against that thugs, I knew how to fight- two were better off then one anyways. And even if we didn't win and both ended up getting injured, at least he wouldn't have had to suffer alone.

"What are you looking at?" Hadi's rough and tired voice snapped me out to reality and I placed the bag elsewhere.

"Just wondering where you got the money to buy all this?"

"Gambling."

I suspected it, nowadays his new hobby was to go and gamble. I had proved him on this many times but each time his excuse was, "I can't fight, I can't get a good job so to gamble is how we will survive."

and I'd say, "You know the Calipahte forbids gambling and whoever is caught will be heavily punished! God forbid such happens."

"Mirha, just pray that. 'God forbid such happens."

"It's a sin, Hadi!"

"...." of course he knew that but he still did it and he did it every day. Some days he'd loose and others he'd win. But it didn't matter how many times he won or the fortunes he could buy with it, gambling is based on luck and involves cheating; and any wealth acquired by such means in our religion is haraam. And anything haraam that brings pleasure in the short-term always brings misery for the long-term.

I sat down with Hadi and looked at the ceiling, "If one day you do get caught, don't you dare think ik coming to save you."

I heard him chuckle as he laid back, "Don't worry, little sister. That's not your job but mine; to protect." He patted my head and stood up, "Don't forget to warm the milk and mix it with sugar, were eating the bread with it."

Annoyed at him messing up ny hair I reply, "I know what to do, and I've told you several times not to pet me. I'm 19 for God's sake!"

He just walked away with a dismissive hand.

We were living in a heavily neglected street, where poverty was king and fear his queen. Small gangs ruled the place, they called the rules and they got the wealth. We were merely living off of their scraps of mercy.

After our arrival and journey of hiding, we took my brother to an apothecary and upon there I stumbled upon an old lady. I assumed she was kind and merciful so I approached her for help, she gave us a warm place and food to eat. Two months had passed away then and I was gradually coming to rely on the old lady more and more.

I did whatever she asked of me, I couldn't be ungrateful to the one person that had showed us love and kindness after all we went through.

So when she had asked me to bring some herbs, she had made ny brother unconscious and sold him away to some kidnappers. That was when I realised, she was no kind lady. She was no mercy, no angel in the face of human sent to us. She was the devil himself.

After hours of panicking and running around asking people if they had seen my brother, I broke down. In a narrow valley where the sun didn't set upon. I cried till I could no longer cry. What would I do without Hadi? What would happen to me? How must he be? He's injured, he can't fend for himself forget defending.

I'd have went to the old lady and strangled her but she had run away too. Except the question was... why only Hadi? Why not me too?

But I was desperate to find my brother so I wiped away my tears and dusted off mud from my dress.

I began my search again untill I ran Into a woman with a very similar scar on her left hand. I focused where I had seen it and it occurred to me it was no one but the old lady. She was a professional scammer.

Outraged and angry at how she had betrayed us, I pulled her away by her hair although at first she did try to resist. But I was trained in swordsmanship and articulate defense, she wasn't a big threat to me.

I dragged her away untill we arrived at a location no one could be seen except from the occasional gutter rats hanging around. She begged for me to stop when I profusely beat her into giving Me information on my brother.

But she had been stubborn too. So I didn't stop untill I chopped her pinky finger with a blunt blade I'd found on the streets, threatening to chop her whole hand off this time. And she knew I was capable of doing so.

That's when her mouth spoke, that's when my heart dropped. That's when I dropped everything and ran, I ran as fast as I could. Hurdling through people and objects, eager to get to my brother.

When I had found him, he was safe. Some one was by his side, fighting his kidnappers. Their kidnappers.