“You should be resting.”
Ardeth looked up at the old woman standing in the doorway of the tent, as he wrapped a turban on his head. He sighed. “I can not, Grandmother.”
“You do not need to go yourself, let Safti head them.”
Taureg raiders had again struck the Med-jai camp, taking with them nearly all the cattle they had. Ardeth was tired of the game, and wanted to end it for once and for all.
Ardeth sighed again, as he turned to face her. “Safti is coming with me.”
His grandmother crossed her arms. “You know what will happen if you go.”
“I am not a child anymore,” he said, indignant.
“You weren’t a child when it happened last year, either.”
Ardeth said nothing, as he turned again to gather more things. Ever since he was small, whenever he caught a cold, if he wasn’t careful it would progress into a fever that laid him up for days. No matter what happened, it was always fever. When he got shot; fever. When he got stabbed; fever. When he got slashed by undead mummies; fever. When someone poisoned him; fever. When he got bit by a scorpion; fever. Maybe his body was trying to tell him something. Yes, he thought. It does not like the life I lead.
“I must go, an end must be made of this.”
The old Med-jai woman just stood there, arms still crossed.
Ardeth sighed. It nearly turned into a cough but he managed to hold it in. He looked at her again. “I will be—achoo!—all right.”
She made a face at him, as if to say, ‘you’ll be sorry’.
He gave her a reassuring smile and left the tent.
The warriors were mounting their horses, ready to leave. Safti walked over to him. “We are ready,” he said.
Ardeth nodded and walked over to his horse. He could feel his grandmother’s eyes on him as he mounted, and he purposely avoided her gaze as he sneezed again. He could practically hear her *tsk tsk* and he looked to see that her arms were still folded. It made him smile, her unnecessary overprotectiveness; she had always been that way. He waved at her as they rode off, and he could see her shaking her head.
“ACHOO!” *sniff*
Ardeth tried to ignore the looks aimed at him for the past several hours from his fellow Med-jai, as they rode through the hot desert. The Tauregs were nowhere to be found, unfortunately, and they decided to stop for the night, as darkness was rapidly falling.
Ardeth dismounted with relief, more tired then he cared to admit.
The warriors built a fire, and they all crowded around it as the temperature dropped in response to the fading sun and rising moon. Ardeth immediately lay down to sleep, but the next thing he knew he woke up coughing. He was somehow aware that not much time had passed, even though he could see that most of the warriors were asleep. Safti was still awake, sitting nearby. He heard Ardeth even though he was trying to be quiet, and he slid over.
“Ardeth?”
Ardeth opened his eyes to see Safti holding a canteen out to him, and he took a long drink from it. “Shukran,” he said.
Safti nodded. “Perhaps you should’ve listened to her,” he whispered.
Ardeth knew his friend was speaking of his grandmother. He had no answer for that, so he just smiled and shook his head. He lay down again, and closed his eyes. He heard Safti do the same.
Ardeth laid there for a long time, his senses drifting as his brain tried to sleep, but he found to his dismay that he couldn’t breathe through his nose. He tried turning over onto his back, but that didn’t help. He tried the other side, and that made it worse. What am I supposed to do now? He could not sleep with his mouth open. Whenever he tried he automatically started breathing through his nose, or tried to, anyway. Finally he sat up, and naturally one nostril cleared enough for him to breathe through it. He laid down again, hoping it’d stay open, but it didn’t and he sighed in utter frustration. He sat up again, and sneezed louder then he intended. He saw a few of his men stir, before becoming still again, and he hoped he wouldn’t wake anyone up. He suddenly had to cough again, and he tried to hold his breath as he got up and walked far enough away from the campsite to not disturb anyone. His brain felt like it was full of cotton, and he felt like he was sleepwalking as he practically stumbled to the edge of a large sand dune, and sat down heavily. While there he could cough and sneeze all he wanted without bothering the rest of his men. His eyes kept closing sleepily, and he had a hard time keeping them open….
Safti opened his eyes, and sat up. He stretched, looking around to see that some of the warriors were up, waking the others. Safti looked to his left to see that Ardeth wasn’t there.
“Adranji, where is Ardeth?”
Adranji looked around, with a frown, shaking his head.
Safti looked towards the horses, to see that Ardeth wasn’t with them. “Has anyone seen Ardeth?” he yelled.
Everyone looked at him, shaking their heads. Safti looked around in almost a panic, as he couldn’t spot his friend anywhere as far as the eye could see. He ran past the horses, and stopped. He yelled, “Over here!” and ran to where he saw Ardeth lying on his side at the edge of a dune. He knelt beside him. “Ardeth?”
Ardeth jumped a mile; saw Safti there looking at him. He frowned at first, groggy from the lack of sleep he’d gotten. He saw the angle of the sun in the sky, and he realized that he must’ve only slept for the last hour, having been miserably awake all night. He nearly groaned, but it came out as a cough.
“What are you doing over here?” Safti asked him, lending a hand as his friend slowly sat up.
Ardeth saw all his men standing there looking at him, and he felt foolish. “I did not wish to disturb anyone,” he said, sneezing again. His eyebrows went up in surprise when he heard that his voice sounded scratchy.
Safti gave him a sympathetic look, and Ardeth was afraid for a minute he was going to say, ‘Told you so’.
But Safti didn’t say anything, and Ardeth got up. They ate, and were again on their way.
They rode all through the day, still not catching up to the Tauregs. By night they were all frustrated, not having anticipated staying overnight again, thinking they would’ve found their enemies much sooner then this.
Ardeth was extremely aggravated at the way he felt. He’d hoped that his cold would get better, but instead it was getting worse. His chest felt heavy, and his coughing increased to be as troublesome as his sneezing. He all but fell off his horse when they stopped, and guzzled down the rest of the water in one of his canteens, wincing as it stung his sore throat. He just stood there for a minute, so tired he could barely see straight. He suddenly noticed the flames of the campfire, and he went over and plopped down in front of it, not noticing the concerned looks of his warriors. Instead of eating he fell asleep immediately, but woke up coughing again soon after. He felt something touch his arm, and he opened his eyes to see Safti again; his second-in-command and lifelong friend was looking at him with alarm. Ardeth suddenly remembered where he was and that other people were trying to sleep. He found that a canteen was in his hand and he tried to sit up. His chest felt like someone was sitting on it, and he tried to stifle another cough. He drank the water, and started coughing yet again. He got up and stumbled away from the campsite, not even realizing Safti was following him. He plopped down a ‘safe’ distance away, with a sigh. Bad move, for it set him off coughing once more.
Safti sat next to him, and Ardeth said, “I know, I should have listened to her.”
Safti smiled slightly. “It is too late for that, now.”
Ardeth nodded, and rubbed his eyes. He was exhausted; having gotten hardly any rest the previous night, and now this was turning out to be another sleepless one.
“Do not worry, Ardeth, we will find them tomorrow, and then we can return home.”
Ardeth nodded, hoping they would indeed find them the next day. He didn’t voice the fact that they would have to camp out again for two more nights, on their way back.
Suddenly Safti looked behind them, and jumped to his feet.
Ardeth looked up at him, surprised. “What is it?”
“We are being attacked!”
Ardeth looked to see that a mass of Tauregs had snuck up on them; an ambush from behind. He frowned, not having heard anything, his ears being too blocked from his stupid cold. He and Safti ran back to the camp where the other Med-jai had had a very rude awakening, and were now defending themselves.
Ardeth and Safti didn’t have their scimitars, having left them where they slept. They had to fight with their fists before they could reach their weapons.
Safti tried to stay close to Ardeth, knowing that his leader probably wasn’t up to his usual par in fighting. He heard a grunt and turned to see Ardeth trying to force back a huge Taureg’s arm, whose scimitar was dangerously close to Ardeth’s head. Safti moved to help but sensed someone behind him and turned just in time to see a scimitar swoop towards his neck. He caught the man’s arm, threw him back, and grabbed his enemy’s scimitar. He quickly ended the Taureg’s life and turned to Ardeth again, to see that he was no longer there. Before he got a chance to look for him, he was attacked by another Taureg, and the opportunity was gone.
Ardeth wasn’t able to fend off the bandit before a coughing fit grabbed hold of him, and his grip on the man’s arm weakened enough for his foe to punch him hard in the face. The blow felt like a brick and Ardeth saw stars and fell flat on his back. His senses swam and he hardly felt the second punch that turned everything black, as hands picked him up and dragged him away….
The battle was over as quickly as it had begun. Suddenly the Tauregs were gone, on horseback now, as opposed to their sneak attack on foot.
Safti was breathing heavily as he looked around to see who had survived. “Ardeth!” he called, as he tried to get a good view of his fellow warriors in the dark.
He got no reply.
The rest of the Med-jai were muttering angrily in Arabic as they quickly tried to round up their horses, which the Tauregs had let loose.
Safti checked all the bodies, praying that none of them were Ardeth. But if he wasn’t one of them, then where was he?
He stopped dead, as realization struck. “No!” he cried.
Ardeth came to his senses thanks to a sneeze that painfully jarred his aching head. He groaned softly, realized that he was upside down. He tried to look around, to find that he was lying across a horse, hands and feet shackled. He couldn’t see much in the dark, but it was obvious where they were going. He winced, his upside down position and the fast gallop making his head and face hurt worse, not to mention the fact that it wasn’t easy to breathe that way, as if he wasn’t having trouble already. I am a mess! he thought. He just lay there, expecting to hear something from one of the Tauregs, but no one seemed to have heard his sneeze over the sound of the horses. He silently thanked God for that, and prayed that he wouldn’t have to sneeze or cough again anytime soon.
Safti and the rest of the Med-jai galloped as fast as their horses could go, in the general direction that the Tauregs had gone. Safti was so upset he was ready to kill someone. He had been on watch, and felt that he had neglected his duty. He kept telling himself that if he had been doing his job the camp wouldn’t’ve been snuck upon so easily, and Ardeth would not have been taken.
It was so dark they couldn’t see the Tauregs in the distance, couldn’t see if they were even going in the right direction. The Tauregs had done a smart thing; there was no way the Med-jai could be sure they were going the right way. Safti sighed heavily. He would never give up, he was going to search for his friend until he either found him, or died trying.
“ACHOO!”
“What was that?”
Ardeth sighed, as his sneeze was heard this time. He tried to play ‘dead’, but they quickly figured out who it came from.
“So you decided to wake up then.”
Ardeth refused to look at Tawflik, the Taureg leader. The sun was rising, and Ardeth was surprised to see it; the last he knew it was still pitch dark, and he wondered if he’d actually fallen asleep. Unconscious, more likely.
Suddenly he was flipped over the horse to land on the sand with a thud, while the horse was still moving. He rolled a couple times before coming to a stop. He totally hadn’t expected it, and the breath was knocked out of him.
The Tauregs all stopped, and started to laugh. The leader got down off his horse and walked over to him. Ardeth said nothing, not able even if he wanted to. He coughed again, as he tried to get his breath back.
Tawflik could see that it wasn’t merely the cough of losing one’s breath; especially taking into account the sneeze they’d heard. He laughed. “Does the mighty Med-jai leader have a cold? Awww.”
Ardeth was silent, trying not to cough anymore, after the taunting. He tried to hold in a sneeze, but couldn’t.
Everyone busted out laughing, to his dismay. He began to get very angry, and he tried not to show it, lest he suffer for it at their cruel hands. Tawflik was laughing with his men, mere inches from Ardeth, who suddenly felt another sneeze coming on…
“ACHOO!”
“Argh!” the Taureg yelled, catching the sneeze in his face. “You’re going to regret that!”
Before Ardeth even knew what punishment he would receive, blackness engulfed him.
By morning Safti was at a loss as to which direction to go. He stopped the swarm of fellow Med-jai, and just sat for a minute, looking out into the distance. It was a terrible feeling, knowing that the life of his friend depended on the decision that he was about to make.
“Adranji,” he called.
His young brother-in-law moved forward. “Yes?”
“We need to pick a direction.”
Adranji gulped.
“What do you think?”
Adranji followed Safti’s gaze, tried to see if he could feel any good reason to pick a particular way.
“East?” he guessed.
Safti looked at him. “That is what I chose also.”
Adranji’s eyebrows went up.
Safti looked at the rest of the warriors. “East?” he asked, valuing their opinions as well.
Most of them nodded at him, a few seeming unsure.
Safti sighed, knowing that they would either find Ardeth now, or never see him again. He kicked his horse to a gallop, and they raced off towards the east.
When Ardeth opened his eyes again, it was broad daylight. He couldn’t remember what exactly had happened, but now his head was throbbing with double its intensity, and he figured it out quickly. He tried to bring up his shackled hands, and felt a huge bump on the right side of his forehead. He felt a sneeze coming on, but thankfully was able to hold it in. His head spun when he tried to look around, so he sighed and just lay there on the sand, wondering what would happen next. He could hear the Tauregs talking, and smelled food cooking on the fire. He was relieved to see that his cold had left him with no appetite, so at least he wouldn’t have to suffer when he knew his enemies would refuse him food. Water, though, was another matter; he was thirsty out of his mind. Suddenly another sneeze started to build up, and he couldn’t prevent this one.
“ACHOO!” He tried not to groan when his head started spinning once more.
“Well, well. The mighty Med-jai leader is awake again.”
Ardeth didn’t bother opening his eyes to see Tawflik as he walked over. He crouched down next to Ardeth, started to laugh.
“Your warriors must be out of their minds with worry. Their poor leader captured while sick. Awww.” He made a pout-like face. “They’ll never find you, you know.”
Ardeth didn’t answer, not giving in to the taunting. He tried to hold his breath when a cough tried to come, not wanting to add more fuel to the fire. Tawflik just sat there watching him, as if he could tell. Finally Ardeth couldn’t hold it any longer.
The Taureg leader smiled; the cough sounded pretty bad. “Sounds like you’re in bad shape, Med-jai. I’d bet you’d like some water, wouldn’t you.”
Ardeth stayed silent, trying to take a deep breath that didn’t hurt. To his surprise Tawflik got up and grabbed a canteen, bringing it over. Ardeth stayed expressionless and closed his eyes, knowing this could be yet another taunt.
Suddenly he was grabbed by his shackles and yanked to a sitting position. The whole world spun in mad circles, getting an involuntary gasp out of him. He barely saw the canteen in front of his face, and he nearly drowned when water was poured down his throat. Before he got his fill however, it was pulled away.
“We can’t have you dying too soon now, can we? Enjoy it, Med-jai, that’s the last you’ll get for a while.”
As the Taureg walked away, Ardeth became aware of the rest of them laughing as they watched. He sighed, forgetting that it would make him cough. Where are you, Safti? he thought.
“No!”
“Safti, we must.”
Safti looked at Adranji, as they galloped along. “We can not stop! If we do not find them soon we might never find them at all!”
Adranji sighed. “Safti, we can not see them in the dark. If we continue now we could miss them, for lack of light. The darkness could cause us to go in the wrong direction! Not only that, but how will we win the battle and get Ardeth back if we get no rest?”
Safti knew his young brother-in-law had a point. He sighed heavily. “All right, but we start again tomorrow at the first sign of light!”
“ACHOO!” *sniffffff*
“Shut up!”
Ardeth cringed, knowing that if he made one more sound the Tauregs were going to kill him. He’d been sneezing and coughing all evening, and some of the Tauregs were trying to go to sleep. His enemies were surrounding a fire, and had cruelly left Ardeth beyond the warmth of the flames. He was shivering terribly, even though he knew it wasn’t quite that cold yet. He sighed, knowing what it meant; he was developing a fever. You were right, Grandmother. This was the one time he wished she’d been wrong. He suddenly smiled, realizing that if the Tauregs didn’t kill him, she probably would.
“ACHOOOO!”
Ardeth cringed when he realized he should’ve tried to hold that in. He almost started to laugh at the annoyance it was causing the Tauregs. Foolish, you will pay if you keep that up. Suddenly he heard footsteps, and he cringed inwardly, not knowing what to expect. Suddenly he was hauled up again, and something was stuffed into his mouth.
It was a piece of cloth, serving as a gag.
The Tauregs busted out laughing.
Ardeth tried to inhale through his nose, and couldn’t. He almost panicked, but his body had other plans.
“ACHOOOOO!”
The gag went flying.
If Ardeth thought the Tauregs were laughing hard before, he was wrong. They laughed so hysterically, that the Taureg that had put the gag in Ardeth’s mouth went back to his place by the fire without replacing it, to Ardeth's relief.
Ardeth lay back down, hoping he could prevent himself from sneezing again for at least 5 minutes. He ended up falling asleep, but woke up again in a bizarre stupor, shivering violently. He felt almost like he was floating, and it took him a few minutes to realize where he was. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he suddenly saw a Taureg he hadn’t realized was there, peering at him with a frown. The Taureg left, went over to Tawflik and whispered something to him.
Ardeth watched, feeling detached from reality. The Taureg came back, and suddenly grabbed him by the chain attached to the shackles and dragged him over to the fire.
“Fever,” Tawflik said. It wasn’t a question.
“Yes,” answered the Taureg.
Ardeth hadn’t even felt the man’s touch. He closed his eyes, enjoying the heat of the fire on his face. He continued to shiver, however, as he fell back to sleep.
The next day was grueling as they continued to travel. Ardeth was utterly miserable, wanting nothing more then to simply lie on something soft and sleep for the next year. Or two.
At this point Ardeth hardly noticed anything that went on around him. He wondered where Safti and the rest of the Med-jai were. Had they all been killed? Ardeth hadn’t seen the outcome of the battle. He would not let himself believe it, refused to accept that they would not find him and he was to stay in the Tauregs’ clutches indefinitely.
The Tauregs’ voices brought Ardeth back to some form of reality, and he shivered as another chill went through him. The desert was as hot as usual, and even though the chills were a bad thing, he was glad they at least took away the heat for a while.
Suddenly Ardeth found himself being lifted, and he realized that they’d arrived at the Taureg camp. He was brought to a tent and dumped inside, where he was left alone. He could make out the shapes of 2 Tauregs guarding it, to prevent any chance of his escape.
Ardeth knew there was no way he could manage to get away, the shape he was in right now. He decided to take the opportunity to get some rest, before the inevitable return of Tawflik and whatever he intended to do with him. He fell asleep, not knowing that Safti was closer then either of them knew.
“That’s it!”
Safti looked down from the top of a sand dune at the Taureg camp. He smiled at Adranji, the one who’d so enthusiastically spoken.
“Do we attack now, or wait till dark?” Adranji asked.
Safti shook his head. “They don’t expect us to have found them. We attack now.”
Ardeth jumped a mile, waking to the sound of yelling. It took a minute for him to recognize it as the Med-jai war cry. He scrambled to his feet, ignoring the lightheadedness, and looked out the tent flap. He saw his warriors fighting the Tauregs, and he sighed with relief, forgetting it would make him cough. He suddenly saw Tawflik turn and look at him, with an angry expression. Ardeth realized that the guards were gone —probably fighting for their lives— and he stumbled over to the nearest Taureg’s dead body and grabbed his scimitar. He prayed he’d be able to fight as Tawflik starting running towards him.
Safti fought ferociously, as he tried to look around for Ardeth. He didn’t spot him at first, but then he glimpsed him fighting with Tawflik. He tried to finish off the Taureg he was fighting so he could go help his friend, but the man was strong as an ox. He suddenly realized that this was the Taureg that Ardeth had fought the other night, when he’d been kidnapped. Anger flowed through him, and he fought harder.
Tawflik was an excellent fighter. Ardeth fought as well as he could, thanking the adrenaline rush for the sudden burst of strength—a burst he knew would not last very long as he slashed his scimitar towards his enemy’s arm, only to have it deflected hard enough to send shock waves through his arm from his shoulder to his fingertips. His scimitar was sent flying out of his hand, and Tawflik started to laugh. “I win, Med-jai!” he yelled.
Ardeth suddenly felt a huge sneeze coming on. “ACHOOOOO!” It made his head spin, and sent him off balance as the adrenaline left him in a rush. He landed on his hands and knees, and he heard the scimitar swoop harmlessly by.
Ardeth did not see the look of surprise on Tawflik’s face when his target disappeared. The momentum of the blow hitting nothing made him trip over Ardeth, and land on the sand with a cry of pain. It wasn’t until Ardeth looked at him did he see that the Taureg leader had landed on his scimitar.
Ardeth just looked at the body for a minute, his head still spinning and his strength completely gone. He couldn’t comprehend that the sneeze had saved his life. Suddenly he heard a shout, and two scimitars suddenly clanged loudly over his head.
“GET HIM OUT OF HERE!” he heard.
Suddenly Ardeth was being whisked away, and helped onto a horse. Ardeth realized it was Adranji, as the young warrior jumped onto his own steed, grabbed the reins of both horses and took off. Faster then Ardeth thought possible they were suddenly at the top of the dune.
Ardeth watched as Safti fought the Taureg who had just been about to chop off his head, if Safti had not arrived in time to intercept the blow. He watched as Safti slashed at the Taureg’s leg, and the Taureg manage to step back, only receiving a glancing blow. Suddenly he realized that Adranji was talking to him.
“Ardeth?”
He looked to see that Adranji had gotten down from his horse and was looking up at him with a concerned expression. A sneeze interrupted Ardeth’s chance to reply, and he almost fell off his horse.
“Are you all right?” Adranji asked.
Ardeth looked to see that Safti had won the fight, and was now coming up the dune. The rest of the warriors were rounding up the cattle the Tauregs had taken from them.
Ardeth sighed, in answer to Adranji’s question. It made him cough yet again, and he wanted to scream in frustration.
Safti suddenly appeared, and he and Adranji pulled him down from the horse carefully, as if afraid he would break. They sat him on the sand and Safti held a canteen to his lips. His face was a mask of concern as he took in his friend’s paleness, not to mention the black eye and huge lump on his forehead.
Ardeth drank the water gratefully, coughing again when he finished. Sitting there on the sand he began to feel his exhaustion overcome him, and he wished he could lie down and go to sleep. Real sleep.
Safti frowned, as he looked into Ardeth’s face. He put a hand to his friend’s forehead, and confirmed what he suspected. He sighed.
Ardeth looked at Safti to see he was shaking his head. But he was also smiling, his relief showing in a flood. “Time to go home,” said Safti.
Ardeth smiled back. “Finally.”
The trip home wasn’t as long as Ardeth thought it would be; they merely had to take a southwest direction from where they currently were, instead of going back the long way they came. During the journey, Ardeth fiercely hoped that he would get better before they got back, so that his grandmother wouldn’t make a fuss over him, but he didn’t improve at all. Taking into account the hard riding, all that he’d gone through with the Tauregs, and the bad cold, Ardeth actually felt worse. As they finally approached the camp, he could see the people staring at them, no doubt wondering what in the world had caused them to be gone so long.
Ardeth tried to sit up straight on the horse, feeling weak and unsteady. He could see his grandmother standing with her arms crossed, as if she’d never moved. He got down from the horse, not allowing Safti to help him, as he tried to show his grandmother he was all right.
She stood there shaking her head at him, not fooled in the least. “Ardeth…next time you listen to your Gidda.”
Ardeth sighed, knowing that he couldn’t deceive her. She could probably recognize a fever a mile away, especially if he was the one who had it. The events of the past few days finally caught up with him, and he unexpectedly passed out at her feet.
Safti was taken by surprise, and didn’t have enough time to catch him. He and Adranji quickly picked him up and brought him into his tent.
Ardeth’s grandmother *tsk tsked* again, as she followed them in.
When Ardeth woke again, the first thing he saw was the stern face of his grandmother.
Ardeth knew she wouldn’t keep that expression for long, and she didn’t, smiling a minute later, as she pushed a lock of hair off his forehead.
“You were right, Grandmother,” he said.
“Of course I was right,” she said matter-of-factly. “They don’t call me ‘Wise One’ for nothing. Now, shut up and go to sleep.”
THE END
LOL, I just HAD to a.k.a. this story, “Grandmother Know’s Best.”
Shukran to everyone who said they liked “Wrath’s Return”,
“One Thing After Another”, and “The Euphrates Stone”!
‘Gidda’ Arabic for ‘Grandmother’
‘Shukran’ Arabic for ‘Thank you’