“Is everything ready?” Shahrazad asked Aloe as her daughter juggled between multiple bags.
“Yes, Mom,” Aloe responded, her face a stone wall. “This is the fourth time you asked.”
“Things could have gone wrong between each question!” She added with motherly worry.
Aloe groaned. “I’m fine really.”
“You do not look fine.” Shahrazad pointed at the copious bags the little girl was carrying.
“Okay, I’m not fine.” She tried to shrug, but the leather straps from the multiple bags restrained her from doing so.
“Let me help you at least, daughter.”
“Nope.” Aloe crossed her arms, or more exactly, tried doing so. “I asked Jafar for help, so you just go to work. I still have to patch up some things whilst he arrives.”
“But...” Shahrazad shyly extended a hand to help her daughter.
“Mom.” The daughter state vehemently. “Go to work.”
“I... fine.” The scribe sighed. “Take care, Aloe.”
“Always, Mom,” Aloe responded with a smile.
The moment Shahrazad left the house, Aloe slumped to the ground, the bags, satchels, backpacks, and whatever else were too heavy for her. Not only she was wearing her heavy desert garb, but she also had to carry all her rations, seeds, spare clothing, bath products, and a few emergency waterskins.
Her load was quite literally heavier than her. The sacks of beans and potatoes were incredibly heavy, but she needed to carry such obscene quantities because she not only intended to eat them but also plant them.
And whilst a single piece of clothing was light, the multiple sets she packed for the whole month were absolutely not. Her mother also forced her to pack a washing board, because otherwise, she may as well wear dirty clothes during her moon-long stay.
Jafar arrived not long after Shahrazad departed to work, just a little over a quarter of an hour.
“Damn, little plant. How much do you carry there?” The guard’s face was littered with bewilderment.
Aloe locked at her surroundings, the bursting bags that covered her from the feet up to her waist and uttered a single word. “Yes.”
In the end, the colossal guard had no problem carrying the bags. He showed a hint of exhaustion by the end, but Jafar managed to carry most of the bags by himself without even stopping once. Aloe was incommensurably thankful to her uncle as otherwise the journey to the stables would have taken her over an hour of juggling bags and countless stops to rest.
“Ah, you are quite early.” Jamal, the person who sold Aloe the dweller, said as she saw her enter the stables. “And you also bring quite the load.”
“Can we get going with the contracts?” Aloe sighed. “I have already lost a lot of time and I have a long journey before me.”
“Straight to business, can’t say I’m against that.” The stablemaster grinned. “Follow me to the office, your companion can stay here with the bags.”
The stable office was quite simple, and it was obvious this wasn’t a private office but a shared workplace. There were two different desks with shared the same shelf storing countless ledgers. Jamal had already prepared the contract and the moment he sat on the chair, he pushed it to Aloe.
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Even if she was in a bit of a hurry, it would be downright moronic to not read the fine print of the contract. Jamal hadn’t tried to scam her or anything, it was quite a standard contract simply stating that the desert dweller in the property of the Sadina Stable’s would be transferred to Aloe Ayad after paying the accorded sum of one hundred and fifty drupnars. She just signed the contract after verifying that everything was indeed in check.
“Alright,” Jamal nodded after Aloe signed. “Now the money.”
Aloe took out the coin purse full of fajats that Umar had given her, which felt significantly lighter after having bought many of the rations and miscellanea, and slowly took out one fajat at a time. A simple copper fajat had five times the value as a copper drupnar, the lowest form of coinage and the default term of the currency, so after taking out thirty of them and leaving the purse almost empty, she had set the one hundred and fifty drupnars on the table.
Just in case, Jamal recounted the big copper coins on the table, even if Aloe had taken them in a scrupulously slow manner.
After he was done, Jamal spoke. “Pleasure doing with you, ma’am.” And he extended her a hand.
“Likewise.” Aloe closed the transactional handshake.
“Now let me help you tie all those bags onto Fikali’s back.” Jamal stood up from his seat. “We are going to need a fair share of rope to keep all tied up.”
Jamal was quite the master with his job as he didn’t need but five minutes to order the dweller to move out of her pen and then the monster didn’t protest when he tied all the bags in her bag.
Once all the bags were tightly secured, the stablemaster led Fikali with a lead out of the stables and across the gates of Sadina. Aloe and Jafar followed closely behind.
“Two things before I leave you alone,” Jamal turned to face them. “Fikali will listen to you, she’s quite tame, but if you ever travel in the desert at night, she might abandon you.”
“I don’t intend to do such a thing,” Aloe responded truthfully.
“Oh, I know. It’s just a warning. As for the other,” He handed her the lead and Aloe took it out of his hands, “dwellers move far faster in sand than on solid ground, if you ever take your hands out of this lead and you aren’t mounted on top, Fikali will leave you behind.”
“Noted.” She said as she rolled the long rope along her wrist.
“Well, that’s all. If you ever need to house her here in Sadina, just come to the stables and we will take care of Fikali.” With those words, Jamal entered back into the city, not even allowing them to say goodbyes.
“Quite a nice fella,” Jafar added as he watched him go.
“You say it because it’s just like you,” Aloe uttered.
“And aren’t I a nice fella?”
“That’s open for discussion.”
“Discussion? I’ll give you a discussion. C’mere, little plant!” Before Aloe could defend herself, Jafar locked her in a tight embrace by the neck and proceeded to rub her head.
“Ah!” Aloe cried. “Watch out! You are going to undo my garb!”
“Don’t make yourself the victim, you deserve it!” The guard drilled his knuckles into the girl’s clothed head.
“Stahp!” Aloe stomped on the man’s foot, making him backstep.
Though instead of pain, Jafar showed a smile on his face. He hadn’t even felt it.
“I’ll leave you to rest now.” He added as if he was doing her a favor. “Anyways, how long are you going to stay away?”
“Less than a month,” Aloe responded with a pout as she fixed the cloth covering her head.
“Alright then, how about we have another feast in my house by then?”
“Fine by me.”
“It’s a deal!” Jafar grinned and extended a hand.
Aloe sighed. “A closed deal.” And accepted the gesture.
“See ya’ in a month, little plant.”
“You too, Uncle Jafar.” And then he disappeared into the gates of the city.
The girl stood there in the walls for a moment, enjoying the last moment of shade she was going to have for the whole day, and looked at her new companion.
“How about you, Fikali.” Aloe talked to the dweller. “Are you ready?”
“Wroyyyyyyy!” Fikali responded with what only could be described as a grunt.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Aloe gazed at the horizon, inhaled, and then exhaled. “Let’s go then.”
As she started walking and began pulling on the lead, Fikali abandoned her stationary position and followed her. The monster was old and had a sizeable burden on her bag, yet the moment her feet and claws dived into the sand, she became infinitely more agile.
“Oh wow!” Aloe almost lost her balance as the dweller quickly overtook her, but with a simple tug of the lead, Fikali stopped. “Jamal was right, you are quite obedient. Let me go first, I’m the one who knows the way.”
“Ohhuurgh.” The desert dweller groaned, and once again, Aloe took it as an affirmation.
The two-way trip had taught Aloe how to walk on the desert and now even with just a few days of practice, her steps felt more secure and less draining. It also helped that she didn’t have to carry anything on her person besides the garb and a bit of water at hand.
Aloe looked back at Sadina, only five minutes had passed but the town had become a spec on the horizon.
“Nice!” The apprentice fist-bumped. “At this rate, we will reach the oasis far before twilight!”
Invigorated by her quick progress, Aloe’s mood allowed her to ignore the rising sun that was beginning to heat the dunes up and scratch her back.