Chapter 8

Grandpa’s Diary

“Robert, it is time for the banquet to begin.”

I heard Adira’s voice calling me from outside of the tent. I looked up from my journal and cracked my neck and stood up.

The sun was already beginning to set and the fires were getting lit. I could smell the delicious fragrance of meat coming from a distance away. The sound of drums resounded throughout the camp and I could see tribe members shaking something that vaguely resembled a maraca. People were dancing and singing and all in all, having a great time.

Adira led me to where her father was sitting and when he saw me he smiled and raised his hand. When he did so the music stopped.

“Ah, Robert, you have finally arrived.” He motioned for me to come sit next to him and Adira followed me and sat next to me on my right.

“Fellow tribesmen! Today, we honor our guest Robert C. Ladin for visiting our humble tribe.” And then he went on about what I do and roused up the tribe members about how great of a storyteller I am. Soon enough, everyone was looking at me with expectant looks, except for a few I remember who were in the tent with the chief and had slight looks of scorn on their faces.

Luckily, I had time earlier to think of a story to tell these people. I racked my brains earlier to think of a story that could relate to these people and I finally remembered a fairy tale from my childhood: Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

Because it was in a desert setting like the Atacma Desert I thought it would gain the approval of the people.

But the main problem was that I forgot some of the minor parts of the story. Fortunately I was given enough time to fill in the parts that I had forgotten with some of my new ideas to make it more interesting.

“Now, Robert, if you will.” said Adira’s father as he gestured to move to the front.

I got and up and I cleared my throat to show that I was ready.

It was a bit nerve wracking because of the amount of people that were staring at me. There were more than triple the amount of people than when I had to speak at my graduation because I was the valedictorian of my class.

“Ahem, in a land far, far away, there were two brothers. Ali Baba and his elder brother Cassim were sons of a wealthy merchant. After their father passed away, the greedy Cassim married a wealthy woman and continued to build his father’s business.

Ali Baba on the other hand, marries a poor woman and becomes a humble wood cutter as his profession.

One day, while Ali Baba was cutting wood, he came across 40 thieves visiting their treasure trove. They said the words, “open sesame” to open a secret entrance in a mountain and “close sesame” to close the entrance.

After the thieves leave, Ali Baba sneaks into their cave and takes with him only one bag of gold coins.”

The audience looked pretty entranced by my story telling so I did not stop and continued telling the story of how Cassim’s wife found out about the Ali Baba’s new fortune and he forced him to give him the secret.

The tribe members were enraged with the actions of Cassim and they cursed his name.

Wow. I didn’t expect them to get so riled up over a story.

I reached the part where Cassim forgot the password to leave the secret cave and when the thieves came back they killed him and mutilated his body and hung his body parts outside.

The audience seemed happy that that happened to him because of his greed.

Later on Ali Baba found his body and gave him a proper burial along with the help of Cassim’s former slave, Morgiana.

But the thieves saw that the body was missing and they soon found out that it was Ali Baba and they plotted to kill him in order to keep their secret.

Because of Morgiana’s quick wit, she was able to save his life twice from the thieves. Because of her amazing aptitude and in thanks for saving his life, Ali Baba released Morgiana from slavery and even married her to his own son.

In the end Ali Baba was the only one who knew the secret password to the cave and everyone lived happily ever after.

As I ended the story the crowd got up and clapped and cheered. I was a bit surprised that they were clapping so enthusiastically but I bowed and I went back to my spot next to Adira.

It took a little bit over an hour to finish the story and my throat was really dry.

“That was a profound tale Robert. You grace us with you amazing story. Now, let the feast begin!” announced the chief.

Adira gave me a smile and I blushed. Soon, platters of all kind of food was being sent out by the slaves and I realized how hungry I was.

There were a lot of things that I’ve never seen before, like the weird, fried cactus plant, and this steamed scorpion the size of my head, for example.

“Umm… Adira? How do I eat this… scorpion? And are you guys even allowed to eat scorpions? I mean, you guys are the Scorpion 

tribe… so isn’t like, you know, sacrilegious?”

“These scorpions are a different species from the magical scorpions that we have a contract with. The scorpions that we contract with are all children of the great Mother Scorpion who is our patron godbeast. They are a delicacy in our tribe and are quite delicious, the tail is the best part.”

Adira showed me how to take apart the scorpion and showed me where most of the meat was hidden and even fed it to me.

Is she… perhaps… flirting? It tasted vaguely like lobster. There were many other foo

I never really talked to girls that much during school. I was too focused on my studies and playing around with my friends and I’m pretty shy…

I found that I could actually open up to Adira and we had a great time talking to each other and enjoying the banquet. Many people came up to me during the feast and told me that I told a wonderful story and that they looked forward to hearing more of my stories.

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Suddenly a somewhat decent looking guy with a mustache came up to me, or more accurately, Adira.

He gave me a look of disdain.

“Hmph. You’re story was decent, for a foreigner.” He said in an snobbish voice.

I was taken aback. What did I do to offend this guy?

“Husseng! You are being very rude to our guest.” Adira reprimanded him in a angry tone.

This Husseng dude ignored what she said, “Come sit with me Adira, you know that our fathers have been discussing our engagement. We can think of names for our children.” He said in an arrogant voice.

Wait, so Adira’s engaged?

My facial features visibly darkened and Adira seemed to notice this and immediately said, “We are not engaged yet Husseng and I would rather be married to Robert than to you.”

‘Is that a compliment or an insult? Was this guy jealous that I hit it off so well with Adira?’

At this moment the chief intervened.

“Husseng, now is not the time and place for this, you are disrupting other’s enjoyment.”

“Yes Chief.” He said respectfully and then left us.

“I’m sorry for that Robert, Husseng is a nice person if you get to know him. He has been trying to court me for a long time but he has been rejecting my rejections.” Adira said to me in a defeated voice. We still had pleasant conversation but I could tell the mood had dampened between us.

The banquet gradually came to a close and Adira led me to my tent again. We said goodnight and she went to her own tent.

The next morning a slave brought me breakfast that consisted of bread that was dry and bland that vaguely resembled pita bread/tortilla with some sort of sauce that you dip with it and some weird desert fruit that I didn’t know how to eat.

Turns out that the slave is going to be my “chaperone” during my stay at the camp. His name is Aashiq and he is 16 this year. He is actually pretty decent looking in my standards, with high cheek bones and sharp nose with a strong jaw line. He has a lean body and he seems like a nice guy.

“Did you eat yet Aashiq?”

“I have not my lord.”

“Then come and join me. I don’t like eating alone.”

“I would not dare my lord. I am just a slave. I have no right to partake in a meal of someone of your status.”

“Sigh… don’t be like that. Come, sit. Where I’m from, there are no slaves and so you being like this is very uncomfortable for me. So don’t act like that, because I’m not used to it.”

After much persuasion on my part, I eventually convinced Aashiq to eat breakfast with me and he opened up a little bit to me.

We finished eating and I decided that I wanted to explore the tribe a bit more. Aashiq showed me around the places where I never visited with Adira. I noticed that I was getting a lot of stares from the slaves. Confused, I asked Aashiq.

“Aashiq, why are the slaves staring at me?”

“That is because of your story last night. Many slaves were inspired by Morgiana and how she was able to become the wife of her former master’s son and her loyalty and cunning. Therefore, we all look up to you and hope to become like Morgiana one day and gain our freedom.”

I was quiet embarrassed when he said that they all looked up to me. But it made me feel a bit good inside.

Aashiq gave me a more detailed tour of the tribe than Adira, I think because he was a slave he had more in-depth knowledge of the tribe and its inner workings because he gets sent on errands and I’m pretty sure that there is a lot of gossip among the slaves.

He showed me where they breed the scorpions that I ate last night and several other weird species of animals. The one that stood out the most was this weird ostrich looking animal that had horns and four feet.

“These are called shtruc. They are the fastest animals in the desert and they are used by scouts.”

I even got to pet one and feed it one of those scorpions. After I saw its rows of sharp teeth I became more cautious around it.

We had lunch again in my tent that was when Adira came in.

Aashiq immediately got up and bowed to her respectfully.

“Robert, my father wishes to see you.”

“Right now? Alright.”

***

“Haha, Robert, your story last night was magnificent.” said the chief.

“I’m not worthy of your praise.” I tried to be as humble as possible.

His advisors seemed to like my story as well, they were mostly old men but the warriors on his left side didn’t seem too impressed with my story as they looked at me with somewhat indifferent expressions.

“Robert, we are going to begin our pilgrimage to the Great Scorpion tomorrow. Would you like to come with us?”

A few of the warriors objected, saying that it is sacred to their tribe and how an outsider would disgrace it, but the chief silenced them with a wave of his hand.

Considering that I am literally on a different dimension, and I have no idea how to get home, I figured that it’s probably safest being with them. We’re in the middle of a desert after all.

I told the chief that I would be honored to go with them on their pilgrimage and the chief seemed happy with my answer.

He said he wanted me to tell another story later on in the evening again because many tribe members enjoyed it.

I agreed to his request. I’m going to try not to be a freeloader to this tribe. I can at least provide some sort of entertainment for them so that they don’t think I’m completely useless.