Sands In The Darkest Night

Uncertainties

*This chapter is dedicated to Reginacj Thanks for your support, means the world to me☺️*
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Aria hurried her steps through the busy market place. She'd been sent on an errand to collect some fishes her mother had paid for a day earlier.

The merchant was a trusted friend of her parents—although an Egyptian was very kind and straightforward.
Aria barely dodged in time as a loose cockerel in a crazed frenzy flew over her head.

'It would seem it wasn't only her who craved for freedom.' She thought as the cockerel made a mad dash down the dirt road—the rope used to tie it still dangling around its leg.

As she walked through a crowded market, she noticed a few people passed glances her way—they were mostly from men, but then after a moment, they would just look away.

She knew she must look shabby and even more so with her cut hair. She was short too—more small than short but nowhere reaching the average height of the Egyptians.

She probably looked like an adolescent boy, what with her almost non-existent feminine features. It kept the male attention at bay though, at least to the barest minimum. And for that, she was grateful.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she neared the merchants' stall—one she knew by heart since it wasn't the first she'd gone on an errand for her mother.
A wooden carriage pulled by two donkeys, transporting watermelons bigger than her head, came wheeling fast in her direction.

The load was obviously too much for the carriage. The carriage had neared her before she could react and it hit her slightly as she moved out of the way just at the last second.
She held her arm in pain as it throbbed. She bit her lip and kept on her way.

She got to Raseph—the merchant—a minute later but didn't meet him at his shop but had left his goods with his daughter, Isis.
Being Egyptian, she was very beautiful. She was wearing an ankle-length sheath dress made from linen with a little bit of jewellery in form of bracelets on her wrists and a necklace made of beads.

Her bronze skin glittered in the sun, and her eyes were painted with kohl which accentuated her beautiful chocolate eyes.
"Father went on a short journey. He'll be back in a few days. He said to give this to your mother." Isis gave Aria the bag containing the freshly killed fishes, all the while smiling at her.

Aria couldn't help but smile back grateful.
"Thank you, Isis. Mother sends her greetings, please tell your father that when he arrives from his journey." Aria said.

Isis nodded and waved her goodbye. Aria waved too.
It took a while but she got home in record time.

Mother was pleased with the fishes she brought back and made a note to thank Raseph, as he had told his beautiful daughter to add two extra fishes for her—they were even bigger than they should be for the price she paid.

They gave thanks and her mother started preparing the food. Aria helped her mother with the cooking and Eros helped chop the firewood.

Aria's mother noticed her daughter wince a little as she boiled the fish in the water with some cheap spices; the sweet-smelling aroma filled the small home.

"Aria, what happened to your arm?" Her mother's doe brown eyes were filled with worry.

Aria hid her arm from her view and continued blowing the fire with her other arm.
"It's nothing ma." She replied quietly.
Aria dropped the fan she was holding and excused herself from the house.

Her feet unsurprisingly led her to her secret spot. She remembered the last time she'd been there, it was the night she saw the vision of those eyes, those amber eyes.