Sands In The Darkest Night

The Stranger

*Picture of the Nile River above.*

Aria had run, ran like her life depended on it after what she'd done.

Her feet once again led her to her secret place-the only place she had to herself.

She sat by the bank and buried her face in her raised knees and sobbed softly into them.

'Her and her big mouth.' 'Why did she have to say that?' 'Why did she have to question the laws?'

No one, no one had EVER done that.

They were the laws they lived by for hundreds of years. Who was she to question the laws?

She knew she was in trouble-deep trouble. Whatever happened, she would take it-she would accept whatever punishment they meted to her for what she'd done. She had questioned the laws not just to her Rabbi's face but in the presence of all the kids like herself present there.

She was in deep trouble.

After a while, her sobs subsided into little sniffs, before they finally died down.

She raised her head, wiped her face and stood.

She stretched a little and was about turning when she saw someone standing a few feet away from her.

Her eyes widened and she moved several feet away from the figure.

'It was him.'

Her hands shook slightly by her side. She man she had met the last time she'd been to the Nile-which was several weeks ago.

He was the reason she'd stirred clear of the Nile, of her secret place for so long.

In her anxiety and distressed state, the reason she'd avoided the Nile for so long hadn't even occurred to her-the stranger she had met.

She was facing him fully and so was he.

He was Egyptian-it was clear from his clothing. The setting sun shined brightly on his bronze skin and it glittered-or was it all in her head?

Like the last time she had seen him, he wasn't wearing any artificial hair, only a kilt wrapped around his waist with armlets on both his arms and a golden collar around his neck.

Aria looked closely but she couldn't make out his eyes.

He moved a few steps towards her slowly. She saw his eyes then-she had never met someone with such emotionless eyes.

But he stared at her.

She hid her trembling hands behind her-she didn't like the stranger thinking she was afraid of him.

"What do you want from me?" She questioned boldly.

He didn't reply for a long while and he merely stared at her with those eyes.

He blinked.

"You have nothing I want." His voice was as she remembered-deep and quiet.

Aria panicked a little at that point.

"Then why are you here?!" She all but yelled.

He quirked his head slightly to the side as if thinking.

Then he answered her.

"I don't know." Aria's heart hammered in her chest.

Now that she could see his face clearly, he looked no older than her and his eyes were dark brown-like most Egyptians.

"Are you lost?" She asked him again.

"No." He shook his head slightly.

"You're Egyptian, you shouldn't be here. I'll report you." She threatened.