Page 143 of A Simple Truth

If I thought Gideon was outlandish with his flying skills, I thought wrong. My life flashed before my eyes as Aurelia spiraled us up and down in complete chaos while maniacally laughing. My knuckles turned shell white as I held onto the saddle with all my might.

“Put your arms up!” she shouted through the wind, letting go of the reins as her arms rose above her head.

“Aurelia!!!” my thrashing voice roared, as our dragonfly plummeted in a free fall. At least it was clear now why she was banned from flying.

“Weeeeee!!!” she screamed, enjoying the increasing speed of our fall.

I screamed too. Though my screams were filled with growing nausea and terror; hers were nothing but thrill and excitement.

If I wasn’t going to die, I was definitely going to pass out, frantically holding on to the saddle belts, praying that the white, leather straps were strong enough to keep me alive.

“Aurelia! Aurelia! AURELLIA DE VILLIAR!!!” my voice erupted with unnerving alarm as the red, sandy dunes grewcloser with each passing second, yet she still didn’t pull up on the reins.

Only at the very last second, right before the inevitable crash, she grabbed onto the reins, yanking them up until we roughly hit the ground.

The moment our dragonfly was steady, I rapidly unbuckled myself from the saddle, dropping to the welcoming, warm sand as I fought the rising vomit. Aurelia, as if she hadn’t nearly killed us, beamed with pure joy as she patted the creature, whispering sweet nothings to it before sliding off her seat. She adjusted her adventure hat, her hair a perfect mess as she pulled the flying goggles off, ignorant of my sickly, pale face.

“How fun was that?!” She fixed her skirt. “I could live in the sky.”

“Yeah, I am going to be the one flying us home,” I retorted, looking for a canteen to wash out the sour taste in my mouth.

“Yeah, we’ll see,” Aurelia batted her eyelashes at me, grabbing our compass, a map, and a couple of ladies’ binoculars. “Come on, Finn. We better start walking if we want to get home by morning.”

Aurelia pointedwith her binoculars to the small village peeking down below the sand dune, hidden well between the red, rocky hills. “Somehow, I never imagined people living in the Desolate Desert, I had always envisioned it…desolate?” she mumbled as we laid flat against the ground, almost buried in the sand, watching a few people meander down below. Small gusts of wind caressed our skin, warning of the soon approaching night. I tucked a few loose strands of my hair behind my ear.

“I didn’t know either…” I replied. I, too, carefully examined the village. The houses were small, red, clay squares, half buried in the sand, windows just slightly above ground level—a way to preserve cooler temperature during the day. The roofs were short and flat.

However it wasn’t the village that drew my attention, but the trailing shadows behind that red mountain. “I am going to check it out,” I told Aurelia. “You stay here and go back if I am not back in an hour or two,” I directed.

“I don’t have a watch here. How would I know it’s been an hour or two...” She shook her head and I had to remind myself that she didn’t grow up outside like me, aware of every shift of the sun almost down to the minutes, but before I could reply, she said, “I’ll count seconds. It’s only 7,200...And I’ve spent hours counting before, until 10,000 or more. So that’s what I’ll do,” she decided.

“Good idea, adventure partner!” I winked at her, smiling. “We will have to go on more adventures together. Though next time, I vote we don’t fly.” I nudged her with my elbow, and she dramatically rolled her eyes at me.

“I’ll consider it,” she replied, digging her feet a bit further into the sand.

Without another word, I silently snuck down the sand dunes. I made my way to the red, round rocks surrounding the village, resembling tiny mountains. The shadows they cast kept me well hidden as I crouched closer to an opening between them.

My eyes narrowed as I saw the first two guards. They stood by large, curved doors holding their spears straight. There, high above the door, carved straight out of the red rock, was a little balcony and a window.

I climbed up on a boulder near me, pulling out my binoculars to look. A gasp almost escaped my mouth when I saw through the open curtains, a painting covering half the wall. A painting Ihad seen before. Of a mother and her four children. A painting matching exactly the one I had seen in my vision.

The picture was there, and I could bet my life on, the book being there too. I lowered my eyes back to the entrance. A few large, male figures came up to the doors, as the guards checked…their papers? Cards? Something in their hands.

I slithered down from my spot, the soft sand absorbing the shock from the small jump. I turned to head back to Aurelia, retracing my steps back past the mountain, pausing when I heard quiet female sobs coming from around a corner. I hesitated at first, and yet I still found myself walking towards the sound.

“Oh.” A girl about my size gulped as I stumbled right into her. I motioned with my finger to my mouth for her to stay quiet. She was a bit younger than me, closer to Aurelia’s age, barely covered. Clothed only in a mahogany bra that was embroidered with shimmering gold beads, exposing her full breasts. Her skirt, resembling more of a large belt, was sitting low on her hips with a long strip of fabric down her front and back, scarcely covering her lady bits.

She stayed quiet but her puffy, red eyes darted to the guards behind me, still clearly within our sight. In a split second, I grabbed her with a tight hold, placing my hand on her mouth as I dragged her away until we were out of sight. She didn’t object and I let go of her a minute later, hiding us behind one of the boulders.

“Do not worry, I won’t hurt you,” I assured her, glancing back just to make sure we were out of earshot of the guards.

“Even if you did, I wouldn’t care,” she replied, her voice heavy and laden. “Who are you?” she asked, her eyes scanning up and down my body.

“I am…visiting,” I blurted out, unsure how to explain the true reason why I was here or who I was.

“Visiting? How did you get here?” she paused between her sniffs.

“Why are you crying?” I questioned, taking another look at her. She was pretty and well fed and yet, there was something in her eyes that was broken, it gave me chills.

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