You ride through a haze of sand, barely discerning the horizon. The dromedary seems to know its way back home, so you allow it to trample its heavy hooves in the direction it prefers. You’ve left those poor men escape with their lives, but who are you to judge them? Life isn’t fair—or at least it wasn’t to you.
You come from a long, arduous journey. Your friends abandoned you in the middle of this hell, with no resources nor tool to find your bearings. ‘Why would they do something like that to you?’ you ask yourself, but no clear answer comes to mind. That question still scorches your heart more fiercely than this merciless sun—a question more unquenchable than your desert thirst.
You’re looking for something, but what? All you know is that you need to reach Zalenica as soon as you can. There’s something waiting for you there, though you’re not sure whether it’s good or bad. ‘Maybe happiness is in the journey, not the destination,’ you think, smiling sarcastically at your own inanity. You only know that life propels you, just as it propelled your parents to bring you into existence, and just as it propelled your friends to turn their backs on you. That’s the price one must pay for staying true to oneself. That’s the price you paid. You’re alone in the world, and what better place to exemplify that than a desert. But wait, you’re not alone anymore. A group of riders can be glimpsed in the distance. How many? It’s still indiscernible, but you’re too tired to care. Friends or foes? What difference does it make in the desert? Behind them, the city skyline already comes into view. However, the remnants of your survival instinct kick in, and you make a fateful decision:
You let them approach and hope for the best.
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