KeYnNamM 

The Man-with-No-Name,

the King of No-One’s-Land

By: Ruwen Rouhs
(© 2022 by the author)

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

RRouhs@tickiestories.us

Chapter 6
Old friends, new friends

Ikken was the first to turn into the narrow path along the reed field that led to the ford through the River Draa. The ground was slippery. He slipped and had to use up both arms to keep from falling into the dirt. He had not yet regained his balance when he heard the whirring of a bowstring and an arrow stuck trembling in the mud just a step in front of him. Before he could utter a warning cry or search for the archer, a bright voice warned him, "Stop, no further! You have no business here!" Aylal, also just turning into the path, shouted, "KeYnNamM, help! Quick, an enemy is shooting at Ikken!" slipped and promptly landed on his back.

Ikken looked around for a tree behind which he could hide from the attacker. But the trees next to him were too far away and the only protection offered was the reed belt. However, before he could leap between the saving reeds, another arrow came whizzing by, which he just managed to dodge. In this moment KeYnNamM emerge from the forest, "Lie down in the mud, then you'll provide a smaller target!" he commanded He slowly stalked forward, seeking cover in the reed belt, but could not locate the archer either. He guessed the guard could only hide in the tree that stood alone to the right of the path. From the voice, it had to be a boy or girl. Suddenly he remembered the voice. "Hiyya, my sweet Hiyya!" he shouted and stepped out of cover, "Hiyya, have you forgotten me? I am KeYnNamM, the Amestan, your Protector!" When no answer came, "You Hiyya and your father are my friends. Your father is Ennand, your mother's name is Ayri and the twin sisters are named Anirt and Amimt! Do you remember me? I have only been away for a year. I bet you still can remember me!” Then pointing at Ikken and Aylal laying in the dirt. “Don't shoot at my sons."

The answer came promptly, "But you don't have any children, Amestan. Who are they, why do you call them sons?" "I'll explain that to you later. You'd better come down from the tree and embrace them." When Hiyya still did not emerge from her hiding place, he added, "The tall one you nearly hit with the arrow is called Ikken, and the shorter one is Aylal! They call me baba, so I am their father now! Come down from the tree and greet us!"

Hiyya slid down the tree. She was dressed like a boy. However, her loose shirt was decorated with braids and her light brown hair was long and was fluttering in the breeze. She threw her bow to the ground and ran toward KeYnNamM, "Everyone said the soldiers had captured and killed you! But you are alive! Amestan, Amestan-amo, uncle, uncle!" and she hugged him

Hiyya was excited! Amestan-amo was suddenly back and he had sons! Her mother had not been right after all. The Amestan must have a wife, if he had so two pretty sons. Both were handsome, especially the older one, he had something special. She just didn't know what. She felt tingles all over her body just looking at him. Now they even walked side by side. If only he would touch her hand. Maybe he was afraid of girls. She looked to Aylal, who was walking next to KeYnNamM asking question after question. If only Aylal wouldn't just chatter so much! Hiyya thought, but then she remembered. Aylal fit right in with her sisters, the twins, they couldn't keep their mouths shut either.

Ikken told her about the city, about the many people there, about the souk and all the goods you could buy there. Hiyya envied him! Her family lived on a small farm far away from other families. Only once or twice a year did the extended family get together, only once or twice a year was she allowed to go to the market held in the next village. She was never taken to the mid-summer market in the Border-Country where everything was for sale, not only animals, no, also fabrics, clothes, jewelry, everything her heart desired and more!

At the markets she met her cousins. But compared to Ikken, her cousins were just big, fat, stupid boys, farm boys of course, who only talked about cattle, sheep and goats. And moreover! The most interesting boys, the older ones, who were already sprouting beards, were all already promised to girls and had to remain faithful to their bride. Hiyya decided to show Ikken how much she liked him. She had to take him everywhere, show him everything, the farm, the animals, the river and, and..... they just had to become friends, maybe more! After all, she was already twelve.

Ikken immediately liked Hiyya. However, in his age girls didn't interest him. They were girls after all. However, Hiyya was special. She was different! The light-haired girl with her gray eyes in the clothes of a boy was completely different from the girls he knew from Tinghir. Surely, she too would have to help her mother, but she could also handle bow and arrow, climb trees, maybe she could even swim. KeYnNamM had also told him on the way here that Hiyya could move in the forest without scaring animals or being discovered by them, that she could set traps and catch fish. Of course, she also knew everything about the animals on the farm, what they liked to eat, when the sheep and goats would have offspring, and much more. Surely, he could learn everything he needed to know here at the River Draa from Hiyya. She could surely show him what he needed to survive in the wild country. KeYnNamM had also told him about the twins and how much they wanted a brother. He loved his Aylal, but sometimes his small brother one was a nuisance. He would gladly leave him to Anirt and Amimt, at least for a while, then Hiyya and he would have more time for each other.

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Ennand wiped the sweat from his brow. All morning he had been building the new pen on the edge of the gallery forest. Now he was trying to herd the flock of sheep out of the old pen on the bank of the Draa and into the new one. His flock of sheep was small. The last raid by the Emperor's beadles had reduced the flock to six ewes and the ram. Fortunately, almost all the ewes had given birth to twins at the beginning of the year, and thus the loss from the tribute payment in the fall would soon be made up.

He cursed the soldiers of the emperor. One morning, they had unexpectedly appeared at the ford one morning, bottled his farm and then made their demands. "The emperor wants your eldest daughter! She is the right age for the capital! Our gracious Emperor wants to give every pretty brat the opportunity to become something better than a peasant bumpkin who gets a child every year and is worn out at twenty-five like an old hag!" declared the captain. A fat private added, "No brat has yet regretted being introduced into life by soldiers, spreading their legs and having fun all night. That's what they're missing!" "Where is she!" asked a mock-eyed man, "Your friend said your eye star must be here! Where? She won't regret it!" he grinned and scratched himself between his legs.

Oh! That day Ennand had been lucky. Because Hiyya had left the house early on the morning to look for duck nests in the reeds. Against his will! The stubborn girl! "Who says that I have a daughter? Who is spreading this fairy tale?" he asked the captain, who pierced his side with his lance. "Why don't you search the whole farm? There is no young girl here, none like you are looking for! There never was one here! Who told you the cock and bull story?

Ennand had sweated blood and water, and was relieved when the tribute drivers left with three sheep and three goats, leaving him, his wife Ayri and twins in peace! When the hated fellows were gone, he hugged Ayri and the twins, secretly vowing to find the one who had set the emperor's tribute collectors on his family. He would find the traitor, and then! His last hour had struck when he found him. Since that day he let Hiyya go whenever she wanted. Often, he even sent her away himself when he was restless for some reason. He believed in premonitions, even if Ayri, his wife, laughed at him for it.

Ennand sat down wearily on a stone on the slope. He pondered, while the oldest ewe of the small flock trotted ahead. The old animal was skinny, so skinny that now, after shearing, every single rib was visible under her coat. But her udder was full and she reliably gave birth to a pair of lambs every year. Yes, the old ewe was reliable, but she was also smart and had a sweet tooth. She loved salt and with a few grains she could be lured anywhere. He had sparingly spread the salt along the path to the new pen. The lead sheep followed the track and was followed by other sheep and the mighty ram.

Ennand squinted in the sun. None of this would have happened if the king of No-One's Land, his friend the Amestan, was still there, he thought. His friend KeYnNamM had always warned him and the others at the Draa about the raids of the tribute collectors. He had driven them away if necessary! However the Amestan himself had be betrayed by someone one and had been handed over to the henchmen of the governor! Who was the betrayer, he wondered? Ennand pondered, had it been the same traitor who had set the soldiers on him? Perhaps the king of No-One's-Land was already dead! He closed his eyes and almost fell asleep.

Suddenly he was startled up, "Baba, Baba! Maman, Maman!" a bright voice resounding from the River Draa alarmed him. His eyes snapped open! Was Hiyya in danger? The light blinded him, but after a moment he recognized his daughter. She was coming through the ford, the water splashing, pursued by a boy, no by two, one taller and one shorter, and a gaunt man with long hair and a beard. His daughter ran, screaming excitedly, and the tall boy came after her, while the man followed leisurely with the little one by the hand. This didn't look like danger, despite he didn't recognize the man. Or did he know him after all? He stood up and walked toward them. Then he recognized him. "KeYnNamM, my friend! King of the No-One's land! Amestan!" shouted Ennand, "Is it really you? You are alive? You're alive!" He ran, past Hiyya, past the tall boy. In front of the Amestan he tried to stop, but stumbled over a root in the ground and then sprawled at the feet of the King of No-One's-Land. KeYnNamM shook his head, then bent down and lifted him up, "Ennand brother, Ennand!" he laughed "I'm not the Emperor after all! No one needs to kiss my feet!"

Arm in arm, the two men walked up the small slope to the homestead. Halfway up, Ayri came toward them, no, she flew toward them. Her loose shirt fluttered like an angel's, her face beamed and when she reached them she took KeYnNamM's head in her hands and kissed him on both cheeks, "Amestan, Amestan we need you, all the people of the Draa need you!" Then she looked around proudly, "Look at them, my Amestan, look! Anirt and Amimt, how big they have become in a year and Hiyya, almost a young woman! She is really a big help and so independent!" Then she walked up to Ikken and Aylal, who were watching the scene. "Who have you brought along, KeYnNamM? They are the spitting image of you! Such handsome sons! Where have you been hiding your sons until now!" She beamed at Ikken and Aylal "You look so much like our Amestan! One of you will be the next king of No-One's-Land. But for now, you are the Princes of the No-One's-Land!"

Ikken blushed and looked disdainfully at the ground, Aylal on the other hand beamed, "Are these your twins, Anirt and Amimt?" pointing to the two, "They're as pretty as angels! When I grow up, I'll marry them! Then they'll both be princesses!" Everyone laughed. As Anirt and Amimt blushed, Ikken poked his brother in the side, meaning, don't say nonsense. Hiyya, however, got red-hot cheeks, she stared at the tips of her feet smiling. Then she plucked up courage, raised her head and beamed at Ikken. She was successful! He too got crimson and bowed his head and stared at the tips of his feet.

₪₪₪

Ennand took KeYnNamM's one hand and Ayri his other. They were happier than they had been in a long time. As they all walked up the short distance to the homestead, the Amestan suddenly stopped, "I must get rid of the old clothes! Ennand. Ayri forgive me! Before I take another step, I must get rid of the Emperor's clothes. Ayri, I'm sure you have an old shirt of Ennand that you can lend me. I don't want to enter a single house on the Draa in this shirt! I must get rid of the Emperor's clothes immediately!"

His friends understood him. KeYnNamM went back to the river and submerged three times. He let the cool water clean him, then climbed ashore, where Ennand was already waiting, rubbing him dry with a rough cloth. Ayri handed him the typical clothing of a peasant from the Draa, a loose, coarsely woven shirt and three-quarter length pants with frayed legs. Under the curious eyes of the children, he put on the clean clothes. Then he asked Ennand to bring a glowing fuse from the house to burn the emperor’s clothes on a sandbar of the Draa. "When the water will have washed away the ashes overnight, the past year will be extinguished!” he declared solemnly, “This damned year of humiliation and concentration camp, this year of defeats, but also of a victory will be extinguished!" The next moment he got ashamed of the pathetic words. However, he could not control his emotion in any other way. "Come here! Come Ikken, come Aylal, come my sons!" he held them close and announced to his friends, "Without these braves I would not have gained freedom. By the gray smoke that rises to the blue sky, I pledge my life for the freedom of the people, all the people, not only those of Draa."

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The rest of the day passed much too quickly. Anirt and Amimt immediately took Aylal by the hands. The twins had always wanted a brother like that, blond-haired, gentle and considerate, one who could be spoiled but also ordered around. A brother who admired them, who took part in everything, from feeding the hens with their flocks of scurrying chicks, to changing the dresses of their dolls in the tree house. Aylal was the ideal brother, one who took everything in stride and didn't get sassy right away like her cousins.

For Hiyya it wasn’t this easy. She also was infatuated by Ikken. He was completely different from her cousins from the hamlets in the neighborhood. He was blond like her, but slim, nimble and even talkative! She had to fight a battle with her mother before she was allowed to take Ikken to fetch the herd of goat home from the forest. "Hiyya, you are already big and Ikken is a young man! Baba has already promised you to your cousin Merin! You can't just roam around in the forest with a strange boy. You don't even know him! He's from the city! A city boy!!!" But this in particular appealed to Hiyya, "I don't want to merry my cousin Merin! He's fat, stupid and smelly! I won't marry him! I want Ikken! I love him already. Look how agile and fast he is!" pointing at Ikken, who, with her father and KeYnNamM, was loading the two-wheeled cart with sacks filled with Argan nuts that Ennand was going to take to market the next day.

Of course, Hiyya got her way. When the cart was loaded, she simply took Ikken by the hand. "I need you Ikken, come with me! We have to get the goats out of the forest and herd them in the pen, otherwise the fox will get the yeanlings in the night."

When Ikken didn't spot the herd of goats right away, she pointed to a freestanding Argan tree, "They climb about in the trees and eat the leaves and fruit!" With sticks and stones and after some effort, they got the lead goat to climb down from the tree. Once down, the lead goat went ahead and the others followed it to the pen.

After dusk fell, all five children were sent to bed. Ennand, KeYnNamM and Ayri sat down on the bench near the front door and began to tell each other about the events of the last year. They also discussed their plans for the near future. KeYnNamM explained, "My very next project will be to free my friends from the concentration camp at the crystal mine. I need to do this, I have vowed to get them free! For that I need your help. I already have a plan. But I will not let you in on it. Better you do not know anything, if someone asks about my plans. Only this much. I have to ask you to give shelter to Ikken and Aylal for the next few days until I have implemented the first part of my plan."

"Ikken and Aylal? With pleasure. The twins would have been quite sad if they had to let their dear Aylal go away already." laughed Ennand. "And Hiyya!" Ayri said, shaking her head, "She's transformed. I've never seen her so excited. She has fallen for Ikken. She adores him! I think she's in love with him! In love for the first time!"

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In the farm house with the thick mud-walls and the small window were only two rooms. A large living room, with a fireplace and the raised sleeping place for the parents, and a smaller room. This room was separated from the large one with a wooden wall. It was the realm of the three girls.

In the main room between the fireplace and the door to the girl’s room, a low bench was built along the wall, on which KeYnNamM was to sleep as long as his visit lasted. Ikken and Aylal had to share the small room with the girls. They were allowed to sleep in Hiyya's bed on the left wall, while she had to share the bed on the other side with her sisters.

Aylal fell asleep as soon as he had curled up on the soft straw sack. Not Ikken. At first the unfamiliar sounds of the night kept him awake, the rattle of the donkey in the barn, the clucking of the chickens before they squatted down in their nests in the shed for the night, soft bleating of the sheep and goats from the nearby pen, the hooting of the owls under the roof in the barn, and of course the sounds of all the animals in the nearby forest and down by the Draa. Later Hiyya came sneaking into room, but instead of just crawling into bed with her sisters, she began to undress in front of the window hatch through which moonlight filtered into the room. First, she took she her time to pull the colorfully embroidered over-shirt over her head with strange contortions of her skinny body. Afterwards she got rid of the three-quarter length pants slowly and when she stood in the moonlight in her short undershirt, she began a strange dance. It reminded Ikken of the snake dancers whose contortions he had always admired at the souk, but also of the gyrating movements of the belly dancers he and his friends had spied on in the taverns. He would have loved to see how Hiyya looked shirtless, but she did not do him the favor. She quickly slipped into bed. He now realized that the sight of her had aroused him and it took some time for his cock to go limp again. He would have liked to satisfy himself, but after a few rubbings he stopped, not sure if Hiyya was asleep yet.

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Ikken was woken up by whispering of adults chatting on the bench in front of the house. Their voices were so low that he understood only fragments of the conversation. At least he got that Aylal and he were to stay in the care of Ennand and Ayri for a few days, while KeYnNamM was going on an important journey. No, no, that didn't suit him at all! KeYnNamM wanted to go on a dangerous tour alone, without him, without Ikken! He had to take care of Amestan. He was always so careless and trusted even people he did not know! He had to accompany his new father, KeYnNamM-baba! But would he allow it?

Finally, Ikken fell asleep again! But suddenly hoarse screams tore him from his death-like sleep. He didn’t recognize the scream at first! Was a man in distress? He not was sure of that. It took him some time to realize that it was the hee-haw of a donkey, an unwilling animal that had been disturbed in its rest. In the gray light of the dawning morning he observed that KeYnNamM and Ennand were harnessing the animal to the two-wheeled cart. The cart was heavily laden. He saw three fat lambs, two lambkins, a basket with a dozen of chickens, another filled with cucumbers, spinach and onions, in addition the bags that contain nuts from the Argan tree he had helped loading to the cart yesterday.

Even before the sun had risen above the forest on the other side of the Draa, Ennand steered the cart up the path to the plateau that led to the market in the next village in the Border-Land. "Pay close attention!" called KeYnNamM after him, "Pay attention to what is told about my escape from Tinghir, but don't ask about it yourself. Don't talk yourself of it! Remember, I am not here and neither are Ikken and Aylal. And don't forget the arrowheads and the dagger. I need them urgently! Buy clothing material for Ayri so that she can replace the clothes you gave me!” Ayri showed up and kissed Ennand goodbye, "Come back well! Be careful man!"

A little later Ikken woke up again. The sun was shining into the room. This time it was a ghastly moaning that roused him from sleep. Startled, he stumbled to the small window and peered up at the forest from where the horrible sounds were coming. Did executioners torture an innocent man in the forest, torture him terribly? Was it KeYnNamM, his new papa, or Ayri? He covered his ears and was about to rush out barefoot to help the innocent, when he bumped into Hiyya, who had jumped out of the bed also. She just grinned, "What is this? Ikken, why are you scared?"

"Don't you hear the sounds, the screams of horror? Someone is being martyred, maybe murdered! There in the forest! I must help him!" Hiyya laughed even more! Poked him in the belly with her index finger, "That's the billy goat! One of the goats is in heat! He smells it and wants to make her kids!" As Ikken looked at her questioningly "Haven't you ever seen that before?" Hiyya took him by the hand "Come quickly, it's funny! They're dancing with each other!"

Hiyya, clad only in her thin undershirt and Ikken in his loose three-quarter pants, crept out of the house. Warningly, Hiyya put a finger to her lips, "Keep silent, Mother doesn't like me to watch!"

In the pen, the buck and a goat danced. At first, he smelled her rear. As he did so, he pulled up his upper lip and stuck his tongue out slightly. "Look, the buck is pleading!" said Hiyya, poking Ikken in the side. The goat wagged her short tail quite excitedly in front of the buck’s nose. "Is she fanning him with air, yes? Is he sick?" asked Ikken. "No, no! But look, now he's licking her rear and bleating!" The buck pranced and pushed his nose into her flank. He nudged her gently on the head with his nose as if to kiss her, then he stood parallel to her and put a foreleg across her back. It almost looked like he was going to ask her to stop. But she kept trotting on. He started sniffing her rear again and bleated heartbreakingly. This ritual was repeated again and again.

The goat led the buck through the entire pen, through the flock of the other goats and sheep, to the fence and back again. When the buck lagged behind, the goat immediately began to wag its tail in front of its nose. "See Ikken, she's luring him! She wants him to tup her!" "Tup?" Ikken didn't know exactly what Hiyya meant by that. So far, he had only seen donkey stallions jump on mares. But they never performed such a dance before that. In donkeys, everything happened very quickly, the stallion screamed, ran to the mare and jumped on her.

Of course, he and his buddies from the souk had also watched dogs. Often five or six males would fight over a bitch. The one who won was then allowed to ride up and afterwards the two would hang on to each other’s. Soon Ikken and his friends got bored and ran away. But this was different! The buck really courted the goat and she set the place. Now he was sniffing at her rear end again and flehmening again. Suddenly the goat stopped in front of the buck, made a hump and pushed backwards. This was the moment the buck had been waiting for. He jumped up on her. He clutched her hind end with his front legs and pressed his belly very tightly against her rear end. Now she wanted to move forward, but he held on with his front legs and kept pushing. When the buck finally got off, the goat arched her back, spread her hind legs and released a thick stream of urine. This excited the buck anew. He stuck his tongue into the yellow stream and let it run down his nose. Then he bleated and the dance of the two began again.

Only now did Ikken notice that the goat's snatch was red and its labia were quivering. Until now, he had not paid attention to the buck's cock, but now he looked closer. It was as thin as a twig, thinner than his dick and seems to be longer. It was long, thin and had a red tip.

Hiyya had watched the goats mating many times, but always alone. Now Ikken was standing next to her. He had one hand tucked into the front of his pants and was playing around with something, something rather large, and his hand was moving in the same rhythm as the buck had rammed his cock into the goat. She watched that with rising interest. Now she knew. He was playing with his cock, his dickie. She had seen baby-boys in the nude and had liked to play with their small dickies. Ikken’s was surely much bigger, as big as the goat's? Her pussy had grown lately too, especially her lips. They were thick now and often swelled up, itched and so did her crack. Even now her lips and her crack itched and they had itched last night as well when she had thought of Ikken as she fell asleep. Had she dreamed of him? In the morning she had been all wet between her legs. She really needed to talk to her cousins about that next time they met.

Ikken only looked at the buck and how the screwed the goat and did not pay attention to Hiyya. But Hiyya was watching him closely. How he stood there and played with his dick. She wondered if he really looked like the taller girls had described a dick. Long and stiff and with a red tip sticking out of the skin in front? She absolutely had to see Ikken's dick. It was now or never, she thought.

Hiyya took the risk. "Is your weenie also as pointy and thin as the buck's?" Ikken's face turned crimson. He quickly slid his boner under the waistband of his pants, covered the protruding glans with his hand and tried to look all innocent. "What does it look like? Show me your weenie!" begged Hiyya and as Ikken blushed, she offered "Show me your dickie and I'll show you my pussy too!"

“His name is not weenie! You only say that to little boys. It's called a pecker or a dick or cock. Sue,  it can get very big, very stiff and pointed. Then we call him boner or wood.” and he turned away embarrassed muttering, “But that’s none of your business! You're a girl!"

"But I want to see your bo..boner! My cousins have seen their big brothers' too!" and then, to coax Ikken, Hiyya offered, "You can see my pussy too. Look here!" She turned her back to Ikken, bent down, lifted her short shirt and showed him her bottom. His face grew even redder. He had seen the skinny butts of his friends from the souk enough times when they went swimming.  Hiyya's was rounder, wider, and softer. Now he dared to look closely. The gap between the buttocks was deep and when she stretched her bottom more he could see the little hole. The shriveled little hole looked just like the one his friends from the souk. How would it feel to put his boner in her hole the same way as he has done it with his friend Takfin? When he thought about it, his boner itched even more and a drop came out of the crack of the glans.

Now Hiyya widened her legs, pushed through her back and looked at him over her shoulder. Now he saw the difference. Where Takfin's shriveled sack of eggs used to sit, there was something that looked like the two halves of a ripe plum, and the halves glistened wetly in the sun. Ikken stuck out his index finger. "Is....! Is that your pussy, your quim? Can I touch it!" he wanted to ask, when at the edge of the forest Aylal and the twins appeared and shouted, "So here you are! Mom is already looking for you. You are supposed to drive the goats and sheep to the pasture on the river bank!"

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Around noon, Ennand reached the bazaar on the outskirts of the village in the Border-Land. He was not in a hurry. He was expecting the market guards would check the arriving merchants and farmers more closely early in the morning than later, when the hot sun had made them tired. His plan did not quite work out, for just as he had unhitched the donkey and pegged the sheep and goats beside the cart, a market guard approached accompanied by two soldiers. "You come from the Draa? From where there?" asked one soldier.

"Far the south is my farm." he answered the gray-haired frontier soldier, "From where it is not far to the wadi that comes from the east and ends in the Draa." "Well, well," reflected the soldier, "and you didn't notice anything special? You didn't happen to come across a man about your age in a shirt with the Emperor's mark on the back?" The younger man added, "He has two boys with him, two city boys. He kidnapped them and now we're looking for him and the boys. The parents want their kids back! They've even offered a reward of ten fat crystals! You can win them if you help us to get the three!"

Ennand was good at acting. He made a puzzled face at first, then shrugged his shoulders, "I could use the reward, what I earn from my goods isn't even enough for what my wife wants me to buy!" he undid the clasp of his shirt, "She inflected me a deep scratch warning not to gamble away the money and spend it on wenchs!" "Poor bumpkin!" the market guard chuckled, "Let's go, there are new visitors back there, they might know more!"

Selling his goods, Ennand was lucky. No sooner had the inspectors had disappeared as a fat merchant with a turban appeared, "I've been waiting for you, Ennand! By God! Today the soldiers are spying everywhere and intimidating everyone who comes to the market!" "What happened? Who are they looking for?" posed Ennand clueless. "They're looking for the King of No-One's-Land! First he won the race up the ladder to heaven, and when the governor tried to trick him afterward so he could be sentenced to death, he escaped. It is said that two boys helped him! But the governor lets spread that the Amestan kidnapped boys!"

The merchant scratched his head, "But now to business. I'll buy everything from you! Today I pay really well! How many sacks of argan nuts do you have with you? Only four!" He reached into the sacks and checked them for merchandise. "I've seen better, but I'll take them off your hands, all four of them. I could use more. The Emperor's buyers can't get enough oil. He must be planning a campaign, perhaps against the Amenokal, the king of the Imuhagh, the Kel Tamaschek, the men with the face veil!" as Ennand stared at him unintelligibly, "The Emperor wants to own the land east of the Draa, too. Just be careful on the Draa that you are not get ground between the two millstones." The merchant paid well, and knowing that the soldiers also needed meat, he bought the goats, lambs and chickens at the same time.

On the way home, Ennand regretted agreeing to the price so quickly, but the money was enough for everything, both for KeYnNamM's wishes and for those of his wife and his three daughters. But he also bought things for Ikken and Aylal, because now he was certain, that the Amestan’s escape from the city would not have been successful without the two. Heroes must be rewarded, he told himself. After this encounter with the soldiers and the merchants, Ennand knew that the Amestan would need the help, he and his two adopted sons.

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When Ikken woke up next morning, KeYnNamM was already on his way into the desert to the Amenokal. He had taken nothing with him but dates, a filled water hose, a long cloth to tie it to a gutra, to cover his head against the stinging desert sun. and the new dagger. Leather sandals to protect his feet completed his outfit. His new dagger, actually a short sword, was not new, in fact it was very old, as KeYnNamM knew immediately when he saw the engravings on the worn handle of silver.

Ennand had been very proud when he presented the dagger to KeYnNamM. When the latter asked him if he knew why the young Bedouin had given the dagger away so cheaply, Ennand just shook his head. KeYnNamM studied the engravings, which undoubtedly depicted the head of a walli, a saint, framed with arabesques. He suspected that the dagger was the spoils of a grave robbery. So for he had only admired such short swords in the qubbas of the ancient desert city of Tamegroute, a place of pilgrimage far, far to the south. In this city, also lay the burial place of the kings of the Draa, a Qubba Without a Dome.

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To be continued...

Posted 06/17/2022