Guardian of the Sands

New Life

In the morning, Alistair woke up to a gentle knocking on his door.

He blinked his eyes several times then sat up, rubbing at them as he yawned and said sleepily. "Come in."

The door swung open and Sept poked his head in. "Ready to start the day?"

Alistair flopped back onto the bed and pulled the covers up over his face. "No." He mumbled, his voice muffled by the thick blankets. "Can't I just sleep for the rest of the year?"

Sept chuckled as he walked into the room, bringing a towel and fresh jug of water to fill his wash basin with. "Afraid not, the Shaykhah is looking forward to having breakfast with you. Her and...some other individuals."

Alistair slowly pulled the covers off his face, raising an eyebrow at Sept. "What other individuals?"

He could tell Sept was grinning as he replied. "Oh, just the princess."

Alistair lay there for a few moments before sitting up. "What makes you say that?"

Sept finished filling the basin and turned around, folding the towel slowly. "Well, there may be some gossip going around the servants quarters that the princess has taken a certain interest in our mysterious new guest."

Alistair shrugged as he stood up and walked over to where he was standing, splashing some water on his face and toweling it off as he said off-handed. "She was probably talking about Naasir."

Sept shook his head. "Naasir's pretty well known around the palace...but you know, I'm sure it's nothing."

Alistair stretched and yawned again. "Well I am kind of hungry..."

Sept nodded. "That's what I thought, hurry up and get dressed and I'll take you to the dining hall."

Alistair dressed as quickly as he could into the clothes Jhem had given him yesterday, smoothed his bed head down as best as he could, and then followed Sept to the dining hall.

"Eventually I'll figure out how to navigate this place on my own." He said as they turned down another hall.

Sept chuckled. "You'll get the layout of the place memorized soon enough."

Soon they were walking through a pair of double doors into a long room with a vaulted ceiling and massive table stretched across the majority of the floor. Sept led him to the other end of the room where Heamah, Manara and Naasir were all seated, the portion of the table between them laden with huge platters of food.

Manara was wearing a pale pink gown this morning, and her hair was pulled up on one side, and cascaded down her other shoulder in curls. She smiled at Alistair when he walked up, and said. "Glad you could join us."

He cleared his throat and made a small bow. "Good morning. Thank you for waiting for me."

Naasir was busy loading his plate as he replied. "If you hadn't showed up soon I would've just started without you anyway, I'm starving."

Alistair quickly took a seat next to him, now seated across from Manara. He quietly began to load his plate as Heamah started talking about something to do with the city with Naasir.

As he began to eat, Manara turned from listening to her sister to Alistair. "Did you sleep well?"

He nodded, swallowed, and answered. "Yes, thank you...did you?"

She smiled. "I did." There was a few moments of silence, and then she gathered up her courage and asked. "Would you- I mean, if you're not busy later...would you maybe like to- Um, would you like to see the city? I can show you...if you want."