Loretta of the Lamp

How does he make you feel?

They made it to the city gates just in time. To Loretta's surprise Akil had also arranged a camel for them. She instantly wanted to ask how much money he had pick-pocketed to cover the cost, but thought wiser of it.

Bennou too, had his own camel. He got up on the beast with ease, leaning back and rocking forward smoothly as it got up of the ground, hind legs first, followed by the front. Then the creature loped forward happily to join the end of the train that was filtering through the city gate.

The camel belonging to Akil and Loretta however was not so friendly and easy going. She was also covered in mud and seemed to be enjoying spitting clumps of grass and saliva at the boy responsible for mustering her.

"She'll get used to you sir," the boy said, with an uneasy laugh, as he finally got the camel on her knees and Akil swung up gracefully into the saddle. Loretta meanwhile, accepted the help of both Akil's arm and the boy's leg up to get her on the camel. Even kneeling down it was a huge creature and Loretta wasn't feeling as nimble as she normally did, for lack of sleep and weeks of uncomfortable resting positions.

She was barely seated before Akil grasped the reigns and the camel pitched forward as it stood. She was nowhere near ready for it, and her whole weight slammed into Akil's back.

"Are you even holding on?" he asked, looking back over his shoulder at her with raised eyebrows.

She blushed and flung her arms back to hold onto the edge of the saddle as the camel righted itself by rocking backwards. Loretta noted Akil did not have the problem of crashing backward into her.

"You were barely touching before and now you are sharing a camel?" Bennou shot Loretta a teasing smile as their camels lurched forward to join the train, loping easily around those who had chosen to travel with the train by foot, and those who travelled with carts and donkeys carrying imports from the Doua wool festival to the grand bazaar and trade markets of the Golden City.

Their descent from the mountains took most of the first day. It was slow going because of the winding path, constantly doubling back on itself with enough hairpin turns to make anyone feel dizzy. The progress of the caravan was also affected by the number of travellers on foot. Whilst the merchants rode up near the front on their camels, seated comfortably in their elegant saddles, with all their carts and donkeys following along behind, the poorer traders were set to make the entire journey on foot, leading their weighed down beasts of burden with a steady hand, their livelihood dependant on every bit that the donkey could possibly carry, right down to the last tiny spool of fine thread to be sold for delicate needlework in the trade market. Loretta noted with sadness how tiny the donkeys looked beneath their mammoth loads.

There were also many Jinni migrating to Misbah in the caravan. Akil and Bennou's camels had been relegated to a position near the centre rear of the train, along with all the
other travellers who had nothing specific to export besides themselves. There were whole families travelling, either on foot with the father carrying the littlest child, or by donkey, with three or four children stacked on the donkey's back, the father leading and the mother calmly falling into step beside her husband. There were those who travelled alone on foot too, or with companions, each with a pack more than half their size strapped to their backs.

And then there was Hess. Loretta spotted her that evening when they set up camp at the foot of the mountains.

"Loretta!" Hess smiled when she approached. "I supposed I shouldn't be surprised to see you."

"Probably not," Loretta smiled back. There was something about Hess that she had trusted inherently the moment they first met in the baths, though Loretta also reasoned warily that this feeling was helped along by the fact that Hess fascinated her.