FLIGHT

Chapter 01

Tijene,

Kalari

Kalari was a fairly large kingdom on the edge of the Sahara desert. The Capital, Tijene was walled in by solid walls of large mud bricks. The gates were made of wood and iron and the walls were patrolled by members of the Musondal; elite troops of the Kalari kingdom. The city was made up of block-shaped mud houses of different intricate sizes and structure. The palace was made of mud, wood and stone bricks. The kingdom sat in the path of a lucrative trade route which went to Mali, Egypt, Libya and Morocco thus they had the materials to build, dress and live exotically. Different types of palm trees were frequent in Tijene as it was one of the few nice plants which grew out here in the desert.

The city streets were wide, or narrow, depending on the activities which took place in that region. All streets in the capital were covered by cobblestones. No expense was spared in the building of Tijene and the people were proud of it, but the winds of change were blowing and it was not at all for the better.

It was a hot afternoon as were all afternoons in the desert, when the gates of the palace were opened to let in twelve brilliant, white horses. The riders were led by a tall, athletic, lanky black man with a wrap around his head, held by a golden circlet to hold it in place. The man's bright grey, red wrapper went around his waist and was tied at the left shoulder. The straps of his leather sandals wound up his lower legs and at his side hung his magnificent sword. His arms were adorned with bands of gold and his ears were pierced with rings of gold also. Around his eyes, black paint was applied to help against glare from the sun, but it served to beautify the man. Up the lower part of his right arm ran a nasty scar and the little finger on the hand of that same arm was missing. This was King Gwafa, ruler of Kalari and one of the finest the kingdom had seen.

The King stopped his horse and so did those who followed. He alighted and they followed. They walked towards the front doors of the massive three storey palace. It was a marvelous work of stone, mud and wood. The windows were small and rectangular, but a few large ones were cared in the walls for special rooms. The walls were bare and red as most of it was mud. There were no pillars, but there were towers, eight of them in all. The walls of the palace were 10ft high and just as wide. The compound was large and though a few smaller buildings stood on it, they were at the sides and the back, not on the front compound.

"Enukal!" said the four guards at the front door. This was the title of king among the Kalari tribe, who were distant descendants of the greater Berber tribe of Northern African.

Gwafa waved a hand at the guards and walked into the palace. The hall behind the front doors was magnificent. It was three stories high and very wide. Beautiful rugs lined the sides of it and in the walls, archways led into other corridors. There were bronze statues of past kings at the sides of the archways, crafted in Egypt and brought down here. Red materials with yellow spots were draped from the ceiling and they were beautiful. This room was among the grandest in the palace.

Gwafa passed into the massive archway at the other end of the foyer and that brought him to a wide hallway. In the wall across from this archway was a set of large wooden doors with carvings and drawings etched into it. There were four small stools on each side of the door with Musondal seated on them. These were the doors to the Kalarian throne room.

"Enukal!" said the Musondal, rising to their feet as Gwafa approached. The Musondal were known by their long, green tunics with red sashes around their waists and black open tunics over the rest. The golden wraps around their heads and white cords which held them in place, were the true symbol of their order. Their swords were fixed in the sides of their sashes and their leather sands were curved at the front.