Foundling

The hunter Arenis found the Maiden on the second night of the blood-red moon, just after evening, while traveling through the territory of the Ma-shen to reach Dol Mazzah. She had found a pleasant resting place near a small spring of water, and she had hidden her horse and blanket there, so that no roving Ma-Shen or Tekeza warbands, or monsters crossing the rocklands, would find either of them. This done, she had gone out to find some quail, or a hare, or perhaps even a snake or a desert wolf, so that she would have more meat on her way to Dol Mazzah, and would not need to eat the roots she had dried nine days ago. She hunted with the bow, and five stone-tipped arrows, and one precious copper-tipped arrow won from the Tekeza which had never failed her; beside those she carried a flint knife, and a long spear for fighting the desert wolves.

As she prowled through the rocklands, searching for prey, she heard the sound of faint crying far-off. It must be said that Arenis's first thought was that she could, if need be, put a traveler or an enemy of the Ma-Shen out of their misery and take what she could from them. So she followed the sound of the cries, and as she came closer, she could hear more clearly that they were the sobs of a young woman, and they were so utterly miserable that pity made itself known in her heart. Arenis pressed on, and found the Maiden. Arenis cautiously placed her hand upon the Maiden's shoulder, and the Maiden started like a doe who had caught the scent of the hunter in the shifting of the wind. She looked up at Arenis, her eyes red-rimmed and spilling tears in abundance, her hair as wild as that of an oracle. And this is what the Maiden said to Arenis: "I couldn't help him." Her words were in the tongue of Arenis's people, more perfect than even her mother's speaking, and this made Arenis wonder all the more. "I tried, I tried my hardest, but I couldn't, and I can't feel where my brothers and sisters are anymore, and Father cast us out, and we were all supposed to go together, and now I'm alone and I couldn't save him, and Contragh and Frellon were going to protect me, but now I'm all on my own and it's my fault..."

Arenis saw the beauty of the Maiden, and heard the way that she spoke, fairer than any bard or rake, and she truly took pity upon her, and spoke with her. Soon enough, Arenis learned - or, guessed as well as she could - that the Maiden was Fayruz, a chieftain's daughter, from a white city high in the mountains. It had been attacked by monsters, and her father had sent her off with the guardian creature she mourned, which had separated her from her brothers and sisters and then fled elsewhere to die. This Fayruz, Arenis decided, was weak and foolish, but she did not deserve to be left in the desert to be found by jackals or - even worse - the Ma-Shen, or the ghouls which pressed ever northwards. So Arenis told the Maiden that she would take her to Dol Mazzah with her, to speak with the Chieftain of the Aferi, mighty Tarn Beastslayer. Tarn, she hoped, would have word of her father, Baz'Auran.

But Fayruz, the innocent, would not leave, until Arenis took her hand and forced her to her feet - for night was falling fast, and then the spirits of the southern desert would arise from the sands, ghouls and djinn and even the minotaurs, who could trap men in their own delusions. The Ma-Shen raiders were little better, with their nets and sickles of bone, and their love for cruelty. Arenis fled with Fayruz, keeping her swift pace across the rocklands, until the Maiden's bare feet bled. The Maiden cried out, and begged for Arenis to slow down, but Arenis would not until she was sure that they were safe. Then, once they were at the spring, she took her spare wrappings - fool that she was, she said to herself! - and bound the Maiden's feet. Then she bade the Maiden sleep, granting the beautiful innocent her blanket. The night was cold, and Arenis was forced to sleep sitting by the fire, while Fayruz tossed and turned and cried out in her sleep for her lost brothers and sisters.

In the morning, when the fire was dead and the sun was nearly ready to rise, she woke Fayruz and bade her eat two of her dried roots, so that she would have strength for the journey ahead. Fayruz bit into one, and then cried out, saying that it was nothing like the food of her father's house, and wasn't there anything else for her? Arenis told the Maiden that no, there was nothing else, unless they came across something to eat on the way to Dol Mazzah. Then Fayruz ate the roots, grimacing as she did so, unsuited to the travelers' food. Arenis readied her horse, and told Fayruz to ride with her, but Fayruz's tunic was far too long to allow her to ride - a useless garment, if there ever was one. So Arenis used her flint knife to cut it, so that she could ride, and calmed her tears by saying that she would be given proper women's clothing at Dol Mazzah.

So Arenis helped Fayruz upon the horse, and bundled her blanket and her bow upon her back, and mounted her horse and bade it ride. They would ride for three days to reach Dol Mazzah, and in this time, she feared that she would be assaulted by the Ma-Shen - she knew that she could fight the marauders, but she feared for this newborn filly she rode with, as foolish and weak as a child and as beautiful a prize as a sword of bronze. So she rode swiftly, and avoided the common trails, riding higher and narrower paths through the lands of the Dereg to reach Dol Mazzah.