Something Reluctant

They had set out right after breakfast which Elizabeth had scheduled at exactly 7 AM, much to Ed's reluctance. Safu had hired two camels for the three of them from a group of Nomads who had signed into the same inn Ed and Liz had been staying at, much to Ed's reluctance. The group had also asked them for a handsome sum of money. Much to Ed's reluctance.

            He did not exactly feel up to it when Safu had told him about their method of transportation, though Elizabeth had jumped up and down at the news -- she had never ridden a camel before, and felt that it would definitely be quite the adventure. And that it was.

            "Coming along nicely?" Ed asked as he felt Elizabeth struggle to get comfortable in her saddle behind him. She merely slapped him against his head with a flat hand, which made Ed reposition his weight just enough...reluctantly.

            "It should be right around that dune!" Safu called over to them. He had insisted on going on ahead in order to keep their lines nice and tidy more for safety reasons than anything else. Ed pressed the binoculars that hung around his neck to his glasses the handed it to Liz after he couldn't make out much of anything. "One more hour," Safu said and smiled as Ed dropped the binoculars back to where they had hung after Liz was done with them.

            The desert sun was only making him hotter and hotter, and his dark green T-shirt was becoming more wet by the hour. Liz, saddled right up behind him didn't help at all.

An hour had gone by and fortunately they arrived at what could only somewhat be called a village, as the contact had adequately put it. Ed dismounted first, then helped Elizabeth get down from the camel. Safu was already inspecting the first of what Ed had counted as four buildings.

            "Two casualties, both died the same way," Safu said as he came out and got a water skin from his camel.

            "Same here," Ed said, and peered through a broken window.

            "These walls are all riddled with bullet holes..." Elizabeth was standing near the same building Ed was inspecting. She had followed a trail of blood that led around the corner. "Come here! Quick!"

            Safu hurried over to her, briefly stopping in order to help Ed get up fro. The ground. He had jumped through the broken window, in case her life was in danger in any way. What she had found, however, was not what any of them had expected.

            A little girl, no older than six or seven, sat in the corner where the two buildings met, cowering for her life. "It's alright," Elizabeth said and extended her hands so she could see that she meant no harm. The girl gave off a quick scream and jolted backwards, hitting one of the walls with her back.

            Safu touched Elizabeth gently on her back so she would stop moving forward, then walked slowly by her and started saying something in arabic. His voice was as gentle as a father's would be to his new born, which didn't seem like it fit the huge Swahili man's exterior.

            He made his way up to her as slowly as he could while repeating the same phrase over and over again, telling her that he was a friend and that he could be trusted. She started to cry as he picked her up and cradled her, still repeating the same phrase. Ed shifted his weight toward Liz, who merely looked disgustedly at him, the stormed off around the corner.

It took them another hour before the girl would finally give Safu her name. Ed and Elizabeth had both also gotten the girl used to their faces by being more and more near her, though she still had a hard time not flinching whenever either of them would come up to Safu to hear if he had made any progress. Elizabeth had retreated back to one of the buildings which contained no bodies by the time Ed managed to get the both the tents up.

            "It's not much, but it's what we will be calling home for the night," Ed said as he sat down next to Liz, on a small iron chair that she had retrieved from inside the small house. "What's wrong?" He asked after he got no reply.

            "Do you miss her at all?" she asked, not looking at him.

            "Aaliyah?"

            "Yes."

            "Well of course I do," Ed answered and looked at her, who still wasn't looking at him, but rather at Safu and the girl a few ways away.

            "You are so content about everything. It seems strange that you miss her at all."

            Ed laughed slightly and shook his head. Whenever he thought about it, it was clear that he missed Aaliyah, though he also knew that whenever he didn't put his mind to it, finding Aaliyah was more in the back of his head than anything else. It had gradually made its way down the list of priorities, until it was ultimately consumed by trivial things such as keeping Elizabeth occupied, and getting to the bottom of the whole Oracle thing and, though it could be argued that the whole Aaliyah thing kind of became the Oracle thing, Ed knew better. And clearly Liz did, too.

            "I've been thinking of what you told me. This man we are tracking can really tell me more about my father?"

            "Yes, I believe so," Ed answered, "and I really do miss Aaliyah. It's just that, I tend to bury things in the now if that makes any sense. And at the moment, you are in the now..."

            Liz looked at him for a few moments before looking back at Safu. The rest of the day neither one of them spoke much to one-another. Safu had managed to get the girl to tell them what had happened; unfortunately due to her mother telling her to hide in the closet, all that she actually knew about the devil was that he could change into a man, and that he seemed to be injured which means that he must have gotten shot or injured in some way by one of the augs.

That night, Safu had managed to get the girl to sleep in his sleeping bag as she felt more at ease in the dark and in tight places. Safu fell asleep promptly after he ate and made sure that they would be safe for the night. Ed was sitting in the same chair as that afternoon, drinking a cup of coffee from his thermos, which had kept it surprisingly warm throughout the entirety of the day.

            "You can't sleep either?" Elizabeth asked as she came out of the tent and joined Ed.

            "Never can," Ed replied, "I'm always awake most of the night. The real question is why you can't sleep."

            "I've been thinking again."

            "Uh-oh!"

            Liz smiled, then looked up at the stars. "I didn't mean to be so mean to you this afternoon. I just miss my dad, and seeing Safu with the girl..."

            "It's alright," Ed said, "now go get some sleep. You need it."

            Elizabeth stood up and kissed him on the cheek before turning and going back to the tent. Ed listened as she zipped her sleeping bag up. He continued to listen until he thought she was fast asleep, then smiled. "Pull yourself together, Ed. No time for runaway hormones now..."