Not Real. Not Imaginary.

PART FOUR: GREER. [The scent]

It wasn’t nothing…it just felt like...like nothing.

Displayed as far as my eyes could see, there was only sand…so, I was in a desert somewhere…sometime. And that was it…only desert as far as I could see. Not a single village…or tent…not even a person or a camel nearby…not even a rock...not a palm tree or cactus...nothing....

I turned around trying to see if I spotted anything at all there…but…nothing. Just never-ending sand dunes…the scorching sun was right above me, and a very soft but warm breeze, that carried a little of desert sand with it, blew past me a couple times.

This was…. great…in a very sarcastic way. I even thought it might’ve been a joke…or maybe that was the real punishment…just to be there alone for years and years until The Highers decide that I’ve learnt my lesson (which I didn’t think would ever…EVER happen. Since Nina was involved in it all…I would keep my foot down…I couldn’t just stand around and let them decide she is supposed to suffer, just because). So, I felt really stuck…disheartened, actually. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do…what was I supposed to observe? And learn…from what? The sand? There was nothing there! It was all just a bunch of nonsense…everything they had said....

I sighed and sat down, waiting for something to happen…anything. I waited until the Sun faded and the Moon took its place in the sky…nothing happened. I kept waiting until the Sun came out again…and then again came the Moon, and once again the Sun…over and over…but nothing happened.

Around the second week (I think), I decided it was enough... I had to do something…I had to move. Then I thought, maybe I was supposed to be heading somewhere all this time; but then again…no one said so…so if it was the case…how was I supposed to know?

I had barely walked a couple of steps when I realized I was probably on top of a…REALLY big dune…it was more like a mountain than a dune…but there was mostly sand…so…I guess technically it was just a huge dune.

I walked to the very top, and towards the edge…and when I looked down, I could see a path between the dunes…a sand path. The dune was so high that I could see miles to both sides of this path. And so…I saw a great number of people approaching from the right.

There were really far away…so really all I could see was a mass of white and then different colors on...top? I guess that was the hair. As they approached, I could see a little more clearly and, it was in deed, their hair…. Then they came a little closer…and I could notice they were all women…or so I deduced for the way the white garments fitted them…and I guess because all of them had very long hair adorned with different beads and tiny precious crystals that reflected the bright Sun…they glistened like a milliard of stars between the dunes.

From the other end of the path, I could see something approaching…but there was too much sand floating and being carried by the wind there, so it was really hard to see what this new thing was all about.

When I looked towards the women again, they were close enough for me to notice…they were all carrying some sort of rudimentary weaponry. And I say rudimentary not like in…caveman style weaponry sense…but in the sense that, it seemed like they grabbed whatever could be used to cause some damage at a distance. Most of them looked like every day utensils arranged in such a way that they could be used as spears. And then I noticed…they were wearing light armor: just a very simple, and barely useful breastplate, and some ‘arm guards’, that from my perspective, were only big bracelets…however, that wasn’t the case for all of them; some, didn’t even had that; some of them had only their white robe-like dresses to cover them. I guess…despite all of the things they were lacking, you could say they were somewhat ready for…battle.

They stopped right in front of me…apparently a few of them had gone to check the terrain and they had noticed that something was coming. Just then, I remember about the sand cloud in the distance, and as I looked in that direction, I realized…it was more people.

These people, unlike the previous ones…were more like a …golden mass. And they also seemed to be more numerous, than the women in front of me. Not only they were more…but they also had horses with them…the front portion where in carriages pulled by said horses; some were riding the horses directly, and the rest were on foot. When they came closer, I could notice…that they were all men. Heavily armored and armed men. They had real weapons…swords…much better spears...besides, they all had shields breast plates, helmets, shin guards…the whole armor ensemble.

Upon further observation…I noticed both groups…masses…of individuals, had white simple tunics. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought that they were ancient Romans or Greeks. But this scene…just didn’t belonged to anything we knew…or more like…anything we were ever talked to about.

The women were just standing there…as if they were waiting for the men…. It looked like a war between men and women. It confused me…and also made me feel uneasy….

I had the urge to look behind me…and when I did…that’s when I saw her: a woman, in a white tunic…like the rest…her long black hair, however, had far more crystal beads…not only that, but also precious stones and pearls were braided in her hair. She was wearing a small silver tiara…it resembled the ones the rest had…but this one had some crystals hanging from the edge onto her forehead. She had really dark brown eyes…if you stared in them, they glistened with hidden knowledge and wisdom…wisdom only an older human usually possesses…but there it was. It was very strange and…contrasting, with her very youthful face. She inhaled deeply as she reached the peak of the dune, and then kept walking closer.

She seemed troubled…anguished. She wasn’t wearing any armor…nor carrying any weapons…but, underneath all her distress…there was resolve. She walked hurriedly towards me and stood at my side. Apparently, she couldn’t see me…it was to be expected since I was here only as an observer, I guess...

Her saddened gaze fixed upon the scene unfolding before us. The men were not so far away, but they would still take their time to get to where the women were standing. One of them was in the front, facing the rest…she seemed to be talking to them…giving them instructions perhaps…and the rest, just nodded and lifted their lances to agree…screaming at times, and their screams, were carried away by the wind, making them be heard far and wide.

Not long after we witnessed that…the expression on the woman’s face changed. She seemed to have gotten a little more resolve…other feelings were still there, but the resolve was taking over. Then…the wind blew…it was a soft warm breeze that made her hair dance along, softly, and then made thin strands of the hair that was lose and had nothing braided to it, cover her face for a moment…it was a soft, warm breeze that carried her scent directly to my nose… She smelled like…roses.