The forest seemed dry and lifeless. Only birds showed up from time to time, but they didn't even sing - just catched something between the branches and scurried back in tree's shade. The only sounds from the background were cicadas playing their love songs hidden in the undergrowth. The air was hot and steamy. The heat made everything sticky and unpleasant to the touch. It was definitely not a weather of one's dreams, especially when one had to move. But some didn't mind. - She's been following us for quite a while, hasn't she, honey? Asali just yawned in response. He's been carrying Sauti for almost the whole day now and was too tired to

 He was already too big to ride on camels with her. Short distances were fine, but after a few kilometers Sindbad started to huff quite noticably as his steps got slower. Asali enjoyed it so much though, she had no heart to throw him off the saddle - she just had to make their stops more and more frequent. One of these times, after they finished resting, Asali decided to jump onto camel’s back much too eagerly. Sindbad whined and quickly turned his head around to snap kukuri’s hind leg in response. The rook jumped off, but didn’t hesitate to angrily pound camel’s side. It wasn’t his full strenght, as he clearly

By the time Sauti finished her business in town, the sun hid behind the horozon completely, taking away all its pink and purple clouds. It wasn’t a pleasant surprise when she realised that the night doesn’t carry a cold breeze with it – the air stayed as hot as it was during the day. She expected it to be extremely cold, because in her desert temperatures dropped drastically after nightfall. But here? No. No difference. She sighed, putting her coat back in the camel’s basket. She won’t need it here anyway. Lying down in her saddle, she put her feet on camel’s neck. Sindbad was seemingly used to this, as h