“You really shouldn’t go, Aleera! It’s dangerous.”
She didn’t know who was calling out her name as sand howled around her, the desert telling them to leave. It wasn’t telling her though. It didn’t scratch her skin or blind her eyes, it whipped around her in a violent frenzy she would never feel—a horror her fingertips couldn’t brush.
The beast in front of her wanted her there. It wanted her to run her hands across its head so it could nuzzle into her palm. It was no more a beast than her cat, its golden fur dancing in the small bubble they found themselves in.
“How could anyone find you dangerous?” She smiled up at the lion that towered over her frame, baring its teeth in an attempt to look threatening.
She couldn’t have stopped the laugh if she had tried; he looked adorable.
Reaching her hand out she waited until the beast lowered its head to meet her, letting her fingertips get engulfed in his thick mane.
The feared beast of the west could easily be the biggest misnomer she had encountered, for there wasn’t a single thing about the creature in front of her that seemed even the slightest bit terrifying, though Aleera supposed she had always had a soft spot for fuzzy things.
The great lion stood twice her height, smatterings of sunlight making his body glitter like gold among the sand around them, as if trying to reach him no matter how far away he was.
“You look like a piece of gold in all this sand, you know that?” She put her forehead against his nose, letting herself revel in the comfort of his presence. “I should call you Dahab.”
He bumped her with his head, accidentally pushing her onto the floor with his strength. She could do nothing but laugh as he tried to help nudge her back up. “You like the name then, that’s good.”
Even knowing her companions awaited her on the other side of the violent wind, she didn’t want to leave. There had been so much leaving and running in her life that she wanted to keep this moment with her forever, to put it in a special jar and keep it close to her heart. She didn’t want to say another goodbye.
“Will you help me, Dahab?”
Gently, she walked around him, tugging on his front leg. He understood her, that much was clear, she just hoped he wished to help her too.
Her father had told her that love at first sight was a fairytale told to children to keep their hearts soft, but as she looked at the beautiful creature in front of her she realized he was wrong.
Love at first sight was not a fairytale. She knew because the second she laid eyes on him, the wind quietened, the sun shone a little brighter, her heart beat a little harder, everything felt a little more beautiful, and in the center of it all was him—her treasure.
She had given up too much too willingly. It only felt fair to let herself be greedy this once and hold onto this gift tightly so it couldn’t leave.
The climb up his leg was painful for them both, and she winced every time she pulled too hard on her fistfuls of fur, though he didn’t complain once. There were no places for her foot to hold onto, and so she had to wrap her thighs around his leg each time she climbed higher.
By the time she had reached the top, her chest was heaving from effort, her arms flopping into his mane as she collapsed on her front only to quickly sit upright when she inhaled a lungful of fur.
“We can go wherever you want to go. I’ll come back to them later.” She whispered into his ear, heart deflating at the thought of returning so soon. She had made a promise though; she would return to them to fulfil it no matter what.
She fisted his mane tightly as he extended to his full height once more and turned his back on her companions who resided on the other side of the sandy wall.
The wind forced her to close her eyes, burying her face in his neck as her hair whipped wildly about her head, threatening to be ripped from her scalp as they raced through the desert with nothing but his mind as a map.
“If you don’t slow down, all the hair maintenance I put myself through will be for nothing!” she yelled into his fur, eyes still clenched shut as she thought of the long hours spent carefully oiling her hair, the scalp massages that had taken her so long to learn, all useless because she had gone bald before the age of thirty.
Her ancestors would surely scold her in the next life.
Alisha Umar has a deep thirst for knowledge and a beautiful appreciation for learning. She spends hours pondering over her recent reads, researching for her own stories and scouring every inch of the library. When she’s not engrossed in her books or posting on her social media she can be found spending quality time with her friends and family, engaging in meaningful debates with her loved ones, taking down the next food destination on her bucket list and fantasising about which places she wants to travel to next- whether fictional or real. You can find her on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube @authoralishau.
Featured image by Juli Kosolapova on Unsplash.
