* * * * * * * *

Kumiko walks, the black sand burning her already blistered feet. Her kimono was ripped and tattered, grim sweat caked her face and hair. Kumiko stumbled and couldn’t stop the sobs that racked her body. Sitting up she clutched the small bulge that was her belly. She had to go on, she had to survive, she had too.

The days turned into weeks, the weeks turned into a month, and with each passing hour her food and water stores became more and more depleted.

She missed Rai and his gentle strength. She missed Anda and her silent support.

She knew enough about surviving off the land to build simple shelters and staring a small fire for warmth, in the frigid desert nights.

The Black was so different from the Red Wood that her forester skills were of little use.

She used the small knife she kept tucked in her Obi, to catch and kills small lizards. Water was harder to come by, it had rained a few days ago and she had used her bespelled cloak to catch and trap as much water as she could. She had managed to fill all four of the water skins she had been allowed to bring. But the water wouldn’t last, and she didn’t have the magic to call more rain. She would have to wait for another storm or stumble across a spring.

But that was unlikely, only the Hedairy tribesmen and the nomadic Sand Elves knew the Black Desert well enough to find the countless hidden wells, springs, and oasis. If she were to take her other form she might find something, but Ospreys belong to the water and if a Hedairy tribesman or Sand Elf spotted her they might shoot first and ask questions later. And besides if she took wing she wouldn’t be able to take her meager belonging with her. She didn’t want to leave what she had behind.

The moon cycled five times before her body began to give out. The last of her water was gone, and she worried that the pains in her back and sides where a sign that the babe was going to come too soon. And the endless silence was beginning to drive her mad.

The last thing she remembered coherently was watching as whorl wind of black sand coming her way from across the desert.

* * * * * * * *

When she opened her eyes Kumiko found her self staring up at a ceiling made of leather, she tried to push up onto her elbows but found her self held down by countless furs. The frigid cold told her it was night, but the need to get up and relieve her self, had her flinging the furs off of her as quickly as she could.

As she got into a sitting position Kumiko froze, her belly was too small, her bulge had decreased. The babe! Where was her baby! Panic filled her mind, and the threads of the undyed cotton tunic and breeches she whore began fighting their weave. But Kumiko didn’t notice she, she only saw her empty belly.

“So you’ve decided to rejoin the living.” Said a harsh feminine voice in Gomenisen with a lyrical accent.

She turned to see and elf woman who, although her face was young and beautiful as all elves’ faces are, held an air of grate age. The woman was slim and lean; her face had the same sharp wild features that all elves possessed, with slightly over sized forest green eyes and delicately pointed ears. Her hair was as fine as spiders silk and silver in color, it contrasted sharply with her dark brown skin.

Her sleeveless tonic reviled arms that where well toned and strong, Kumiko was sure the rest of the woman was just as well built.

“My baby! Where is my baby?” Demeaned Kumiko, dreading what the woman might say.

The elf looked at her making some sort of silent assessment. Before shrugging and walking into the hut, a ragged sand colored dog walking in behind her.

Kumiko clutched her empty belly harder, staring at the woman and dog, fear rolling inside her. The woman shot the animal a look and slowly the dog backed out, pulling the flap down she tied it off effectively shutting the dog and minimal light out.

Turning the woman held up a crystal and whispered something Kumiko didn’t under stand, and the crystal began to glow soft and steady, gently illuminating the hut.

The elf set the crystal on a small wooden table close to the huts entrance. Placing her hands on her hips the elf woman stared at Kumiko.

“P.. Ple.. Please,” Kumiko stammered “Where’s my baby?” she asked cowed by the fierceness in the elf’s eyes.

Looking down she felt worm tears slip down her cheek. Silent sobs racked her body. The woman sat down on bed furs next to her and raped and arm companionably around her shoulders. Kumiko leaned into the woman and cried openly, suddenly grateful for the woman’s silent strength.

The woman murmured softly in a language she didn’t know. As her sobs subsided the woman said. “Your babe is with the healer, the Mother willing, Cliffrosé will help him see his first down.”

“My I see him?” Kumiko asked in a small voice, the pleaser of finding out she had a son dyeing before she could realize it.

“We’re going to get you freshened up fist but then I and Darkdust will take you to the Healer’s Hut.”

“But I..” Kumiko started but was silenced by the fierce look the woman shot her.

“You don’t want to shame your self by pissing your self the first time you hold your son do you?”

Kumiko cheek blazed.

* * * * * * * *

Once cleaned up the woman, Sandstar, and a dark skinned, black haired green eyed male she learned was Darkdust, lead her towards the Healer’s Hut. They passed many clusters of elves, they all shared the look of Darkdust. Behind them trailed the ragged dog Kumiko had seen earlier, and a cat roughly the same size and color as the dog, but with large black tufted ears and a shortened tail.

Darkdust saw her looking at the animals and smiled, “Don’t worry they won’t bite.” He replied in common. Thought each land and people had their own distinct language, The Council Of Five, the children of God had decreed that one language would span the races.

“Dustdevil and Quickpaw, are Sandstar and my bond beasts.”

“Bond Best?.” She asked.

“Sorcerer’s often have familiars.” He said. She nodded.

“Bond Bests are like but not like that.”

She looked at him confuse. He laughed, she like his laugh, Kumiko realized. It remained her of Rai’s earthy and rich. The thought of Rai made her heart ache.

“What do you mean “like but not like”?” She asked quickly so he wouldn’t notice her sift in mood.

He was quiet for a moment and then “While a familiar is a companion animal and usually poses some small amount of magic, Bond Bests can be any animal, mortal or immortal, magical or non-magical. They are as close to use and as important to us as family; they are a part of us.”

She thought about this, mulling over what she had been told, as they drew near the hut she asked, “So which one is Dustdevil and which is Quickpaw?”

“Dustdevil is the jackal he is boned to Sandstar,” He pointed at the ragged dog, “Quickpaw is the caracal,” he said pointing at the cat, “She is my Bond Best.” He said with pride.

All thoughts of Bond Beasts left her mind as Sandstar lifted the flap leading into the Healer’s hut. Kumiko broke away from her escorts and dashed into the hut, stopping at the small fur covered table that held her infant son.

The hut was illuminated by dozens of glowing crystals, spread out across the room. She fell to her knees, tears glistening in her eyes.

Unlike Anda and Rai’s, the elf woman’s who leaned over her son, hands did not glow with the power of her gift, but the room pulsed with power far older and stronger then anything she had ever seen.

Her son fidgeted and his eyes flickered, Kumiko found her self staring into beautiful blue green eyes… Rai’s eyes. She sobbed too many emotions stirring inside for her to>

* * * * * * * *

Six years with the Sand Elves changed her, Kumiko thought. She was no longer the meek, shy girl she had once been.

Darkdust clicked to the ponies pulling the cart, Aya was asleep in her arms as she sat next to him in the driver’s seat. Kumiko rested her head on the Elf’s shoulder, he wrapped an arm around her and gently kissed her hair.

Sabure sat quietly in the back of the cart with Quickpaw and Kyoko, her white bodied, black faced, feet and tailed feline familiar, watching the people of Skyland passing them by, as they moved through the streets of Skyland’s capital Aberdeen.

Skyland was a new start for her and her family, she knew Darkdust wouldn’t stay with her, oh he’d stay for a while, until she was settled, he would come and visit Aya, teach her what she was, but it would never before long, she desert called to him in ways she would never understand. And she accepted that.

The elves had thought her many things, Darkdust showed her how to love again, but Elves rarely stayed with the humans they bedded, it hurt them to much to watch a loved one age and die, to become nothing more then a memory. So when they did love a human they left before time became an enemy.

When the Chieftess had deemed it time for Kumiko to live amongst humans once more she hadn’t argued. In Skyland she could practice her craft. She intended to open a shop, and make the finest clothes Skyland’s people had ever seen.

* * * * * * * *

Sabure sat astride, Uma his desert stallion, a gift from Darkdust the last time he had come to visit. Uma’s feet, tail and mane were a glistening black, his body was a beautiful reddish brown looked almost orange.

Kumiko looked up at her son, her eyes shining with unshed tears.

“I have to go mother. Pleas try to understand.”

“I know my son.”

She reached for him, Sabure clasped her hand to his face and kissed her palm.

He looked at his sister, her delicately pointed ear’s and feral features a testament to elvish father. “You take care of her, you hear me fox face?” he said a teasing tone in his voce, Aya huffed at him before giving him a reluctant smile.

“Look after your self, feather brain.” He laughed.

“You’ll never change will you youngling?”

“Of coarse I will,” she said turning her nose up at him “I have to be more mature then you old son.”

“Children!” Groaned their mother.

Sabure smiled at his mother and sister, “I’ll send word when I reach the Send Elves.” And with that he was off.

True to his word Sabure had the Elves send word to his mother several weeks later when he reached their camp. He stayed with them for a short time, making sure to restock and was gifted with a pack horse that that carried four barrels of water.

The Mother Moon changed her face many times before he reached the border of the Black desert and found himself crossing into Gomenisen soil.

It was not the land of his birth nor was it the land he had grown up in but he still had ties to it. Gomenisa was his mother’s homeland, the place she had grown up and the place were her family… Her relatives, he amended, lived.

He stared looking over the landscape of Gomenisa. Several days later he found him self riding through the streets of Eshi. He had meat farmers and fisherman who eagerly pointed him in the right direction once he provided them with sizable bribes.

As he approached the gates of the palace Sabure, leading Uma and the packhorse he had dubbed, Niuma, he walked up to the wooden gate and rapped on it once. A panel slid back and a man with a ferity face and squinty eyes stuck his head out, he said something in Gomenisen, but never having mastered the language Sabure narrowed his blue green eyes and looked at the speaker, before speaking slowly in common, “I am Sabure Rai Nikki, Emperor Rai’s bastard son, I have come to seek an audience with my father.”

The man’s face grew pail before he slammed the panel shut once more and scurried away. Sabure sighed and stroked Uma’s head absently. Twenty minuets passed before he herd moments behind the gate, slowly one large wooden door swung inward, and a man dressed in lose breeches, long sleeved v-necked tonic and a blood red vest hung to his ankles, and billowed out behind him.

The man had a small goatee and mustache, but no other facial hair.

Sabure had always known he had the look of his mother, but this man… He could see the subtle similarities between them. Sabure looked into blue green eyes that where so similar to his own. This man was his father. This was Rai Emperor of Gomenisa.