The warm rays of the sun hit the earth as the clouds of the midday sky shifted with the direction of the wind. Reefa could feel her skin and the top strands of her black long hair warm up as the sun scorched above the rest of the Hariq Desert. She stared mindlessly at the sand dunes right outside of her home. With her eyes wide open, the colour of the pigment in her irises changed from a dark brown to a warm and glowing orange. At that moment, the voices amplified in her ears little by little. She could make out the words echoing in a faint volume.

“We have to hurry...”

Reefa knew in her head that that had to be Rozo’s voice, a voice that she found distinctly more annoying than either Wellor’s or Auri’s voices. Curious about whether she could amplify the voices even more, she took two steps forward, digging her sandals into the warm sand. But the voices didn’t amplify. All she heard was the squealing of horses that were being frightened.

She had one-minute left to amplify the voices before her irises changed back to their normal colour. Reefa’s ability to hear the future would only reappear twice in a year, on a day that was least expected to her. The ability would only last for about 2 minutes. As she took 6 steps back, the voices amplified even louder than before. She felt as if her sympathetic system had suddenly activated and her pulse grew faster. A sense of dread rained over her as she immersed herself within the situation that she heard.

The cackling of men. The screams of women and children. People begging for mercy. Horses squealing in agony. An explosion near the center of the village. Fire cracking above their heads.

The swift sound of a trigger being pulled.

It scared Reefa. She knew that if she took two more steps behind her back, the voice that was in the background would amplify even more. A voice that was right inside of her home. A voice that she could tell belonged to someone she deeply loved that was shouting in agony and pain.

Daringly enough, she took two steps back.

“Reefa, Run Away! Now!”

The voices faded, and Reefa’s eyes turned back to normal. She tried to comprehend what she had just heard. What was the situation? Why had it led to destruction of the village? As she fretted over her thoughts, a single fixated question echoed in her mind above all else.

When will it happen?

A hand that had suddenly rested on her left shoulder startled her. She looked back and saw Miss Mirko giving her a straight face. Miss Mirko was a woman in her 70s. She had long grey hair tied into a braid and a slightly stooped posture. She was at an age where she would need a cane to walk to the neighbour’s house. But even for an old lady, Miss Mirko still maintained her quick-wittedness and intelligence. She grabbed Reefa’s left ear and pulled it.

“Ow! Ow! What was that for?” Reefa yelped as she rubbed her sore ear.

“How many times do I have to call your name to get your attention?! I called you three times from inside the house and you didn’t listen!” Miss Mirko yelled.

“Oh. I see. Sorry,” Reefa chuckled guiltily and scratched her head.

“Don’t just stand there idling, you troublesome girl,” Miss Mirko scolded, “I need you to go to the oasis and pick some olives for dinner.”

“Go grab a basket and get Dalka ready. And be back before sundown. I have a house to feed!” She grumbled as she turned her back towards Reefa.

“Yes, ma’am,” Reefa said as she looked back at the old lady who was leaning on her cane and walking back to the house. All the houses in Detra were mud houses with thatched roofing. Most of them were landed houses, but some people were able to build a mud house with two floors. Wellor’s family was one of those people. She would occasionally get jealous when she compared her own with Wellor’s. But as she stared longingly at the house that was in front of her and the woman that entered the building, Reefa couldn’t help but shed a tear. She shook her head and quickly wiped it off.

She went inside the house and grabbed a small wicker basket from the kitchen cabinet. She then ran to the horse post in front of her home. Dalka was Reefa’s 12-year-old, brown horse. Wellor’s father, who owned a stable of horses in Detra and taught people how to ride one, had given Dalka to Reefa 4 years ago, when Reefa was around 11 years-old. Miss Mirko had suggested that it was about time Reefa learned how to ride a horse, even though Miss Mirko didn’t know how to ride one herself. Although most of the people in Detra had learned that a new type of transportation was being built and distributed throughout the 9 monarchs, the chances of distributing such an item to Detra in the middle of a vast desert were low. Communicating with the kingdom’s officials or any of its citizens was also prohibited and was a rule established in the village by none other than Miss Mirko, one of the three elders of Detra.

She tied the handles of the wicker basket to the D-rings of her saddle with a rope. Dalka kicked the sand with her hoofs and made a blowing sound. She took a carrot from a pocket of her saddle and fed it to Dalka.

“You ready to run some errands again?” Reefa stroked Dalka’s head as she finished her last bite of the carrot.

“Alright, let’s go,” Reefa mounted onto the saddle and gently kicked Dalka’s sides to start trotting.

There were two oases near to Detra. Mathmar Oasis was the nearest and was only a 5-minute ride from Detra. Gremmet Oasis was the furthest and would take another 40-minute ride to the north of Mathmar Oasis.

Along the ride, Reefa thought about the possibilities of having to change the future. A way that she could save the people in the village. A way she could save Miss Mirko. An escape plan of some sort.

What should I do? She brooded. How do I save the village? What exactly led it to that situation? Can I even protect Miss Mirko? Can I even protect anyone?

She recalled what kind of weapons she had at home. All she could think of was a kitchen knife she could use for stabbing and two wooden chairs for either smashing it against an attacker or jamming the doors locked.

A part of her was desperate to solve the future outcome, but another part of her lacked the confidence to do so. An internal conflict that she could only settle to her pessimistic side by the time the ride was over.

Looking down from the top of a sand hill, Reefa could make out the trees of dates, olives and figs beside a pond of blue water.

She steered Dalka down from the hill. From afar, she noticed someone climbing and picking the dates off a tree. They tied a white horse to the tree beside it. As she got closer, she could see the slim figure of a young man with blond hair that shined under the sun and eyes that were as bright as a sapphire gem. He turned his head to look at the girl on the horse as he heard Dalka neighing from the distance.

“Reefa!” He waved at her with one hand and gripped on the date tree with the other. He then gave her a cheerful grin.

Reefa’s gloomy mood that had come with the thought of being helpless for the future had lifted a little after seeing Wellor Hughes’ beautiful face under a fruitful date tree. She waved back at Wellor and returned his grin with a soft smile.

Wellor had finished cutting the stalks of the dates with a handy pocket knife and threw the dates into his wicker basket on the ground. Reefa tied Dalka to an olive tree and went to pick up his dates that didn’t go into the basket.

“You can take some,” he yelled from the top of the tree. He fastened the tie of his climbing harness from around his belt and started moving down the tree.

“Thanks,” Reefa took two stalks of dates and put them in her wicker basket.

Wellor wiped the sweat on his face and unfastened the harness.

“So, are you coming to Rozo’s house for dinner tomorrow?”

“Oh, definitely. Who wouldn’t want to eat Mrs. Kerr’s cooking? Just thinking about her meat stew is getting me all hungry.”

“That’s true,” he chuckled.

“Have you told Auri about it yet?” He asked as he placed the dates into his basket.

Auri Peck and his father lived behind Reefa’s house. They were mostly away from home. Sometimes Reefa would head over to their house to share some home-made couscous, but no one would answer the door. She would only get the chance to see Auri when she peaked out of her bedroom window to find him and his father return at dusk from their week-long expeditions.

“I haven’t talked to Auri in a while, to be honest,” said Reefa, “but I’m sure Rozo’s father will tell Mr. Peck about it, since they are good friends.”

“I noticed Auri and his father have been going out of the village more lately.”

“Yeah, I noticed it as well.”

“That means they’re out spying on the neighbouring kingdoms again,” Wellor said with unease.

The 9 monarchs of Cosmia.

They existed within the 3 continents of the Earth. The 3 continents signified the 3 types of sorcery wielding; water, earth and air. Within each continent, there would be 1 empire and 2 kingdoms unified to protect their citizens, be it humans or Haaras.

Reefa had always dreamt about visiting the 9 monarchs. But she couldn’t have it her way because of the first and foremost rule set for most of the citizens in the village, and that was to never communicate with the monarchs. Miss Mirko along with the rest of the elders in Detra had all agreed on one thing: the 9 monarchs were their enemy. Nevertheless, the reason behind their agenda was never apparent to the younger generations, and that included Reefa, Wellor and Rozo.