Dune of the elders - Chapter 1 — Part 1

Two guys are riding two camels in the desert. They are walking and riding for hours. There is no more water. Abdelghani turns to Ilyass and tells him, “Let’s have faith in Allah; we are going to make it.” Ilyass responds, “We’re screwed. We’re going to die.” But Abdelghani keeps his hope and keeps saying to Ilyass, “Allah is great; let’s die as Muslims.”

The sun is up, and it’s moving slowly, as if one second equals one day.

“We should pray,” says Abdelghani.

The two friends have no energy left; their mouths are dry, their muscles heavy.

“Make the call to prayer,” says Abdelghani. Ilyass remembers his family; the smile of his mother gives him this last boost of energy to perform the call to prayer.

“Allahu Akbar… Allahu Akbar.”

Ilyass turns to Abdelghani and says, “Ask Allah to save us; our destiny depends on Him.”

They finish the prayer, and Abdelghani passes out. He wakes up in a tent adorned with very cold silk. The smell of lavender is everywhere, and a fountain is flowing.

“We made it! Allahu Akbar! Allah saved us. But where is Ilyass?”

Hastily, he wakes up to look for his friend. He sees an oasis full of naked women and an abundance of food and jewelry. A tall, strong woman with gold all over her body presents herself as the chieftain of the tribe of the legendary warrior women. She has very strong curly hair, skin that smells like roses, and eyes as piercing as thorns.

Abdelghani is stunned by the beauty of those warriors; he has five servants walking with him at any moment. “You are the first man we have seen in a long time, and men are forbidden in our land. You have been accompanied by your friend, who is being kept captive in our prisons. We found you in a critical position in a site that we call the Dune of the Elders. We took care of you separately, but he couldn’t look at any one of us and kept screaming the name of a god with his mouth. We believe in our ancestors here; we do not worship anyone other than our beloved protectress, the Mother of All, Mother Earth.”

“As a tribute to our beloved Mother of All, we offer you these three warriors. One is going to take care of you, feed you; the other one is here to listen to you, and the last one is here as your mistress.”

Abdelghani is confused and, without even realizing it, he accepts the tribute and eats the food of the chief woman. A huge banquet is presented to him with dancers all around, women from different ethnicities. He is hypnotized by that place and no longer in control of his own decisions.

During this time, Ilyass is kept in a prison cell with three guys who call themselves magicians. The magician with the blue cape tells him, “This place is magical. You don’t have to accept their offers, or you’ll be eternally captive in the oasis. It’s forbidden knowledge of the jinns of the desert. To get here, the King of Pirates drew a map, a very enigmatic one.”

The magician with the black cape continues, as if the words were shared between them. His voice is an octave deeper than the other magician’s. “And we found the enigma of the message on the back of the map. I dedicated my entire life to finding myself here, but great reward comes with an even bigger price than you expect.”

The magician with the red cape touches Ilyass’s elbow, and his eyes turn into smokeless fire. Ilyass feels as though he isn’t the master of his own movements; the gravity is too strong. A red-colored energy is all around the magician with the red cape.

“I know you’ve heard about the lost oasis of the jinni. They hold even more gold and silk than the Empire of Mansa Musa. We are the three magician nomads, and we have been kept here for 100 years. Each one of us lost something even more valuable than life itself. Welcome to the forbidden oasis.”