48. Product (Patreon)

“Are you ready, Fikali?” Aloe stood up after tightening the last straps holding her belongings on the dweller’s saddle.

“Wroo!” Fikali raised her claws and head high, though instead of intimidating, it came as a rather cute gesture.

“Good to hear that.” Aloe knelt and patted her head. “Here, have a treat before we depart.” She offered her a handful of pistachios which the dweller accepted delightfully.

The sun had yet to come out and the girls were already ready to set off.

“Let’s go.” Aloe jumped on the saddle. “The sooner we march the sooner we arrive. Go forth, my stead!”

“Wrooo!” Inebriated by Aloe’s words, Fikali grunted with all her might as she kickstarted into movement.

“Woooah!” She had mounted the dweller for tens of times now, yet she hadn’t grown accustomed to Fikali’s speed.

Aloe held for her dear life as Fikali trod the desert. She was far more ready than all the other travels she had done. Not only was she infused with ‘toughness’ – making it easier for her to tolerate the bumps, which mercilessly thrashed her bottom, and the overall fatigue of the travel – but she had also charted the travel.

In every instance of her travels between the oasis and Sadina, Aloe had always taken the same path. So after dedicating a bit of time to think and prepare the travel schedule, she had planned for the best and most efficient rest stops. The rest was mostly for her, as Fikali had seemingly endless stamina, but both of them would appreciate the time off as she had picked either deep valleys or rocky formations to stop, meaning they would get a short rest from the sun from time to time.

And even if Fikali was a native of the desert, a monster of the dunes, she didn’t like the sun that much. Just look at her on the oasis, always under a palm shadow. Aloe thought, there wasn’t much to do during the trek as Fikali didn’t need any directions or corrections as she knew the way by memory. Though maybe that’s only because of her advanced age.

Beyond that instance of thought, the rest of the travel ended up being quite silent, both in her mind and the outside world. The only moments of conversation – if talking through grunts with a monster could be called a conversation – were during the short stops.

It wasn’t even afternoon when Aloe made it back... home. She had lived in Sadina all her life, almost two decades, but now it felt alien. Not only did it have an oppressive aura with the aftermath of the plague, but it was no longer as comfortable as it once had been. It may be her home in name, but Aloe felt restless as they approached the city gates.

There won’t be another tribulation waiting for me, right? Aloe’s heart was still scarred, the memories of her mother weighing down on her.

Procedure on the gates was standard, more secure than normal, but less stressed and charged than when she came a week ago. Only a week... It feels longer... Aloe stepped inside the city. She had left a girl a week ago, yet she came back as a woman now.

The stable master was as repulsive as always, and up to a point it hurt Aloe to leave Fikali closed there, but there was nothing she could do. I need to do something though. She thought as she strolled into the bazaar, her body overloaded with her luggage. One drupnar per day doesn’t seem like much, but if I spend a year in Sadina that will amount to three drupnaruns and a fajati. Way more coins than I bought Fikali for will just go to upkeep expenses...

After arriving home, Aloe collapsed at the entrance once she closed the door.

“’Toughness’ might have kept me healthy, but damn, my calves hurt!” Aloe groaned on her way to the kitchen where she began unpacking. “There isn’t any notice anywhere, so at least I’m not evicted.” She said jokingly as she undid the straps of her luggage. “Not any tax notice nor news from Tamara. Nor the emir...”

The last part worried her far more. The last words of Rani-al-Ydaz reverberated in her mind. “I don’t really like taking a no for an answer.” The emir’s words disordered Aloe’s heartbeat, she didn’t know if it was out of fear or something else.

Before doing anything else, Aloe went to the bathroom and dusted herself off. It may not seem it, but when one was cruising across the desert faster than the wind, sand tended to accumulate on the skin and clothes. With a lack of fresh and clean water in the house, Aloe did the best she could with towels and then changed into a thick dress. It was still winter, and the sun would go away in a few hours, after all.

“I do have a few days still before the deadline for the taxes, so I’ll leave it for tomorrow.” Some may call Aloe lazy, but those people hadn’t ridden a mount for half a day in their lives. She was amazed at how she managed to keep herself standing. “I think I’ll pay Umar a visit.”

The most space-hungry piece of her luggage was none other than the jar where she had decided to store all the cannabis she had collected. Aloe did not have much idea of how cannabis should look when harvested, but she believed she did a great job as she followed Umar’s instructions to the letter.

As she made her way to the streets of Sadina, Aloe couldn’t help herself but feel a bit nervous. She wasn’t carrying any coin on her person, but she knew for a fact that some would kill for the contents of the jar, and these weren’t the safest streets in the city.

Aloe walked with a sure footing, not showing any worry. She was good at using masks. No one would doubt her as she carried a jar across the alleyways. And they surely wouldn’t smell the cannabis as she had made sure to seal the jar well with a cloth.

Soon enough, but way later than she would have liked, Aloe made it into the apothecary. As she pushed the curtains to the said, the smell – or rather, pestilence – of plants and incense hit her.

“Oh? Back already?” The old man left his pipe at the counter. It wasn’t incense. “I guess you’ll have the product now.”

“As a matter of fact, yes I do.” Aloe walked to the counter and put the jar on top. “But please, do not call it ‘product’, Umar. It makes me... feel weird. As if we are making something illegal.”

“Not gonna lie, girl, you are the first person ever to tell me to say cannabis straight up. Others prefer more subtlety.”

“But cannabis isn’t illegal?”

“Of course not. But those who consume it aren’t exactly well seen.” From Umar’s tone, Aloe knew he wasn’t just referring to the assassins but also the hashishiyah, those addicted to hashish. “However that may be, let’s see what you have brought, gal.”

Umar stood up from his pillow and began unwrapping the jar. As soon as the seal went off, the pestilence of the pipe was substituted by the aroma of the cannabis.

“Cloth?” The apothecary asked.

“Yes?” The girl added shyly. “Did I do something wrong? I thought this was better to preserve it than to leave it in the jar. Especially during such tumultuous travel.”

“No, no. You did well. The cloth will preserve the leaves and flowers far better than being left in the jar alone. The cloth removed most of the air in the jar so that only makes it better.” Umar explained. “I’m just not used to dealing with people with this much foresight.”

“Thanks?” Aloe tilted her head to the side, unsure of how to respond.

“It wasn’t a compliment.” The old man snickered. “It was an insult to all the morons I work with.”

“You called?” A voice shouted from the back store.

“No, you idiot!” The old man shouted back, his head turned to face the sound’s origin. “I was just talking about how brainless you are!”

“Fuck you!” The voice – young and masculine, Aloe noticed – cursed.

“I wish someone would fuck me! Come here if you are brave enough!” Umar didn’t possess much flourish either. The voice scoffed and made himself silent again.

“Who was that?” Aloe asked. “Or rather, what was that exchange?”

“Nothing to worry about.” The apothecary dismissed with a sway of his hand, bringing the pipe back to his lips. “It’s just my... grandson. Yes, my grandson. A stupid youngling that helps me with the store. I wish he had a tenth of your intelligence. Anyways, where were-“ Before Umar could continue talking he was brought to his knees as a coughing fit assaulted him.

Aloe backpedaled instead of thinking about assisting him. “You haven’t got this plague I heard so much about, haven’t you?”

“This?” Umar coughed a few more times and stood up. “Nah, the plague is under control, or so I've heard. This is just a life of vice catching up to me. Kinda pathetic that Karaim bit the sand before me with all the stuff in my body.” The old man puffed again on his pipe as if the previous fit hadn’t happened and let out a chuckle. “Anyhow, let’s see your drugs, girl.”