The squall of a new born was greeted by the strong rays of sun peaking through the thin tent. While the new father struggled to cut the umbilical cord with a sterilized knife, Yenna gently cleaned the baby using water from a basin.
"A strong girl. You should be proud," she said before wrapping the baby in clean linin and presenting her to the mother. Where as Yenna was short and as tan as leather, the mother was tall, paler, and blonde. Her muscular body and fearsome scars indicated her profession as a mercenary. Even so, she accepted the child with gentle grace. Her face glowed at the child, and her eyes were focused only on the babe.
The father patted Yenna on the shoulder.
"Thank you so much," he said, sheepishly.
Yenna nodded. The merc, had sent an urgent message by a kaadir the evening before, pleading for the wise woman's help. In fact, it was the very one that Yenna had rented to the couple, which is why she was in this particular situation. His name was Suni and one of Yenna's fastest and most intelligent. They asked for her to stay longer, but Yenna only agreed to stay for a morning meal. Though her son and husband were capable of running the kaadir farm and business by themselves, her daughter was to have a championship match that evening that Yenna had sworn not to miss. Before that, however, Yenna wanted to go home to nap during midday and change into clean clothes.
"I'll give you an extra three days to return Suni, if you need it," she told the beaming father as they walked out of the tent together. He carried her saddle bags and began to attach them to the saddle of a second kaadir that Yenna had arrived on, a black beast by the name of Khan. The man watched as Yenna untied Khan's reigns to one of the tent's posts.
"Do you need help?" he asked awkwardly.
Yenna let out a sharp laugh as she grabbed hold of the saddle. It was an often asked question. Yenna, though a full grown woman with leathery skin and muscles due to hard work, was as short as a child and so was sometimes mistaken for one. To accommodate this, her saddle was specially made for her, with extra grips and a small stepping ladder. It helped that Khan, her personal dragon, was one of the shortest of his breed.
"No," Yenna reassured him as she hosted herself up with ease.
She put on glasses to help block out the sun and sand and wrapped a veil around her face before ridding off into the vast desert.
--
The newly parent's camp was no more than a few hours ride from Essyrn. Though close to the city, it was still dangerous. Bandits were afoot, and the sandworms, though not always necessarily hostile, were known to have killed travelers. The merc's camp was safe, as it was protected with charmed tailsmen, but Yenna had no such charms or magic. A kaadir was fine protection, but even so, Yenna rode hard and scanned the golden landscape for clouds of dust and moving figures with a hand close to a knife.
