"Ary. Chapter One." by Aletheia vaune preston

The sound of sand blowing is all you can hear. Hot wind whistles in from the West, chasing everything living down into their hideaways. The day is dark, but there is not a cloud in the sky. The land lies under the shadow of sand. Even mountains have succumbed to the slow erosion of the sand, blown in the wind. The desert is barren, but of the ripples that almost make it look like water. Barren of everything. Or so it seems. A flash of metal blinds you as you search the sands. You go closer, and you can see the sharp corner of something in the sand. Brush them away, and you can see the ribbed roof of a small shack. The sand covers the rest. If you put your ear to it, you can hear movement. But that is all, for it is best you be on your way. This is the story of Ary.

Ary pulled a blanket down from her bed and stuffed it into one of the crevasses, pulling her fingers away from the biting sand. It had just started, and sand was already thrashing onto the sides of the shack, sounding like millions of animals scratching the metal. Ary covered her ears and drew Pandora towards her. The small cat squeaked in terror and buried his head under her now bare mattress.

“Just kill me now!” he cried, “We’re all gonna die anyways.”

It was Pandora’s first Sandy. Despite the circumstances, Ary couldn’t help but laugh. She remembered her first Sandy. It had been a long time ago, precisely fourteen years before and twenty days before. Back then she had lived in town, with a large house made of steel. Her nice house, and her parents. She barely remembered them now, but she remembered her mother’s arms encircling her as the sand had whistled. But then the sand had been warded off with the protecting steel walls they had built. Nowadays though, she lived in a shack, and the Sandies were bad. Sand got into everything. She had woken up with sand in her teeth, sand in her bed, sand in her dishes. She had renovated this shack for keeping out sand, and it still managed to get in.

“Pandora, we’re not goin’ to die.” She laughed. He just wriggled farther under the mattress.

She sighed and looked around her now. Her house was made of tin. The roof was also tin, but there was a small crack at the top that she always had to stuff with a blanket. She hadn’t gotten around to fixing it. There was a small pot in the corner with a purple desert cactus in it; the spikes were bright red. Just break off a piece she thought and you’ve got your very own, homemade toothbrush! Cactus juice included as cleaner. She had found the cactus while hunting for scorpions in the desert. Pandora had mentioned their extremely useful benefit of killing germs. The bare mattress she was sitting on was against one side of the wall, the one away from the wind so she could sleep without sand getting into her bed. She ruefully looked at her blanket stuffed in the crack. No need for keeping sand out of her bed now, she had more than she knew what to do with. She lay back on the mattress. Pandora squeaked indignantly and squeezed out from under her.

“Not that I’d want to impose on you or anything, but you’re not the only person here!”

“Actually, I am.” She said. Pandora looked down at his paws and nodded.

“I guess so. But you don’t seem very contrite about it.” He replied.

“I’m so sorry.” She said sarcastically.

“You are forgiven.” Pandora said imperiously.

She giggled and lay back again. She listened to the soothing sound of the onrushing sand, and slowly her eyes closed.

Ary awoke, cursing herself for dozing off. She quickly got up, brushing sand off of her pants. There was at least a foot of sand covering the floor. She ran her fingers over the metal wall, trying to find the hole that it had all gotten through. Of course, there was no hole. Sand got in through the cracks in her door, sand got in where the wall joined the floor. It seemed sand was everywhere these days. She grabbed her vacuum and turned it on. She had rigged it so that the ejecting tube was on the outside of the shack. It was an easy way to get rid of all the sand. She turned it on, and pushed the muzzle into the sand. She put her ear to the wall and listened. Nothing. Usually that meant two things: she was in the eye of the storm, or that it had ended. Ary turned and grabbed her bow, arrows and her spear as well as the rawhide pack that was lying by the door. She inched the door open, and looked around. The skies were clear, and the newly arranged sand was already baking in the sun. Ary smiled, and pushed the door against the sand that was blocking it. The sand came halfway up the doorframe, and she had to climb to get out of her shack.

“Where are you goin?” Pandora called sleepily from the mattress.

“Hunting!” she called back. “We’re almost out of food, and I’m worried we’ll get stuck in the next Sandy with nothing to eat. These things can go on for days, you know!”

“Mmmk.” Pandora replied, and let his head drop.

As soon as Ary got up she started to run north. The exhilarating feel of the wind in her hair made her run all the faster. She knew she had to hurry; when Sandies came, they usually came in pairs or triplets. The dunes lay in a shimmering haze of heat before her, and her shoes thudded against the soft earth. Often her feet slipped from under her and she ended up clambering up the hill on all fours. Ary knew she had to be careful. Sinkholes were common around this desert. She knew where most of the large ones were, but smaller ones were known to form overnight. The sun was hot today, and soon Ary was working up a sweat. As she ran she looked around for wildlife she could hunt. Nothing’s out. She glanced at the flat horizon, puzzled. Usually when Sandies ended, everything was out to hunt and to get water. Today: nothing was moving. It’s probably just too hot for them. She kept running, and finally saw a gray shadow lying on the ground. Sometimes Hoppas were out at this time of day, resting in the sun. It would be good food for at least a week. She worked up a smile and ran in that direction. The gray shape stayed still as she got closer. It’s definitely a Hoppa. Why isn’t it moving? She got close enough and realized the big grey elephant was dead. There were no vultures circling, which was strange. Usually there were all sorts of scavengers out, and this Hoppa looked like it had been dead for two days at least. Then again, the Sandy was goin’ for at least three. But why aren’t there any out now? The meat was definitely bad by now, so Ary turned and started to head north again. She ran for a bit before the wind started to pick up. She looked ahead grimly for the first hint of green on the horizon, and pretty soon she could see the distant oasis. Ary looked to the west and was horrified to see dark shapes already gathering in the sky. This isn’t supposed to happen! Sandies never arrive so close together in succession! She thought frantically. Back to the shack or forward to the oasis? She glanced over her shoulder to her shack, but she could no longer see it. The oasis! She set her pace with the drumming in her ears and willed her legs to pump faster. Her dark hair swung behind her as she started to sprint for the trees. She could hear the wind picking up in the distance, starting to sound like a swarm of bees. She looked west and could see the sky darkening from the sand. That was when she tripped over the cactus. She hadn’t been looking where she was running, and the next thing she knew she was on the ground. She looked over to the cactus. She couldn’t discern whether it was poisonous or not. It was a round cactus, shaped like a rock, and was beige in color.

“Oh, God.” Her words were concise. Ary moaned, looking down at her legs. They were covered with spines, some of them two inches long. She slowly hobbled to her feet. She gritted her teeth against a scream and grabbed one of the larger ones in both hands and pulled. It came out slowly, and the end was red. Ary wiped a tear away from her cheek and pulled another one out. She felt something sharp scratch her face, and then another skim her arm. The sand is almost here. The first grains of sand from the storm were already biting her skin. Her body screamed frantically for her to run, and she started to jog; painfully and agonizingly slow. She glanced over her shoulder. The sun disappeared from view as sand rushed down on her. Biting sand flew around her in flurries, scratching her exposed skin and whipping her hair up. She covered her eyes with her hands and peered through the cracks of her fingers, determinedly trudging on, ignoring the searing pain in her legs. Of all the damned luck in the world, she thought bitterly. I might just die out here. Just like everyone before me. She peered through her fingers and gave out a strangled cry. She could see green! The first of the trees of the forest was ahead of her, and she quickened her pace. Her skin felt like it was on fire. Sand was cutting her skin open and then cutting deeper in the same place. She had never felt pain like this before. Tears streamed down her face and she reached out to touch the rough bark of the tree.

She reached the trees and kept jogging, her pace quickening because the sand wasn’t so bad now, in fact, it was almost stopped completely by the trees. She knew exactly where she had to go. She ducked under a low branch and then slowed to a halt, leaning against a small tree to catch her breath. The stitch in her side loosened and she stumbled under some overhanging vines into a cave.

Ary panted and dropped on her butt, looking around warily. The cave dripped moisture from the ceiling, and small green puddles dotted the floor. She crept silently to the back of the cave, hoping that whatever lived here wouldn’t come home. These caves were usually her last resort, for something almost always inhabited them. She shivered as she remembered the giant spider she had run into once. She abhorred spiders. It had sliced her arm open with one of its’ mandibles, and she had been in tremendous pain for the following week. If it hadn’t been for Pandora she probably would have died. As much as a wussy Pandora was when it came to Sandies, she was great with medicine. My little medicine cat, she thought, and laughed, but stopped abruptly. If only Pandora was here now! But he wasn’t. If she was going to get something done, she had to do it herself.

Ary got to work. She slowly began pulling out all the spines in her legs. Her face contorted with pain every time one of them came out. It was grueling, painful, even sometimes torturous work, but pretty soon it was all done. She sifted through her bag and found some soothing paste Pandora had made for her the other day, rubbing it on the cuts. It stung. When she was done with that she took an extra shirt out of her rawhide bag and ripped it into shreds, wrapping them like a bandage around her leg. She grimaced at her handiwork. For someone who was especially inept with medicine, she thought she had done a pretty good job.

Ary lay back against the wall and closed her eyes. The sound of the sand was muted now that she was in the cave. This is nice she thought, and smiled. She had oftentimes contemplated moving into the shelter of the trees and living in one of the caves, but the small shack held too many memories for her to just leave it. Memories of life before this nightmare. She shifted her back against the cold cave wall, and absently fingered her small rawhide bag. Her mother had made that for her when she was ten years old. She had painstakingly woven tiny little threads of spider silk to make an intricate design. Spider silk never frayed, and so this bag would probably live longer than Ary. How ironic.

Ary tried to abstain from sleeping, but it didn’t work. She was drifting in and out of sleep when she heard a growl coming from the entrance of the cave. She started awake, instinctively grabbing for her spear, and whipping around to face her adversity. Her sore muscles gave out sharp jabs of pain, and she leaned against the wall, keeping her spear trained on the darkness ahead of her. It must be nighttime. The cave entrance is dark. She analyzed her escape route out the cave entrance. If she could wait till it was past her she might be able to make it out; if it didn’t see her… and if the Sandy was over, and judging by the time it probably was.

She heard the sound of claws clicking on the floor of the cave, coming closer. They stopped, and a slow rumbling growl came from its’ throat. It sounds…. It sounds almost like it’s purring! The rumbling got louder, escalating until she could stand it no longer. She grabbed her spear and jabbed into the dark. The thing yelped.

“OUCH! Ary! What has gotten into you?” yelled a voice.

Ary started. “Pandora?” she asked.

“Well duh. I came looking for you. You take too long, and plus there was that awful Sandy that came up again. Oh, and look what you did! You nicked my tail!” She could see better now. Pandora was sitting on the floor, starting to lick his wounded tail.

“You sounded a lot… bigger. Sorry.” She muttered.

“That’s what you said this morni—Oh my god! Jeezus Ary, you look like you got in a fight with like… a million cats.” He immediately reverted into his “emergency medical cat” mode.

“Thanks. You can always cheer me up.” She said, smiling crookedly.

“C’mere!” He demanded, motioning with his paw. He dug around in her bag and fished out a needle and some thread. “That cut on your leg is goin’ to need stitches.”

“What happened?” Pandora asked.

“Got caught in the storm, and I tripped over a cactus.” Ary replied reluctantly. As she had expected, Pandora burst into laughter, and didn’t stop for a while.

“You tripped over a cactus. That must have been… painful. But seriously, how do you trip over a cactus?” Pandora snipped the thread and handed Ary the needle so she could stitch herself up (it was nearly impossible with his paws). Ary glowered at him and he lowered his eyes.

“All right. So it was painful. But still. Its pretty funny.” He giggled (and yes, if you’re wondering, cats can giggle).

Ary tolerantly let Pandora fix her up, with the couple snide remarks put in, but she was itching to go out and get some food. When he was done, she picked him up and quickly stuffed him in the bag.

“How rude!” He screeched, before she was able to draw the strings tight.

“I just need to hunt.” She told him, and swung the bag over her shoulder. Pandora squeaked indignantly.

“Let me out!” he cried. His voice was muffled.

“I’m just taking you home.” She explained.

“This is very undignified!” he replied angrily, “I demand you let me out of this bag. I can walk by myself you know!”

“You’re such a slowpoke.” She teased.

“Exactly, do you know how long it took me to walk over here from the stupid shack?”

“Well I appreciate that.” She laughed, imagining Pandora clambering over the giant sand hills. “I never want you going out on your own again though, you’re just a little cat.”

Pandora hissed at the word “little” but was silent thereafter. Ary found the silence a little disconcerting, so she started to hum as she trudged along. Her legs still gave jolts of pain whenever she landed wrong, but she gritted her teeth and moved on. She passed the Hoppa and smiled as she saw vultures circling overhead. The Sandies were over. Now she could get back to her normal life. Looking back at that moment Ary would have laughed at that thought, for the worst was just around the corner.