I had to wear a sling.

According to the doctor that I had met on my first day, I had a ligament tear in my elbow and it would take almost a week to heal. In the meantime, I could not lift heavy objects, I could not use my hands as and when required. Unfortunately for me, the hand that Qamar had decided to twist was also my right hand.

I had not met him ever since that day. I did not know if I wanted to. I did not blame him for what he did but it just hurt me strangely that he did it to me. Maybe I thought that we were becoming close, maybe I had innocently believed that just because I was good to him, he would be good to me.

I had also decided that I had enough of the palace. Ever since I came to the city, I had not stepped outside and for a village girl like me, it was too much to handle. Omar was not in the City and that meant that I had free reign till his return. It also meant that at my insistence Aqib, Asad and Laia had accepted my plea to live the palace ground for the day. Wali had obviously refused but I was not sure if I wanted him with me in the first place.

Laia was turning out to be a good friend. She had remained by my side after my incident, she took care of me, she helped me dress up, bathe and fed me. It was tough to accept the generosity of her and at the same time I could not help but respect this woman. She was of noble birth but she did not act or sound like one. She was beautiful—prettier than any other woman I had seen but she was not vain. She took care of me because I was Aqib's and Omar's friend. She did not care if I was a village girl or a Queen.

She was also a refreshing person to be around; it was almost as if the room lit up with her presence and grace. Aqib and Laia treated each other as friends more than a couple—they argued, teased and played around.

"Do you want to wear the yellow dress or this pretty lilac one?" Laia appeared from my wardrobe holding two dresses. She gave me her dazzling smile as pushed the dresses on my face as if the proximity would help me decide.

"Yellow!" Asad said with his mouth full. He sat on the other side of my bed, leaning against the headrest and munching some leftover breakfast. I glanced at him amused but secretly I was glad that he was around. If anything, the Qamar incident had done one thing; it had me realize that I could not only focus on him. Omar had been right all along, as I tried and failed to make Qamar feel good, I did not realize that I was slowly slipping away. I had distanced myself from my brother and my friends. It was not healthy for me to do so as they were the anchor to my life—the real one that I lived without Qamar.

Laia scrunched up her nose and looked at Asad dismissively, "No, the lilac one would make her look prettier."

Asad rolled his eyes and continued eating from my breakfast table while Laia scoffed and handed me the lilac dress as if to say – men. Truth be told, even I did not care about the dresses I wore or whether the colour suited me. As long as I had a dress on my body that made me look neat, I was happy. Laia may not be vain but she did care about her appearance and the clothes she wore. It was also one of the things that I did not get about her, in my opinion, she would look dazzling in any dress even my ugly looking blouse and skirt!

Laia pushed to me to the wardrobe and followed. She started unzipping my dress and I stood still. I did not know why she insisted on doing it by herself when Nala always volunteered to do it for me. When I had asked her, she told me that she always wanted to have a little sister and instead she had got a younger husband that was literally her child! I had laughed on that and I remember Aqib pouting like the child Laia had claimed him to be.

She made me put on the lilac dress and zipped it for me. She smiled at my reflection and mouthed 'pretty' but all I could was stare at her and realize that I looked like a twig while she looked like a flower in the spring season.

"How do you want me to braid your hair?" She asked as she ran a brush through my hair. I shrugged in response and she laughed! "Ayah, you are such a darling!"

She untangled my knots with her finger and then started working on my hair. In the background, I heard Aqib call out to Asad that the carriage was ready. I heard Asad knock at our door signalling the same. But my head, as usual, could not stay in the present and I could not help but let my thoughts drift back to Qamar—a person I was trying to avoid thinking of. How did he feel to stay day and night confined in the same room? Did he ever go out? Maybe he was allowed to at some point, after all, how else would he kill the guard? But what were Aqib's words at that time? Didn't he say that Qamar had tried to escape? So the real question was, what was it that had made him want to escape?

"There you go, a beautiful princess!" Laia smiled at my reflection and then made me face her. I smiled in gratitude to her and hoped that the smile conveyed all the emotions I felt for her.

"Are you done?" Aqib's face popped from my door and Laia narrowed her eyes at him.

"Where are your manners, boy?"

"I am impatient, ma'am." Aqib winked at her and then looked at me, "Come on, Ay." He motioned me to follow him and I giving an amused glance at Laia left the room. The more we were spending time with each other, the more I realized that we had turned out to be this tight-knit group. We were almost like this strange family and it was the reason why I did not mind Aqib using the nickname that Asad had given to me.

"Laia is right, though," Aqib commented, "You do look really pretty!" He led me outside the palace where a carriage was waiting for us with a driver. He extended his hand towards me and I took it as I stepped inside the carriage where my brother was already sitting. Why did men think that I could not climb in the carriage on my own? Or was it simply manners? I did not know. Aqib sat opposite to me and Laia followed suit and sat beside him.

I glanced at the palace and could not help but feel a bit sad. Could he see me sit inside the carriage? Did he long to be able to do that or did he like the solitude? I also knew that I could not continue to keep ignoring him. I was duty bound to help him or at least that is what I felt. I would have to go back to him and I did not look forward to that meeting.

Aqib knocked at the panel behind him and the driver took off the carriage.

"Where are we going?" Asad asked.

"Oh, just here and there," Aqib said, "Laia wanted to do some shopping from the marketplace because she loves cheap things. Ayah needs fresh air so I decided that we could go to the outskirts of the city, you want food so I had the cook pack us something. Sounds good?"

Asad grinned at his friend's comment, perfectly pleased, "Yes."

_

By the time we were done, I was tired and I wanted a good night's sleep. Laia was a notorious shopper and lived to bargain and annoy shopkeepers. It was almost like an addiction to her and we had to pull her away from the shops sometimes. It was almost as if all the pent-up anger she felt, she took it out on the shop keepers.

Asad and I were glad when we did with the marketplace and were looking forward to some peace and quiet. It took an hour and a half to reach the destination that Aqib had planned we would have lunch at. Apparently, the place we were going to held some importance because both of our friends talked about it with excitement and whisper.

The carriage stopped in front of a gate. The gate appeared almost out of the blue in the middle of nowhere. There was no sign of residents and inhabitants around.

"We will have to walk a bit," Aqib said as he opened the carriage door and stepped outside.

"I would love to walk, my legs are stiff," Asad said as he followed.

Once we were outside, Aqib opened the gate and it groaned. Asad and I exchanged a glance.

"If you plan to kill us, do we have to walk all the way there?" Asad joked half-heartedly.

"Funny," Aqib responded as he started marching leaving with no other option but to follow him. The driver of our carriage walked behind us holding a basket and a mat. The path that we walked on was rocky and in reality, there was no straight path. We simply followed Aqib and Laia like idiots exchanging glances as and when it was appropriate. Asad was kind enough to ask the driver of our carriage to lend him the basket to ease out his burden, at first, the driver – Yasir – declined but Asad was adamant and he had to give in.

"Do you know where you are going?" Asad asked after ten minutes of walking.

"I thought you village boys and girls were meant for such things. Weren't we the one who could not handle rough conditions, Laia?" Aqib glanced at us and then smirked mischievously. Asad pressed his lips into a thin line and said nothing as we continued our trek. It was nearing evening so the sun rays were not as heated and they did not burn our skin.

"Wadi Eshroon," Aqib declared and we realized that he had led us to the edge of a mountain.

"Where?" Asad had to ask and Aqib rolled his eyes as he pointed downward. We marched forward to stand beside them and stared downwards in amazement. I could not help but gasp at the beauty below me.

"The biggest water source to our city," Aqib explained, "Do you see that brick wall farther off?" He pointed and we gazed in that direction, "It is a dam. It is due to this Wadi that our basic water needs are met but thanks to the drought that hit us, it does not hold as much water as it usually did before."

"Do you know why it is called Wadi Eshroon?" Laia asked and we shook our head. "It is because this Wadi is connected to twenty other small Wadis that trickle down the mountains. Consider this as a natural reservoir of sorts to collect water."

I tuned their conversation off as I stared at the mesmerizing beauty below me. I had never seen so much water in my life before. There were mountains in front of me and around me and as if in the middle of nowhere was this abundance of water and greenery. I could see the reflection of the sun rays sparkle again the water that illuminated and was such a beautiful blue.

Can we go in the water? I asked my brother suddenly delighted by the idea of soaking myself wet.

"We could before but there have been many incidents of drowning. Wadis are unpredictable; you never when one can start running so we don't let people go to the water." Aqib answered.

I felt a tinge of disappointment but it was quickly replaced by wonder as I continued staring at nature's masterpiece before my eyes.

"I think this spot will be nice to have our lunch, good view," Laia called and I nodded absentmindedly as I breathed in the fresh air. This was exactly what I needed.

The photo linked as a banner to the chapter is a place in Oman where I nearly drowned when I was three. Fun memories :') So yes, that weird out of the blue wadi does actually exist and I did not make that up :D 

 Wadi - a mountain valley ( it does not have to be filled with water )