Cairo, Egypt - 1918

The sun peeking over the horizon was my indication that it was time to get moving. I would be getting a wake-up call any moment now anyway. I ran my brush through my hair and gave myself a once-over in the mirror. My clothes were nothing special; simple beige trousers and a white tunic. It would be all the easier for whatever I chose to do later this afternoon. I smiled to myself as I left my room, shutting the door behind me, and headed downstairs to the welcoming smell of breakfast. My parents must have come home earlier than I'd been expecting.

Both my mother and father were at the base of the stairs. My mother was cooking a full spread as my father read the newspapers I had been keeping for him for the past few days. "Welcome home," I greeted them as I hit the landing.

"Ren!" my mother greeted, looking up from the pan. She grinned broadly as she left the eggs and met me in a hug halfway through the living room. "Good morning, love. We didn't want to wake you."

"You know you always can. I love hearing about your adventures," I replied.

"Well, this wasn't that kind of adventure," my mother responded. I smiled at her. There was a good reason I hadn't come with them on this last trip. "Oh, one day you'll have stories of your own."

"Darling," my father greeted, coming to hug me.

"Hi, Dad," I greeted, pulling out of his hug. "Have a good trip?"

"Wonderful, sweetheart."

"Bring me back anything?" I teased.

My mother smiled as she walked up to my other side. "You're funny," she said, flicking me gently on the nose.

I giggled quietly, moving away from them. "Gotten in any good trouble lately?" my father asked.

"No more than I'm sure the two of you have," I teased. They were the ones who had just gone to see one of my least favorite relatives. "How is Aunt Sylvia?"

My parents would normally have been away on a dig, but this time they had gone to visit my Aunt Sylvia (my mother's sister) back in the United States, where my family and I were originally from. Aunt Sylvia was one of many family members we had left behind when we'd come to live in Cairo. She was a prejudiced and nasty woman whom I had always refused to see unless I was forced by the rest of my family. Aunt Sylvia couldn't stand that my parents were raising me in Egypt and seemed determined that I would never find a real husband in a Middle-Eastern country.

Aunt Sylvia was one of those kinds of people who thought that all women were good for was getting married and having children; that was the way she had been raised. It was something I had never been interested in and it didn't matter either way - I was far too young for thoughts like that. I was only eighteen, barely an adult, but Aunt Sylvia didn't want to hear about schooling or my future career. She only wanted to hear about dates I had gone on or insult me for spending any time with the native Egyptians.

My parents had spent weeks trying to convince me to go back to the United States with them, using everything from money to an offer to bring me on their next real trip as a bargaining chip. Nothing had worked. I'd continued to refuse, claiming that someone needed to stay behind and mind the house. It had actually been half to avoid Aunt Sylvia and half because I simply preferred being in Egypt. My parents knew me well enough to know the truth of why I wanted to stay behind, but had ultimately decided to save themselves the argument and let me stay in Cairo.

"She's still furious we're raising you in Egypt," my mother said. I chuckled under my breath. Aunt Sylvia had thrown the biggest fit of any of my family members when my parents had told her that they would be raising me in Egypt. "I'd like to not repeat everything she said."

"Sounds like Aunt Sylvia," I said, rolling my eyes as I poured myself a mug of coffee. "You could have told her that I'm not being raised anymore. I'm eighteen."

"You'll always be our daughter and that means raising you until we die," my father pointed out. "There's always more that we want you to learn."

"That's nice. But you mean like being on a dig, right?" I asked, raising my eyebrows playfully.

My father shook his head. "Ren, not this again."

"You've been on digs before," my mother countered.

That was true but those also weren't the digs that I wanted to be on. "The only digs you've brought me on were the little ones that have already been mostly uncovered by you or someone else on your team. You only bring me when you're sure it's going to be safe," I huffed.

"How strange that we would want to bring you on a dig where you'll be safe?" my mother responded tonelessly.

"But I want to come on a real one with you," I said.

Both of my parents shook their heads. "We knew this day would come," my father told my mother.

She waved him off. "Please, she's been complaining about us not bringing her along for years."

If there was anyone who had earned the chance to come on a real dig, it was me. "Come on! You're incredible archaeologists and are always talking about how important it is to make your mark on the world," I told them. They still didn't look convinced. "You both know how hard it is for a woman to make anything of herself unless she's the mother of some wonderful man. But if I got the chance to come along on a dig -"

"Ren, honey, you've made your point," my father said, cutting off my rant.

"Did I?" I asked sharply.

"You did," my father said.

Judging by the looks on their faces, I assumed I hadn't. They didn't want to put me in the slightest bit of danger. "Come on. Haven't I proven myself each time you've brought me along?" I asked, continuing without giving them a chance to respond. "I listen and respectfully provide my input on each trip! I'm fluent in Arabic -"

"We made you learn Arabic," my mother interrupted.

"My Ancient Egyptian isn't great but I can hold my own!" I continued.

"Honey -"

"And you know I can handle myself," I interrupted my father, grinning at him.

Both of my parents knew I was capable of defending myself from whatever danger we could potentially come across on a dig. "That doesn't make me feel better," my mother snapped, narrowing her eyes at me.

"It should," I mumbled. Neither of my parents looked impressed. "Come on, you guys! I've been begging you to bring me on a real dig for years."

"And you've had many good arguments. You've shown us that you would be responsible on a real dig," my father admitted.

"Is that a 'yes?'" I asked happily.

"That's a 'we'll talk about it,'" my father said.

It was all I could hope for. "I'll take it. For now," I teased.

"I promise we'll talk about it again soon," my mother said, brushing my hair back.

That wasn't good enough, though. They were going to take me on one of their digs. I just had to bide my time and wait for the opportune moment. "Hmm... Okay," I hummed.

"And you, love? Done anything interesting while we were gone?" my mother asked.

"No," I said quickly.

My mother nodded blankly as my father slipped behind me on his way to the kitchen. "Liar," he whispered.

"Shut up!" I hissed back at him.

While my mother was still in complete darkness about my favorite pastime, my father had discovered it a few years back. I had been in the middle of a near-sprint away from the guards in Cairo and had run directly past him. We'd stopped for a brief moment to stare at each other before I had been forced to take off again. During our talk about it later, my father had promised to keep my comings and goings a secret from my mother as it wasn't that dangerous and I had always been good about not getting caught. Plus, it was almost like a game for everyone involved.

We were quiet for a while, wandering around and getting ready for the day before my mother broke the peaceful silence. "What about your date with the British Minister's son?"

Damn. I'd been hoping she would forget that. "What date?" I asked flippantly.

Of course, I knew perfectly well what date she meant. Judging by the scowl on my mother's face, she also knew that I knew what she was talking about. My father was laughing from his spot in the living room. He had liked my potential date about as much as I had. My mother had set me up with the son of a British Minister after meeting him at a ceremony honoring my parents last week. But the son was pompous and arrogant, believing I was only a pretty face. My mother had set us up without asking me and I had conveniently 'forgotten' about it while they were gone.

While my parents weren't on top of me to get married or give them grandchildren, that didn't mean they never slipped up. My mother was constantly pointing out the attractive men that wandered Cairo and my father subconsciously looked at the children who ran through the market with loving stares. I knew they wanted grandchildren, but I wasn't there yet. I hadn't even gotten the chance to have my own life yet. I was still planning on being a successful archaeologist and eventually breaking away from my parents' fame.

On the other end of the room, my mother was rolling her eyes at me. "Ren, honestly, you couldn't have gone with him for an hour?"

"No," I said plainly.

"Ren!" my mother barked.

"Seriously! You liked him?" I asked disbelievingly.

She laughed. "I like any boy brave enough to take you out."

"I don't," my father said.

"But you want grandchildren," I replied.

"You can adopt."

Both my mother and I laughed as my father scowled down at the newspaper. He wanted grandchildren, but didn't want me to do what was required to have children. "Honestly, both of you," I huffed, looking between my parents. "I can barely keep myself in one piece. I don't need to add a baby to that."

My father left his spot in the living room and wandered back to me, placing his hand down on my shoulder. "Not yet, but I'd really like a grandchild before I die, Ren," he said.

"We'll talk about it in a decade," I replied. There was no way I was having a child anytime soon. I didn't even have the prospect of someone to marry. My father sighed, rolling his eyes as he walked off. "I'm only eighteen, Mom. I have time. I promise you, I'm not in danger of being labeled a spinster for at least another five years."

My mother waved me off carelessly. "Oh, I know. I'd just like to get your aunt to leave it alone."

"So, tell her to -"

"Ren!" my father yelled, cutting me off.

"I was just going to say to mind her damn business," I said, holding my hands up in surrender.

"That wasn't better," my mother said, scowling at me.

"Than what I was initially planning on saying? Sure, it was," I said.

"Ren!" my mother scolded. "I don't know where you get that language from."

I exchanged a grin with my father. "You," we said together through coughs.

My mother whipped around and scowled at us as we both laughed. She would never admit it, but she had worse language than we did. "To hell with you both, then," my mother said, wandering back into the kitchen.

Naturally, the laughter only grew louder at that point. My mother grumbled to herself as she continued cooking breakfast for everyone. In the meantime, I walked over to take a seat on the couch with my father. My mother was well into breakfast preparation, but it would still take a while, so she handed me a piece of toast to tide me over. I curled up on the couch with my father, stealing the newspaper from him and instead, asking him to tell me stories of their latest dig, which I knew Aunt Sylvia couldn't have cared less about and would refuse to listen to.

Martha and William Adams - my beloved parents - had met while they had both been studying Ancient Egyptology at Brown University. While most men had completely ignored Martha in their classes, William had always enjoyed her company. They had spent most of their time studying and eating together. They had graduated at the same time and ultimately traveled the world after their graduation. It had been on a dig in Luxor attempting to locate King Tutankhamen's Tomb that they had fallen in love - and gained immense notoriety in the archaeological community.

It had become a passion that they'd dedicated their lives to, as had so many other archeologists. They had continued attempting to locate King Tutankhamen's Tomb for months afterward with no avail. Then, it was just three years later that they were married, with me on the way. The archaeological community and their extended family had thought my parents would return to the United States to raise me. For a while, they were correct. My parents had returned to Rhode Island for at least a year to try and teach at Brown University.

They had successfully taught at Brown for three years (they were both ancient history professors), but my parents had always been desperate to return to Egypt and get back to their search for King Tutankhamen's Tomb. They had been so close the first time, after all. So, after months of going back and forth, they had left me with Aunt Sylvia for a few months to return to Egypt and continue on their path to discovering King Tutankhamen's Tomb. While they hadn't found King Tutankhamen's Tomb, they had found something else entirely.

They hadn't been credited with finding the one tomb everyone in Egypt were searching for, but they had made their names elsewhere. The Tomb of Akhethetep was a tomb complex that was built and completed in Saqqarah, Giza, Egypt. It was the tomb of Akhethotep, a royal official, located near the western part of the Step Pyramid in Saqqara. Akhethotep and his son Ptahhotep Tjefi, grandson of Ptahhotep, were senior court officials during the rules of Djedkare and Unas, towards the end of the fifth dynasty. It wasn't what they were looking for, but it was a wondrous discovery all the same.

Though it wasn't King Tutankhamen's Tomb, the discovery had only increased calls for my parents to return to Egypt and return to their earlier work as archaeologists. At that point, they had no longer been able to deny wanting to live in Egypt. Despite the pleas from the rest of my family for my parents to stay in the United States or at least leave me somewhere 'civilized' my parents had denied the offers. With me only five-years-old, my parents had packed up and moved to Cairo permanently, this time with me in tow.

As I was only five when I had moved to Cairo, I was left with very few memories of my life in the United States. I just remembered a few Fourth of July firework celebrations and a few New Year's Eve parties. I didn't mind, though. I had always loved living in Egypt. It had been a wonderfully different life. I got to be homeschooled and had free reign to wander the marketplace whenever I liked. My parents had trusted me to do whatever I wanted in the city since I was fourteen. I had met lots of interesting people and I got the chance to be something different here.

Much like the States, there were still sexist thoughts on what a woman could and couldn't be. I heard them all the time from the men around Cairo. But I also didn't have people telling me that I could never be an archaeologist. The ones who told me that were the people who came in from the United States and England. The ones who were still faced with the old-school prejudices. Things were slower in Cairo. There seemed to be more time to have our own lives before being forced to have children. We got some time to be our own person before being expected to care for another.

As I had only recently become an adult, I had gotten to spend the majority of my life only worried about what I loved. My parents occasionally pushed me to go on dates but they hadn't yet started forcing marriage or children. Instead, I had grown up on digs around Egypt, but only once they had been determined to be safe. My parents had almost always gone to the digs first and later called one of their assistants to bring me to the dig site. I was furious that I had never been allowed to come to unearth the tombs with my parents. That was what I had been working toward.

What would genuinely be incredible would be if my parents had allowed me to come along with them each time they thought they were getting close to discovering King Tutankhamen's final resting place. Of course, they were mostly misses. With so many companies looking for the tomb, it was only a matter of time until someone discovered it. My parents' main goal over the last few years had been finding King Tutankhamen's Tomb before anyone else could, but they had also brought me on plenty of smaller digs over the years.

The most recent dig my parents had taken me along on had been just two months ago. The latest dig we had gone on wasn't one in Egypt, which was rather odd for us, but we also hadn't had any leads on Tutankhamen's Tomb lately. So, we had decided to instead travel for nearly two weeks toward the south end of Africa and into Namibia. It was my first visit to the country and after having been once I hoped it wouldn't be my last. My parents had been called in for their assistance as the painting we were looking at appeared to be of Egyptian creation.

It was an interesting discovery that neither my parents nor I had been expecting. It wasn't a tomb or a mummy or anything I would have normally been interested in. It was a painting. The White Lady, as it had been dubbed, was a rock painting, located on a panel on a small rock overhang, deep within Brandberg Mountain. The giant granite monolith was located in Damaraland and called The Brandberg was Namibia's highest mountain. After a few days of exploring it, the painting had been accepted to be a bushmen painting, dated back at least two thousand years ago.

The White Lady archaeological site was located close to the road from Khorixas to Hentie's Bay, in the area of Uis. The Brandberg itself hosted over a thousand bushmen paintings, scattered around in rock shelters and caves. The White Lady Group had been found in a cave known as Maack Shelter and portrayed several human figures as well as oryxes on a rock panel. The White Lady was the most detailed human figure in the group. To reach The White Lady we had been forced to hike for nearly an hour over rough terrain, along the gorge of the dry Tsisab River.

My parents had gone along with most of the others on the archaeological dig in assuming that the painting showed some sort of ritual dance and that the White Lady was a shaman. She has white legs and arms, which they believed suggested that her body was painted or that she was wearing some sort of decorative attachments on her legs and arms. She was holding a bow in one hand and perhaps a goblet in the other. Because of the bow and the oryxes, the painting had also been interpreted as a hunting scene.

Apart from the shaman or lady, the other human figures had less detail and were mostly completely black or completely white. Only one of the oryxes had human legs. Some of the archaeologists had determined that the painting was probably made of ochre, charcoal, manganese, hematite, with blood serum, egg white and casein used as binding agents.

It was a simple discovery that my parents had helped make but it was also something I loved. I had gotten a copy of the painting for my birthday just a few weeks ago from a local artisan and had pinned it to my wall in Cairo. It was very pretty, but not quite as fascinating as the gold and treasure-filled tombs of Egypt. Of course, it also wasn't nearly as dangerous. Cave paintings were one thing, but the Ancient Egyptians were well-known for their sometimes fatal booby traps, exactly why I had rarely been allowed on my parents' excavations.

But it was coming soon. It had to be. In the meantime, I had to distract myself. "So, what did dear old Aunt Sylvia have to say?" I asked curiously.

My mother's eyes rolled so far back into her head I thought they would get stuck there. "Same things as always," she answered. "She thinks we're insane for bringing you up in Egypt, she hates the idea of us letting you run around an 'uncivilized' place like this, and she's concerned you don't even have a prospect of a man."

A little bristle of indignation shot through me. "I could get one if I wanted," I growled.

"We know that darling," my father said, resting a hand on my knee. "Trust us, we do."

"Well, Ren, if you didn't go on a date with the Minister's son, what did you do?" my mother asked.

"Oh, you know, the usual," I said flippantly.

A normal woman my age would have been in her last year of mandatory schooling back in the United States, but I had been raised in an extremely different situation. I had been homeschooled by my parents until I was sixteen. There was no way I could have gone into Egypt's public schools. The major problem had been that I wasn't fluent in Arabic when I should have begun schooling. So, my parents had always left me with either one or the other or someone they had trusted while they'd gone on digs and then I had been taught by my babysitter.

It raised some problems now. It meant that I had never had any formal education, though I had always considered myself one of the brightest people I knew. I simply hadn't been allowed into regular schools because of my background. By the time I had become fluent in Arabic as a young teenager it had been far too late for me to enroll in school. So, my parents had agreed to teach me everything they knew. I had long considered going to college now that I was of age - Brown, just like my parents - but I technically had no high school diploma. Therefore, no entry to college.

It had initially broken my heart, but it had also made her more determined to make my mark on the world. I was not put on this planet to be some man's baby-maker or home-maker. I knew I would make something of myself and the only thing I loved right now was the same thing my parents loved. I loved making discoveries. I loved finding out what the world was like long before anyone was able to properly record it. I had determined that I would be a famous archaeologist. As proud as my parents were, I knew they didn't always like my preference for dead people.

They had always wanted me to make friends, something I wasn't known for. I liked people but I wasn't known to make lasting friendships. I loved the merchants in the marketplace (who would never admit they liked me) and Terrence Bey (who would never dare admit he felt anything more for me than unbridled hatred), but that was about it. It wasn't for a lack of trying. I had always tried to play with the children in the neighborhood when I was young, but they had wanted nothing to do with me. I wanted friends, but no one had liked a blue-eyed, blonde-haired American.

When I was a kid, it had made all the difference in the world to the other children. I had looked so immensely different than them and they weren't inclined to be friendly with me. It meant that I had been subjected to only interact with people my parents had picked out for me as they hadn't wanted my interactions to be limited to just themselves. My parents' friends and allies along with the people my parents would have liked to set me up with were the ones I'd been forced to spend a lot of time with growing up. But those were the people I most disliked though.

It wasn't all unsuccessful, though. Over my years in Cairo, I had made some friends. I liked most of the men on the guard and I did like Terrence Bey (though he appeared to hate me and would probably always act that way). I did like the occasional English and American tourist that came to visit Cairo, especially since I had something in common with them. I enjoyed the men and women who ran the merchant stands and restaurants in town. There were plenty of people I had a good time with. I just wished there were more people my age I could get along with.

As much as I didn't love my personal experiences in Egypt, I did love the atmosphere here. There was no place on Earth like Cairo. I loved the people (most of them, at least), I loved the rich history, and I loved being somewhere that everyone at least had the chance to make something of themselves. I was going to get the chance to make something of myself that wasn't just a typical woman's work.

But speak of the Devil and it shall appear. "Ren," my mother called, startling me from my thoughts. "Where is the cumin?"

"Oh, I used the rest of it in a stew the other night," I answered.

"A stew?" she replied. "You can't cook."

"Okay, my attempt to make a stew," I said.

"And you didn't burn the house down?" my father asked from the other end of the couch.

"An improvement!" I said jokingly.

My mother walked up behind me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Honey, an improvement would be not getting food poisoning from your dinner, not avoiding burning down the house. That would be a miracle."

"You're hilarious," I deadpanned.

"Did you eat any of it?" my mother asked.

"Hell no. I'm not that stupid," I said.

They both laughed as I shook my head. The stew hadn't looked right once I'd finished it and I had decided to go the safe route, dumping it down the drain and instead, going eat out. "Well, as payment for eating my last bottle of cumin you can go to the market and get me a new one," my mother said, giving me a look that said she was expecting no argument.

But that wasn't what I'd been planning on doing today. "Oh, but I wanted to go to the -" I stopped talking as the nasty glare settled over my mother's features. "The marketplace, of course. Yeah. Okay, I'll be back in a bit."

"To the marketplace and back!" my mother yelled after me.

They both knew my penchant for getting into trouble. I turned back and grinned at her. "Where else would I go?"

My father walked up behind me and lowered his voice. "Should I tell her?"

"Quiet!" I hissed.

"Be back before dinner!" my mother yelled from the kitchen.

"I will!" I called back.

The marketplace was one of the places I loved the most in Cairo, but I had initially been planning on spending most of my day at the Museum of Antiquities. That was my favorite location in Cairo. Since I was a little kid and my parents had brought me there for the first time, I had loved wandering around the museum for fun. I also enjoyed getting the chance to bother Terrence Bey. That would just have to wait until tomorrow. I gave my parents a final smile and nodded, turning and heading toward the marketplace. It was just a few minutes from my house as we lived close to the center of Cairo.

It was a lovely day outside today. There was a slight chill in the air with a little bit of warmth from the sun that was beating down on my back. My favorite kind of weather. I smiled up at the cloudless sky as I wandered into the edge of the marketplace. I knew I was supposed to go straight to the spice stand and get my mother another bottle of cumin (as I had used far too much for my cooking) but there was something else I needed. It was time for me to get some new clothes. Or at least look for some that I would come back for later.

My feet carried me toward one of the first stands in the marketplace. It was the clothing vendor that I had gotten most of my clothes from since moving to Cairo. I pawed through the messy stacks of clothing for a while and looked up to smile at Mara, the woman who owned the stand. She was the one who usually tried to get me to buy something other than the loose tunics and beige pants I normally wore. Besides my parents, Mara was probably the person who would have most liked to see me find myself a man.

"Please stop looking at the tunics, Ren," Mara said after a few minutes.

"Why?" I asked, holding a black tunic up. "They're practical."

"They're made for men," Mara said.

"Exactly," I agreed.

It meant that they were easier to move around in, especially when I was wandering dig sites. Mara let out a deep breath, pinching the bridge of her nose. "What if I give you a dress? Or a skirt? I'll take either at this point."

"Tempting," I replied.

"Anything, Ren. How can you ever expect to attract a man looking like one of them?" Mara asked.

Now that's uncalled for. I looked down at myself with a vague frown. I had never considered myself the most attractive person in the world but I wasn't hopeless. I considered myself reasonably pretty and different from anyone else in Cairo. I stood out against the natives, which was likely why I sometimes drew men's eyes. And I certainly didn't look like a man! Not only did I usually wear my long hair down but I had also inherited my mother's curves. I pulled the neckline of my men's tunic down slightly at Mara's words, making the older woman smile.

"Tell you what. I'm going to come back tomorrow and replace my tunics and trousers," I said. Mara let out a disappointed groan. "Let me finish! In return for being a wonderful friend and tailoring them for free..." I grinned at Mara who scowled back at me. "You can dress me in whatever you like."

That piqued Mara's interest. "Anything I like?"

I sighed, knowing I would regret my words. "Anything."

Mara grinned. "I'll take that deal. No backing out!"

I laughed. "See you tomorrow, Mara."

"Goodbye, Ren," Mara called.

It was a promise that I was sure to live to regret. Mara would put me in the frilliest dress she had. As I wandered deeper into the marketplace I headed toward the spice stand that was almost on the other end of the marketplace. I was forced through the overflowing crowds in the narrow streets. The marketplace was more crowded than it usually was. I figured it was because of the recent influx of tourists. People from all over the world were trying to enjoy the slightly cooler weather before the summer heat kicked in.

The marketplace was always fun to walk through - the noises and smells and different languages that permeated the warm air. I wandered a little further into the marketplace and looked back and forth, wondering if any opportunity was going to present itself to me. It had been a while since the last time I'd gotten to have my favorite kind of fun. That time must have been the reason so many merchants looked nervous to see me. Not that I minded. As I walked past one of the jewel merchants, I looked down at a beautiful bracelet with rubies engraved in them.

I was holding the bracelet up to my wrist when I heard a voice. "Are you planning on paying for that, Miss Adams?" Abdal, the owner of the jewel stand asked me suspiciously.

I smirked in response. "When have you ever known me to leave without paying for something?"

"Nothing from me," Abdal responded.

He was right. I didn't steal material objects. "Exactly. So, nothing to worry about," I told him happily.

"For now," Abdal huffed.

"What's that supposed to mean, Abdal? Aren't you happy to see me?" I teased.

"Never, Miss Adams," Abdal said.

I smiled at him as I picked up a blue gemstone that would look nice in one of my older necklaces. I could see Abdal scowling at me from the other end of the stand and I turned back to him with a little grin, making it very obvious that I was placing the stone back down and not stealing it. Abdal scowled at me again as he motioned for me to leave his stand. I laughed as I waved at him and walked off. All of the merchants in the marketplace knew me and liked to tease me about my pastime, but they all knew I would always refund them.

The last thing I wanted to do was make their lives any harder. As much as I teased them and they did the same to me, I cared about them and their well-being. I wandered back toward the spice stand at the back of the marketplace. I was hoping for a little more action today, but it appeared that there wouldn't be any. I noticed that some children were wandering around who looked like they might have been from the local orphanage, but it looked like they weren't in the mood to buy anything. Most of them just liked to come here and look around.

Just as I was about to give up on seeing anything amusing, buy my bottle of cumin and head back to my house, I spotted a young orphaned boy in the corner of the marketplace. My eyebrows arched curiously as I moved through the stands. The little boy was in the middle of the heaviest traveled section of the marketplace - the food. I smiled. He was a smart kid. It was easier to take things from the busier sections. Unfortunately, he wasn't as fast as he was intelligent. He was currently being berated by one of the merchants for trying to steal a loaf of bread.

It was Kareem, the owner of the bakery. He was an older man and didn't have the best sense of humor. "Urchin!" Kareem snarled nastily. "Find someone else to steal from, boy."

Kareem whacked the little boy over the back of the head which, to be fair, was getting off light for attempting to steal from someone. I scowled at Kareem, who I had never been that fond of. He was one of the few merchants I actively tried avoiding stealing from or getting involved with. But I was going to have to make an exception for the day. After all, moments like these were why I did what I did. I walked a little closer to the stand and met the defeated boy's eyes. He stared at me as I smiled and nodded for the boy to come closer.

I spoke in Arabic as I was unsure if the boy spoke English. "Are you hungry?" I asked. The boy stared at me, hesitating nervously for a moment. "It's okay, I'm here to help."

"Yes," he admitted.

"Follow me. And pay attention," I told him.

"What are you -?"

"Hush," I interrupted his questions. "Come along."

If he wanted to learn to keep himself fed he would also need to learn to be quiet when the time was right. I motioned for the boy to stay back a few paces but to follow me as I wound my way back through the marketplace. There was no way we could steal from Kareem. He was nasty and would likely order the boy's hands to be taken if he saw him trying to steal another loaf of bread. I walked back toward the fruit stand instead as the owner - a middle-aged man named Zahid - liked me and usually trusted that I would pay for whatever I took.

"Stay back," I whispered to the boy. I switched back to English for Zahid to keep the suspicion at bay. "Good morning, Zahid."

"Ren," Zahid said in greeting. "Did your parents have a safe trip home?"

"They did. I'll give them your regards."

Zahid watched me intently for a moment as he nodded. "Can we be expecting any trouble today?"

I smiled at him. "Trouble? When have you ever known me to cause trouble?"

"Since the day I met you, Miss Adams," Zahid said.

That was a fair enough statement. I smiled at Zahid as I slipped my sleeve down just past the end of my fingertips on my right arm. I had always been good at sleight of hand tricks. It was something I had learned from a young age while watching the magicians and pickpockets in the marketplace. It had been fun to watch and was even more fun to practice. I wandered toward the end of the table where I spotted a bundle of figs. They were my favorite and it wouldn't be surprising to see me eating them. To the right of the figs were a few apples. I grinned. Perfect.

"Don't be cynical, Zahid. I just wanted to look," I teased. We smiled at each other as I took the bundle of figs obviously in my left hand. "The figs look good this time of year."

"We got a good crop in. Usually, we don't see them like this unless it's summertime," Zahid said.

"Good to see. I'll have to come back with my mother. She'll love these," I said honestly.

"She always has liked the figs. What about the prickly pears?" Zahid asked.

"Where?" I asked.

Zahid turned and walked to the left to grab the ripe-looking prickly pears. "She would love these," Zahid said.

He was right. My mother loved prickly pears. I smiled and turned back to the little boy so that he was watching as I took the apple in my left hand and covered the edge of it with my sleeve before moving my arm back to my side and drop the fruit in my pants pocket. I took the hem of my oversized tunic and draped it over my waist to ensure the merchants and the guards couldn't see the lump at my side. The little boy chuckled at my mischievousness. At the same time, Zahid turned back and showed me a prickly pear. I took it in my right hand.

"Oh, it looks good," I said honestly. "I'll have to bring her by later. What time are you here until?"

"Seven," Zahid said honestly.

"Hmm... Be back a little later this afternoon. Save us the best ones!" I called back as I walked off.

"Keep yourself out of trouble!" Zahid yelled after me.

"Always," I responded.

It was one of my more successful moments of taking something from the vendors. As I turned away from Zahid's stand, I motioned for the little boy to stay put for a moment. I knew it wouldn't look good if he walked away at the same time I did. I waited until I was about three meters from the stand before motioning for the little boy to follow me. I pushed through the crowd, quickly noticing that the people around me were watching my movements carefully. They didn't trust me, and it was rightfully so.

Eventually, after we had gotten out of the thick of the crowd, I turned back to the little boy and smiled at him. I motioned for him to run ahead of me. He was smart to dart ahead of me so I could watch where he was going. I followed the boy through the stands and back toward the other side of the marketplace. My home was on the other end of the middle of Cairo, but I didn't mind. I would have to double back and head to the spice stand to grab the cumin for my mother anyway. I walked up to the boy's side after a moment and handed him the apple.

"Here you are," I said, switching back to Arabic.

"Thank you!" the boy said happily.

"You're welcome. Enjoy it," I said.

I was about to walk off when the boy called me back. "Miss?" I turned back to him with a nod. "Why did you take this for me?"

"No one should have to wonder where their next meal is coming from," I answered honestly.

"Will you show me how you steal the food without them noticing?" the boy asked.

I'd never tried to teach someone else how to steal food or anything else. I was hesitant to start now. I did it because the merchants had known me since I was a small child. They now thought about it as a game as I was the only person who did so and I always ensured to come back later and pay them for whatever I took - even if they'd had no idea that I had taken something from them in the first place. I didn't know how the merchants would handle it if I began teaching others to steal. Plus, it risked my mother finding out what I did in my spare time.

It didn't matter as I didn't get much chance to think about it further. "Steal the food?" a voice asked.

Both the little boy and I whipped around to see one of the guards watching us. My heart sank to the floor as I grabbed the apple back from the shaking boy. I had been so hopeful that I might not be caught this time. Naturally, I was. Normally I would find a way to stupidly mutter about myself and remind the guards that I didn't actually steal from the vendors, but this man must have been new. I had never seen him before. His black trousers and gold tunic were enough to indicate that he was a member of the guard who now believed I was a common thief.

"You're new," I commented dumbly, switching back to English.

"And you're a thief," the man replied.

"I prefer people to think of it as me placing a loan down without their knowledge," I said, smiling.

Maybe he had a good sense of humor. "Hand the apple back, boy," the guard snarled.

Maybe not. "He's starving!" I snapped, pushing the boy behind me. "Not to mention he's just a little kid. Have a heart. Just let him keep the apple."

"I think not. Return it," the guard said.

"No," I said.

"Hand it over. One last chance," the guard said.

Without giving myself a chance to think more of it, I began stepping backward slowly. I lowered my voice as I tightened my muscles. I spoke in Arabic again for the little boy without looking away from the guard. "When I say, turn and run. I'll be right behind you," I whispered to the boy, switching back to English for the guard. "Come on. You don't want to do this the hard way, do you?"

"That's entirely up to you," the guard said.

"Hard way it is," I said, switching to Arabic again. "Run!"

It would have been nice if the guard would have let us off with a warning, but it didn't seem that it was going to go that way. The little boy and I turned and ran back toward the center of the marketplace. I refused to let us get caught by the guard, but it would be hard. The marketplace was already crowded and would erupt into chaos now. I placed a hand on the boy's back to push him along as the new guard called to the others who were nearby. Damn... They wouldn't hurt me but it would certainly make it harder to escape. Still, the only thing to do was push forward.

As we sprinted toward the middle of the marketplace, I knew we would have to get up out of the streets. It was too easy to get caught up in the crowd. I slammed through a few families as I attempted to find a way out of the crowd. As I moved toward the middle of the marketplace, I grabbed the little boy and gave him a foot up onto the ledge of one of the merchant patios. The little boy was smart enough to keep moving as I grabbed the crossbar of the patio and pulled myself up behind him.

"Come on! Come on," I told the little boy as I motioned him behind me.

He was panting and breathing unsteadily as we ran. I figured he had never done something like this before. I knew it wasn't easy for him to keep up but we had to keep moving. As we ran over the roofs of the buildings, we jumped between the ones that were close enough together. I stopped after each jump to turn back and make sure the boy had made it. There was a large bundle of hanging laundry wires that I knew we could cross over. If we were lucky, the guards would slip off it. I took the little boy's hands and pulled him along with me as we traversed the wires.

The little boy looked like he was having a hard time keeping steady but I kept a tight grip on him as we crossed from one end of the marketplace to the other. The guards were thankfully slowly falling behind us. Eventually, we made it to the roofs on the other end of the marketplace and I motioned for the boy to follow me again as we jumped and dove between the uneven roofs of the merchant stores. I continued moving along the roofs until a panel on the roof I was running on gave out under my foot and I collapsed halfway into the opening.

"Are you alright?" the boy asked, stopping.

"Keep moving!" I yelled at him.

The boy ended up a little ahead of me as I pulled myself back up through the opening and continued along with him, hopping between the roofs, desperate to put more distance between us and the guards. I threw myself over the edges of the roofs and continued pushing the boy ahead of me. We were getting further and further ahead of the guards, which was a good thing. I was used to running like this. The guards didn't usually have to deal with free-running thieves.

It was almost ten minutes before we finally managed to lose the guards. I motioned for the boy to stop running as I threw myself over the ledge of one building, hitting the edge of the building next door and dropping in between the buildings to the ground a full story below. My legs twinged with the sudden jolt of hitting the ground as I looked up and nodded for the boy to slide down behind me. He hesitated for a moment before following in my footsteps and sliding off the edge of the roof.

He hit my arms much faster than I had been expecting and I stumbled back a few steps before gathering my balance again. I smiled at the little boy as I allowed him to take a step back. Somehow, we had done it. We were safe. I could hear the guards yelling after us a few yards away. Hopefully, they wouldn't realize we had gotten down here. I brushed the hair off the boy's forehead as I took the apple back out of my pocket and took a small bite out of it. His payment for my troubles. I winked at the boy as I tossed the apple underhanded to him.

"If you want to learn, here it is. Lesson number one: never steal from someone you can't outrun," I told him playfully.

"Thank you," the boy said, laughing.

"You're welcome. Be careful," I warned him.

"Will I see you again?"

I smiled down at him. "At some point, I'm sure."

Just like that, we ended up getting cornered again. "You!" the guard we had just outrun yelled to us. "Get back here!"

I whipped back around to the boy. "Go! I'll draw them off!"

"But -"

"Go!" I repeated.

If he wasn't with me, I could get out of here without a problem. I smiled at the boy and motioned for him to take off away from the guards. He did so with a final look at me. I did the same thing in the other direction toward the guards, slamming through the vendors and nearly mowing down some of the people in the marketplace, barely spinning out of the guard's grasp. This one was much more aggressive than most of the other guards that chased me around. I missed those men. I sprinted toward the edge of the marketplace, desperate to get lost in the narrower alleys outside the market.

Smiling back at the guards who were chasing me, I ran past two of them and hit the ground as I slid through the dirt between them, causing the two men to get tripped up over each other. I darted down another alley as I hopped back to my feet as I continued running, taking each turn blindly. A merchant was blocking the other end of the alley and I gasped, hitting the edge of his cart and jumping up, grabbing the wooden bars that connected the buildings and pulling myself up onto it, running over the bars almost fifteen feet over the guard's heads.

It was only when I reached the last wooden support that I jumped back to the ground, darting around the corner and using a pole to hit the ground again. I ran over some of the merchant stands to cross to the other side of the street and jump up to one of the balconies, flinging myself onto the other side. I ran into the building and took off through the window on the other end of the room, hitting the street outside again. I giggled nervously as I threw myself through the streets and took two stairs at a time with a vague plan in mind.

The guards were all trying to push their way through the people in the marketplace but weren't as used to this as I was. I was smaller and a lot more flexible, easily able to fight through crowds. As I hit the rooftop of the tapestry shop, I darted to the other end of the roof, picking a rolled-up carpet in my hand and flinging myself off the roof without another thought. I threw the carpet into the wooden piles beneath my feet as I grabbed onto a railing below me, pulling myself into the window and hiding there for a moment as I waited for the guards to pass.

There was a loud muttering from the rooftop as the guards wondered where to go now. I laughed breathlessly as I walked to the back entrance of the store, trying to ignore the looks I was getting. It was going to be a circuitous route back to my house, but I would be okay for now. I got away from who I needed to get away from. All I was going to have to do was stay away from the marketplace for the next few days and give the guards a nice gift once they had calmed down. This one went a little further than I meant to and it was helped by there being a new guard.

As I wandered back out onto the street, I heard some commotion not far from me. My heart skipped a beat as I feared for a moment that it was the guards. I was in for it all over again. Without giving myself a moment to think about it, I took off and darted down a random street. I was about a quarter-mile away from my home - a relatively straight shot - when a man reached out and grabbed my arm, stopping me in my tracks. For a moment I believed it was Nasir, a guard I was used to who always let me go after a good scolding.

Unfortunately, it was a guard I had never seen before today. It was the same guard from earlier. My face drained of color. This time, he was alone. "I've got you now, urchin," the guard growled.

"Hey, I'm not an urchin!" I shouted, trying to pull my arm away from him. "I was just helping that little boy who was starving!"

"You're coming with me," the guard snarled.

"I am not! Come on, leave me alone! I'll pay for the apple, it's not that big of a deal!" I shouted.

"You were caught stealing and evading the guard. It's too late for payment," the guard said.

"It's a joke! Ask any of the other guards. It's always a joke! I come back and pay for whatever I take later!"

The guard hesitated for a moment. "This is something you do regularly?"

I was stunned at my moronic statement. "Well..."

"Come along," the guard snapped.

How could I have said something that stupid? I was stunned out of words for a moment as the guard wrapped a hand around my bicep and began dragging me away. I pleaded nonsensically with the man to let me go, telling him that I would pay for the apple at least three times what it was worth. It was like the man didn't even speak English. He ignored my pleas as he began pulling me away from the marketplace and my home. My heart dropped as I realized where we were heading. It wasn't somewhere I wanted to go.

Even though I wasn't weak, I was nowhere near as strong as the man. I batted at his arms and stomach but he ignored me, instead, taking me by my hair and pulling me along. I grunted and jammed my arm into his stomach. He loosened his grip on my hair but continued to drag me along. I realized with a hint of horror that I was right when I had initially guessed where we were going. We were heading toward the Cairo prison. He was likely not trying to arrest me but at least hold me in the jail for a few hours until my parents came to release me, which wasn't something I could afford.

We were mere steps away from the back entrance to the prison when someone in black robes with a gravelly voice shouted at the guard in Arabic and used the sword to slice shallowly into the guard's hand, who immediately released me. As shaken as I was, I was reasonably certain that the man had told the guard to release me. My voice died as I stopped rambling on about whatever it was I had been talking about before. Something about offering to pay the man whatever he wanted for the apple. I wasn't even sure at that point.

As my vision came back to, I realized that the guard's hand was bleeding from the sword slice. Since he had released me, I stepped away from him nervously. I wasn't given a moment to understand what was going on as I was pulled back by the figure in black robes. His strong grip kept me from stepping away from him. My heart was pounding with both fear and exhaustion as the man kept his hand wrapped firmly around my bicep. His grip was reassuring though. The guard stepped back toward me as the man in black held out his sword threateningly.

"The woman has already offered to pay. Do not lay a hand on her," the man in black said in Arabic. I watched through blurry vision as the man in black dug into his pocket with his spare hand and tossed a coin at the guard, who caught it with his uninjured hand. "Begone."

No way simply telling him to leave was going to work. But, it did. I watched in horror as the guard nodded at the man in black. The guard gave me a threatening and hateful look as he cradled his bloody hand and tucked the coin down into his trouser pockets. The guard gave a sharp nod before turning and walking back toward the marketplace. I relaxed slightly. My main problem was finally gone, but I was now left with another. I was stuck in an unfamiliar dark alley away from the main commotion of town with a strange man. Hopefully, him having saved me boded well.

It had been a long time that I had been avoiding looking at my savior in the eye. Now it was time for me to look at him. I was genuinely surprised when I turned and met the man's eyes for the first time. I had expected someone in their mid to late twenties just based on his deep voice alone. Not to mention the commandeering stance that I had noticed before actually getting a good look at him. The man must have been at least six feet tall. He stood with his spine straight and his gaze still fixed firmly on my attacker.

If I had just glanced at him, I would have thought my initial judgment of the man was correct. He was a hulking figure who looked at first like he was twice my age. But as I let my gaze settle over his body and scan his features I realized that there was something almost boyish in the man's face. He was older than me but not quite as old as I had initially expected. It didn't look like he was much older than his early twenties.

The man certainly wasn't from Cairo. He didn't look like someone who enjoyed dwelling in a popular tourist city. Judging by the black robes that covered his body and the black turban that covered the top of his head (along with the sword he had used) it became very obvious to me that he was from a native Egyptian tribe. He also had tattoos under both of his dark eyes. They screamed that he was dangerous, but I was drawn to them. Hell, I was drawn to the man in general.

The man wasn't like anyone I had ever seen before. I was used to seeing Egyptians, as he was, but he wasn't the kind of man who lived and worked in Cairo. He wasn't wearing a suit or street clothes. His robes looked designed to keep the harsh sun and whipping sands of the desert at bay. His black hair hung in curls down to his shoulders. It wasn't cut or styled like most men's hair was. His tanned skin only increased my suspicion that he wasn't a native to Cairo. Both he and I spent a long time staring at each other, neither one of us saying a word to the other.

We were opposites. Where the man had curly black hair, I had pin-straight blonde hair. The man's eyes were dark and brooding. Mine were bright blue and playful. The man towered over me. His dark skin countered strangely against my barely-tanned arm. He was tattooed and appeared to be a warrior. My parents would have killed me if I had dared get a tattoo. I attempted to look tough, but I knew I appeared as a normal middle-class woman. Perhaps it was those differences that caused my immediate attraction to the man.

It was only after we had been silent for a few minutes that I realized the man was still holding my arm in his hand protectively, even though the danger was long gone. The man released my arm as I took a few steps back, rubbing my arm where he'd had my arm in his grip. We stared at each other for a while longer while the man replaced his sword in its sheath.

I knew I had been silent too long so I finally said, "Thank you for your help."

"You are welcome," the man replied. His voice was smooth and deep without the dangerous edge in it and I found myself enjoying the sound of it. "Are you hungry?"

"What?" I asked, surprised by his words.

"The apple you stole. Are you hungry?"

What was he talking about? I watched as the man reached into the pockets of his robes. Of course. He thought I was an urchin. "No, no, please don't do that. I'm not an urchin," I said, reaching out to stop him from giving me any of his money. The man stopped reaching down but looked surprised by my words. "I know it probably looks like I am, but I just wore some old clothes today. Hell, I was planning on going and buying more tomorrow. Not that you care... Trust me, I could have afforded the apple."

The man didn't seem bothered by my rambling. He was still stuck on my previous comment. "Why would you steal it if you could afford it?" he asked.

"Oh, that doesn't matter," I said flippantly.

"That guard nearly took your hand off and you treat this as though it doesn't matter?"

I laughed carelessly. "Please, that guard was just new. He doesn't know me yet. The others will tell him about me later and he'll learn."

"What does that have to do with anything?" the man asked.

"It has everything to do with what just happened. The guards will give me a good chase for a little while and yell all sorts of rude things after me until I get away. They never come for me later. They know I'll pay them back for whatever I take."

The man shook his head. "I don't understand."

"What?"

"Why go through all that trouble to take something you could otherwise afford just to repay the vendors later?"

That was when I realized just how insane I must have sounded to any strangers I met. I smiled at the man, shaking my head. "It's a long story." The man still looked bothered by the fact that I didn't admit the truth. I figured that I should have given him something as he had just saved my life. "It's also not one made for a first meeting."

Much to my surprise, the man smiled back at me. "First meeting?" he asked.

Idiot! I laughed and found myself a little embarrassed by what I had just said. I'd made it far too obvious that I was hoping we would meet again. I decided to try and turn it into a joke instead. "I'm a hard one to shake," I teased.

I noticed as his grin widened that he looked much younger when he smiled. "What is your name?" he asked.

For some reason, the question made me nervous. "Renata," I spat out before I could think better of it. I shook my head at myself and corrected my answer. "Ren."

"Renata," the man repeated, saying it as if he were testing the name out on his tongue.

"Just Ren, I insist," I said.

"Do you have a problem with Renata?" he asked.

It was the first time in a long time I had heard someone call me by my full name who wasn't my parents. I noticed that the way the man said my name, he rolled the 'r' and extended some of the syllables that most people wouldn't. I almost - almost - liked the way the man said it. It was so much different than the way anyone else said it. But I still wanted to be called Ren. It was the only thing anyone called me. There was no deeper reason that I didn't want to be called Renata, I just didn't like the way my given name sounded.

"Not really, I've just always hated it," I said, feeling a little stupid.

"You do?" the man asked.

"I do. Always have."

"Well, I like it."

A small smile tilted up on the edge of my mouth. "No one calls me Renata. Except for my parents when I know I've really pissed them off."

The man smiled back. "What if I want to call you Renata?"

If it kept him talking to me, I would be perfectly happy to let him call me by my given name. "Know I might not respond," I teased.

The man chuckled. "I'll take it."

Since he knew my name now, it was only fair that I knew his. "Well, I should at least have something to call you. Otherwise, I'll make up a name for you and I promise you won't like that," I teased gently.

The man chuckled. "My name is Ardeth."

Ardeth. I smiled at him. I liked the way it sounded. "I could have come up with something better," I teased. Ardeth laughed again, smiling back at me. "Well, Ardeth, your timing is impeccable."

"You are lucky. I don't typically come this far into the center of Cairo," he said.

"What brought you out here?" I asked curiously.

"The noise. It sounded like something was happening and I wanted to ensure there was no one in danger."

"So, it was a damsel in distress you were looking for?" I asked teasingly. Ardeth chuckled as I circled him, placing my hands on my hips. "Well, Ardeth, I'm a damsel and I was in distress but I can handle myself."

A smile turned up on his mouth. "So I see." Ardeth glanced around as we heard some shouting in the distance. "You have certainly caused quite the commotion," Ardeth said.

"Oh, I'm known for it."

"You are?"

"I have to make a name for myself somehow."

Ardeth laughed. "Are you planning on hiding in this alley forever?"

Honestly, I wasn't even completely sure where we were. "No, I just wanted to wait until they were gone," I said. Ardeth and I glanced at each side of the alley to see that it appeared that we were now completely alone. "I think they are. Looks like I'm in the clear."

"Shall we?" Ardeth offered, extending a hand.

"You don't need to escort me back. I think I can manage without falling and hurting myself," I teased.

"I've seen no evidence of that so far," Ardeth said.

We both laughed at his fair statement. I liked the look of his smile. Especially since it was true. I had a knack for getting into trouble. Ardeth appeared much closer to my age when he smiled at me like that. Otherwise, he appeared to be far older than me. But he was handsome both ways. Without saying anything, I nodded for Ardeth to walk out of the alley with me. I didn't want to leave his company anyway. We were about to head back into the marketplace when there was a commotion at the end of the alley. More guards were headed our way.

"Ren!" Jalil, one of the guards I'd known for years, shouted.

"Uh-oh. I thought I lost the rest of them," I gasped.

"Stand back," Ardeth said.

My heart skipped a beat as Ardeth moved to pull his sword free from its sheath and I gasped in sudden fear. "What are you doing? Are you insane?" I gasped, ripping his arm back. "You'll make things worse!"

"You can't stand here and do nothing!" Ardeth said, sounding shocked.

"Who said anything about doing nothing? I told you before, it's like a game," I said, smirking.

"What?" Ardeth asked.

"Come on! And put that damned thing away," I snapped, motioning to the sword.

Ardeth still looked surprised when I reached out and took his arm, dragging him along with me. He was still staring at me like I had lost my mind. "Where are we going?" Ardeth asked.

"Can you just trust me for a minute?" I said. "I know all the back ways to the city. They'll never catch up with us."

The guards were coming toward us from the part of the alley that we could escape from. So, I reached out for Ardeth and pulled him with me toward the fenced-off portion, grabbing his arm and pulling him over the fence. We hit the ground at the same time as I rolled through the sand, hopping back to my feet and taking off with Ardeth in tow. He had landed straight on his feet. We grinned at each other before sprinting as hard as we could back toward the center of the marketplace and my house.

It didn't take us long to get caught up in the crowd, shoving and pushing our way through the shoppers. Thankfully, Ardeth was quick to follow my footsteps as I jumped onto one of the displays and grabbed onto a wooden support I had to jump for before swinging onto the second. Ardeth followed as I swung over two more wooden bars before letting go and hitting the ground on the other side of the marketplace. Ardeth was a second behind me. As we hit the ground, I took his hand again, pulling him along as I ran through the crowd again.

As the new guard crossed in front of us, I leaned up on a bar and kicked into his stomach, throwing him to the ground as I hit the staircase, running up it and jumping to the other side of the staircase, running over the merchant stands to avoid the crowds. Ardeth followed at my heels as we hit the ground again before bounding back up a small set of stairs and onto wooden supports sticking out of the wall of one of the merchant shops. Ardeth was again at my heels as I jumped from one to the next, barely able to keep my balance.

We crossed over almost twenty before reaching a scaffolding set up at the end of the building, which we both grabbed, pulling ourselves up it toward the rooftops. Ardeth and I hit the rooftop, not stopping for a moment as we sprinted across them, making a large jump between two of the buildings, both of us hitting in a tuck-and-roll as we hopped up and continued, sliding down one of the connecting beams between the buildings and landing on the ground again, running off without looking back to see how close the guards were.

We continued over the rooftops, sliding under beams and hopping over boxes that were left out so we could head toward the edge of the marketplace. I was a little surprised and impressed to see that Ardeth was keeping up with me effortlessly. I had been doing this for years and was already well adapted to running through the marketplace. Usually, no one could handle my runs. I knew that we would be cornered at the end of the rooftop we were on now, but I had a plan to escape. I ran toward the end of the building with my sights set on my escape.

There was a large pole attached to the scaffolding at the end of the building, but Ardeth hadn't realized what I was planning yet. He reached out and took my wrist again, stopping me. "Renata, there's no way you can make that jump," Ardeth warned.

"Good thing we're not jumping," I said.

"So..." Ardeth trailed off, not understanding.

"Hang on!" I yelled.

This would have been a bad time to explain what was going on. I took Ardeth's arm this time and pulled him toward the pole. I began laughing slightly maniacally as I hit the pole and placed my foot on the foothold (which was actually where it should have been hooked into the scaffolding), forcing Ardeth to follow suit. Our combined weight pushed the pole off its precarious spot against the building as it shifted across the alley. Ardeth and I both shrieked with laughter as we shot to the wooden patio covering across the way. The guards at the edge of the roof were shouting after us angrily.

It was just a brief second before we hit the straw and clay roof of the tapestry shop's back patio far harder than I was used to, considering this time the pole was also carrying Ardeth's weight. This time I didn't stop as we slammed into the roof. Instead, this time we hit the roof and collapsed straight through it, hitting the quilts and blankets that had been left out on the floor. Our momentum forced us to go spinning together through the blankets, rolling on top of and underneath each other as we shot across the floor.

We only stopped spinning and rolling together after a few seconds that felt like hours. My head was still spinning as I landed on the other end of the patio. Ardeth and I were both grunting in moderate pain but laughing even harder. It was one of the most priceless runs I'd had in a long time. Ardeth was laying over me and likely about to ask if I was okay when I reached up and slapped my hand over his mouth, pointing through a hole on the other end of the patio roof. The guards were standing up on the roof and looking through the hole.

"Where did they go?" Jalil asked.

"It's Ren, she's probably halfway back to the City Center by now," Nasir, another one of the guards I was familiar with, said.

"Every damned day," Jalil said breathlessly, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"And yet they still get fooled every day," I whispered to Ardeth, who laughed through my hand.

"Give in, gentlemen," Sharif said, laughing fondly. "We have the coin for the apple."

"What?" the new guard asked, looking shocked.

"You have much to learn," Nasir laughed, patting the new guard on the back. "That's not the last you'll see of Ren Adams."

As the four guards walked off, I smiled up at Ardeth, removing my hand and keeping my voice low. "We'll be able to leave in a few minutes," I said, realizing just then how breathless I was. "We just have to make sure they're gone before we move."

"The guards know you by name?" Ardeth asked curiously.

"I told you I made a name for myself with them," I said, giggling.

We both chuckled as Ardeth brushed some dust and hair out of my face. "I believe you have made quite a mess."

"Me? I'm telling them this was your idea," I teased.

Ardeth laughed again as he opened his mouth to speak, but he was immediately interrupted. "Ren."

We both turned our heads up to see what was going on. It was the store owner. "Hi, Alia," I said as happily as possible. She was scowling at me. I looked up at the shattered roof and winced. "I'll fix that."

Alia sighed, waving me off. "It's fine. I never liked it that much anyway." I smiled at her as Alia's gaze moved to Ardeth. "Oh, good. Two of you now."

"What?" I asked stupidly.

It took me a moment too long to realize what was happening. I glanced up and noticed that Ardeth was still sitting over me. It must not have looked very good to the people standing around us. I blushed slightly as Ardeth was quick to jump off me. He was as nimble as he was fast. I cleared my throat awkwardly as Ardeth reached down and gave me a hand back to my feet. I smiled awkwardly at Alia as I brushed the dirt off of myself. Alia was looking between us curiously.

"No, we just met," I said, motioning between us.

Alia rolled her eyes. "Oh, Ren, dragging strangers into your silly games?"

"It makes you smile, Alia! Just admit it," I chirped.

"Out of my store," Alia snapped.

Alia was a sweet older woman who rarely smiled at me. She wasn't my biggest fan in the world but I knew she didn't want to see me get hurt. As Ardeth and I made our way out of Alia's store, I spotted Hakim, Alia's son who was a few years older than Ren. He had worked at the family store since he was a child. We got along pretty well for the most part. He was one of the few people my age who would speak to me for conversation. I liked Hakim just for his company. He smiled at me as we walked past.

"Ren," Hakim said, by way of greeting.

"Hakim," I replied.

"Thank you. I've been meaning to pull that awning down for ages," Hakim said, pointing back to the now-ruined patio awning.

"Oh, you know me, always willing to help," I teased, shrugging at him.

Hakim seemed to finally notice that I was with someone. "Who's your friend?" Hakim asked, pointing to Ardeth.

"This - This is Ardeth," I stammered, nervous for some reason.

Hakim hummed as his gaze turned to Ardeth. "You'll want to avoid her. She's trouble, that one is," Hakim told him, pointing at me.

"I'm amusing, Hakim. Get it right," I corrected him.

"Whatever you say, Ren," Hakim called back.

Hakim was the one person my age who I regularly spoke to. My parents had always liked him, forcing me to insist many times that we were just friends. I smiled at Hakim and waved back to Alia as I pulled Ardeth toward the door. I could hear Alia bark an order at Hakim to help her pull down the rest of the awning. I frowned at them, knowing that I would have to come back tomorrow to help clean things up. As we wandered out into the open, I smiled at the sun beating down on us. It was lovely weather for a chase.

As I started back toward my house, I barely noticed that Ardeth was still walking with me. I wasn't planning on chasing him off. "Do you do this often?" Ardeth asked curiously.

"Not as much as I'd like to," I admitted. "I have to mess with them from time-to-time but I can't have people being genuinely annoyed or mistrustful of me."

"They seem... exasperated by you."

"It would be easy to think that."

"They aren't?"

"Not really. They're used to it by now. If it bothered them that much they would say something and they never have."

"Aren't you ever afraid they will hurt you?"

"No."

"Not even by accident?"

"Not really," I said. None of us had ever been hurt during the chase more than some bumps, bruises, and little cuts. "They're careful not to hurt me just like I am with them."

"It does seem to bother them," Ardeth pointed out.

If it had bothered them that much, I knew they would have put a stop to it long ago. "Oh, they act as if it drives them insane but it doesn't. Trust me, if they were really upset they would have put a stop to me a long time ago. It's as I said, we all treat it as a game. As you saw, there's some danger but most of the time it's just something to break up the day," I explained.

That explanation was moronic and I knew it. But it was the only one I wanted to give right now. We didn't know each other well enough for me to explain why I did the ridiculous things I did. I was a little embarrassed about what I'd said. It seemed so dangerous. It never seemed like it was just a game to anyone on the outside. Ardeth stared at me for a long time as he thought about what I had said. It looked like he was trying to read a book in a language he didn't speak.

When he did speak, I wasn't expecting what came out of his mouth. "You are an interesting woman, Renata Adams."

"You know what, I'm going to take that as a compliment," I said happily, popping up on my toes.

"It was meant as one." We smiled at each other as we wandered toward my neighborhood. "Do you live here?" Ardeth asked curiously.

"In Cairo?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Yeah, I do. I'm just on the west side of the market," I said, pointing toward my home. "I should be getting home."

"I'm headed that way as well," Ardeth said.

"Come on, then," I said, motioning for him to come with me.

It was probably the most I had spoken to a person I had just met, but something about Ardeth was comforting. I smiled at Ardeth as we started heading back toward my home. I found myself a little nervous, something I rarely felt, as we walked shoulder-to-bicep. I didn't usually have people walking with me unless they were my family. I chitchatted with plenty of the locals but they didn't usually come along with me wherever I was going. I spent most of my time alone, which was surprising considering I talked so much.

"By the way, am I keeping you from something?" I asked suddenly.

It seemed a little unlikely that Ardeth had just been wandering around looking for something interesting to do. "I'll be a bit late to the meeting I was here for," Ardeth told me.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said guiltily.

"It was worth it," Ardeth said. I smiled at him. "I do believe I will be forgiven for my lateness."

"Usually on time, then?" I asked him.

"I have to be," Ardeth said. I raised a brow curiously, the urge to ask what he meant rising in my throat, but I managed to push it down. I didn't know him well enough to press him about it. "May I ask you something?"

"Go for it," I said.

"Your accent. It's American, isn't it?" Ardeth asked.

"It is."

"What is a young American woman doing living in Cairo?"

"Oh, I've lived here since I was five," I answered.

That surprised him. "You live here with your family?"

Sometimes I forgot that not everyone knew I had lived in Cairo for most of my life. "Yes. My parents both lived here for a while when they were first married but went back home to the United States when they found out they were expecting me. We lived there for five years but my parents missed it here and they came back, bringing me with them," I told him the watered-down version of my life.

"What do they love so much about Egypt?" Ardeth asked. I smiled up at him. "It's not a story for a first meeting, is it?"

I smiled. "No."

"Will you ever tell me?"

"Depends if we ever see each other again."

It was the perfect moment to try and set up another meeting with Ardeth. He was the most interesting person I had met in a long time. "Would you like to?" Ardeth asked.

"Well, you haven't creeped me out yet or said anything rude, so I would say the chances are that I would probably enjoy seeing you again," I said. "Would you like to see me again?"

"I get the feeling I will anyway," Ardeth teased.

I laughed loudly. "That wasn't an answer."

"I would," Ardeth said.

At least I knew that I wasn't alone in being the only one to want to see the other again. We smiled at each other again as we wandered down the street I lived on. I lived on a smaller street with just a few other large brick buildings. Most of them were older stores that had been converted to large homes. My own had once been a pottery market. I stopped just a few homes down from mine. Ardeth seemed to be trustworthy, especially as he had saved my life, but I wasn't sure that I should show him where I lived just yet. So, I stopped walking and smiled at Ardeth.

"You didn't have to walk me back, but I appreciate it," I said.

"Could I have trusted you to get back here without getting yourself arrested?" Ardeth asked.

I laughed. "Hey, I've never been arrested before! Not for their lack of trying, though," I said. It was Ardeth's turn to laugh. "This is me."

"Thank you for the interesting afternoon."

"They'll all be boring from now on."

Ardeth smiled. "Perhaps I will have to come and find you the next time I'm in the mood for a run."

It would be nice to have someone come along with me who could keep up. I smiled at him. "I'm always looking for a partner in crime," I said, earning a bright smile from Ardeth. "Well, it was good to meet you, Ardeth."

"You as well, Renata," Ardeth said, inclining his head politely.

"Thank you for the help today, seriously," I said, realizing I hadn't said it enough.

Ardeth nodded. "It was my pleasure. I had more fun than I've had in a while."

"Good."

"I do hope we cross paths again," Ardeth said.

At least I now knew that he wanted to see me just like I wanted to see him. I could only hope it would come to fruition. I merely smiled at Ardeth before slipping away. As I turned back, I noticed Ardeth watching me for a moment before he turned away, heading back toward the marketplace. As I walked back into my home I found myself breathing heavily, even though I had stopped running long ago. When I looked back behind me, standing at my front door, I noticed that Ardeth was already gone. He was faster than anyone else I'd ever met.

Giving myself a final smile, I walked inside the house, immediately noticing how angry my waiting parents looked. "Two hours to get a simple spice?" my mother snarled.

"Oh, damn," I gasped, realizing I hadn't done the one thing I'd gone to the marketplace for. "I'm sorry, I forgot about the spice."

My mother looked furious with me, but her gaze softened slightly as it shifted to my face. "Did something happen? You're flushed," she pointed out.

"What? No, just some commotion in the marketplace. It looked like someone might have been heckling one of the merchants. I got a little spooked and ran off. I took the long way back. It must be from all the running," I said awkwardly. I didn't want them to know about what I had been doing at the marketplace and I didn't want them to know about Ardeth either. If I mentioned anything about him I knew that they would never let it go. "I'll go back and get it now."

"No, it's no big deal," my mother said, waving my worry off. "We can go back to the marketplace tomorrow. I'm glad you're alright, sweetheart."

"Thanks, Mom," I said sweetly.

"Is that it?" my mother asked suspiciously.

"Yeah, that's it," I said, nodding at her with a vague smile.

"Are you sure?" my father asked.

"Positive," I chirped.

They exchanged a quick look with each other and smiled. "All right. Go ahead and help me get started on dinner, then. The chili might be a little bland," my mother said, shooting me a look.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll get the cumin on my next trip," I called back.

All three of us laughed as I undid the buttons on my sweaty shirt and wandered back into the kitchen, barely paying attention to what I was doing. Instead, my mind was caught up in my meeting with Ardeth. I barely knew anything about him, but I found him fascinating. Who else would have run off with me like he had? I shook my head at my stupid thoughts. He wasn't a native. I could tell just by looking at him, especially as he hadn't known anyone in the market. This would likely be the first and last time I would ever see him.

A/N: Here we are with another story because I suck and can't focus on anything. I hope you all enjoy! For reference, there will be a number of chapters before we get to the main story. I really want to set up the relationship with Ardeth and Ren and not just throw them together like so many stories do. Please review! Until next time -A