The night had seemed endless as I sat and waited for the morning to come.
Roars carried across the desert, deep and layered, as though about a hundred beasts were in concert.
The sand quivered in subtle waves beneath me, and though the others dozed in turns, I hardly closed my eyes. Whenever I thought the rumbling might stop, it began again, rolling under us like a locomotive.
By the time the first pale streaks of light sparked on the horizon, I felt as though I had aged a year in a few hours from just waiting.
'Finally!' I exclaimed inwardly. Patience wasn't something I excelled at.
"By the ancestors…" Yusuf's voice croaked when he rose, rubbing the grit from his eyes. He stared toward the east, where the suns were pushing over the edge of the world. "Tell me I'm still asleep."
I knew what he was seeing because it had been something I had been trying to catch sight of all night.
