• They rode in silence.
    For the whole day, neither of them said a word to each other. There were times when Eliza attempted to talk to Ro, hoping that he would tell her about himself. But whenever she would try, he would give a look that made the words dissolve in her mouth.
    To keep herself busy Eliza would watch the scenery of the desert go by them in flashes of gold, brown, and the occasional burst of green from whenever they passed a cactus. At other times, Eliza would steal glances at Ro, who seemed to have a perpetual frown glued to his face. Despite his solemn appearance, Eliza found Ro to be surprisingly handsome, something she hadn’t noticed before. His face had all the signature features that marked him as one of the Dúnedins. Dark shaded eyes, a narrow nose, and of course, hair almost as red as the setting sun. But out of everything, it was his voice that Eliza liked the most.
    At one point during the day, they came a across another Dúnedin who was in need of directions. At first Eliza felt intimidated as the stranger’s eyes remained fixated on her face and when he spoke to her using harsh sounding words. Then Ro started talking, making the rough and barbaric sounding language of the Dúnedins sound like pure poetry. In the Dúnedin fashion, Ro spoke with gestures and signs, occasionally pointing off in a certain direction. By the time the other Dúnedin left, Eliza had already developed a love for the language and attempted to copy the eloquent way Ro was able to make the otherwise terrifying words sound, though in the end gave up upon hearing how foolish she sounded.
    Finally, just after sunset, Ro pulled at the reigns and his horse came to a stop. After dismounting, Ro turned back to Eliza and offered her his hand. Cautiously, Eliza slid her small hand into Ro’s and was surprised at how gentle he was as he helped her off his horse.
    Once Ro had a started a fire, he sat down besides Eliza and offered her animal skinned pouch full of water.
    Dying of thirst, Eliza hastily drank every last drop although her thirst was still not satisfied though she hid her disappointment from Ro.
    “Thank-you Ro.”
    “From this moment onward,” Ro said without looking up, “you may only address me as ‘Master’ or ‘Sir’, do you understand.”
    Startled, Eliza stared at Ro who hadn’t spoken to her since early that morning.
    “I’m sorry, Sir,” she said quietly.
    Taking her hand, Ro pulled Eliza to her feet and led her a few yards away from the fire, “Remove your clothes and other finery, in my culture the punishment for possessing such things is death.”
    He stated it so flatly that it took Eliza a moment to realize that he was not joking. “But R…I mean Sir, what will I wear, all I have is the dresses that mother packed?”
    Turning his back to her, Ro tossed her a coarse blanket, “You no longer have a need for such fine clothes. Besides wearing such things will only draw the attention of others and I hate having other people stare at my possessions.”
    Ro left her, leaving her alone in the dark to change. Silently, she took off all of her necklaces and bracelets, though she left her mother’s locket fastened around her neck before removing her silk dress. Ro returned before she had finished changing.
    “Come here,” he ordered sternly.
    Shaking her head, Eliza tightened her grip around the blanket that she had wrapped around her body.
    Frowning even more, Ro walked over to her, grabbed her hand and violently pulled her into the light.
    Face turning red, Eliza looked away as she felt Ro’s eyes going across her body. All she wanted was for this moment to be over.
    “I thought I told to remove all forms of jewelry.”
    Automatically Eliza’s hands reached out and touched her mother’s locket.
    Ro however moved closer and reached for it, “Give it to me.”
    “No please,” she begged, “it was my mother’s, and it’s all I have left of her.”
    For a moment Ro said nothing but his eyes remained stationed on hers. Finally he withdrew his hand, “If I ever see it again, you will be severely punished.”
    Eliza let out the breath that she had been holding and nodded. But before she could move, Ro reached out and snatched the blanket that she was wearing and pulled it off of her.
    Eliza froze as Ro shamelessly approached her, circling her a few times.
    “Pity such beauty will be wasted on a heathen like myself,” was all he said before tossing the blanket back at her.
    Once he was gone, Eliza fell to her knees and started to cry. Never before had anyone ever treated her with such incivility. Quickly she wrapped herself in the blanket again and gathered the rest of her things and placed them in the bag that Ro had given her. When she returned to camp, Ro was nowhere to be seen. Even with the aid of the fire, the cold desert air still stung her skin. Hugging herself, Eliza lay down, ignoring the feeling of hunger that was burning in her stomach. Her thoughts instantly drifted towards her family and she wondered with longing if they had arrived safely at the village. Then an awful thought struck her. What if Ro had tricked her father? Not wanting to imagine the possibility of Ro deceiving her family she tried not to think about him. Closing her eyes, she thought of each of them, trying to remember each of their faces. The last thing she saw before falling asleep was the image of her father breaking down into tears as he hugged her goodbye.
    Hours later Ro returned with two desert rabbits that he had killed for dinner. The first thing he saw was Eliza shivering on the ground, her body unaccustomed to the cold desert air. Walking over to her, he carefully reached out and touched her cheek with the back of his hand. Her skin was cold to his touch and he could see that her lips were practically blue. Pulling his hand back, he walked over to his horse and pulled out the fur blanket that he always brought with him whenever he ventured out into the desert. Walking back over to Eliza, he gently wrapped the blanket around her before stepping back.
    If she thought her life was bad now, then she had no idea at what was in store for her once they reached his village.

    The sun had not yet risen when Eliza was violently shaken awake. Sitting up, Eliza was surprised to see the fur blanket that had unknowingly kept her warm the pervious night.
    Ro was already dressed picking at the smoldering embers that remained from the fire, “We need firewood, get dressed and go find some.”
    Eliza was about to protest that she had nothing to wear but before she could, Ro pointed to a heap of clothes that were lying besides her.
    “Wear that for now,” he mumbled.
    Grabbing the clothes Eliza crept off to change in privacy. The clothes turned out to be Ro’s and they were far too big on her. Reaching up to her hair, she pulled her hair out of its bun and, using the ribbon that Maria had given her, tied it around Ro’s shirt so it would fit her better. Tearing a long strip of fabric from the blanket that she had worn the night before, she wrapped it around the shorts that he had supplied for her. Thankfully, Ro had let her keep her shoes, or at least for the time being, so she didn’t have to worry about burning her feet on the blazing sand. When she was dressed, she knew that she looked ridiculous but then again, Ro didn’t seem to be the type of guy who cared much about fashion.
    Ro.
    Eliza didn’t understand him. One minute he acts all nice and gentle, the next he turns into a brutish thug. After the way he had treated her last night, Eliza had found herself wishing that some wild animal had attacked him during the night then walked away, dragging his broken body along with it. Of course, that would never happen. Ro was a Dúnedin and the one thing a Dúnedin knew how to do was survive.
    Not surprising, when she returned to drop off the remainder of her things, Ro was gone. His little vanishing act was starting to get on her nerves. What if she stole his horse while he was gone and rode away? He’d probably track her down and kill her with his bare hands, she thought. Forget the horse, what if she took off running?
    “I’d probably be eaten alive or die of dehydration,” she whispered as she went off to look for firewood.
    Finding wood in the desert turned out to be a lot harder than she had thought. After thirty minutes she had only managed to collect three small dried twigs that she had found near barren desert trees.
    Sighing, she sat down on a rock and pulled of her walking boots. Rubbing her sore feet, she wondered if Ro had come back to camp yet. Even more, she wondered if he had brought water with him. Though she wouldn’t be surprised if he kept the water for himself as a way to taunt her for doing such a poor job at finding firewood.
    Deciding to give her feet a break, Eliza carried the twigs that she had found in one hand and her shoes in the other.
    While she walked, her hair preoccupied her attention as it kept falling in front of her face.
    “Maybe Ro can lend me his knife so I can cu....Ah!”
    She hadn’t seen it, hadn’t seen the snake lying in her path waiting for her. Sitting up, she watched it slither away, its black body standing out when compared to the gold sand. Glancing down at her ankle she could clearly see where the snake had bitten her. Blood crept slowly out from two small wounds. To her relief the pain didn’t last long, in fact five minutes later she pulled her shoes back on and started walking again.
    Thankfully she beat Ro back. Swiftly, she tore another strip of fabric from the coarse blanket, creating a form of bandage and hurriedly wrapped it around her ankle. By the time Ro returned, her shoes were back on and she acted as if everything was fine.
    Silently Ro tossed her another pouch full of water before kicking sand over what remained of the fire.
    “Gather your things, we’re leaving,” he ordered as he started to pack up his few possessions.
    Eliza decided not bother asking him why the sudden hurry to leave. Luckily, she didn’t have much to pack and was ready to go in a matter of minutes. Ro, who was already waiting for her on his horse, offered her his hand like the day before and pulled her up with ease. Unlike yesterday though, she sat in front of him and blushed when she felt one of arms move around her waist. Ro seized the reigns and clicked his tongue and his horse took off.
    Once again neither of them spoke though Eliza was grateful for the silence, it meant that Ro knew nothing about her injury. At that moment, Eliza decided not to tell him, besides the wound didn’t even hurt anymore regardless of the occasional bust of pain. Ro already had enough to worry about, no need to add to the load. Anyway, he’d probably only yell at her for being careless.
    Half way into the day, Eliza fell asleep. When she opened her eyes again, the sun was already setting.
    “About time,” she heard Ro mutter under his breath as he pulled the horse to a halt.
    Jumping off, Ro immediately went to work at building a fire. Eliza waited but Ro never returned to help her. Moving as carefully as she could, Eliza slid of the horse and fell, not so gracefully, into the sand. Ro didn’t even turn around.
    Pulling herself up, she walked over to his side, ignoring the bursts of pain coming from her ankle.
    “Is there anything I can do to help?”
    “No,”
    Stepping back Eliza mimicked Ro’s scowl before sticking her tongue out at his back. If he didn’t want her help then he didn’t have to be so rude about it.
    “…I said clear the area of rocks.”
    Eliza looked up and saw Ro glaring at her with his dark and intense eyes.
    Without saying a word, Eliza set out and started clearing the area of rocks, absentmindedly tossing them in random directions. She had just started to pick up a rather large stone when suddenly a black shape crept out from underneath. It took her a moment to realize what it was, a scorpion. Without thinking she screamed as the scorpion moved closer to her.
    Out of the corner of her eye she saw something move and a moment later, Ro was besides her.
    At first he was yelling at her, calling her a fool for screaming, saying that it could have attracted the attention of bandits but when he saw the scorpion, he too froze.
    “Don’t move,” he whispered, his voice suddenly becoming soft and warm.
    Nodding Eliza tired not to flinch as the scorpion moved closer to her hand.
    Ro inched away and out of sight before returning with a small bag full of odd smelling powder. Careful as can be, Ro sprinkled the powder on the ground near the scorpion. Moments later the scorpion backed away and retreated back underneath the stone that it had crawled out of.
    “What do you think you’re doing?” Ro asked as he led Eliza back towards the fire.
    Avoiding his eyes, Eliza spoke softly, “You told me to remove all the rocks so that’s was I wa-”
    “Only the rocks near the fire!”
    Eliza looked at the ground and drew a circle in the sand.
    “I’m sorry.”
    Shaking his head, Ro muttered something in another language before glancing back at her.
    “I’m going to find us something to eat. Do not move from this spot,” he pointed to where Eliza was sitting.
    Chewing her lower lip, Eliza nodded as Ro stormed off into the darkness. Sure she hadn’t listened to what he had said, but would it kill him to treat her with some respect. Ro was by far the most difficult person that she had ever met.
    “How do you put up with him?” She asked the horse, who only replied by shaking his mane.
    Folding her arms, Eliza waited impatiently for Ro to return. When he finally did return, he arrived empty handed.
    “Couldn’t find anything, apparently that little scream of yours cleared the area of food,” Ro scoffed as he sat down besides her.
    Strangely enough, Eliza wasn’t hungry despite not having eaten anything in almost two days.
    “I said I was sorry,” she mumbled.
    Running a hand through his hair, Ro just laughed, “Do you have any idea what another Dúnedin would do in this situation?” Eliza shook her head. “Another Dúnedin would have beaten you senseless, probably break a few of your teeth. When he was done doing that, he’d most likely starve you for the reminder of the journey.”
    Ro sighed then stood up, “Luckily, I don’t believe in senseless violence as a way of solving anything so I’m letting you off with a warning: Do something foolish like that again, and I swear you’ll never want to show your face in public again, or at least what remains of it.”
    Feeling the blood drain from her face, Eliza simply nodded as Ro walked past her.
    “Get some sleep, we’re leaving before sunrise.”