Desert Tag
The children need to have some fun
The desert of Mirage feels almost endless as it stretches as far as the eye can see and beyond, the rolling orange dunes making for a relaxing view to drink in. A young Ezra would not appreciate a view such as this until many years later.
But until that time comes, he and his sister enjoy running through the dunes that border the city of Solari, practicing their magic as they played with other beings their age, overseen by a collection of parents who “sit and gossip amongst one another” according to the children.
Screams fill the air this particular cycle as the children partake in a game of tag. There are some young Serperas in this group, though with their tails no being bothers trying to run after them. They’re just too fast compared to the rest of the children, who all are stuck with legs and feet.
Ishtar and Ezra are no exception. The two wizards run through the dunes, little Ezra’s arm outstretched as he tries to reach his sister. It’s not a surprise he’s one of the taggers yet again; it’s not his fault for being young and slow. It pains her to see him stumble his way through the sand, tripping over his own two feet and face planting into the rough grains below. Sometimes he falls intentionally, but most of the time it’s simply because his feet get caught in the ground.
She hears a little “Oof” and the soft impact of a body hitting the sand and turns around. Ezra has flopped forward belly-first, his feet buried up to his ankles.
“Are you okay, Ezra?” Ishtar asks at a distance. She wants to go and help him up, but she doesn’t want him to tag her, either. He did that once before, and she doesn’t want it to happen again.
For a long moment, her brother remains motionless, saying nothing. But once the moment passes, he sits up with a smile and laughs.
“I’m okay!” he announces. He pulls his feet free and gets back up on his feet, waddling after his sister once more with his arms outstretched. Letting out a sigh of relief, Ishtar starts running away again, trying not to get too absorbed by the game as she keeps an ear out for her brother if he falls again.
Ishtar loves her brother very much. Every time they play tag, she can’t help but feel bad for him as he’s left endlessly chasing after her until their parents call them back home for dinner. But he doesn’t complain at all, not like some of the other kids. It confuses her.
She stumbles around a large dune and takes a short rest. Her legs are starting to ache from the sheer amount of effort it takes for her not to become a bumbling mess like her little brother. It helps to have longer legs, but she’s still only ten. Playing in the street is a lot easier than in the sand.
“Look on the bright side,” her parents like to tell her, “your legs will be very strong when you grow up.”
She can hear the other kids in the distance, yelling and laughing as they play with each other, all the while she’s stuck keeping her brother company. If he wasn’t here, she’d be with the others, too. But since he is, she doesn’t want to leave him behind.
Speaking of her brother, Ezra has been pretty quiet. Worry stirs in her small gut as she peers around either side of the dune, trying to catch a glimpse of Ezra. But her little brother is nowhere to be seen. Did he fall again and hurt himself?
“Ezra?” she calls out. Even if her voice is slightly dampened by the mountainous dunes all around her, she receives no reply.
Her hands clasp together, trying to squeeze out some of her nervousness as she slowly walks around the dune the way she had ran. “Ezra?” she calls again. She keeps her eyes open for his dusty orange hair as she slowly walks. They’re still playing a game after all; she doesn’t want to stumble into him and get tagged.
“Ezra? Where did you go?” she asks the wind. Where did her brother go, indeed. One moment he was running after her, the next he’s completely missing!
She can’t help but stand at the base of the dune, looking around helplessly for Ezra. How could he disappear so quickly? Is he okay? Where did he go? Is she a bad sister for losing him so easily?
Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, she’s shoved in the back by a pair of hands.
“Tag! You’re it!” the cheerful voice of her brother rings out. Ishtar’s heart leaps in her chest as she lets out a single shrill shriek of alarm before spinning around to face Ezra. She places a hand on her chest to try and calm herself as she sees her brother poking out of the dune, sand falling from his hair and clinging to his clothes as he emerges from the grains with a wide grin.
“Ezra!” Ishtar can’t help but exclaim as her brother laughs and pulls himself out of the dune. “Don’t… disappear like that!”
“Sorry!” Ezra giggles back.
“Here, let me help you.”
“But you’re ‘it’…”
Ishtar shakes her head and grabs her brother’s arms, pulling him from the mound of sand he buried himself inside of. He must have used his magic to accomplish the feat in such a short amount of time.
“Remember what ma and pa said,” Ishtar chides. “Sand isn’t a plaything. It can crush you.” Well, it was something along those lines, but it doesn’t make the statement any less true.
Ezra brushes himself off and just shrugs back at her. “Okay.” Then, with a wide smile, he runs away.
Letting out a long sigh, Ishtar glances at the sky. The sun is starting to set, the blue gradually fading to black. Their parents will call them to come home soon, she knows. She just needs to follow Ezra around a little bit longer and then it’ll be dinner time.
Turning her gaze back to the desert, her brother is gone from sight again.
“Ezra!” she yells in a panic, running in the direction he was last headed in. If she just lost him again… “Ezra, where are you?”
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