To survive, one must lie.

  About four days after Nahumi’s departure, she had finally reached the north. The desert was desolate, inhospitable. She walked and walked, searching for the villages of the northern tribes. Every drop of sweat slid down her forehead.

  She had been walking for hours over the red sand—the sand used for the pilgrimage road. Hours and hours; the sand never ended. She heard no human voices nor the smell of food, nothing. She was walking alone, in something that seemed to have no end.

  Nahumi looked up. The vast blue sky with the three suns was beautiful. It was getting late; she had to find a place to rest. Tomorrow, she needed to be at the northern tribes' village. She must not fail her people, Achiry, and she had to keep the promise she had made to Thymmie. The sun was setting. The sand was gradually cooling, and it no longer hurt when Nahumi stepped on it. The stars slowly flooded the sky; everything was peaceful.

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  “If you were here, you would have loved it, my love.”

  With a frustrated sigh, Nahumi sat down on the sand. There was only her and the painful truth that he was no longer there. Nahumi got up and moved to an area further away from the pilgrims' path.

  Night had fallen over the silent desert of the northern lands. The starry sky was the only light in the piercing night. Nahumi tried to sleep but couldn't. The silence of the desert was the most unbearable thing. Little by little, Nahumi finally drifted off to sleep. The next morning, the three suns peered out, bringing the first light of the day.