[ WP ] `` At first they came back with nothing , and then they did n't come back at all . ''

Wind ripped through the small huddle of tents, howling and keening, bringing with it another scouring blast of sand. Shel ’ ia squinted, searching for something, anything, in the indomitable red-orange cloud. 
 
 “ Shel ’ ia, my sweet! Get inside! ” Her mother ’ s voice drifted through the wind, calling her back to the safety of the yurt, but she would not go. Not until her bother returned. 
 
 Shel ’ ia adjusted her scarf, pulling it higher over her mouth and nose, and stepped into the gale. She was almost knocked to the ground as a particularly fierce gust slammed the tents, but she crouched low, the way her brother had taught her, and marched forward. 
 
 He had to be out there. She knew he was. “ Brother! ” she cried. The wind twisted and muted her words, throwing them back at her with a flurry of blown sand. 
 
 The tribe had been camped here for several days, taking shelter beneath an ancient, tumbled structure of strange bleached stone. They were fleeing the Wave, an ever-growing dune that spanned the horizons, as they had done for years, as far back as Shel ’ ia could remember. Move camp, scavenge for… anything, then move again as the Wave crept closer. Her brother was the latest in an unending line of scouts, sent into the desert on all sides, searching for an end to their flight. 
 
 At first the scouts had returned with promises, glimpses of blue sky and clear earth, some had even seen the ocean, whatever that was. But as time went on the scouts found less and less, until all they reported was sand, only sand. Their hopes faded, and they trudged ever onward, always one step ahead of the encroaching Wave. And then, one day the scouts had stopped returning. 
 
 “ Brother! ” Shel ’ ia cried again. It was hopeless in this wind, she knew, but she had to try. Sand stung her cheeks, bit at her hands, whirled around her in an impermeable cyclone. 
 
 Her foot caught a rock and Shel ’ ia tumbled to the earth, her scarf catching the wind and flying into the unknown. Sand filler her mouth, her nose, her eyes. She rolled into a protective ball, spitting and coughing. 
 
 The wind ripped over her, wailing, screaming. Her mother ’ s voice was gone. She looked back the way she had come, but there was only the omnipresent wall of sand. Or was that the way... Her heart jumped into her throat. Which way had she come? All she could see were the leading tendrils of the Wave. 
 
 A strong hand grasped Shel ’ ia by the collar and hoisted her to her feet. Heart racing, she looked up to see a bug-eyed monster standing over her. Her father had told her stories of the Sand Monsters that lived on the Wave and feasted on anything caught in its wake. That was before he had disappeared, like so many of the village ’ s men before him. She screamed, but her voice was lost to the wind. 
 
 The monster reached for her, and she shied away, tears leaving little rivers down her sand-covered cheeks. The thing cocked its head, shrugged, then let her go, and Shel ’ ia stumbled back, fumbling at her belt for the dagger her brother had given her. 
 
 But then the monster reached up and removed its eyes, and it was her brother, beaming from beneath a tangle of scarf. He looked thinner then she had remembered, and he had deep bags beneath his eyes, but it was her brother. She raced forward and hugged him as tightly as she could. 
 
 “ Shel ’ ia! Why are you out here alone? ” His voice sounded thin against the gale, and she fumbled over a response. Her brother tussled her hair, reached into his pack, and handed her a waterskin. “ Drink, Shel. Now let ’ s get home, there ’ s nothing out here to see. ” 
 
 Hand in hand, the two trudged through the sand with the wind at their backs. Shel ’ ia drank deeply from the waterskin. Her brother was saying something that she could not hear over the wind. 
 
 Finally, like a phantom the village emerged from the sand. The two made their way to their mother ’ s tent and pushed through the flap. 
 
 Inside the tent was a whole different world. The wind still howled, but it was muffled by the stretched and dried animal skin. The floor was sand, but was covered in old threadbare carpets. Their mother was hunched over a small cooking fire, trying in vain to bring a pot to boil. When she heard the two enter she whirled around. 
 
 “ Corro! You have returned! I thought… I thought… ” she broke down to tears, and Corro moved over to embrace her. The years since their father had passed had been hard her, and every time Corro had left to scout she grew quiet and tired, and would sleep all day, leaving Shel ’ ia to cook and clean. 
 
 “ I have, mother, thanks to Shel ’ ia here, ” he patted his sister on the shoulder. “ But I fear I have dour news. We need to move camp. Tonight. ” 
 
 If their mother had heard his warning she paid no heed, whisking through the tent tidying up. “ We will talk later, son of mine. Now we eat, and drink. Come… ” 
 
 Shel ’ ia watched her brother ’ s expression grow dark. He slumped out of his pack, crossed the tent and grasped their mother by the shoulders, spinning her to face him, gentle but stern. She met his gaze with her sad, tired eyes. For a heartbeat the only sound in the tent was the howling wind, and the crackle of the fire. Then her brother spoke, in the slow measured tone Shel ’ ia remembered her father speaking in. 
 
 “ Mother. We need to move camp. Tonight. ” 
 
 Their mother looked confused, her mouth forming words that did not come. Behind the pair, Shel ’ ia wrung the hem of her robe. 
 
 Finally, their mother managed to speak. “ But, my son, you have only just returned, why leave so soon? ” 
 
 Corro took a deep breath, and for the first time since their father passed Shel ’ ia saw a crack form in her brother ’ s stern façade. “ I saw something, out there in the sand, some beast great and terrible. I watched it devour two men and their mounts, and I barely escaped with my life. And now I fear it follows me. I have heard it, smelled it, as I fled, always close. ” 
 
 As if on que, a low wail rose over the wind, deep and mournful, stretching for many heartbeats. Shel ’ ia felt her hair stand on end. She looked over, and her brother ’ s eyes were wide. There was fear there. 
 
 “ We need to go, now. ” 
 
 
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