Glowing in the Sand

When the sand whipped around in a fury, it stung the skin no matter how many layers of clothing a person wore. Here in the north desert of Gaea, when the sand became angry, it swarmed like bees with razor stingers that could cut a man to pieces. Literally, clothes and all.
I could see the Razor Sands collected lazily in thin clouds far out to the north of the caravan. Tak, my wide footed hop, snorted in agitation and I leaned forward on my mount to scratch the wiry fur at his neck. All the animals, and some of the people in our group, had been put on alert since the low hum of swarming sand had first reached our ears last night. I found the noise oddly comforting.
Berrik dozed astride his hop, trotting along next to me at a swaying pace. Gripping my saddle horn I reached out and nearly tipped my brother off his saddle. I snickered as he jerked around and swore at me.
"You little... and freaking... twitter!"
"Watch your language, Rik, or you'll anger the sand," I said, steering the hop's long head to the side to follow our caravan's path down the sand dune. We momentarily stepped into the shade of the sand mountain and my eyes relaxed from squinting.
My brother looked over his shoulder warily as if the sands could hear him while we descended. I rolled my eyes then blinked as we came around the dune.
"I was joking."
"Ling-Ling, you're always joking," he scolded.
"Not always," I grumbled. "Aren't you not supposed to called me 'Ling-Ling'?"
Rik was not dissuaded. "Yes, always. It's the sort of thing that Grandmother hated."
"No, what she hated was me."
"That's not true," he said. The hop bucked under him a little. I wrapped my linen scarf round my neck tighter against the chill from the shade and hoped his ride would throw him. "And that's supposed to go on your head."
I crossed my legs in my seat and shook up my sleeves, pulling the stupid fabric barely up to the crest of my head. "Happy?"
He sighed, reaching over a tanned hand to tug down my sleeves. "Yes, Ashling. Very happy."
Rik smiled at me with his blue eyes, I made a face and secretly wished I had just as pretty eyes.
"You're gonna need to be more... modest. With the ascetics."
"I'm studying with them, not becoming one. And you're going to need to be more careful, being the only kid at home," I said in the same tone. "They'll notice your trouble now that I'm not making any."
"At least Grandmother likes me," he countered.
"At least I'm free," I teased.
He leaned over the gap between us and squeezed my shoulder, the hops bobbing and making the gesture hard to keep. The afternoon sun set a light in his eyes that I would miss when I was gone. Everything about him had a glow, from his tan skin to his light brown hair. I was his opposite from pail skin to light brown eyes, and if not for the same honey brown hair people would never pin us as siblings. I wondered when I would see him again.
There was a sudden pop that made me and my brother jump a little. His hand fell away from me and he looked down curiously at the fountain of blood that ran out of his chest. He looked up at me, confused. A strange sound made it's way out of his mouth and he fell off the saddle.
I think I screamed. But I couldn't really hear as an explosion sent the nearest sand dune up in a flower-like plume.
All the hops started galloping across the sand, baying in panic. Mine zig-zagged as other explosions assaulted my ears.
"Berrik!" I screamed.
Against reason I threw myself from the animal, my feet sinking in sand as I tried to run back to him. The sand filled my light slippers and I kicked them off angrily. More popping made me fling myself down, little piles of sand erupted around me. I crawled now, reaching Rik's side.
"Come on, Rik! Get up!"
Heaving, I turned him over. Blood soaked the sand under him and all down his tunic was warm and sticky with it.
His eyes rolled and I couldn't understand why his lips wet with some sort of red juice.
"Berrik?" I called loudly, putting a hand on his face. His hand immediately came up to grab mine.
"Ash-ging..." he garbled. Red liquid ran down the corner of his mouth.
"Shh..." I comforted. I didn't know what else to do. Others Gaeaians were screaming somewhere around me and I refused to acknowledge them.
"Lugh uh..." hiccuped Rik, then he lay still.
His eyes stopped moving and stared blankly, he let out a rattling sigh. Though his hand still held mine in a tight grip I knew he was dead.
Other people from the caravan were screaming as their hops ran blindly forward. I looked around from where I held my brother, not really taking in the others that fell in the sand and did not get back up.
It was quiet for a moment, then a strange humming sound reached me. Not the sound of air born sand, this sound made the dune vibrate beneath me. A large, gray ship moved into view, oars on the side spinning along the sand. I clutched Rik closer to me as it headed toward the main lump of dead bodies. Blood was beginning to soak through my pant leg. Grandmother would kill me when she found out they were stained.
People started coming around the dune, too, in the tracks of the gray ship which had stopped some ways away. They were all men, wearing gray and pale green uniforms. I recognized the colors at once. The men and their ship where from the land of Eryn, to the north.
My eyes widened. They should not have been able to get around the Razor Sands. Even what was normally a gentle breeze would be deadly after more than five minutes to any normal person. Maybe the legends were true and they really were not human.
One of the men looked my way and shouted, pointing a black stick in my direction. Others moved with him, jogging to surround me. I stared blankly ahead, not moving when they poked at me with the tip of their sticks. They shouted at me.
"I can't understand you," I said quietly. One of the men shoved me with his black, shiny boot. I turned, still gripping Rik, and screamed at him. "I can't understand you!"
Hands grabbed me and pulled. I tried desperately to hold onto Rik's body, but someone was pulling at him, too.
"No!" I cried. I had not noticed the tears splashing down my cheeks until now.
Someone hit me across the face and my grip weakened for a moment. Rik was wrenched from my grasp. My arms were hoisted up and two men carried me (screaming and flailing) over Rik's corpse, it's dead arm stretched out as if it might reach for me.
A strange feeling welled up in me as they dragged me forward. My struggles became weak as it flooded through me, running in my veins and dumping into my skin. I looked up at the sun, it seemed dark compared to me. I had begun to glow.
The men gave a startled sound when they reached their friends, but they did not drop me. I looked up at the one holding my left arm, his startled dark eyes looked back at me.
"Why am I here?" I asked him. I could not seem to remember the reason.
He said something back and I could not understand him. How strange. I reached up my hand to touch him and, to his surprise and mine, he began to glow as well.
It felt like something split inside my skull. The men holding me dropped to the ground with startled cries and their companions moved back a step. A shrill shriek sounded around me and I think I shrank to the sand as well.
I did not remember anything else.