THE TRUE STORY OF THE EMIR

Part 1

My name is Orlando, of the el Nairad family, our millenary lineage lived as nomads in the desert for centuries, until our father Pasha Darian el Nairad I*.

He stopped in an unknown oasis outside the Shendi forest on the way to the great city of AR, the family was composed of our mother Shaila and us two children, Darian II* and I his younger brother Orlando, together with other members of the family with their loved ones, dedicated to herding and selling the skins and wool of the Veer (sheep of the Earth) our father took my name by reading the adventures of warriors written in the books brought from the planet Earth.

After the destruction of the oasis by the Desert Raiders along with the Talunes who lived on the edge of the forest, we little ones unable to defend ourselves were saved by a faithful slave, who hid us in a basket and pretended to be dead until everything was over, she took us by joining a caravan of Bedouins headed to Shendi, we arrived in the city of Korat, she introduced herself to the Ubar begging him to welcome us into the city saying that we little ones were the descendants of the Pasha Darian I*, he took our story and the fortunate escape to heart and entrusted us to his trusted builder sir Mith Arliss, who with his companion lady BB arliss, lived then in the growing city.

Sir Mith entrusted us to Notary Scorbuticus, to start us towards the knowledge of the scribes, our childhood was not very happy, at that time the city of Korat a fortress located on the promontory overlooking the port of ship Rock, we spent time on that tower where our tutor got lost among a thousand parchments covered in dust, explaining new things to us every time, he taught us to read and write, to do sums and entrusted us with small simple practices such as making contracts with merchants or ship captains.

Meanwhile we were growing up, we were no longer children but strong and courageous boys, the nomadic blood of the desert made us tough, our adoptive mother Lady BB, was enthusiastic about us, even sir Mith who to tell the truth we saw little, he was always busy with large constructions in the city and in the surrounding area, the fortress of Korat was rather gloomy and gray the streets always deserted, the only livable place was the palace of Ubar, but we did not go there often, we preferred to go down to the port of Ship Rock and admire the ships arriving and departing, or go to the village following the road where many fishermen sat waiting for their prey.

One day lady BB took us to her companion. we brought him clean clothes and spare food, it was a real stroke of luck because that day the fortress thanks to some panthers infiltrating the city opened the secondary doors letting their tribe of warriors attack the palace destroying the entire city killing most of the population, taking away with them only the children, the Panthers use the children as students the females and as procreators and workers the male slaves.

You could see the flames rising in the sky above the promontory, everyone ran for cover, and many escaped towards the city of Baku. Sir Mith also collected the few things he could and we set off towards that city along the sea, but on the road we met some people who advised us not to go there because in Baku there was typhus and many were dying,

luckily there were some merchants heading to the desert who welcomed us with them and we set off towards the unknown for us, without a home and without anything but our lives.

The destination would have been AR, but it was at war with the city of Tor eternal rivals, so the caravan went towards the south east, until we were in sight of a fortified city, a merchant who had a map told us that it was Cartassa, a flower bloomed in the great desert of Thahari, we introduced ourselves to the guards as refugees and immediately the houbara at that time lady Safina, welcomed us with honors being lady BB a great Scribe and sir Mith one of the greatest builders of the planet Gor, I Orlando with Darian, after a while we were sent to the great city of Olni, where there was the great school for Scribes, directed by lady Lucy Bronet, and by lady Janette Inglewood that's how at the Olni campus we studied for a few years to become Scribes, magistrates and lawyers becoming the best students of the school, after the degrees, I took the place of Magistrate in Olni while Darian preferred to return to Cartassa, he wanted to see our adoptive mother again and his companion Sir Mith, it was a painful farewell, we promised to meet often, but life had many difficulties in store for us and we would never see each other again, even if we went from city to city, or in the villages in the north.

Now I sit here around this fire where an old merchant told me that he would tell the story of the great Darian The Emir.

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