Chapter 1

Look Through Heaven's Eyes

Breathing heavily, and stumbling on through the cold and windy desert night, she struggled to fight back the tears that were already welling up in her eyes, making it difficult to see clearly... Finally, she collapsed, exhausted on the ground... It had been almost two days since she had run away from Agrabah, and there was still no sign of any other village or kingdom, nothing to eat, nowhere to sleep... but that was not terribly unusual for her. She had gone hungry before, and she had been cold and uncomfortable before too. Only this time it was different. This time she did not have the meager shelter of an ally or a doorway. This time there was no faint glimmer of hope that she would be able to steal a bite to eat the next morning...

Using her ragged traveling cloak as a blanket, she wrapped it around herself and shut her eyes, trying to squeeze back the tears, but it did no good. They started to flow down her darkly tanned cheeks almost faster then she could wipe them away. What a fool she had been!. First she had run away from the shelter of the orphanage and abandoned her only friend to die, just to wind up on the streets of Agrabah where life was little better. Then, just as she had started to make friends there, she had run away again, only to perhaps die of hunger and exhaustion out here in this Allah forsaken desert!. Why was she so foolish?. Why did she never think before she acted?. If she had been smarter, she could have been back in the ruins of that palace with a warm fire and a little food. She could have settled for being a small part of Aladdin and Jasmines lives, but no! She had to let her bruised ego get in the way of her judgment, as always!. Now here she was, hungry, cold, lonely, and more miserable then she had ever been in her life...

"I may as well just lie down and die right now," she muttered through her tears. "Noone will miss me, that's for sure. Noone will care, or even notice." She gazed up at the starry night sky, remembering another night like this... The night she had learned of Aishas death, and the night she had been reduced from a lonely orphan to a worthless, no account street rat...

Sobbing quietly, she buried her face in her hands, ashamed. "I didn't have much before," she whispered. "But now I have nothing, nothing!. Why was I so stupid and and selfish and pig headed?. I don't deserve to live!."

"Nonsense, child," came an unfamiliar, but gentle, pleasant sounding voice. "Everyone deserves to live, and to be happy doing it."

Quickly, her head shot up and she gasped!. In front of her was another woman. She was dressed plainly, and seemed to be about in her prime, but still quite pretty.

"Who... Who are you?..." she whispered, shocked. She didn't think there would be a sign of human life anywhere in this no man's land.

The woman gave her a patient, gentle smile, the kind a parent gives a beloved child who is a little slow at learning a new skill. "I am one who asks what you are doing here, crying and shivering in the middle of the desert on a night like this, when there is a warm fire, food, and company back at my camp?."

"Camp?." She smiled faintly, relieved at the idea. "You're caravan traders then?."

"In a way. We are Beduins," was the simple reply.

Beduins?. She had heard of these people. They were desert nomads, traveling to wherever there was decent grazing land and water for themselves and their animals. Yet she felt rather uneasy. She remembered hearing how war like they could be, and how it was not unusual for a small village or caravan to be attacked and robbed by one of their tribes... But this woman did not look war like, and she was offering food and shelter for the night...

"Thanks," she whispered, accepting the woman's outstretched hand. "My name's Sadira."

The woman nodded, as if she already knew... "And my name is Nefertari. You are most welcome into my camp, Sadira."

She followed Nefertari over a small dune, and her eyes widened at what she saw. There were at least fifty or more people, men, woman and children, all gathered around a large fire. They were all laughing and talking excitedly, enjoying a generous supply of food that was spread around the middle of their circle.

Once they saw Nefertari, whom Sadira guessed must be their leader, approaching with a stranger, most of the woman and children got to their feet and rushed over to them, asking a dozen questions at a time.

"Who are you?."

"Where did you come from?."

"Where are you going?."

"What were you doing wandering in the desert with no food or water?."

"Easy, easy everybody," Nefertari laughed, raising her hand for momentary silence. "This is Sadira and she has been through a great deal, so until she wishes otherwise this young lady will be staying on with us as a guest. I hope you will all welcome her."

A murmur of agreement passed through the small crowd, then some of the woman took Sadira by the hand and led her over to the fire. There they offered her some food and water. She devoured the food hungrily, as she had not had a thing to eat since she left Agrabah. The water soothed the burning dryness in her parched throat. When she had finished, she turned to Nefertari and her people, who were watching her with expressions of both concern and interest on their faces. "Thanks," she whispered, with a faint, tired smile.

They all nodded, smiling back warmly.

"You must be exhausted," Nefertari said kindly. "I will have another tent put up for you to sleep in tonight. It's no palace suite, but at least it's better then sleeping out in the open on a night like this."

Later that night, Sadira found herself falling asleep in a small Beduin tent, warmer and more comfortable then she had ever remembered being before. For a brief moment, she worried that it might all just be a dream... Then she shook her head. No, it was to real to be a dream. Perhaps she had died out there in the desert after all, and this was Heaven... No, this was nice all right but it didn't seem like Heaven, at least not the Heaven talked about in the Koran... No, this all had to be real. With that thought hanging over her, the young runaway closed her eyes and surrendered herself to a deep, peaceful, dreamless sleep...

A few days later, Sadira was making her way down to the nearby river in the lazy afternoon heat... It had been close to a week since she had been rescued by Nefertari and her tribe, or the Asiyah, as they preferred to call themselves, and she was grateful for their kindness, and for them welcoming her to stay with them as long as she needed. Life here was certainly happier and better then it had been in Agrabah. No filthy alley ways, no rats, no starving, sickly children being beaten if they ever dared to ask anyone for a crumb of food or a coin... Yet, despite her present happiness, she still felt like a small part of her was empty somehow... Everyone here had a family. A husband, a wife, children. Often she watched these families together, and although it was not as painful as it had once been, it still left her with a hollow feeling inside. The worst times were at meals and gatherings, when she would see all the children sitting with their parents, brothers and sisters in a group, while childless couples and lovers sat together holding hands. Sometimes, she would feel that all to familiar pang of envy creep into her heart as she watched them from where she sat on her own... But she would always reproach herself quite sternly afterwards. What right did she have to be even the slightest bit discontent?. For the first time in her life she had a place to stay where she was treated as an equal, and not as some pariah to be pitied and offered a handout every now and again. She wasn't sure how long she would be staying with Nefertari and her people, but she knew that she would never forget them, and how kind they had been to her...

Just then she was distracted from her thoughts by a friendly voice calling to her. "Hello, Sadira!."

"Hey there!," she called back to Nefertari, who was wading almost knee deep in the river. It was an unusually hot day and the cool river water seemed inviting. "What a scorcher it is today, huh?", Sadira smiled. "A real change from that monster sand storm last night."

"Yes," she laughed. "I swear, sometimes the desert weather can be every bit as unpredictable as the ocean."

"You don't mind if I come in too, do you?."

"Of course not, make sure to roll up your trousers though."

Chuckling, she sat down and rolled up her ragged trousers to her knee. Then she made her way into the water, enjoying the relief from the heat... As she strolled through the relaxing coolness her thoughts drifted again... In her childhood she had lived in an orphanage in some old village that she could no longer remember the name of. Then she had run away to live on the streets of Agrabah, where she was stupid enough to develop a crush on a man who was already engaged to a woman whom there was absolutely no chance of competing with, only to try to take him away from her with cheap magic tricks and lies. Of course, she had managed to partly redeem herself eventually... but she knew there was nothing left for her back in Agrabah. And now here she was, a guest of a nomadic desert tribe for Allah knew how long. It was the first place she had even remotely felt she belonged...

"Oh my goodness!. Look, there's something here!," came Nefertari's voice. The leader of the tribe was standing near the shore, looking behind some reeds at something...

"What is it?," Sadira asked making her way over to where she was...

"A man... No... a boy..."

She peered through the reeds too, and sure enough there was a young man laying on the shore...

"Is he?..." Sadira whispered fearfully... The boy's eyes were closed, and she couldn't tell if he was breathing or not...

Nefertari felt his neck and wrist. "No, he is still alive. I can feel a pulse. Poor boy, he must have gotten caught in that sandstorm last night. Here, help me carry him back to camp."

River, oh river, flow gently for me
Such precious cargo you bear
Do you know somewhere he can live free?
River, deliver him there...

("Deliver Us" from "The Prince Of Egypt" Soundtrack)

A few minutes later, Sadira was sitting by the unconscious boy after he was placed on a small bed in her tent... Curious, she studied him. He was certainly not so dashing or as ruggedly handsome as Aladdin was. His face was pale and gaunt, he was so thin he could almost be called scrawny. He had full lips and limp, curly black hair. To add to this, his clothes were even more ragged then her own, and dirty. Yet, she couldn't help but want to look at him again... Although not handsome, he had a rather pleasant face, despite its gauntness...

Then she noticed the glove on his hand... It was ordinary looking enough, but why would he be wearing only one?. Perhaps he had lost the other in the sandstorm last night?. He must have really been through something...

Her curiosity even more aroused, the girl took his limp arm and gently pulled off the glove... It was all she could do to hold back a scream! For instead of a regular human arm, all there was was a hideous skeletal hand, as if the flesh on his arm had been eaten away, clear to the bone!.

Quickly, Sadira put the glove back on him. It wouldn't do for anyone else to know of this. "Poor kid," she thought as she stared at his pale face. "What happened to you?..."

Part of him desperately wanted to wake... Another part of him hurt so badly that he wanted to remain unconscious... But, eventually, his head cleared, and his eyes slowly fluttered open...

He found himself looking into a pair of wide blue green eyes... They were so deep set, so clear, and so breathtakingly beautiful that for a moment he he thought he would lose himself in them, like he was slowly drowning in the middle of a calm blue green sea... As his vision adjusted, he realized that those eyes belonged to a face, the face of a pretty young woman, a woman scarcely out of girlhood... She couldn't have been much more then seventeen or eighteen years old...

She gave him a cheerful grin. "Welcome back," she greeted him in a sweet, clear voice.

"Ooooo..." the boy moaned as he sat up, rubbing his aching forehead. "What happened?... Where... where am I?..." And who am I?, he wanted to add... But he felt rather self conscious about asking her that just yet...

The girl tilted her head. "Don't you remember?. You must have gotten caught in that sandstorm last night. You were lucky though, we found you and brought you back to our camp."

He shook his head. "Camp?... Is that where I am?..."

"Yup," she answered, as if it were obvious. "You're in the camp of the Tribe of Asiyah."

"I... I see..." he nodded.

She looked at him curiously for a moment, then she sat down closer beside him, bringing her arms around her knees. "So, what's your name?," she asked.

"M... m... my name?..." he stuttered uncomfortably. "Well... it's... ummm... that is... it's... er..."

"Yeah?..." She crossed her arms.

"Well... ummm..." he muttered. "This... This is going to sound crazy... but... ummm... I don't remember my name... In fact, I don't even remember anything up to now..."

Her eyes widened. "Really?. You mean to tell me you don't even know who you are?."

"Er... yes..." He gave her a sheepish smile...

"Hmmm," she said thoughtfully. "You must have really been through something."

He smiled ruefully. "I... I... I don't really know... But something tells me I don't want to remember what happened to me last night."

They both grinned at that, and the young girl stood up. "Well then," she smiled. "Since you don't know your real name, we'll just have to make one up for you. Any ideas?."

"Not really," he shook his head.

She looked at him thoughtfully. "Hmmm, you know, you look kind of like a Tamir to me. I think it means something like "rich in date and palm trees" . How about that for a name?."

"Tamir..." He tested the name on his lips. Then he smiled, he rather liked the sound of it. Although he doubted he was, or ever had been, rich in anything, let alone fruit trees. "All right, that's what I'll call myself, for now at least."

"Great," she nodded. "I'll have to talk to everyone here, but I think they'll let you stay on, just like they let me, if you want to. We could always use the extra help. You interested?."

"Of course," the boy agreed. "I'd be glad to... It's not like I have anywhere else to go..." he finished softly...

She patted his arm sympathetically. "Don't worry about it." Then she switched to a cheerful grin. "But in the meantime, you can wash up and change into some fresh clothes. No offense, but you really look terrible."

He looked down at himself in surprise. Yes, she was right. His hands and arms were covered in dirt. The shirt and trousers he wore where soiled and torn. His hair was probably all tangled and messed up. He had to smile, in spite of himself.

"Here," the young woman handed him a towel, some clean trousers, and a plain, fresh shirt. "You can wash up and change into these by the stream outside, everyone's finished there now."

He gratefully accepted the bundle. "Thank you."

"No problem," she smiled. Then she started to make her way out of the small tent. "I'll just go tell everyone about you so they don't freak out when they see a stranger running around here. See you later!."

Tamir watched her as she disappeared behind the flap of the tent... "I just hope everyone else around here is like that," he thought...

As he was about to leave with the towel and clothes, he noticed something on his arm... It was a glove, a plain enough looking one... but there was still something eerie about it... It was brown, and had a black rim on the end...

"Now that's funny," he thought out loud. "I wonder how on earth I got this?..."

Curious, he removed the glove... and let out a horror stricken scream!.

It took all of his strength not to faint... For underneath the glove was nothing but solid dry bone... It was hideous!.

Just then, the young girl burst in through the flap of the tent. "What's wrong?," she asked anxiously, not noticing his bone arm yet. "I heard you scream... Everything all right?."

"Oh... er..." he stuttered, embarrassed. "Ummm... er... nothing... I... I..." He quickly concealed his arm behind his back. "I... I was just startled by something... that's all..."

She gave him a look that told him she wasn't quite buying it.

"It's... It's nothing," he tried again. "I'm fine... Really, I am..."

The girl knelt by him, looking straight into his face. "Does this have something to do with that bone arm of yours?."

Tamir's mouth dropped open in fear and astonishment. "You... You knew all along?..."

"Uh huh... While you were unconscious... I wondered why you were wearing only one glove... so I looked..."

For a minute the two were silent... Neither of them really knew what to say...

"Why..." he finally whispered "Why did you still... I mean... Why did you still help me... even though?..."

"Even though your arm is a little different?." She shook her head. "Believe me, I've seen allot worse then that."

"But look at me!," he demanded. "I'm... I'm a... a freak!," he finally blurted out. Then he bit his lip, trying to hold back the tears of frustration that were starting to well up in his eyes.

"No you're not!," she persisted. "I told you, it's nothing strange to me. Not after what I've been through. Believe me, I could tell you things about myself that would make you cringe."

Tamer's gaze wandered over to his bare arm... What could this girl possibly have done or been through that would cause her to treat something like this so casually?...

"Here," she said, handing him his glove. "Just put this on and noone will even notice."

"I don't know," he answered hesitantly. "Are you sure?... What if someone asks about it?..."

"Then that's easy. Just say your arm's deformed, that's pretty much the truth anyway, and there's nothing to weird about a deformed arm."

"I suppose not... Wait, has anyone else... well... you know..."

She knew what he was asking. "No," she assured him. "I'm the only one who's seen it. You can trust me. I won't tell anyone else."

"Thank you," he said.

"You're welcome."

They looked at each other, and their eyes met... They smiled... Now they had a secret together...

As the sun set over the desert mountains, Tamir had just finished washing himself by the stream, which was a good five minute hike from the camp. He quickly slipped into the trousers and shirt he had been given. It didn't really matter that his boots were dirty, but he washed the dust and mud off of them anyway. Once he was finished, he eyed his reflection in the water... If he ignored his gloved arm and pale, sickly looking skin he thought he might look rather pleasant... Washed, and in clean, ordinary clothes he looked as decent and respectable as anyone...

"If only I didn't have to wear this," he thought as he gazed down at his gauntleted hand. But it couldn't be helped. With a shrug, Tamir made his way back to the camp. He smiled, remembering how friendly the people there had been when he met them earlier as he was coming down to the river. They had smiled at him, asked him how he was, and had agreed to let him stay as long as he wanted once that girl had tactfully explained his current situation... Who was she again?... He wasn't sure if she had even told him her name... As he walked back to where the camp was set up he began to have a strange feeling... The clothes he was wearing now were, of course, comfortable... But they felt somehow... unfamiliar... It was as if he was not used to wearing ordinary clothes made of regular cloth... To him, they should feel like... silk robes?... Now what kind of a ridiculous idea was that?. Here these people had helped him, given him fresh, clean things to wear, and he was thinking of silk robes?. He shook his head in bewilderment. Just what kind of a person had he been before he lost his memory?...

Just then, a sharp, high pitched scream, which must have been a child's, distracted him from his thoughts. Sure enough, he saw three young girls whom he recognized from the camp by an old well. They were struggling to fight off two grown travelers who were obviously not willing to share the water.

"Leave us alone!," one cried. "Let our sheep drink! We were here first!."

But the men just ignored them. They continued to fill up their canteens with the precious water, already they had much more then they needed for such a small group.

"Nefertari is the head of our tribe," another of the girls protested. "You'll be in big trouble!." She took a step towards them with her water bucket in her hand, hoping to get close enough to fill it... But one of the men shoved her roughly away.

"Get out of here, you filthy brats!."

The unfortunate child landed hard on her side, her water jug was smashed into little pieces. The other girls rushed to help her up.

Tamir acted quickly. Sneaking unnoticed up to the men's camels, he silently undid their ropes which were tied to a shrub...

"Hey, you guys!," he called out.

The men spun around, startled, to see a pale young man with an unusual looking glove on his arm grinning mischievously at them, with the ropes to their beasts halters in his hand...

"Aren't these your camels?," he asked innocently...

Before they could reply, the young man had let go of the ropes... Slapping the animals on their flanks he shooed them away... The camels took off towards the mountains with their masters running desperately after them!.

"No no!," they cried to the beasts. "Come back! Come back!."

Tamir smiled to himself as he watched the men chase their camels into the distance. He knew it would take them hours to catch them, and by the time they did these girls would be finished taking care of their sheep and back at camp.

"Oh thank you! Thank you!," the girls cried, rushing over to him.

He smiled. "You're welcome, ladies. Here, let me help you." He drew some water from the well and filed each of their buckets.

A single thread in a tapestry
Though its color brightly shines
Can never see it's purpose
In the pattern of the grand design
And the stone that sits on the very top
Of the mountain's mighty face
Does it think it's more important
Then the stones that form the base?

So how can you see what your life is worth
Or where your value lies?
You can never see through the eyes of man
You must look at your life
Look at your life through Heaven's eyes