"Mine?" Seamus asked.

Mine laughed loudly. "Perhaps I will be tonight, but there will be another who will not be happy about me bringing you back to my tent."

"You'll bring me to your home tonight?" Seamus asked.

"Tonight, I will bring you to the tent that I use as we raid. You will lie under me while I stare at those starry eyes of yours," Mine said. “If we enjoy each other’s company, and the one who is already in my tent does not kill you, then we these raids are over I will take you to my home.”

"What is your name?" Seamus asked.

"I like the one that you call me. Call me that tonight as you lie beneath me and look into my face. In the presence of others, you may call me Asim, because that's what I will be to you, your protector."

"And from which village do we think this man has escaped?" the other man asked.

"I know not," Asim said. "If I am challenged, I will gladly pay the price for him. His eyes are blue like the sea, and like the sea, make me want to undress and run in it. Where do you come from slave? What is your name, and to whom do you belong?"

"My name is Seamus, and I belong to no one.”

"Surely with eyes like that, and skin so pink, you are from far west or north of here," Mine said.

"I am," said Seamus, not entirely sure of where he was, but starting to make a guess.

"So tell me, how do you speak our tongue so well?" Asim asked. “None of the villages around here speak the common tongue, and none with fiery hair like yours live in those.”

"I was on a ship with someone who spoke this tongue," Seamus said, grateful that his Drama One class in high school had spent so much time on improvisation games.

"And your ship docked in the desert?" Asim asked with a skeptical tone.

"I was robbed when we docked in the nearest coast, and left for dead in the desert," Seamus explained.

"Well whatever treasure they were seeking, I’m glad that they left their greatest one here," Asim said, and offered a hand to Seamus. "If you come with me tonight, I won’t leave you to die in the desert. My tent holds much that you will enjoy.”

“Well, I guess I don’t have much choice in the matter,” Seamus said, grasping Asim’s hand.

Asim pulled Seamus close and looked him in the eye.

“I am not a man to take lovers by force,” Asim said. “My brother and I lead an army that frees slaves. We also free many villagers. Those who choose not to join our army, we free to go to the afterlife. The lover I keep in my tent is one I freed from bondage, and there is nowhere he would rather spend the night than with me. You always have a choice. Are you not attracted to me, sandy one? It appears that at least part of you is.”