A violent wind flowed through the small jagged window, whipping Desiree's hair in a vortex around her porcelain face. Her gaze remained unbroken upon her assailant. The glow of her bright amber eyes pierced through the thief king's soul.

A gasp broke the silent tension. Ata and Atsu stared intently at the wall behind Desiree, causing her to break her gaze out of curiosity. An insipid beam of moonlight refracted from the silver Eye of Horus ring upon her finger onto the wall behind her. Mysteriously, it created burning white hieroglyphs that read 'Desert Wolf.'

"Desert Wolf…" Desiree whispered to herself as she remembered the voice that came over her before she was swept away into this painful nightmare. Return to them and reign again! echoed through the caverns of her mind. The murderous laugh bellowed into her ears once again.

"Well, well, well," the thief king said through the wicked smile, "I guess we are in the presence of royalty, although not the kind we were expecting. Forgive me if I'm not dressed formally enough," he said mockingly, pulling at his cobalt blue robes.

Desiree raised a questioning brow as the thief king turned his sights on his subordinates.

"Figures," he snarled at them as he spit upon the ground at their feet, "can't ever do anything right… Although, maybe I can spare you two the humiliation… this time." He licked at his sharp white canines as he pretended to be deep in thought. Turning back towards Desiree, his eyes locked with hers.

"Where are your cronies at now, Desert Wolf? Did they forget about you? Or are you too good for them too, just like you were too good for me?"

Desiree stood silent, intrigued by the story unfolding before her.

"What kind of shit were you trying to pull? Dressing up like nobility to lure the villagers under false pretenses just to watch where they were burying the pharaoh? Ha. Then to get caught by these bumbling idiots…" his voice faded away as he shot a glance to Ata and Atsu.

"You're just not the same anymore. Are those twenty three years catching up to you? Well, let me tell you something, you're not taking what is rightfully mine, so you can just pack up and go back up the Nile where you belong. Or, better yet, we can finally settle this score." He flashed his pointed canines at her as she narrowed her dark eyes.

"What score?" she growled, attempting to resurrect the threatening presence that had overcome her earlier.

"Oh, don't you remember? Or have you replaced me that many times over?" he snarled, hatred clearly concealing the hurt that laid behind his emerald eyes.

Desiree remained quiet as she watched him pace uneasily. She could tell that he was unnerved by her presence now that he believed she was the "Desert Wolf."

"Get out…" the thief king growled deeply at Ata and Atsu. When they didn't obey, he shouted, his words echoing off the bare brick walls, scaring them into submission.

"Idiots…" he murmured under his breath as they hurriedly exited the room. He slumped into a reddish colored wooden chair in the dark corner of the room and stared at the gloomy ceiling.

"I told you not to come running back to me…" his harsh voice trembled slightly as he shot an evil glance at her.

"Well if you're going to kill me why don't you just do it now? I'm sick of waiting to die," Desiree said boldly, the searing pain returning to her skull.

"I can't kill you. As much as I would like to, I can't."

Desiree stopped, still questioning him with her brow. He placed his elbows on his knees and stared at the dirt floor.

"But, the past is the past. No use in trying to change things now. So, I suggest you leave, before I change my mind."

His brow furrowed and he rubbed at the scar above his right eye vigorously when Desiree did not move. "Go on, get out of my sight!" he snarled again, reaching for the blade from his waist and slamming it down upon the arm of the red wood chair. The wood creaked in anguish as the blade ripped at its sinews, splintering it in two.

Without a word, Desiree slipped out of the doorway and through the narrow hall, away from the hostile man and the glorious treasures that encompassed him. Ata and Atsu stared her down from the darkness as she peeled back the piece of tanned cloth hanging from the doorway and vanished into the desert night.

The chill of the darkness crept up Desiree's spine as she searched for a sign of life away from the evil that now laid behind her. Straining her brain for memories of her trip to the hellhole for an idea of the direction to go, she marched off into unknown land.

The grains of sand shifted under her feet, making her painful journey more difficult as her head ached from the blood stained lesion on her temple. Her sandals filled with the cold granules with every step she took, weighing her feet down. She looked back to find that her captors lair was no longer in her sight. It had disappeared into the vast desert night just as she had.

A calm relief came upon her as she gazed up towards the moon. It seemed to smile down upon her exhausted, aching body, lighting her way towards freedom. The millions of stars gleamed down upon Desiree as well, filling her soul with pleasure. A simple ecstasy overcame her as she slowly fell to her knees in the sand, enjoying its texture as the granules fell through the spaces between her fingers.

With dehydration and delirium taking over, she laid her head leisurely upon the sand as she bathed in it, feeling as high as the stars themselves. Pain no longer wreaked havoc through her nerves and she could no longer feel the bite of the cold desert night. She laid upon her back and watched as the stars burned holes in the night sky. Contentment warmed her body as her eyelids became heavy.

Playful laughter filled the air and the golden sun filled Desiree's sight as she opened her eyes. She found herself standing outside of a village, watching four children run and play.

"Tameri!" a little golden blonde haired boy called to the only girl in the group. "Come on, we have to go back home! It's getting dark!"

"I'm coming Rami," she replied, still staring into the sky. The sun was setting quickly, raining purple and red hues down upon the children. The little girl's dark black hair rippled in the soft breeze. She remained motionless, as if in a trance.

Tameri shuddered as the little boy grabbed onto her hand, snapping her out of her stupor. She quickly ripped her hand away from his and bolted towards the village, both giggling the entire way as he chased after her.

The playful atmosphere slowly faded and Desiree found herself in a dark, sultry room. The deep red curtains were drawn, blocking out the sun and created deep crimson hues that scattered along the walls of the humid room. A large bed was pushed up against the wall in the room and in the bed laid a couple.

The woman resembled Desiree, with long dark hair and bronzed porcelain skin. Her long graceful fingers cupped the large deltoid of the man she rested upon. Her head lay upon his bare chest, rising and falling with each deep breath he took. The burgundy red sheets draped over their sleeping, naked bodies, concealing them from Desiree's eyes.

The man looked oddly familiar to Desiree as she studied him. His dusty blonde hair fell in front of his closed eyelids and his suntanned skin sparkled with beads of sweat. She questioned the scene with her brow before it, too, slowly faded away.

"Tameri!" a proverbial deep voice growled as a new scene grew before Desiree. The woman was seated in a golden glorified chair in the middle of a room with many men standing like statues behind her. Candles lighted the dark room as the shaggy, dusty haired man stood before her, his hand over his right eye. Blood splattered upon the dirt floor below the man.

"How many times have I told you? My name is the Desert Wolf," Tameri replied, admiring the blade in her right hand. "So unless you'd like to keep your other eye, Rami, I suggest you leave. I'm done with you."

"Desert Wolf?" Rami spat, "more like Desert Bitch."

"Excuse me?" Tameri glared, still playing with her dagger. "I can fix that sharp tongue of your as well."

"I'm leaving, damn it," Rami replied before pointing at each of the men standing behind Tameri. "Each and every one of them is going to betray you. They're nothing but miserable rats. So when this kingdom falls, don't come running back to me." He turned and stormed away into the darkness, leaving a trail of blood behind him.