Amani

"If I couldn't hold a gun steady it wouldn't much matter that I learned to aim before I learned to read."

- Amani

WORK IN PROGRESS

Amani Al'Hiza was born in a small town in The Last County called Dustwalk. Her entire life she heard her mother, Zahia, talk about moving to the capital city Izman with her sister Safiyah. When Amani was sixteen her mother killed her stepfather and set his house on fire, and was hanged for her crimes. Amani had to move in with her uncle, Asid, and all her cousins. Even after her mother's death Amani never gave up on her dream of leaving Dustwalk.

Rebel of the Sands
Amani dressed herself up as a boy and snuck out to a bar called the Dusty Mouth in a lively town called Deadshot for a shooting contest. At the bar, she met the Eastern Snake, a handsome young foreigner whose skills were almost as good as hers. Despite being looked down on, Amani's sharpshooting skills do not go unnoticed as she managed to hit two targets with a single bullet. She was nicknamed the "Blue-Eyed Bandit" due to her unusual blue eyes.

Amani, along with the Eastern Snake and Dahmad, made it to the final round. The foreigner advised her to forfeit when a boy barged in, foolishly shouting his support for the Rebel Prince. The boy was forced into being a target but Amani took his place on the condition that the foreigner deliberately missed his shot and vice versa so that Dahmad would win by default, meaning both of them could walk away with 500 fouza.

They didn't plan on Dahmad wanting to shoot. Amani could see the bullet was headed to the foreigner's chest so she flung herself at the drunken man, toppling him over. This sent the crowd into an uproar, with people believing that Amani and the Eastern Snake were working together. Amid the chaos, a drunk knocked over an oil lantern which set fire to the building. Amani teamed up with the foreigner to escape the burning building and then ditched him to make it back to her uncle's house.

The next day, the Sultan's army came down to Dustwalk. Amani was sent to the shop by Aunt Farrah. The foreigner ran into the shop to escape the commander, not seeing Amani. Hoping he didn't recognize her from the night before, she helped him hide and lead Commander Naguib off his trail. He revealed that his name was Jin while she sewed up his bullet wound. Amani asked Jin to take her with him, but he refuses. She started to ask again but they were interrupted when somebody rang the bell, signalling an immortal being had set off a trap. Amani ran after it, leaving Jin at her uncle's shop.

When Amani found the crowd and saw the Buraqi, an immortal horse that had set off the trap, she was determined to tame it. Tamid, her childhood friend, tried to tell her it was a bad idea but she ignored him. After they successfully trapped it in the town, Amani and her cousin, Shira, both headrd for the beast at the same time. They fought, but in the end, Amani was able to calm the horse and use iron, any immortal beings weakness, to turn it to flesh and blood long enough for them to put three iron horseshoes and one bronze.

She was approached by Fazim who revealed that he knew she was in Deadshot last night and promised to keep it to himself if she married him, giving him the rights to the Buraqi and all its worth. She refused just as Shira, Fazim's lover, walked up to them. Amani went back to her uncle's house to pack her belongings, planning to leave with Jin and the Buraqi. When she got back to the shop, Jin was gone and Amani was momentarily upset, scolding herself for being foolish enough to believe he'd stay. She decided that she would find her own way out of Dustwalk and left the shop.

Outside, Tamid gave her some of the pain pills his father sells to help ease the pain of the injuries caused by the Buraqi. Amani told him that she planned on leaving, and Tamid, thinking it was a joke, smiled and agreed. When he realised that she was serious, he tried to convince her to stay, telling her that she was likely to die. He became mad at her when she admitted that she hadn't planned on telling him that she was going to leave, and offered to marry her to try and protect her.

Before she could react, Fazim showed up with Commander Naguib, telling them she was with the foreigner last night. They threatened her, but it didn't faze her. Fazim then told the commander, "you need her cripple", referring to Tamid. This angered Amani, so she started fighting but was slapped. When her vision clearef, Naguib asked her where Jin went and she told him she didn't know. Naguib asked her again. When she still repeated that she didn't know, Naguib shot Tamid through his bad leg. Naguib striked her on the cheek with his gun when she continued to repeat that she didn't know, which made her tell them everything she did know.

Then the weapons factory exploded, leaving everyone cowering on the ground. She called for Tamid, who looked up at her just as Jin rode in on the Buraqi. Jin came directly towards her, stretching his arm out to swing her onto the horse. Amani looked back at Tamid and realised she had to make a choice. She decided that her survival matters most to her and grabbed Jin's hand. Amani noted how Jin could've easily killed Naguib as Naguid reloaded, but he turned away instead. Amani then passed out from exhaustion, clinging onto Jin.

When Amani woke up they're in the next town over, Sazi. She gave Jin the shirt she stole from her cousin while he grabbed a red sheema off a clothesline for her to cover her face. They went into a bar to have a drink, and Amani couldn't help but ask Jin about whether Tamid was alive or not, to which he replied that he had no clue, and the only way to find out would be to go back into town. The bargirl came over, and Jin asked her to leave the bottle of liquor with them and gave her a foreign coin. She claimed it isn't real money, so Jin handed her a new coin. Amani picked up the coin and noticed the sun printed on it, same as the one tattooed on his chest. She asked him what it meant, to which Jin replied that it's a symbol of luck. Jin told her that she was the perfect distraction for him to sneak into the factory in Dustwalk to blow it up. He then revealed that he's not heading to Izman, and she shouldn't either. This made Amani realize that if she stayed with Jin, she would never get to Izman. She drugged his drink with Tamid's pain pills, and took some supplies as well as the Buraqi while Jin was knocked out.