Yusuf

Yusuf was born in city of Al-Bashar.His mother was a whore, the father was one of many travelers who wanted to taste the daughter of the desert. When he was about 9 years in Al-Bashar the prostitution has been outlawed which forced his mother to sell him on the slave market. The kid betrayed by his own mother not willing to become a slave escaped from the cage he was kept in. Like a normal boy, he returned to his mother just to be kicked out of the house again. Being in Yusuf shoes you would have to spend childhood on the streets, learning how to survive among the people that don't care about you.
In the meantime, Yusuf became a teenager. He was stealing mainly food but became very good at stealing in general. One day while browsing the market looking for food easy to steal. He encountered a girl trying to steal money from a baker. She got spotted and when was about to be caught by owner Yusuf threw a carafe from a nearby stand. The baker got hit on his head. He lost balance and fallen on the wall behind him. He immediately started to call guards for help. Yusuf and the girl started running away as fast as possible. They ran through the crowd spectating the magic performance, pushing people off the way. Finally, they started climbing onto shop signs and then buildings, eventually after jumping between buildings they lost the chase and stopped at the garden of rich households.
The girl who Yusuf saved name was Isha. It's hard to describe how thankful she was. Law against the thieves states that any caught in an act will have one of his hands cut off. Usually, the one he reached for others' money. She offered Yusuf money helped her steal as thanks. Yusuf quickly declined and asked about how she was. It turned out Isha was an amateur thief trying to join the Bashar thief guild, and this was her trial robbery to check if she is good enough. Yusuf told her not to worry and to tell the recruiter she did all of it on her own. She thanked him for the last time and their paths parted. A couple of days have passed before Yusuf realized he wanted to know more about the girl he met. He didn't have any friends before. In his eyes, people were just opportunistic and ready to betray at any time, but she was different. Isha was the first person in a while that was kind to him. So he began his search of the Thiefs guild.
The thief's guild
Firstly Yusuf visited the market. He searched the market for suspicious-looking people, but Yusuf was the being found. Isha as is turns out, she is a very good tacker. After an exchange of words, she offered him a place in the guild with a house included in exchange for his services as a thief. He agreed and so they together began working in the organization. Eventually, they became famous among the guild members. Their favorite trick was to let one of them inside buildings get the desired item. While the other was distracting the guards or whoever was in the way of stealing the item.
A couple of years later their bond grew stronger and eventually they confessed how do they feel about one another. Both of them decided to move and live in the same household. Everything was working out perfectly. It felt that they were destined for each other, but nothing good can last forever. They lost their edge and failed a few burglary attempts. But the worst was before Yusuf. It turned out the Isha has cheated on him. Overwhelmed with anger he packed everything he owned including stolen items they didn't return yet and moved away. Yusuf left the city and became a Beduin, the man of the desert.
Shortly after he left Al-Bashar he stole a camel from one of caravans. Traveling on the camelback Yusuf visited a lot of cities, but none of them had anything to offer him. Yusuf alone among the dunes was struggling with his memories. After years of roaming the desert, he heard rumors about an expedition into the desert organised in Al-Bashar. He didn't want to face the past but the need for coin for food forced him to. And like that Yusuf returned to his hometown.
Expedition to find a al-Kashak, the legendary city. The task was unusual it was a thing that rarely mercenaries hear about. Their job was to escort a caravan equipped with the tools necessary to find the city. The expedition was big and funded by many cities from Azim desert. So they were not the only ones willing to risk their lives for a huge amount of gold. There were also adventure seekers, mages that believed they can find something of value in al-Kashak. But there was one person Yusuf didn't expect to meet ever again. Isha soon after what happened between them decided to leave Al-Bashar and lookout for Yusuf. She was filled with guilt and wanted to repay him for what she had done to him. They did not talk much and felt rather uncomfortable in each other's company.
A long travel into unknown
The expedition carried on for months. Most of the people left the main group and returned to their cities. A little group stayed on the track. A leader with a magical stone that detects magic died when checking a source of magical powers detected by the stone. Den of magical desert monsters was the source. The leader was killed. Yusuf retrieved the stone and became the next leader of the expedition.
After months of roaming the desert from oasis to oasis, they eventually left the lands known to man. Lots of expedition members left by this time. Only a group of crazy and disciplined people stayed. Everyone thought that this will be their last travel. Soon they stumbled on a small cone made out of bricks just a few bricks above the sand. It turned to have magical powers within it. When the night felt they started digging and uncovering the stone slabs that seemed to cover the entrance to a room inside. However, the mechanism was broken so they decided to blow it open with explosives they brought with themselves.
A city sunk in sands
The explosion caused the earthquake and sand to fly in the air. The sandstorm was so thick nobody could see further than a meter. It was accompanied by the sound of the wind blowing upwards. The magical force enters their bodies as they breathe. Some lost their consciousness. Soon after all the sand that was sent in the air started falling. As the sky clears it reveal the floating stone structures in the air. Clearly, they used to be buildings inhabited by people. Yusuf gathered everyone and decided to split the expedition into two groups, one to stay outside and take care of ones that felt unconscious and the other to scout the bottom of a ravine.
As they got closer the ground felt less and less stable. When they reached the edge of the ravine it turned out to be something else, a dome covering the underground city. They used ropes to get down. One of the ropes snapped in half. An adventurer has fallen on one of the buildings below. He broke both of his legs and screamed cause of this pain. He seemed to wake something within the city. Yusuf and Isha decided they need to help him and get out of the Kashak. Others were to start leaving the city.
They rushed toward the building and climbed its staircase as fast as their legs allowed them. When they reached him it turned out he was already dead but somehow he still screamed. When Yusuf was closing the distance he noticed some insects were coming out of his mouth. A body stood up and started charging at them with insects ready to jump on them. Yusuf and Isha immediately jumped on top of a nearby building. Streets were filled with screaming corpses corrupted by those insects. Every miscalculated jump or slip would end fatally. As they parkoured toward the ropes Isha slipped and would fall to death if not Yusuf grabbing her hand. He pulled her up and they ran toward the ropes. One of them felt down and the other one was not strong enough for both of them.
Gamble
Yusuf was telling Isha to go up and tell others about the city and what is inside. Suddenly a man started talking to them from behind. He seemed to appear out of nowhere. He introduced himself as Randy and offered them a gamble. If they win he will save them but when they lose they will meet a fate worse than death. Isha was not going up nor Yusuf. They decided to flip the coin. Time, when the coin was in the air, felt like an eternity. The coin landed on the floor and bounced few times before stopping.
Legacy Nobody is sure how does this story ends. Some say they won and Randy opened a portal to another dimension. Others say they lost, he took away their souls and turn them into puppets. Maybe they died or somehow climbed the rope together? No one is sure, but one thing is certain those people existed and are widely known as the greatest travelers ever to live.