The only sounds that greeted his keen ears were his own breathing- ragged and short pants- and the sound of the endless sand dunes around him shifting in the merciless wind. It wasn’t quite a sandstorm, but it was close enough for his tiny, lightly furred body. He was infinitely glad of the mask that covered his face, but wished there was some sort of clear eye cover as the grains of sand cut the delicate orbs anew with every gust of the wind and the grains that didn’t harm his eyes collected in his fur making his eyes gritty and painfully dry.
His tongue was once again covered with sand, it being carlessley draped over the side of his mouth in his exertions. How he wished his species had pores so that he could simply sweat; but alas, he was but a simple Imeut and without the ability to transform into a human. He closed his mouth and tucked his head into the joint where his right foreleg joined his body just as a particularly vicious blast of wind scoured his body, leaving tiny cuts on the rare parts of his body that were not covered in the fine but impenetrable hairs of his fur. He winced at the new scratches on his soft golden adornments. Perhaps it was better he was not a human as his fur provided him some means of protection- better than a billowing cape could have afforded at any rate.
The blast of wind didn’t seem ready to dissipate, and worried he would be buried alive in the sands, he began to struggle to the lee of the current sand dune where he could rest for a few moments- only a few as the winds refused to blow in just one direction. Earlier that day, he had seen some rock formations only half a mile distant, the shadows of some rare caves staring balefully out. It was in that direction he had turned when he noticed the rising wall of sand headed straight for him just a mere hour ago, but he was trying to make his way blind in a sand storm, and was no longer sure he was headed in the right direction.
Subsequently, it felt like he had been struggling in the weather for more than just one hour- more like several days and it was with an undignified yelp of surprise, joy, and relief when his paw struck solid rock and his eyes met the comforting darkness of a cave. Gathering the last of his energy, he sprang up the rock face and skidded into the hole, immeasurably relieved that the cave struck far enough back that none of the sand could reach him but still providing a good enough view that he could see out of the cave entrance. Sadly, the distance varried depending on the amount of sand blown by in each gust; some moments he could see far out, others he could barely see the edge of the cave.
From his safety, he could now fully appreciate how horrible the sound of the sand storm really was; it was no wonder that half of the legends he had grown up reading made claims that vengeful and distraught spirits of the dead were the source of these storms. He shuddered, his mind combining the legends with modern horror stories and movies to create a particularly horrid vision in his mind’s eye. With a chuckle, he shook himself a little and re-arranged himself more comfortably on the unyielding rock surface beneath him and turned his gaze once more upon the fury of the storm. So it was that his mind turned the cacophany of the storm into a sort of lullabye- this was the modern world and there were no such things as ghosts or any such thing that went bump in the night.
This thought followed him into a light sleep where his mind began to wander into thoughts of the impossible becoming possible and grand adventures awaited him further into Wilt’No’s great expanse. Particularly the legends of secluded tribes lost in the heart of the desert, their infinite stores of treasure, legends, and knowledge. It was, he reminded himself, his entire reason of making the treacherous trek from home and he smiled as he dozed.
It was meant to be a day just like any other day. She had planned for a few days now to make a trip out to the Wilt'no desert to see if she could find new ruins untouched by the hands of anyone else. She had found a few ruins before, but they had been exactly that. The buildings were barely standing and almost anything that one would be able to learn anything about the ex-inhabitant from had already been taken away. Much of the damage to the structures was likely caused by the want to take away anything other thought would have been of value anyways. Were old Pharaohs even buried with treasures? She could not claim to finding any sort of treasure left within any tomb she had stumbled upon, but she hadn't found much of anything else either.
