The adventures of Tintin, Malory and Snowy.

Land of the Black Gold. (Final)

Faith restor-... No, just stored

No One POV:

"I think we're lost, Thompson." Thomson stated, taking a hint from the last 15 hours they've spent driving through the desert before spotting something, "Look, up ahead! It's tire tracks!"

"A road!" Thompson called in relief as he got on the trail and drive along it. Funny enough, it seemed like their tires matched the ones that left the trail!

...

Wait!

"Judging from all these tracks, this is quite a busy road. We should come across a town any minute." Thompson stated, following the curve and lane made by the multiple and all similiar tire tracks.

Surely they'll find a town. In another mirage that is.

But while ones' luck seemed to have fallen, for others, it seemed to have risen. As two hours later from Thompson's statement, Tintin and Malory were approaching the curve after walking the whole path.

"A regular highway." Tintin pointed out and knelt to check them.

"Too regular..." Malory mumbled, putting her hands on her hips as she inspected them too. Something was too clean for the eye to her here.

"Wait a minute. These tracks are all the same! Somebody is going around in circles." Tintin stated and Malory's eyes rolled back in disbelief.

"What a rotten luck..." She grumbled, somewhat having an uneasy feeling as to who were these somebodies, "Well. Unless they've figured it out, which I'm doubtful... they should come this way again. We can wait for them and maybe together find out the right way."

"Good idea." Tintin agreed.

"Hey! Stop!" Thomson suddenly exclaimed.

"Right-o!" Thompson obliged, still not sure what was wrong but Thomson hurried to exlain by pointing ahead at something on the ground, "What's that?"

"I'd better go and investigate." Thomson declared, approaching the item, "It's a petrol can!" He called in victory, picking it up and heading back to the jeep.

"Somebody must have dropt it." Thompson offered an explaination as he watched his partner going to put the tank at the back.

"Lucky us." Thomson agreed and turned to face the back, only to drop the can in shock at the sight, "I say! We've lost our petrol can, too."

"We should took back and look for it." Thompson turned in his seat to tell his friend as the latter placed the can in place of their ''missing one''.

"Precisely." Thomson agreed.

Oh, Malory will have field day with this...

"Yup! This driver is definitely lost, Malory. Just like us." Tintin pointed out as they've walked along the path, deciding that there was no use going around in circles along with whoever the driver was. They were doing this quite wonderfully on their own.

Malory was about to reply when a sudden gash of wind suddenly stroke her, sending waves of sand in her eyes and scratching them. She whimpered at the sudden pain and could hear Tintin doing the same.

"A sand storm!" She managed to cry out in realization.

"Oh no!" Tintin let out as well.

They struggled against the violent winds, attempting to proceed through but to no avail.

"It's useless. I can't see a thing! We'll just have to wait it out." Tintin finally gave up and grabbed Malory's wrist gently, tagging her close to him as they sat down, then opened his upper cloth for Snowy, "Come on, boy!" And once Snowy hopped inside, he wrapped himself around his companion while hugging Malory close to him and shielding their eyes.