Sahara: The Second Journey {LEGACY}

The Serpent Bane

*Michael*

A light shone in Michael's eyes.  Groaning, he opens his eyes and sees the sun high above the horizon.  He hears a bellow and turns around and sees a camel cade led by a man wearing blue robes heading towards the oasis.  Michael turns towards Ajar, who was still curled up sleeping, and prods him.  "Stop," he mumbles, shifting away from Michael's tail.  "Psst, Ajar, wake up, there's a came cade coming," Michael says.  Sleepily, Ajar opens his eyes, sits up and yawns.  But when he looks toward the camel cade, his eyes widen in fear.

"Hide!" he exclaims before darting off.  "Hide, why?" Michael asks, puzzling over why a camel cade is such a big threat.  "That's Omar, the snake charmer who kidnapped your daughter!" Ajar shouts back.  Michael yelps and darts forward to follow Ajar towards a big rock.  Ajar reaches it first and disappears behind it, but Michael hears a yell of surprise a second later.  Michael goes around the corner and slides to a halt.  Right in front of him, a man was holding Ajar by the neck.  "Got him Omar!," the man shouts.  Ajar struggles in his grip while he carries him to Omar.  Michael peeks around the rock and sees the man holding Ajar out towards Omar.  "Nice work brother," the snake charmer says in a cold, menacing voice.

He has a brother Michael thinks in amazement.  Omar's brother brings Ajar up to inspect him closely.  "You know, this is a King Cobra, kinda looks like that red one father used to own," he says.  After hearing those words, Ajar freezes.  What are you doing?  Get out of there!  Michael thinks furiously, starting to panic.  Yet, Ajar still remained frozen.  There's only one thing I can do he thinks before shooting forward and sinking his teeth into the man's heel.  "GAH," he shouts, dropping Ajar.  "Let's go!" Michael shouts.  Ajar shakes out his head, looks at Michael, and nods.  The two of them dart away.  We're gonna make it! he thinks triumphantly.

Michael hears something humming and wonders briefly what it is when something yanks him back.  Looking back, he sees his body bouncing, pulling him towards Omar, who was holding what looked like a flute up to his mouth.  Michael looks at Ajar and realizes the same thing is happening to him.

*Ajar*

Ajar tries to fight the music that seems to have taken control of his body, pulling him in.  But the more he struggled, the more he realized there was no escaping.  After a moment, he hears a low whistle.  Wait, the last time I heard that, I... he didn't have time to finish the thought when a high, sharp ringing sound hit his ears.  Cringing, Ajar looks at Michael and notices he isn't responding to it.  Eventually the sound ebbs away and when it did, Ajar realizes he had control of his body again.

Thinking quickly, he wraps his tail around Michael and pulls him away.  But when he looks back, he says with horror that Omar's brother was running towards them.  I can't make it with Michael under that flute's effect he thinks and notices a rock in the sand.  "Sorry about this Michael," he says before hitting him over the head with it.  Now that he was out, Michael's body stopped moving and Ajar was finally able to get away.

After going over the first sand dune, Ajar digs a hole and buries himself and Michael in it, hoping that the two men won't see them.  He hears footsteps approach, then stop.  Please don't see us Please don't see us.  After what felt like an eternity, the footsteps recede in the direction they came from.  Ajar waits a little longer before peeking his head through the sand.  Confident that they wouldn't be spotted, he hauls Michael out of the hole and hurries away.