Blue sky and yellow earth.
At a glance, the blade of the horizon sliced through the blue and yellow, and the swaying sound of camel bells was tucked inside.
Mori Tsukisa sat between the camel's humps, looking around excitedly.
OConnell didn't understand what there was to see in the desolate desert: starting from noon yesterday, they had spent a night on camelback, and by this morning, the girl still had endless curiosity about the camel beneath her, the vast desert, and the scorching Sun.
It was as if that curiosity would never run out.
"We're almost there."
OConnell adjusted the gun handle at his waist—on the other side of the sand dune to the left, the sound of hooves sank into the thick sand, and a group of figures slowly appeared in his sight.
The Americans and his old comrade-in-arms... Benny.
"Haha! Look who it is?!"
"Good morning! My friend!"
Nagini looked out; the other party was clearly much more professional than them—besides the five leaders, they were followed by twenty or thirty local workers.
The reason was self-evident.
"Look at you! OConnell, looking for treasure until you lost your own team."
"Hahaha! Benny, is this your former Captain?"
American and British accents traded barbs; under the azure sky, there were no gentlemen, only a group of blatant tomb-robbing 'explorers'.
The camel train was pulled to a halt.
Whether it was OConnell or the group of Americans, they all stopped in the middle of two sand dunes, looking at the endless desert in the distance.
"What are we doing here?"
Evelyn had just woken up in a daze; if not for this time, she might have gone her whole life without believing she could sleep so soundly on a camel's back.
"Did I... snore?"
The woman pulled her camel and quietly approached her sister, asking while casting her gaze toward OConnell, who was confronting the crowd.
Just as Mori Tsukisa was about to speak, Jonathan suddenly leaned over and teased Evelyn weirdly: "Very loudly. You know, Evelyn, everything was silent, the moon was full, and the sand was cold."
"The sound you made made OConnell think there was actually a motorcycle under that camel's skin."
Smack.
The curly-haired woman gave Jonathan a fierce punch. The man grimaced and pulled his camel away from his increasingly violent sister, but his mouth didn't stop: "Go ahead, hit me, I'm just your brother anyway. Snore, snore, snore—when did you learn to ride a motorcycle?"
"Jonathan!"
"Hey, that man's head is full of 'Men in Black' this and 'Men in Black' that; do you really think he had the time to lean in and listen to you talk in your sleep at night?" He laughed and patted the camel's hump: "Did you talk in your sleep?"
Mori Tsukisa leaned into Evelyn's ear and told her she didn't snore, and Nagini nodded beside her as if to corroborate.
Only then did the woman feel relieved. She rubbed her eyes, held her head high, and returned to her proud English Rose posture, her temperament at a full ten.
In reality...
She did.
And Jonathan hadn't wronged her.
You have to know that the desert at night is a bit cold and very quiet; when no one is talking, you only hear the'shhh-shhh' of shifting sand and the faint sinking sound of camel hooves stepping into small sand pits.
Evelyn's snoring sounded particularly... clear.
Especially since OConnell had been leading the way in front last night, frowning and thinking; Jonathan was imagining mountains of gold and rivers of gems; Nagini had tied her camel to Mori Tsukisa's and then shared a mount with her Master, holding her with closed eyes to rest (while Arrietty was in a rage)... at that time... no one made a sound.
The snoring desert rock-and-roll lasted all night.
Poor Evelyn, such a small body hiding such great energy.
Mori Tsukisa leaned into Nagini's arms with a mischievous smile, while Arrietty kept biting her earlobe with tiny sharp teeth (because of that stinky maid). The group didn't wait long before the Sun was about to come out.
"Get ready." OConnell trotted his camel back to Evelyn's side and shouted to the girls behind him: "Ready! You must keep up with the team! We only have a few minutes!"
"What, what few minutes? Hey! OConnell?"
The man didn't reply to Evelyn. Beside them, the twenty or thirty workers and the group of Americans were also standing ready.
"Ready—!"
Then, the Sun rose!
An orange orb slowly ascended, and in everyone's sight—like an erasure being played in reverse—a massive city stacked layer upon layer, rooting itself out of thin air in the empty desert!
Like a switch, an invisible hand woke up with the Sun, lazily waving its arm and painting from top to bottom—this ancient silence of thousands of years once again showed its miraculous side to the world. In an era where fewer and fewer people believed in legends... it used its deep and thick voice to inform the group of ignorant humans at its feet.
The legends are true!
Hamunaptra... is right here!
When the Sun rises!
"Unbelievable..."
"A miracle has appeared..."
People murmured, and OConnell was no exception.
He silently looked at the legendary ruins: "Hamunaptra."
"I'm back again..."
As the Sun rose higher and higher, the ancient City of the Dead became clearer and clearer—until.
Until OConnell and Benny, the two men who had been here before, simultaneously cracked their whips and roared.
"Ha!"
"Ha!"
The camels shot out!
Evelyn finally understood what OConnell meant by "must keep up with the team" and "we only have a few minutes": perhaps only at a certain angle of sunlight could humans have the fortune to enter this capital city.
The rising and setting of the Sun is very fast.
Evelyn laughed heartily and, like OConnell, grabbed her whip, gave the camel a crack, squeezed her legs, and made "gi-gi-gi-gi" urging sounds.
The camel charged out!
"Hahaha! The legend is true." Mori Tsukisa was held in Nagini's arms; when she looked up, she could only see the woman's chin.
She didn't hold the cat in her arms tightly.
Bastet could only use her two little paws to desperately grip the camel hair and saddle, absolutely furious.
Arrietty on her head: Me too.
"Hurry!" Mori Tsukisa looked up with her mouth open, her forehead resting against Nagini's chin, laughing happily: "Let's go! Nagini!"
"The Hamunaptra I promised you!"
"It's right before our eyes!"
"Charge!!"
Mori Tsukisa waved her hands around as if giving the camel a pair of little wings; Nagini held Mori Tsukisa's waist tight with her left hand and raised her right hand high—
The golden sunlight hit her profile; the woman who once whispered and muttered now looked heroic and valiant!
Crack!
The whip exploded in the air.
"Hold on tight, Master!"
Swarms of camels kicked up yellow dust as a group of people filled with hope and surprise rode toward this secret place hidden for a thousand years.
On the back of the hill, several men in black watched the galloping crowd below in silence. Their faces were all covered with ink-colored tattoos, just like the men in black on the ferry.
The leading man wore a black turban, his shoulder-length hair flowing behind him.
"They are looking for death."
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