The Jackals of Sakhmet II- Finding Lee: Part Eight

Lee let out a loud scream. Slowly she turned her head only to find another one staring back…the head of a Mutant Bruce. Lee screamed once more, but the Bruce merely grimaced and raised his other paw which held a large, spiked club. As he brought it down with a mighty force, ready to strike, Lee jumped out of the way and ran forward. The Bruce let out a roar so loud, so spine-chilling, that Lee lost her balance and fell on all fours. The ground was shaking beneath her paws and she could hear the Bruce stomping her way, ready to strike once more.

      For the love of Fyora, thought Lee, pushing herself to her feet quickly. Scarab's lost his mind! She started at a run again, hoping that the Bruce would be much too big to keep up, but sure enough she could hear the stomping growing louder. Lee did not come all this way just to be beat up by some Bruce and his club! Enough was enough! Lee stopped in her tracks, turned to the Bruce, and held up her hoof, glaring at him. It acted as if she was telling him to wait to cross a street, for it stared at her hoof blankly.

      "Let me get one thing straight, buddy," Lee fired up at once, staring long and hard at the Bruce. "I've been attacked by my own friend, kidnapped, stuffed in a potato sack, forced to ride at least two-hundred miles from home, tied up, threatened to go into this goodness forsaken cave, and now chased by you! On behalf of your own safety, I suggest you back off before I knock your block off!"

      Reader, would you believe me if I told you that Lee's words actually made the Bruce cry and run away? I suppose you wouldn't, but it did happen… Satisfied with herself, Lee turned back and continued walking down the tunnel. She was getting tired of all these surprises. She just wanted to get back to her friends, go home, and go back to her normal life…where no one was in danger…

     * * *

Tunnel Two-

      The boulder was gaining on Omar fast! He couldn't outrun this thing! Omar ran as fast as his feet would allow, but it wasn't enough, even if he gave it all he had. From the distance, he could see another opening leading to the adjoining cave, but he knew he wouldn't make it in time… Faster and faster he ran, faster and faster the boulder rolled… Just a few yards away… Omar put all his energy to his feet. Just a few feet away… Just when Omar thought things couldn't get any worse, he tripped over his own feet, falling flat on his face. (Bet you can't say that three times really fast…)

      "No, not now," Omar cried, closing his eyes and planting his head in his arms. Why bother getting up? The boulder was not too far away from him… Closer and closer the boulder rolled… eight feet away…six feet away…four feet away…two feet away…one foot away… Omar felt a light tap on his foot and nothing else. What had just happened? Surprised, Omar lifted his head and looked over his shoulder: it appeared the tunnel had become too small for the boulder to roll down anymore… The total amount of distance between it and Omar was just a few inches.

      "Oh, thank Fyora," Omar whispered, plopping his head in his arms again. He got lucky this time…just this time. After he had pushed himself back up, Omar continued down the tunnel, hoping to find a way to safety or to his friends. As he entered the next cave, so had another person… From a separate cave opposite his, Lee had emerged, looking very tired and worn out.

      "Lee," Omar cried with joy. "You're here!"

      "Yeah, but where's Cole and Niger?" she asked, looking around. "Shouldn't they be here as well?"

      "Here," dear reader, happened to be a dead end. Have I not told you that two tunnels were the wrong ones? The cave Lee and Omar stood in had no exit except for the tunnels they had come from, and believe me, they had no intention on going back through them…

     * * *

Tunnel One-

      Let me just take this moment to inform you, reader, that Cole and Niger were well out of tunnel number one. In fact, they had just entered…

      "The Rubite mine…" Niger whispered to himself, staring around. The two gazed at their surroundings in awe. It was a beautiful sight! Well, it was a beautiful sight to Niger…to Cole, it was the worst thing ever known to a Neopet… The second worst thing was calling to them.

      "Niger, you're here?! I thought you were in prison!" Kasha exclaimed, rushing over to them. (She left the other two Cybunnies to finish collecting the Rubite…) Kasha suddenly noticed Cole standing next to Niger and gave him a look of deep resentment.

      "You brought him?!" she snapped at Niger, snatching his poisoned tipped dagger away. "How dare you! Have you completely forgotten what happened last time?"

      "I thought you'd want to do away with him personally…" Niger replied, showing no emotion. "I've no idea what to do with him, or his friends…"

      "You brought the Cybunny as well?!" Kasha nearly screamed. "No Niger! No! Bad--idea!"

      She gave Niger a small slap on the paw, and he yanked it back, rubbing it tenderly.

      "I don't want them here! Oh…" Kasha sighed. "At least it's just them and not Scarab and his crew…"

      When Niger never answered, Kasha glared at him harder than ever, and said, "Scarab isn't here, is he?"

      Niger remained silent, making Kasha scream in frustration.

      "No Niger! No, no, no!" she snarled. She then glared at Cole as if he was the cause of all her problems. Without warning, she grabbed Cole's paw and made a small cut on it with the dagger.

      "Ow!" Cole withdrew his paw in alarm…

      "There," Kasha snapped, tucking the dagger in her robe and walking towards the cave entrance swiftly. "Now we don't have to worry about him! As for his friends, they can rot in this accursed cave for all I care! Let's go, you two," she added to the Cybunnies. They, Kasha and Niger headed for the cave entrance where Cole and Niger had just come…leaving Cole behind, staring blankly at his paw.

      She cut me… he thought. She cut me… This was all he could think. He could do nothing but stare. He could do nothing but wait. He could do nothing at all…

      "No," he whispered, clenching his paw into a fist. He glared in Kasha's direction. "You're not getting away that easy…"

      Cole raced towards the Cybunnies, thinking of nothing but stopping them. He ran up behind one of Kasha's henchmen and snatched away the bag of Rubite from him. Before anyone could even figure out what had happened, Cole had ran back into the mines, up to the base of a ledge, begun to climb up the side of it, the sack clutched tightly in his paw.

      "Get it back, you buffoons!" Kasha cried. "Get back my Rubite!"

      All four Cybunnies ran to the side of the ledge, but Cole had found his way up to a small area in the ledge big enough for only someone his size and the sack of Rubite. He looked down on the other four, smirking. There was no way they'd reach him from that far down.

      "Hand it over now, boy!" Kasha snapped. Niger gently placed a paw on her shoulder and muttered, "Kasha, why not just take the remaining sack?"

      No, no, no! Kasha would not tolerate it! She wanted the other bag of Rubite, and the Wocky that held it! She would not rest until Cole was out of the way! Not until he and his little friends disappeared for good…!

     * * *

Where Two Tunnels Merge-

      Stumped… Omar and Lee were completely stumped as to how they would get out of the cave. They had examined every inch of it, high and low, and could not find any sign of a secret exit or anything of such!

      "I'm tired," Omar whined, sitting down in front of a rock. "We've been searching forever!"

      "Omar, it's only been ten minutes!" snapped Lee. "Now stop whining. I have a headache already…"

      Lee, too, sat in front of the rock next to Omar…and the two fell backwards from the combined weight, causing the rock to reveal a hidden hole in the ground… You could only imagine the look on the orphans' faces as they slipped and slid here and there on what appeared to be some sort of giant slide made of smooth rock.

      "What did you do!?!" Omar yelled to Lee as they slid faster and faster on the rock super-slide.

      "I just sat dow… WHAT IS THAT?!"

      Lee pointed ahead of them. The slide went down in a large slope, you see, and directly ahead of them lay a wide open space connected to the slide, which led to two completely different, smaller slides. Can you guess what happened next, reader? If you said that Lee and Omar slid down separate slides, then you guessed right. The slides went on forever. Lee's twisted and turned in so sharp corners that she kept bumping into the sides of the slides. Her slide also had many slopes, so every now and then she'd careen down a very large descent, not enjoying one bit of the ride…

      Omar was a different story. He simply adored the rushing wind blowing in his face as he too faced dramatic drops in the slide. His was quite different; it would spiral downward like a giant staircase, and he'd feel a strange sensation in his head.

      Smiling to himself, Omar lifted his paws in the air and cried, "THIS IS BETTER THAN EATING!! WHOO!!"

      As quickly as they had been separated, Omar and Lee were reunited, as their slides merged together once more. Lee gave Omar an incredulous look as he smiled at her and asked, "Having fun?"

      "Are you bananas?!"

      "No, I'm just enjoying the ride!"

      Before Lee could reply, they had slowed down completely. Perhaps the slide ended here? Lee, finally relaxed, looked over the edge they had stopped at: a huge drop, probably as tall as the entrance cave, (one-hundred for those who have forgotten…), greeted her.

      "I think I'm going to be sick," she whispered, closing her eyes.

      "What is it?" Omar wondered. When he looked over her shoulder, a smile so devious, so maniacal, so daring crossed his lips that Lee knew immediately what he was thinking.

      "Omar, no…" she said nervously. Omar smirked and nodded his head.

      "Yes…"

      "No, Omar!"

      It was too late. Omar gave Lee a gentle push and she was on her way down the slope, at least one-hundred feet high and he soon slid down after her. They were in for the slide of their lives…

To be continued...