[center]فر النمر والمامبا السوداء من المدينة بالدم والفوضى في أعقابهما. سافروا غربًا في الليل، لكن المماليك كانوا في أعقابهم، وقبلهم، انفتحت الصحراء نفسها لتبتلع الزوجين.[/center]

[center]The tiger and the black mamba fled the city with blood and chaos in their wake. They traveled west into the night, but the mamluks were on their heels, and  before them, the very desert opened up to swallow the pair up.[/center] 

From Volume II of '[i]Thieves and Devils[/i]' 
([sub]Translated by Austerwitz Schäfer[/sub])

[hr]

"Hurry, it's almost here!" Calliope hissed.

The wind howled, a thousand thousand grains of sand flying as their doom approached from above. The sun had disappeared behind a shape as immense as a falling hill, and a shriek that drowned out Calliope's scream of anger and fear erupted from its beaked maw. Bahadir roared, slamming a large rock onto the portal's ornate visage with the strength of a bull, but it merely gave it a tiny crack down its center, their hopes dashed. Calliope unsheathed her scimitar, stolen from a slain mamluk in their escape, and she turned to face the monster approaching, though it was akin to brandishing a splinter against a rampaging ogre. Bahadir, undeterred, lifted the rock one last time, his muscles bulging as he lifted the stone high above his head, and with a cry to the Old Gods, he struck the barrier with such force, the crack echoed across the dunes as the material gave way, crumbling before his eyes. As Calliope raised her sword, her stance lowered to allow herself to ready a spring, she was grabbed by her belt from behind. The pirate captain gave an unlady-like yelp of surprise as she was thrown into the darkness of the broken threshold. 

"Mannan's balls!" Bahadir cursed, stealing one of his companion's usual remarks as he dove in after her. Even as he flew through the hole, freefalling into the darkness, he felt just as much as heard a second scream from the primordial beast, the very dunes around them reverberating to send waves of sand tumbling. 

Both Bahadir and Calliope landed on a sand-covered floor of some sort of soft stone, rolling to help ease their momentum as there was a huge crash, and a beak the size of a donkeycart stabbed into the hole after them, snapping greedily. Bahadir and Calliope scrambled back together, staring up at the apex predator that desperately tried to break through the entrance, the thing pecking and shrieking, before it pulled its sharpened beak away and screamed into the air, every movement of its feet like the stomp of a lustrian thunderlizard. A minute passed, and finally with a great beat of wings that dwarfed the sails of an imperial galley, it lifted back into the sky and disappeared. The silence that followed was pregnant with suspense until the pirate broke it.

"Typical," The dark woman sighed, brushing the sand out of her black locks. Bahadir checked their water skins, making sure they were not compromised or broken. Unfortunately, the majority of their meager supplies had been consumed along with their one camel. Both the slave-fighter and the pirate had heard legends of the mighty Roc, but neither had expected to meet one in broad daylight, merely two days from Copher. It had appeared to be a mere vulture or raven at first, something Bahadir had spotted as he gazed at the sky, appreciating his freedom. That was, until it drew closer, and ballooned into the ravenous, monumental beast it was. 

After their camel had been snatched, they had raced up the closest dune, and the beating of the massive bird's wings has sent the sand careening into the air, uncovering the Door of The Moon, or so the inscription on the front had said. At the time, Bahadir had not the inclination to think on it, but now that he had a moment to dwell on the image, the moon had looked much like the accursed Morrsleib. Now they were in a cavernous cavity under the ground, hollowed out roughly, feeding into a strange tunnel. Perhaps it was a trick of the light, but a few meters within the tunnel, there was a sizeable stream of sand that poured like a waterfall into the floor, though the floor itself grew no bigger. If one was careful, they could squeeze passed it, but the physics alone boggled the mind. 

"Your timing could have been better, but not bad up there," Calliope said, as good of a compliment as she would give. 

"Thanks," Bahadir said, and then shrugged. "You could have done better." 

She raised an eyebrow at him, and the failure to hide his grin betrayed him, uncovering the joke. She snorted. "I've killed men for saying less," she threatened back, albeit facetiously as well. 

The barbarian watched the sailor walk under the light of the sun that beamed from above, thrice the height of a man. She placed her hands on her hips, as if daring the portal to remain so far from her grasp. But then she turned and marched away, towards the only other way to go: Past Bahadir and into the tunnel of moving sand.

"Come on, sailor," She said, slapping his thigh like he was a horse as she passed by. 

"Koffa!" He exclaimed, Calliope having learned it was the arabyan 'whoa.' She gave a pantherish grin back at him, and then stepped into the tunnel. He moved his unkempt mane out of his face, unsheathed his own scimitar, and followed.