Here's part 2! Hope you like it!
“For once, Ali, I think you’re right,” smirked Sami. Natalie whooped, starling Nemo, who reared, whinnying, and she toppled off backwards. Prim fell off of Nevaro again with a fresh fit of the giggles. I slid off of Midnight to help her up, and she scrambled into Nevaro’s saddle, still fighting to control the giggles. I swung lightly back up onto Midnight’s back.
“Shall we go?” I asked. There was a general murmur of assent, and Ali grinned.
“Lead the way,” I smiled back. Ali turned Hybrid to face the east. She glanced back.
“Follow me!” she laughed, and flicked the reins. Hybrid took off at a fast trot, and we urged our horses after him, soon hitting a fast canter.
It wasn’t long before we reached a village. Ali reined Hybrid in, and we slowed to a walk. Midnight whickered. Ali looked back.
“Aww, you hungry?” she smiled. Midnight tossed his head, snorting. Ali fished in her backpack.
“Here you go, bud,” She tossed him a carrot, which he caught, happily crunching it up and whickering what sounded like a thanks. Ali beamed. Natalie looked half-puzzled, half-amused.
“Ali, you’re being crazy again,” she sighed, but there was a playful note in her voice. Ali turned, hitting Natalie with the dead eyes.
“You’ve seen nothing yet, Nat,” she purred. We slid off of our horses as a couple of villagers scurried towards us.
“Greetings, travellers,” called the one in the lead. Ali retreated into the midst of the multi-coloured horses and let us handle the situation.
“We welcome you to the Village of Silver Sands,” smiled the first villager. I glanced around. Sand was right. White sand was heaped around the houses, half-burying them. But I turned my attention to the villagers as Natalie spoke.
“We’re looking for something, could you help us?” she asked, returning the villagers’ smiles. The lead villager tilted her head.
“What is it you seek?” she answered.
“The Diamond of Invisibility,” Cass replied, half-laughing, trying not to catch Prim’s eyes.
“The temple is near, follow-” She stopped, staring past us. “Umm... Is she okay?” she wondered, and we followed her gaze. Ali had her arms wrapped around Hybrid’s neck, rubbing her face in his mane and mumbling nonsense. Cass snorted.
“Yeah. That’s just Ali being Ali,” she smirked. Prim sniggered, biting her lip. As the lead villager turned away from Ali, Prim lost all control and burst out into hysterical laughter. Ali looked up.
“What?” she asked, innocently, and went back to being… well, Ali.
The lead villager stared at Ali for a heartbeat longer, then seemed to shake herself.
“Follow me, I will take you to the temple entrance,” She whistled, and a silver stallion materialized at her side. The other villagers jumped, but we were unfazed, completely used to horses’ teleporting. She mounted gracefully, stroking the horse’s mane. We swung ourselves into our saddles, and nudged our horses into a trot, following the villager. Ali was swaying back and forth, performing a happy-dance to imaginary music. Sand flicked into our faces and clumped in our horses’ coats, and our hair. Sami released the reins with one hand to run her fingers through her tangled blonde hair. Sand puffed out from it in a cloud.
“I’ll never untangle this!” she growled irritably, shaking her hair back and picking the reins up again. We trotted along for what felt like hours, leaving a long line of hoof prints in the sand. Ali never stopped bouncing in her saddle, swaying to and fro like a branch in high wind.
I rolled my eyes at her antics as we started to climb a tall sand dune. Up ahead, I heard Cass gasp.
“It’s… real?” breathed Natalie. Midnight reached the crest of the dune and I saw it. Sitting like a glittering beetle in the sandy valley was a beautiful ice-blue temple, with a tall tower in the middle. Ali jumped off of Hybrid, shrieked with glee, and sat down in the sand.
“What are you doing, Ali?” asked Natalie.
“Taking the fast way!” sang Ali, and she pushed off from the top of the dune. She skidded all the way down, squealing with delight as she shot over the sand. Prim laughed, sliding of off Amirite and sinking down onto the sand.
“It’s fun!” called Ali, waving up at us. We laughed and slid down to join her. Ali was right, whizzing down a sand dune at breakneck speed was fun.
Look out for Part 3 - The Temple of Traps
Coming Soon!
Nice I love it!♥