A Monster Life

70 - The Good, the Bad, and the Dried Up

Ulric panted hard as he followed the scent and tracks in the sand from the dwarves and their animals. 'I don't know whether to be glad for this thick fur for shielding me from the sun's rays, or hate it for being black and soaking up all the heat.'

Valdys raised her eyebrows inside Cat, which followed him out of sight from the dwarves. 'Haven't you tried your chameleon ability, love? You might be able to change your fur colour to sand.'

Ulric wanted to facepalm for forgetting about his new ability and imagined his fur changing colour. It took a few moments to find the right state of mind, but he grinned when he slowly changed from black to the beige of the sand he walked on. 'Yes! I can! This is a cool superpower.'

The girls giggled at his boyish enthusiasm. 'Just remember, you don't have to use that to secretly watch us undress, Wolfie.' said Iphigenia. 'Unless you want to play a little kinky game.'

'But don't you dare to use this to peek at other women, darling.' said Elzbieta. 'I'll have your hide if you use it for other perverted means.'

Ulric sniggered. 'No worries, my beloved ones. I'm not interested in doing perverted things with anyone else than you.' he said, and pricked up his ears at the sound of hacking noises and voices farther away. He reached the top of the dune he climbed, and laid eyes upon a sandstone structure in the distance. 'Valdys, you'll have to confirm it, but I think I see where the artefact is stored.'

Valdys had Isazea move Cat into another direction, and checked the artefact's direction. 'I think you're looking at the right place. The artefact points to a short distance ahead of you.'

'Park somewhere to the right, I'll come to you after I take a closer look.'

***

Ulric arrived a while later at Cat's hiding place behind a large dune, and guzzled down a bucket of water and splashed one over his overheated head before he could speak in other manners than dry panting. 'I saw lots of dwarves excavating some kind of temple, carrying out cartloads of sand and broken stone.'

'Could it be they're after the artefact?' asked Caylais.

Valdys folded her arms and sat back. 'They could be working for someone else who has an interest in history, but if you saw no one else than dwarves, my love, I doubt it.'

Ulric shook his wet head while his fur returned to his natural colours. 'Unless they were inside and smelled like dwarf, I saw no one else.'

'I think we should assume someone knows there's an artefact there and they are trying to retrieve it.' said Iphigenia.

Ulric wiped his face and looked at Valdys. 'I'd like you and Elzbieta to come with me for another look. Maybe we can spot or think of a way to enter the temple.'

The three settled later behind a dune with a good distant view of the grounds in front of the temple. Tents stood in a group at one side along with a corral for the pack animals, and a double rail system led in and out of the large temple entrance, with dwarves pushing full carts to the side, where they were emptied and other dwarves shovelled the contents further onto large heaps.

Valdys peered at damaged statues out front, depicting guards with snake heads or scorpion bodies with lances and large shields. 'I found something in the library. This used to belong to a small civilisation that had links to the demons when they ruled this country. Desert storms must have buried it ages ago and people forgot about it.'

'Someone sure didn't.' said Ulric as he searched for any other entrance into the temple. A group of dwarves walked away from a couple of tables, and spread out to relieve others, and those went into the tents next. 'They're working in shifts. Seems there won't be a break that we could use to sneak in.'