The van took a good hit. It fell for about 30 feet until crashing into the ground, but fortunately, Carmelita, Bentley, and Murray were all okay.
"Are you guys all right?" asked Carmelita as she grabbed her right shoulder and tried to get out of the van.
"Yeah." answered the hippo, who was slightly disoriented.
"Fine back here." added the turtle as he raised his hand with his thumb up.
The three exited the Cooper Van just to find out they had landed on some wheat crops, destroying a significant part of the harvest. They looked around and saw what seemed to be the farmer's house on top of a nearby hill. That's when the farmer, a short Siamese cat, came out and started yelling at them.
"He doesn't look happy." pointed out Murray.
The cat rushed down the hill and violently approached the gang. "What is this?! Who are you?! What are you doing on my farm?!" Before any of the three could answer any of the farmer's questions, the cat realized the damage done to his crops and acted like he was going to have a panic attack. "Oh…" He put his hands to his head. "Oh, no, no, no." His voice got louder with each no. "What have you done?!" He finally blew up in rage.
Bentley tried to calm him down and explain the situation, but it didn't work. "We are sorry, sir. We were traveling, and accidentally-"
"Accidentally?! How, in Bastet's name, you accidentally crashed your hideous cart into my wheat!" To say he was angry was an understatement.
"Hey!" Murray stepped up and pointed his finger at the cat. "No one calls my baby hideous, pal."
The farmer looked at the hippo up and down, dumbfounded, before furrowing his brow. "Alright, that does it! I'm getting the authorities!"
As the farmer would have probably taken at least an hour to notify the authorities, the gang could have just walked away. But since they didn't want to attract too much attention, they tried to reason with him.
"Sir, wait! I'm sure we can figure another way to sort this out." said the turtle.
"We can help you plant more wheat," added Murray.
"Plant more? You, vandals, have destroyed months' worth of work! You should work until next summer to pay for what you've done!" Then, Carmelita had an idea.
The vixen went back to the van and grabbed the rest of the gold coins they didn't use to travel. "Does this cover the cost of a new harvest?"
"Have you got more?" He raised one of his eyebrows.
"No."
"Then yes." The cat flashed a greedy smile and snatched the coins.
"So, are we even?" asked Bentley.
"Oh, yeah, yeah. Just make sure you get that thing out of my farm." He contemptuously waved his hand at them as he walked away while counting the money.
"Wait!" Carmelita went after him. "Could you tell us where the nearest city is?"
"Sure. It's Men-Nefer, the capital city. You just have to follow the river. You can't miss it!" He pointed at the Nile, which supplied water to his crops. Or at least what was left of them. "By the way. You're not from around here, are you?" he asked, curious.
"Not exactly, no." admitted the fox.
"Yeah, I figured. Well, then be careful. The people of the capital do not like outsiders very much, nor do they like vandals." said the cat before finally walking away. "And don't forget to take that thing out of my farm!"
Murray, being the strongest of the three, was obviously the one in charge of moving the van. But since it was right in the middle of the wheat crops, it wasn't going to be an easy, nor quick, task, and Carmelita, as impatient as she was, didn't want to sit around and wait. The vixen grabbed her bag, put on the cloak Bentley gave her and got ready to follow the farmer's directions to the city of Men-Nefer.
"Carmelita? Where are you going?" asked the turtle, who was having trouble getting his wheelchair through the sand.
"To the capital. If Sly's been messing around there, I'm sure there will be many merchants complaining about a ring-tailed bandit." she answered in a determined voice.
"Don't you think it'd be better if we waited for Murray to get the van out of there?"
"Probably. Doesn't look like he's gonna do it anytime soon, though."
They both turned to the hippo, who was struggling to move the Cooper Van over the wet dirt and wheat. "Don't worry, guys! Almost got it!" He raised his thumb.
"I'll keep you posted on the binocucoms." She slung her bag on her back.
"But-"
"I'll be back before sunset!" said the fox before she began walking along the Nile's bank.
Bentley sighed as he watched Carmelita walk away. "She's as stubborn as Sly… No wonder they're made for each other." As Murray still couldn't move the van, the two decided to set camp next to the farm before trying again.
Meanwhile, the vixen wandered through sand and palm trees until she climbed a dune. Once she reached the top, Carmelita saw the city in the distance. From where she was standing, the river formed a distributary that went all the way down the dune and surrounded Men-Nefer, providing water to the nearby crops. The city itself was guarded by a tall white wall made of stone. And another thing that also stood out was the colossal temple with two pylons that stood right in the middle of Men-Nefer.
Carmelita carefully went down the dune and made her way to the city's main entrance, which was guarded by a high gate and two statues of a jackal, one on each side. The fox didn't have any problem when walking in, but she soon realized how difficult it was going to be to find Sly. The urban area was huge, and the streets were packed. In hopes that the raccoon was jumping through some close-by rooftops, the vixen took off the hood so he could recognize her, but that just drew more attention to her. Back in the day, seeing a fox in Ancient Egypt was very uncommon, which, together with her unusual hair color, made most of the locals stare at her.
By the time she got to the merchant's district, many people believed her to be some kind of foreigner princess. As she made her way through the market's main street, many vendors approached her to buy her clothes and offer her their products. Carmelita ignored them until she came across a lynx and his pottery stand.
"Excuse me, have you seen a raccoon around here? Gray fur, black stripes on the tail…" she asked in a slightly desperate voice.
The lynx stared at her with narrowed eyes. "No… I'm sorry. I have not seen anyone like that." He quickly changed his facial expression to a friendlier one. "But I can offer you great prices in this pottery selection. I have vases, bowls, cups, jugs, teapots, teacups…"
"Thanks, but I'm not interested." said the fox before leaving the stand.
Right at that very moment, Carmelita felt a cold stream of air and a chill that went up and down her body. She looked to her left and saw another hooded individual almost at the end of the street. The vixen covered the sun with her hand and headed towards the figure that caught her attention. Could it be Sly? That question rumbled in her head as she got closer. But then she felt how someone pushed her from behind and took her bag.
"Hey!" She yelled, but no one in the market seemed to care. The fox quickly raised her head to try and locate the hooded individual, but it had disappeared. So she decided to hunt down her bag's thief, a hyena who was currently trying to escape through some narrow alleys.
Carmelita moved through the crowd and managed to catch up to the hyena, whose shorter legs didn't do him any favors. At some point, the doglike mammal turned around and saw the vixen right behind him. He got nervous and tried to climb a wall. But, when he was at the top, he slipped and fell to the other side. The fox flawlessly jumped over it and grabbed the hyena by his tunic. It had been some time since she had chased a criminal like that, but she still hadn't lost her touch.
"Give me the bag!" she aggressively ordered.
"Okay, okay! But, please, don't hit me!" The hyena flinched and covered his face with his arms.
The vixen mumbled something in Spanish and took back her bag, but just as she was putting it back on, she realized a huddle had formed around them, and everyone was staring at her like she was some kind of bandit.
"So much for not drawing attention…" she said to herself before leaving the hyena and making her way back into the crowd.
Carmelita hoped that wouldn't cause her any more trouble, but just a few seconds later, she heard a voice yelling at her and telling her to stop.
"Oh, for fuck's sake." She turned and saw three tigers chasing her with swords and spears.
The fox ran and tried to give them the slip, but it didn't take long for more guards to join her chase. The streets began to fill with panic and noise as Carmelita escaped. She got into an alleyway similar to the one she had chased the hyena through and waited for things to calm down. After a few minutes, the vixen came out and looked around to see if they were gone. But just when she thought she had gotten rid of them, Carmelita received a blow right to the abdomen that made her fall to the ground on her back. The fox grabbed her stomach and tried to crawl away, but she ran into a wall. She tried to get up, but the vixen was surrounded by half a dozen tiger guards armed to their teeth. Seeing as there was no other way, Carmelita decided to surrender. Hopefully, she would soon find a way to contact Bentley or get out of this situation.