After my 'no duh' statement, I did a very sensible thing. I went to the door to open it.
Unfortunately, the door was banged up and stuck. Really stuck. So I did a… slightly stupid thing.
"Come on! Work with me here!" I yelled, then I kicked the door. Oowwwwwwww…
Max, who had come up behind me, rolled her eyes, pushed me out of the way, and tugged experimentally on the door. It did not budge. So Max asked the pilot for something.
"Hey," she called towards the front, "do you have a hatchet I can use? The door's kinda stuck."
A groan from the front let us know that the dude was alive. He poked his head around the door, and said, slightly groggily, "Maybe. It's on here in case of a fire."
Seriously?! They keep hatchets on planes?! And they were letting Max use it willingly?
….I don't think the plane was the same again after Max found her hatchet and hit, ahem, mauled, the door…
Gazzy and Nudge, who were standing by me, ducked as a piece of metal flew past. I was hiding behind a seat. It was the same seat that had been ripped to shreds. Iggy shouted at Max, "Take it easy! Some of us actually like keep metal out of our skulls!"
The brownish haired girl then finished wreaking destruction on the plane door. It was apparently very thick, tough metal, 'cause I don't think it would have stood for as long as it did against a determined Max.
I let the flock clamber out of the plane first, seeing as they were wound tighter than a spring. Again, claustrophobia. Thank the heavens I don't have it. I climbed after them. Ella and Dr. Martinez, followed by the pilot and co-pilot, came after me.
Max took charge. I let her. I'm not really an Alpha person, more so of a Beta more than anything else. The leader says what needs to be done, the deputy actually makes sure it does get done. The leader gets blamed for bad actions, the deputy is ignored. A much better life, I would say.
"Okay," she started, her Beta, I mean Fang, by her side, "First off, where are we?"
"I think we're close to the coast of Mauritania," said the pilot. I still didn't know what his name was. Oh well.
"We're supposed to have landed in Mali…" his partner in flight trailed off.
Max nodded, and Fang asked, "Do we have any communication?"
The co-pilot shook his head. "No, the radio got taken out in the… landing." Well, that's the nice way to put it…
Ella had whipped out a cell phone and was holding it very high. "No cell service, either."
"Then we're walking." Max's statement brought many a complaint to the group.
"Why can't we fly?" whined Nudge.
"We'd leave these four to the wildlife," Max replied, waving a hand towards the four pure humans.
"And we don't know the terrain. We don't know how far help is, and how fast we could get there. It'll be best to stick together." Wow, Fang is turning into a talkaholic.
Iggy turned to me, or at least in my direction, and he apparently had an idea. "Hey, Spark, since we're walking, could you find a couple of zebras to ride?"
I threw him a wasted but nonetheless satisfying glare. "The are a number of things wrong with that, Iggy," I started.
Gazzy whispered to Angel, "Here comes a really long monologue."
"First off, what wild animal would let you ride it? I mean, horses are one thing, but they're used to them, and trust humans. Second, I don't see any zebras around here, do you?"
"I'm blind. I can't see anything."
"No duh. Anyway, I don't see any footprints, hair, or poo to suggest that zebras have been here. And thirdly, zebras don't live here! They lived in the savannah! We. Are. In. A. Flipping. Desert," I finished, panting slightly.
Angel piped up, "What about camels?"
Oh. OH. Whoops. Iggy "looked" in my direction and raised an eyebrow questioningly. I said threateningly, "No comment."
Now, Nudge turned to me and attacked before Max or Fang could say anything. "Ooh, a camel? I've never ridden one before!"
"None of us have," Max muttered with gritted teeth.
"Uh, this has been very entertaining," interrupted the pilot, "But I see some camels over there."
WHAT!?!?! Oh. He was right! Apparently, camels are everywhere in Mauri-whatsit.
"How do you plan to get them over here? And willing to let us ride them?" Oh, the co-pilot would be in for a big surprise…
Gazzy shoved me in the direction of the camels. "Oh, Spark here's a kind of animal whisperer." The rest of the flock smothered giggles as I glared at him.
All of the people there settled down a bit, while standing, to watch me attempt to camel tame. I took this as a hint to go, and I squared my shoulders and took off.
Walking, not flying. Remember, we are trying to not scare the camels.
As I approached, one looked up at me curiously. I started the conversation by saying the first word that comes to mind when greeting someone; "Hi…"
All of the camels stared back. One (it's always one) recovered first, and replied, "Hello… What do you want, human?"
Someone's no nonsense…. "Well, me and my friends crashed from the sky. Unfortunately, the thing we use to get up in the sky… died… so we can't get to where we need to go."
This was good, the camels looked convinced…
"So… since you are the royalty of the desert, perfectly suited to this as we are not, could you help us get out of here?" The camels looked slightly pleased by now. Flattery will get you anywhere. By a quick head count, there were about nine or ten camels in the herd,
"You want to ride us? You think we are that dumb?" said one male furiously.
"Hush, Abeeku, we haven't heard all of what she is offering us," scolded an older female. She swiveled her head to look me in the eye. "You will give us something in return if we let you ride us, correct?"
I gulped slightly, my tail twitching nervously. "Yes. Will food and water suffice?"
The female, who was obviously the leader of the group, stared at me for a bit, then nodded. "Yes. For all of us. We will accept our payment when we reach our destination."
Abeeku still looked uneasy. "Is that it?"
I piped up, "My group can provide protection during the journey, guranteed!"
The female nodded approvingly. "Good. Tell your group that we accept. By the way, I'm called Murua. You?"
"Spark, Lady Murua."
She dipped her head, and I jogged back to the flock and humans.
"Well?" asked Iggy.
"We can ride on them, but they need payment in return."
"What kind of payment?" the pilot asked curiously.
I took a deep breath, and rattled off the terms. "We have to protect them on the way out of the desert, and once out we give them food and water for them all. Then, I believe they wish to stay free."
Dr. Martinez then said, "So, let's go," and we walked over to the camels to begin the trek across the desert.
And that's a wrap! I hope you enjoyed that chapter! Please review, and tell me what you thought of it!