At the moment he fell, Hal knew he was finished.
Time started to slow down as he fell, and in less than a second from the hump to the sand, Hal remembered his entire life...
Boom!
He fell sideways onto the sand and rolled several times. The fine sand slightly cushioned the impact against the ground, but he heard the crunch of bones in his arms.
By all indications, Hal's chances of survival were infinitely close to zero, but he wasn't one to sit and wait for death. His experiences as a teenager had tempered his will to survive. He struggled to get up against the wind, briefly checked his injuries, and found that he was lucky to have only broken his arm. His thigh and waist were numb, but no bones were broken.
If he had broken a leg, he would have died.
But now he was halfway to death, the sandstorm and the desert, either of which could have been fatal.
He brushed off the dust, but in the next moment, he was covered in more sand. Hal took two steps in the footprints of the dying camels, suddenly realizing how difficult it was to walk in the desert without a camel.
A rock protruded from the ground and caused him to stumble. As Hal collapsed to the ground, trying to spit the sand out of his mouth, he felt a sudden drop in the wind around him.
Before him appeared a large hairy paw, with dagger-like claws visible. Hal looked up and saw a massive black beast blocking his path through the sand.
The beast was so big that he could only see its body and front legs.
He recoiled, but before he could react any further, his back tensed, and he was caught by the mysterious beast and suspended two meters in the air.
As he swung, he could faintly see a huge dog's head next to the creature. Hal was momentarily paralyzed, initially thinking it was a giant sideways wild dog, but then he realized that the head and the body behind it were the same thing.
Suddenly, a crazy thought entered his mind: Since the dog's head is sideways, what is holding it up?
He had already concluded that the creature he encountered was a giant dog, but what was that head? Could it be a two-headed dog? Hal couldn't believe it.
In nature, there were two-headed snakes and turtles, but it was the first time he had come across a two-headed dog. And aside from the number of heads, this dog was too big!
As he pondered, the strange dog moved.
Hal could feel the dog running wildly with him in its mouth, which relieved him a little: at least the dog didn't eat him right away, so things were improving. Better yet, the fact that the dog carried him in its mouth increased his chances of surviving the sandstorm. After all, this thing had grown up in the desert and seemed strong enough not to be buried by a sandstorm, right?
The strange dog is, of course, Tom.
The first time he leaped from the hump, he transformed into a three-headed dog, and with this delay, the team had advanced at least twenty meters, and the tracks were quickly fading.
The camel was running with the wind, so Tom had to go against it. Fortunately, the three-headed dog was big and sturdy enough to keep up with the wind's pace. Tom followed the tracks left by the camel caravan and the scent in his nose for 50 or 60 meters before finding Dr. Hunter lying on the ground.
He lowered his head, grabbed Dr. Hunter by the belt, and guided him to catch up with the camel caravan.
With the wind, the pace was much faster, and Tom gradually caught up with the camels. He followed one of the camels and left Dr. Hunter in its mouth. After surviving death, Dr. Hunter didn't have time to think about what had happened and simply grabbed the camel by the hair surrounding its neck.
Once his mission was accomplished, Tom was about to return to his camel. At that moment, his ears sharpened, and he heard a strange sound: it was the same sound of the camels running, only much louder.
He looked towards the source and saw a multitude of animals in motion, led by a massive white camel. A normal camel, with its hump about two meters off the ground and three meters long, is a huge creature, but the white camel was twice as big as that, with a hump that appeared to Tom to be about 2.5 meters.
The white camel was followed by several ordinary dromedaries with smaller and sharper humps than the domesticated camels of the herd, longer bodies, smaller hooves, and less hairy and more intelligent-looking appearances.
In addition to camels, there are other creatures like wolves and sheep. But the most striking is a black cat on top of a white camel.
Tears of excitement welled up from the corners of Yushadu's eyes as he saw that wild animal: the gods were still watching over him!
The others realized that these desert animals must know where to take shelter from the sandstorm. The camels carrying passengers followed the white camel with the black cat on its head without their owner commanding them to do so.
Tom couldn't remember how far they had come since they started running for their lives, but after the white camel led them around a massive sandhill, everything opened up: before them appeared the remains of an ancient city, very well preserved. All the members of the group were astonished by the size and magnificence of the city.
The city walls have survived for many years, although they have occasionally collapsed, and they still stand. The walls rest against a series of tall sandhills, which in turn create a cluster of dunes. The dunes and sandhills overlapped, surrounding and completely covering the city.
As soon as Tom saw it, his instinct told him that this was the ancient city they were searching for, lost in time.
The crossing between the sandy hills was the breach in the walled city.
The white camel took the lead and found a path between the hills, through the gap created by a section of the wall collapsing, and entered the old city. The animals behind followed in its footsteps.
The path between the dunes was not wide enough for the herd to slow down, and Tom took the opportunity to transform back into his human form, climb onto his camel, and give Hermione a pat to show her he was safe. Hermione stiffened as she realized someone was behind her. She didn't look back, she just hunched over stiffly on the camel's back, with her goggles foggy.
The herd ahead was a mix of herbivores, carnivores, and scavengers, all of which were typically seen as predators but now coexisted in harmony, even queuing together to enter the city.
After a while, it was the team of camels' turn to enter the city. Panting heavily, the camels ran and entered the mysterious ruins of the city.