Winter Legacy -21-

Claus always wondered how he would react when he finally met Tahiya Shalut. He was surprised at how lovely she was, he'd always imagined her to be a middle aged woman with low hanging breasts and  a globe-like waist. For Tahiya though, their meeting was strictly business. She sent Claus into the desert to find mummitonium, a rare and very expensive stone, to use as a bribe for MorcuCorp. He was confused, why would they need to bribe them? 

Nevertheless, Claus went into the wilderness, searching for three of the stones. The sun had come up and the desert which had been freezing cold in the night, became uncomfortably hot.  

Once the stones were located, Claus would have to deposit them in a chest in the secret headquarters, but before he made his way back to town, he decided to rest in a desert oasis. It seemed as if the young man had stumbled upon another world, the small camp was surrounded by lush vegetation, the tall trees cast shadows that cooled the earth.

Claus only took an hour's rest though, as much as he wanted to stay longer in the peace and quiet, he had only a small amount of time left in Egypt and a mission to complete, so he managed to rouse himself and continue the long walk to town.

The headquarters where Claus was supposed to deliver the bribe was at another house. He found the entrance to the headquarters inside a storage shed.

Again Claus had to avoid traps and travel through corridors, he found a room full of chests but none was the one he was supposed to deposit the bribe in. There should have been a secret office somewhere, but just as Claus was about to give up on finding the office, he happened upon it's entrance. Claus successfully deposited the bribe and left.

Base camp was silent when Claus arrived, either the tourists and adventurers were somewhere around Al Simhara or on their way back to their own countries.

"Claus!" Jaylee grinned.

"Hey Jay, where were you?"

"I went to see a friend of mine off at the airport." She told him. "Claus, we really need to talk."

"What about?"

"About your issues, I thought you were over them."

Claus immediately became defensive. "So I don't want to get married, sue me. You're just like my parents and Erika."

"Claus..." Jaylee sighed, she decided to let it go, the last thing she wanted was to have an argument with Claus. "We'll miss our flight if we don't hurry up."