Chapter Text
~PROLOGUE~
The desert sands swirled into the night air, bringing with it a chilling breeze that cut straight to one’s bones. The stars above twinkled in the night sky, although almost overpowered by the rays of a bright full moon. Silence resonated in the air, only interrupted by the snorting sounds of a camel, and the occasional movement of cloth. None of this mattered to Dio however, as his quarry arrived on his own camel.
“You are late ,” his voice rumbled with a twinge of annoyance. His usual honeyed mannerisms had been thrusted aside, along with the last strands of his patience.
“My apologies, o’ noble one. I am indeed late. It should please you to know that I finally have the item you were looking for.” The rogue waved the item in question, one half of an arrowhead.
As Dio reached over to grab it however, the rogue jerked his hand back. “Ah-ah-ah. You promised me riches in return for this. Now pay up.”
The rogue’s smug look quickly turned into agitated shock as the arrowhead was snatched out of his hand. A second glance let him know it was Dio’s falcon that stole it from him.
A baritone chuckle hung in the air as the falcon dropped the arrowhead into Dio’s awaiting palm, and he slipped a hand into his robes to pull out the other half. “Calm yourself Hol Horse. You’ll get what’s coming to you, rest assured.” As Dio connected the two halves of the arrowhead together, it shone with a blinding light that distracted him from the vibrations it was inducing.
The arrowhead quickly flew out of his hands and sped off, with Dio and Hol Horse giving chase without delay. "Don't lose it! Follow the light!" Though Dio had been shouting this at his steed rather than the man trailing after him.
When it concluded its trek across the desert, it hovered still in the air to point at a rather tall mound of sand, which had begun to glow as well. It rose higher and higher, slowly taking some kind of form… a cat? No, it had taken a form reminiscent of a lowered sphinx, it's mouth wide open to reveal the entrance.
“Well well,” Dio whispered, his syrupy tone back to its usual place in his throat, “at last, I’ve finally found it. The Canaveral Tomb, said to hold all the world’s lost treasures…”
“My god…”
Ah. Yes. The rogue was still here. “Now then, you will bring me the lamp hidden within the tomb. The rest of the treasure you may keep, but the lamp is mine. Now go .”
As Hol Horse slowly made way through the sand and into the open-mouthed entrance of the tomb, the shape of the sphinx spoke with a booming rattle. “Only one who’s worth what’s in here may enter. How dare you disturb my slumber?” With some insistence from Dio, Hol Horse swallowed and continued on, hesitantly placing a foot into the sphinx’s mouth.
Nothing happened.
He took another careful step.
The sphinx slammed its jaws shut on top of him, ignoring Dio’s vexed outburst of “ NO !”
An echoing cry of "seek the one who is worthy" rang through the air as the tomb melted away to the simple pile of sand it originally was. The arrowhead laid by Dio's foot as he heaved an irritated breath. His falcon sat perched on his shoulder, gently nudging its beak into the side of his face.
"You're right Pet Shop. Patience is key if I want to get this accursed lamp. We just need to find the 'fortunate' soul that is worthy."
With a flourish of his robes, he let out a violent cackle as he resumed his seat on his camel, and rode off into the dark sands of desert