"Yes master" Rhaak said as they moved, fear mounting in his broad chest as he heard the sounds of battle and hissing behind him. It was to Amira's and Rhaak's fortune that his legs were as powerful as a mules, and he leaped when he could not run past a vein of golden trinkets. It was indescribably heinous to throw a Pasha's treasure in front of Rhaak, the former thief turned slave, and yet he could not grab any of it. 

At the edge of the tunnel, Rhaak set Amira down and the statues as well, making sure to place them before he and his master so any snake who pursued would think twice before striking. Indeed a few did turn their great heads, but with an almost supernatural intelligence, they decided to return their attentions to the guardians, a much more immediate threat. The fact serpents the size of small rivers could deduce strategies was chilling. 

Rhaak then felt along the wall, drawing an upraised eyebrow from Amira that he did not see, his attention elsewhere. Once when he was a boy, he had fallen into a tomb much like this one, though far less perilous. His days as a trinket hunter and tomb robber served him well, and he knew there had to be pressure plates upon the ground or within the wall. Slight uneven patches in the stone spoke of previous work, and he placed his weight along various stone segments before one slowly slid further into the wall, and a door sized slab was removed as if by some mechanism. 

Placing the Statues of the heathen Gods at the doorway, he and Amira fled further into the tomb through winding tunnel ways. If not for the sorceress's magic, they would have been lost and died of starvation as the darkness was nearly all-encompassing. Thankfully, the tunnel suddenly began to incline upwards, the dust covered ground an easy foothold as they began to ascend. Gripping the wall of stone and helping Amira forward, they were finally led to the exit. 

They stood at the doorway, and their eyes drank in a beautiful sight. An underground chasm, where stone and earth had created areas where vegetation and even the odd flower grew. The air was humid and pleasant to breath, a rise in the ground from where they stood led down in a small pathway to the center of the cavern. Light filtered in from small holes in the ceiling, centering on the pool of water that bubbled lightly from the small waterfall that tumbled over a slab of stone, where intricate, flowing script caught the eye in its mesmerizing swirls.

"By allah..."
[@Penny]