Battle at Desert Peak

I was assigned to make a story to go into 1001 Arabian Nights. I thought it would make a nice little page here. Hope you enjoy.

Battle at Desert Peak
 In the times of Caliph Rashid Al-Abdullah, Baghdad was the prosperous capital of a great kingdom. Within this walled city lived the merchant named Mustafa, who sold talismans. At dusk one foggy evening a mysterious man came sprinting towards Mustafa.



 “Hello my good fellow, I have come with a great gift. I offer tihs talisman for a good handful of gold. I dug it out of the desert while searching for water,” he exclaims.



 Mustafa stared at the talisman with wonder, “What would this be made of?” The man is quick to respond, “Pure ivory!” The man slyly watches Mustafa waiting for an answer, “You may keep my goat as a gift to such a fine dealer.” Mustafa flips the talisman in his hand. “Very well, here is your gold.” The man quickly thanks him and walks only a few steps before the fog materializes into a giant figure.



 “Gadhafi! You insolent fool! You shall pay for your treachery.” The ginormous figure swiftly swipes his blade and cleans the blood off as Gadhafi falls to the floor dead. He then turns to Mustafa, “This thief has passed the talisman off to you, and so you too will pay a price! You will go to the Cave of the Jinn and sacrifice this goat to the Sands of Life!” Mustafa cowers back in fear, “Oh glorious Genie, I will do as you say, but spare my life as I have been unaware of my sin!”



 So Mustafa set out in finding some people to follow him in his journey. He walks into the Bazaar and finds men with knives and swords all over the place. “Ok Mustafa, the men you need have to be either the most brave or the most stupidest,” he whispers to himself.



 “Hello my good sir, I hear you are looking for men to assist you on a journey. Well, I offer my services. It includes Myself, Ali, my assistant, Hassan, and my men, Mahmud, Suleiman, Isaac, Ishmael, Youssef, Ahmad, Omar, and Khalid.” The following morning they set out on their journey to the Cave of Jinn.



 “How much farther?” asks the weary Omar “I see it in the distance, I see it!” screams Mustafa. “Hassan, take Youssef and Ishmael and secure the cave area,” Barks Ali. They run ahead and Youssef returns quickly, “It is all clear, Ishmael is setting up camp.” Once everyone arrives they set up camp. “Tomorrow we can sacrifice the goat,” completes Mustafa before heading to sleep.



 A few hours later he wakes up for his shift of guarding, “Don’t worry sir, I will take your shift” says Isaac. A few minutes later he is woken up by Isaac’s screams. “Ahmed, Suleiman! Find Isaac!” shouts Ali. “Mahmud and Youssef with me” yells Hassan. Mustafa looks at Ali, “We must get ready to move!” Ali shoves the rest of the men, “Ishmael, have Omar and Khalid pack up, we must leave!” Suddenly the sand morphs into a creature. “Sand demon!” Omar manages to get out before he is dragged into the unknown. “Battle positions!” Ali, Ishmael, and Khalid get ready to take on the demons.



<p style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"> From behind them Hassan and his men return. Hassan imbeds his spear into a demon but another slits his camel’s throat. Hassan swiftly jumps off and kills seven demons in that very spot. “We lost Isaac and Suleiman!” he shouts to Ali. “Prepare to retreat!” Mustafa and Ishmael are already riding away and Mustafa turns back in time to see Ahmed get pulled into the sand and Khalid and Ali taking to camels to fight. Suddenly a sand spike is imbedded in Ishmael’s neck and he slumps dead on the camel. Mustafa jumps off as the Camel turns into sand along with the dead Ishmael. Hassan, Youssef, and Mahmud ride towards Mustafa to help him with the line of sand demons. The first few are killed easily but then one silences Youssef by lunging a sand spike through his heart. As the sun’s first rays touch the land, most of the Sand Demons break into a sprint away from the battle with Hassan, Mahmud, and Khalid chasing them. Ali put’s his sword in it’s sheath, “Well, shall we sacrifice the goat now?” As Mustafa brings up the goat, the Genie materializes in front of them just as around twelve sand spikes find themselves stuck in Ali’s chest.

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<p style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"> “You have failed to sacrifice the goat, and now you will pay the price!” The genie swats Ali’s corpse to the side, just as Hassan and his men are riding to help Mustafa. “Fools! How dare you take me on?” The Genie waves his hand and the soldiers start to transform into sand. Khalid clutches his face as sand pours everywhere and Mahmud continues disingrating while charging. Khalid melts away completely and his camel falls. Hassan continues charging and Mahmud falls off his camel as well. Piles of sand fall off Hassan until you can barely make him out. He smiles at Mustafa just as the rest of his body falls away. Mustafa doesn’t waste the time and quickly jabs his sword into the Genie. “Nooooooooo!” The Genie disappears with wisps of fog.

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<p style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"> Mustafa sits down and ponders his two choices. On one side Mustafa can throw the talisman away and live his life in Baghdad, or he can destroy the talisman and himself. He calmly put the talisman on the sand, takes his knife, and imbeds it in the talisman. He then smiles as he turns into sand.