Guatemala Maxx

and Eye of Horus

A story by Tygon Panthera

After an idea by Pflarrian Collifox

This story is © 2005 by Marc-Dennis Horn. This story may not be sold or used for commercial profit in any form or fashion. This story may not be modified in any way. This story may not be posted on a mirror site or any other Internet site without the written permission of the author. This story may not be distributed on print, magnetic, electrical, optical or any other mediums.

David ‘Guatemala Maxx’ Celis © by himself

Michael Joseph Regan III and IV © by themselves

Pflarrian Collifox © by Brian Empanger

Markus White © by Mark White

Victoria Panthera © by Joshua Fox

All other characters are © by Marc-Dennis Horn

Chapter 4

- A restaurant, City of Naritot, Egypt, Africa

2:31 pm, Tuesday, 14th of May, 1939 -

      With a yelp of pain and surprise Pflarrian dropped to the ground, holding his muzzle with both paws. Mike let out a similar yelp as Maxx reached back with his left paw and used it to push the raccoon backwards. Mike stumbled and fell, pulling one of the jackal guards with him in the process.

      Maxx’s right went to his waist, grabbing the handle of his whip and with a loud crack it shot forward, leaving a long cut on the other guard’s right arm who dropped the pistol he had pulled out. Mike was trying to get up again as Maxx jumped forward, ramming his left fist into the stomach of a leopard who had jumped up from the large table that dominated the room. He was about jump at another jackal who was coming towards them to help his friends as two voices shouted loudly

      “STOP!”

      Maxx and everyfur else in the room stopped in their movements and turned towards the source of the calls. To everyone’s amazement the  purple robed figure bent over Pflarrian and extended an arm to help the hybrid getting up.

      “Now we are even,” the figure said with a big grin on his muzzle as he hugged the canine.

      Over the next few minutes furs were helped back to their feet, apologies were exchanged and cuts and bruises were tended to. Eventually they all were seated around the large table and the purple clad figure, who Pflarrian introduced to Maxx and Mike as Ohmar Al’Jabbar offered them snacks and refreshments. Ohmar was a large lion with large meaning that he was almost as wide as he was tall. His mane was so thick it almost hid his face and despite the rather rude first impression he had given he turned out to be a very nice fur.

      “Let’s just say the last time Ohmar and I met we didn’t exactly part under friendly terms,” Pflarrian explained after Maxx inquired what the punch was about.

      “And he accepts it just like that?” Mike asked Maxx in a low voice while Pflarrian and Ohmar where talking animatedly in Egyptian.

      “That’s how things are handled here,” the feline replied.

      “What brings you here, my friends?” Ohmars booming voice drew Maxx and Mike’s attention to the lion.

      “The usual, Ohmar,” Maxx replied, leaning forward. “We’re looking for something.”

      Ohmar laughed loudly. “What else should the great Guatemala Maxx be doing in Egypt? And which priceless artifact is it this time?”

      “My father,” Mike said, every head in the room turning towards him.

      “You are son of Mike Regan?” Ohmar asked after a few moments of total silence.

      “Yes,” the raccoon confirmed with a nod. “We think we know where he is.”

      “Your father was a great man,” the lion said, his voice suddenly low. “I knew him for many years and helped him many times on his expeditions.”

      “And when he disappeared?”

      “He hired us,” Ohmar said with a nod. “We where supposed to meet in an encampment about 50 miles south from here but he never came.”

      “Do you know where he planned to go?” Mike asked hopefully, leaning forward, his eyes fixed on the lion but Ohmar shook his head.

      “He never told us. Wanted to make sure nobody could get there first I guess.”

      The disappointment was written plainly over Mike’s face and Maxx quickly spoke before the raccoon could voice his emotions.

      “Regan’s diary turned up,” the feline said. “We studied it and think he went to Asyuot.”

      “Asyuot,” Ohmar murmured, combing the thick hair on his chin with his claws. “It would make sense. But then again, it would not.”

      “Please decide,” Pflarrian asked with a grin.

      Ohmar chuckled. “It would make sense that Asyuot is the place he wanted to go, considering where he wanted to meet us.  However,” the lion went on. “It does not make sense that he wanted to go there. The ruins of Asyuot have been explored very thoroughly and nobody ever found anything of value. Regan himself has been there before.”

      The silence that followed lasted only a few seconds before Maxx reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out the small book that was Eye’s Diary.

      “We think that he found something that he had missed before,” Mike explained as Maxx showed the changed map of Asyuot to Ohmar. “Maybe he found some new hints, we don’t know, but it is the best lead we have.”

      The lion stared at the small map for almost a minute before he raised his head to look at Pflarrian, a questioning expression on his face.

      “I would be just like him,” the canine hybrid said with a nod. “You know how obsessed he was with finding the Eye of Horus. Rushing to Asyuot sounds just like what he would do if he had found concrete hints that it was there.”

      Again there was a long silence when Ohmar stared at the map of the ancient city. Then he slowly turned his gaze towards Mike. “I mean no disrespect to your father.” The lion spoke slowly, looking the raccoon directly into the eyes. “But I think that he got himself into something he could not handle. I am not very superstitious, but I don’t think that the Eye of Horus is something one should mess with.”

      Mike blinked, rather surprised by the sudden change in Ohmar. “I don’t care about the Eye,” he said. “I only want to know what happened to my father.”

      Again Ohmar stared, this time deep into Mike’s eyes. The raccoon felt more and more uncomfortable with each passing moment but before he could say anything the lion spoke again.

      “Very well!” he said, his voice loud and booming again. “What do you think we need?” he asked, now turning towards Maxx and Pflarrian.

      “A team,” the feline replied. “I think between ten and twenty furs should do. And equipment.”

      “Alright. What about food?”

      Maxx turned to Pflarrian. “I’ve taken care of that. We should have enough provisions to keep 20 furs happy for about a week,” the hybrid said.

      “I had a feeling you would say something like that,” Ohmar said with a wide grin. “And I think I know exactly the furs we need for this. Let’s go,” he added, standing up. “We have a raccoon to dig up.”

      Together with Ohmar and his friends, Maxx, Mike and Pflarrian left the room. The lion led them out of the building and back into the blinding light of the Egyptian sun. None of them noticed the small figure that followed them. It had been following the three of them ever since they arrived in Naritot and had occupied a table in the restaurant, waiting patiently for them to emerge from the backroom. The figure was wearing a dirty cloak with a hood that was pulled over it’s head.  But the hood did nothing to hide the pointed muzzle and the odd shape of the figure’s head hinted at large ears. As if to confirm any suspicions a bald tail peeked out from underneath the cloak now and then, proving that the figure was a rodent.

      It followed the group through the dusty streets of Naritot and did not lose them even in the packed marketplace as they went to confirm the orders Pflarrian had made earlier. Still led by Ohmar, the group eventually left the marketplace behind, their rodent shadow following them silently and unnoticed. Only when they entered one of them many houses that seemed to be no different from the others around it did the figure stop. Reaching up, the figure pulled the hood back, revealing a sleek face with tan fur. The eyes were of a misty blue and sparkled slyly. A line of black dots ran over the rodent’s left eye as if someone had painted them into the fur. A smile formed on the muzzle as the fur looked up at the building. A moment later the hood was back over the rodent’s head, concealing it as the figure vanished around a corner.

#

- South of the City of Naritot, Egypt, Africa 8:05 am, Thursday, 16th of May, 1939 -

      It had taken Ohmar almost two days to assemble all the furs and equipment they needed, even with Maxx and Pflarrian helping wherever they could. Mike didn’t have much to do in the meantime and spent most of his time trying to find some books that were in a language he could read. Needless to say that he was not very successful. On the 16th, however, all preparations were finally finished.  They left early to get as much of their journey behind them before the sun could heat up the desert.  Maxx and Mike found themselves back in Pflarrian’s old jeep, only now they shared it with Ohmar. The lion seemed delighted about the entire expedition and was chatting happily with Pflarrian. Meanwhile, Maxx kept glancing backwards. A small fleet of vehicles followed them, consisting mostly of old, beaten up all-terrain vehicles like Pflarrian’s own and a single World War I cargo truck.

      “What’s wrong?” Mike asked as the feline turned for what must have been the 10th time in two minutes.

      “Nothing,” Maxx murmured distractedly. Of course, there was something wrong, namely with the truck or rather its driver and owner. He was a tall fox with the name Roberto. Judging from his name and accent he was of Italian ancestry but had spent almost all his life in Egypt. The sun had bleached most of the color out of his fur, leaving it in a pale red with the normally black ‘socks’ on his paws and feet a dull grey. The vulpine seemed friendly enough but for some reason Maxx did not like him.

      “I’m sorry my friend, but we have no choice,” Ohmar had said when the feline pointed this out to him. “We need his truck or our expedition will become a lot more difficult.”

      Maxx had to agree with the lion but he still didn’t like Roberto, even if he didn’t know why. The feline sighed as he turned back, staring blankly at the clear, blue sky above them for a few minutes. Then he leaned forward, between Pflarran and Ohmar.

      “How long do you think it will take to arrive at Asyuot?” he asked, shouting to make himself heard over the noise of the driving car.

      “We’ve got about... 120 more miles to go,” Pflarrian replied. “So, assuming that we don’t run into problems, I’d say we should arrive around 2 pm.

      Of course, as soon as Pflarrian said that the problems started. Distracted by Maxx’s questions, the hybrid did not pay as much attention to the desert ahead of them as he should have. Most furs think that driving in the desert is easy. After all, there is almost nothing that could be in your way. However, aside the general difficulties of driving on sand, getting around in the Sahara by car was made even more tricky by the fact that its dunes could reach heights of over 1000 feet. While the dune that Pflarrian had been driving up was not quite that high it still was much too high to drive it back down easily and even Ohmar’s shout of warning came too late as Pflarrian’s jeep shot over the peak of the dune. 

      Mike, who had been reading from the single book he had been able to aquire in Naritot, was the least prepared. He gasped in surprise as the car suddenly sank downwards. The book flew out of his paws as he grabbed for the seat for something to hold on to as the car few through the sky. His groan was the loudest as the jeep hit the ground hard and started to slide down the dune. Pflarrian pulled and jerked at the steering wheel, trying to keep the car from rolling over while Maxx, Mike and Ohmar held on to whatever they could reach, trying to stay inside. Sand may be more pleasant to fall onto than stone, but when a fur hits it hard enough he can still easily break something.

      To the furs inside the car it felt like an eternity but a few seconds after the car had jumped over the peak of the dune it skittered to halt at its foot. Mike groaned as he climbed out of the jeep and dropped onto the sand, happy to have relatively firm ground underneath him.

      “Thank the Gods!” Ohmar shouted as he too jumped out of the car.

      “Thank Pflarrian,” Maxx replied, stretching to work some of the kinks out of his back that the wild ride had put there. “It was his driving that saved us.”

      Whether it was divine intervention, driving ability or simple luck, they had made it down the dune shaken, but in one piece. Supporting himself on the all-terrain vehicle Mike stood up, looking around.

      “We survived?” he asked, his voice shaky as if he was afraid of the answer.

      “My back hurts like hell, so we either we’re alive or hell is a lot different from what they say in the churches,” Maxx replied, still trying to massage his own back.

      Pflarrian was inspecting his jeep while Ohmar, Maxx and Mike were tending to their bruises as the rest of the expedition arrived. The others were much more careful, driving quickly over the peak of the dune so they would not get stuck there but then they let their cars roll down the mountain of sand as slowly as possible.  Slowly more and more furs assembled around Pflarrian’s car, asking if they were okay and offering help. With so many eagerly helping paws it was only a matter of minutes before the jeep was back in working order and only Mike was sill looking around as Ohmar and Pflarrian were back in the car.

      “What’s wrong?’ Maxx called, about to climb back into the vehicle himself.

      “I lost my book,” the raccoon replied, not looking up.

      “Have you looked in the car?”

      “Yeah, it’s not in there. I must have lost it somewhere on the dune.” Mike gave a frustrated grunt. The book hadn’t been very interesting but it was the only English one he had found in Naritot and he hated the thought of losing it.

      “Here,” a soft voice to Mike’s right said. As he looked up he saw a mouse smiling down at him. The raccoon straightened up and suddenly had to look down himself. The rodent was almost a head shorter than he was and now he also noticed the it was a female. Her face was sleek with tannish fur and sparking blue eyes. She wore simple robes and a hood was hanging from the neck, most likely to keep the sun away from her large ears. “Is this your book?” she asked, holding the small, brown book out to him.

      “Yes, thank you,” the raccoon replied as he took the book from her, still staring at her face.

      If the mouse was in some way offended by the stares she did not show it. “No problem,” she said and turned around to walk back to one of the cars. Mike stared after her for a few moments before he turned back to return to Pflarrian’s jeep.

      “Got everything?” Maxx asked as Mike climbed into the vehicle.

      “Yeah,” the raccoon replied absently.

      “Great. Lets roll then.”

      As the jeep rumbled over the sands of the Sahara, Mike still saw the face of the mouse in his mind with the strange line of black dots over her left eye.

End of Chapter 4

On to chapter 5

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