Sly Fox Sand Dunes Home has come.

WAAAHOO!

Goodbye.

The words never uttered, yet action would take, as she departed months ago to see Teekon. Sutekh promised.

Yet never would she entirely leave it. She wished to see the unseen city of gold.

Heat exhaustion would be nigh on many. Ashy fur made from the hues of biotite did nothing but beg for the sun. And there she was, pushing through dunes and remembering, allowing, feeling, pressing the burning sand into her pads. It surely stung. She adored it. She adored the burn on her neck, the sweat in her glands, the fight to keep her ears afloat, and she did so perfectly. High, forced, and a pride came with the desert dweller. Never would she falter. Lovingly, she would accept Ra's affection. His grooming. His taste. He offered to take her away, and she came with it.

Exploration pushed her farther, and recurring bubbles of pants dripping off her tongue would not stop her. It must have meant it craved her farther in its grasp, and she would give it what it wanted. Hour by hour, with a swaying tail and the grin of an imp on her cheeky, happy maw, she walked. 

What on God's green Earth was he doing here?

For starters: the Earth was no longer green. Replaced by an endless ocean of gold, Briar did not take to traveling across the dunes gracefully. His head bowed to ever-present Sun. It towered overhead in the sky as it always did. Beating down its warm light, and the sun soaked up that heat like a dry sponge. There was no escaping it. Each pawstep was a burning kiss to his feet and it didn't stop when he switched step. The sand stuck to his pawpads as he sweated away what he thought were gallons. 

His ears bobbed with each step, tongue lolling. Despite his exhaustion, he moved quickly. Desperately. There had to be respite somewhere. There couldn't just be dunes to inevitably collapse and cook upon. Through the haze he saw a glimpse of a shadow. Hurtling towards it, a hopeful grin broke across his face. Only to shatter as he realized it was no shadow. Just a small, black wolf. 

He swore loud enough for God to hear.

She knew how to shield her eyes. How to dip her head when the sound of rushing wind hit her ears before the sand did. How to wrap her ears in hide when she knew the winds that slaughtered kings would grow too strong, and how to protect them from infection or irritation. Today was no dust devil nor sandstorm. 

Haze.

Heat that showed itself in rippling waves across the sky. Her vision shook. 

Then a monster that spawned from the air came charging at her. Camel! Camel! Camel! She could not move, her limbs froze, and soon enough the Camel was in her face.

Barking swears to Ra.

Her eyes went up, down, and soon they fixated on the mans eyes. Strange...strange eyes. He must have been cursed with the bite of a serpent. Her default rested smile turned nearly aggressive, though inquisitive. Always curious. My, my, wasn't he something.
"Do you have rabies, sir? Heat brings ill to those in misfortune."

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The little wolf spoke. 

Ahh. Of course it did. He had just cursed the damned sun and just about every grain of sand across the dunes right in her face.  As if the sound of her voice wasn't an irritant enough, her question alone was enough to perturb any sane wolf.

If I had rabies I wouldn't have half the mind to even answer your outright stupid question, little miss. And you'd be the fucking fool for remaining in bitin' distance. He released an angry puff of air from his nose. No doubt tickling her whiskers. Scowl set firmly on his face as he took a step back to look over the wolf that he was, frankly, towering over.

A tiny, oddly proportioned little wolf. With coat of ash, her thin limbs could easily pass for charred sticks. And a big, stupid smile on her face. Briar's ears turned back sharply, eyes narrowing.

God, could you fucking quit— Briar took in a sharp breath. He was the one who ran up to this strange little thing. Ugh.  He continued with a grumble. —Nevermind. You been in the sun long enough to piss dust too or do you happen to know where water is?

He was a pleasant, pleasant man.

He made her whiskers all tickly!

Kind, sweet and caring. He even asked a personal question, on if she held thirst. He felt comfortable to breathe in her air and give it back to her. So, she did so too, inhaling through her nose and exhaling a gentle puff of air in his direction. A gift she is kind enough to return to him, and she can only hope he respects it as much as she did his. Might he enjoy it?

Then, she leaned nice and high up to his face. "You got a problem, booboo man?" Quickly pulling her head back away from him, she pressed one of her front legs into her chest in order to stick it out more. She wiggled her tail level with her spine.

Whether he wished to snap it off her face or not, her smile unfortunately didn't go anywhere. "Me." No! Wrong! Her nose itched at it. "I can bring you somewhere. You no desert dweller, dust pisser?"

Why this cheeky little—

Briar's tail lashed as he came to understand the nature of the woman before him. He may have been as red as the devil, but she would earn the descriptor "devilish."

Little woman with an impish smile. Booboo man. He thoroughly thought about wiping it off of her face when she drew close. He had warned her about being in biting distance... If he had been rabid 

He was not a rabid mongrel. For technically both their sakes. She had drawn close enough he was certain she saw the twitch of his lip.

Not quite, dear. Briar plucked words from out of a rising growl. He in turn shoved the rumble far enough down his throat to gag himself on it. Devils spoke with silvered tongues and honeyed words. He was no devil, nor was he a gentleman. But, he was a man. And a man should know how to bargain.

I am not an experienced desert farer. His voice was cool and even. Briar lowered himself to be closer to her eye level. Forelimbs extending into an awkward half bow, half crouch. 

Had their setting been different, he would have challenged her for her verbal slights. However, they were here. In this endless expanse of baking sand. And he was a far greater slave to his needs than his ego. Water, survival, would take precedence over his pride. 

Well, water bearer. I would like to take your offer. I can trust an experienced desert inhabitant to be able to guide me to water, can't I? Not that he would completely yield to her Without question. Not fully.

So close, so near, so personal to his face prior that she'd heard the quirk of his lip! His saliva making the gentlest snap in it's part made her recoil swiftly.

Perhaps he was rabid. From charging at her face, cursing and then telling her to stop something that she did not know. Now, he dipped to her.

Tilting her head far over to her left, her eyes watched him drop, and there she stood before him on torrid du ns. He extended the word of his trust. A silly man, he was, for his strange behaviors and words, but should he wish to survive, he had little option. She would be his option. "Of course!" slipped the tongue of the raven in sand.

"I will lead you." Her nose twitched, her eyes blinked as she surveyed his front up and down. "You no bite me, yes?" 

She made a great show of examining him like some roadside oddity. He thought she was going to topple herself over by how far she twisted and tilted. He splayed his toes in the sand. Distracting himself from snapping at her with the burning sensation. 

Despite his irritation, the tension in his face lessened once she agreed to assist him. His ears lifting slightly and his tail made a sweep across the sand as he rose to his paws. Dusting himself with a shake. 

No. I don't plan on biting you. Tempting as that would be. I expect the same from you. He looked over his little guide with a quirked brow. He still wasn't devoid of doubt. He had to rely on her? His guts churned and tied into knots over it. 

A defeated sigh escaped his chest. Do we have far to go?

second to last or last from me!

"Your skin would taste not nice, sir."

With a turn of her legs, her tail was pointed at his nose, and only growing farther and farther away by the second. A steady trot, forward head and feet that glided across the dunes. Her ears were high, and her steps started to trace her from where she had once been.

Backwards, backwards, backwards.

With no response given to Dust Pisser.

Last from me!

Briar snorted at the answer. He wasn't sure if he liked it or not. Did he even want to? But he had no time to ponder. Water Bearer had set into motion. Skillfully crossing the sand dunes. 

Briar was not as accustomed to walking across sand. He believe he had been better than when he first wandered into the wastes, but the shifting sands did not compare to the padded forest floor or the sucking grasp of a mire. His longer limbs was what kept him in stride. Following his desert guide, he took notice of the sands. She had turned on a dime it seemed. Retracing her previous pawsteps. His eyes rest on her back with a inquisitive gleam that she would have noticed had she turned to face him. 

Where had she been going in the first place? Where were they going now? Briar did not find the strength to ask as they moved on. The excitement from the encounter draining away. Leaving him with his weariness.