Lion Head Mesa toy soldier's march

He had gone as bid; legs and paws carrying him so quickly the warm breeze could hardly halt him - he pushed hard, fast, waltzing the dunes as if it were his eldest friend. To Akashingo, Pharaoh Samirseti had wished. He knew not what awaited him, but Andalib wasn't unwise to the strange taste in the air as he hedged into the region.

He had never been here, drawn only by fading scents and the place's grandeur, and what awaited him, as he clipped to the edge of safe land, drew him to a freezing stop. His legs ached as though he had traveled long enough, and it should have been the place - save for the picture of utter ruin. Dredges of water that did not suit the land remained, shimmering in the sun. 

What was he to do, if Akashingo was not a place any longer? His jaw fell slack, eyes like pearls in his head. In this, he felt like a tiny pebble in a grand sea - awashed by the reality of fate, and all it told. He wandered blindly a swath, almost clumsy as he marveled at it all. Across the stillness, he barked, listening to it echo briefly, before fading away. A mere blip. Did anyone else remain?

in response, a yap.

pausing a long moment as if unsure that there was ever anything up there.

but hope persisted; desperate yaps came from within the red ruin, distorted by the curve of hallways and the stillness of water.

help me help me help me

Andalib's ears immediately perked, head swiveling to the sound - faint and echoing as it was. He almost thought he had imagined it, sniffing the air like he would scent anything beyond wet, red clay. He was walking forward, uncaring of the squelch of wet ground beneath his paws, apprehension making his coat bristle.

The feeling of it sticking to his paws was worse than wet sand, far more cloying and refusing to budge until he was wading through stained water. Each noise was harder to track than the last, but he continued to delve, squeezing beneath precarious and overturned rubble; digging and scratching through clotted silt.

I'm here! Andalib called, flinching when his own voice echoed back to him. A taste of doubt crept into his mind, and he almost felt foolish - and yet he remained, aimlessly wandering deeper into the now-stagnant cavern; if someone was still here, he had to try.

muttered, somewhere off to the side: oh thank th' lawd.

here! yapped the tiny voice, guiding the rescuer to where the waters rose high enough to nearly touch the ceiling, and then further in, the cacophonous barks reverberating in the narrow space like a plucked banjo string.

there, the scent of wet death was strong, of bloated bodies only just beginning to rot - 

and on a tall shelf of redstone, finding recluse form the catastrophe, shivered a rotund, sopping shape of dark fur and batty ears hung low.

h-here, mah good man! here...

So quick did Andalib avoid any vacant body he passed, hidden among mud and rubble like the fallen stones around them. His stomach twisted, a fresh mind not unknowing of the horrors surrounding him, but unfamiliar with the sheer number. He hoped to never see, or know it, again.

The water growing deeper was enough to give him pause, where he lingered and paced like a nervous deer at the edge of a chasm. Still, there was a beast of foolishness gnawing at him, and it pushed him to leap. With a whine, he condemned himself to the red-clay stain soon to dirty his fur, going from a wade to an anxious paddle. He bumped something that made his skin crawl, feeling it bob away from him - he was distracted only by the second urging. The sight of a... wolf?

Nearer did he swim, and yet, the wolf did not grow any larger. Andalib was unsettled by the lack of floor beneath his paws, hooking his front legs up on the shelf. Just enough to anchor himself for a moment. After he heaved a breath of relief, Andalib found it in himself, young and hardy, to grin; a wide, shaky, pure thing. I found you!

He shook his head off, even if it threatened to make him dip further, spraying a fine mist from his snout and cheeks. Andalib looked to the stranger, practically as sopping as he, murmuring a little quieter, as if the dead around them could hear, I know the way out, I can bring you out of here.

his rescuer were a wolf, one with a face made of youthful grays and a dark diamond center of his forehead - as good a symbol of hope as any.

the chihuahua scooted back slightly - which pressed him to the wall - to make space for the other, squinting his eyes shut when the wolf shook his head out.

ugh, ah'd hope as much. the neb said, wiping the excess water from his whiskers. else best we could do is drown in company.

followed by a hollow laugh. a joke.

lis'en, son, first thang is ah cannot swim. can float, but th' doggy paddle evades me. that an issue?

He huffed a little water from his nose, a laugh, by any record. Andalib looked a little puzzled, but not surprised - he supposed there was a reason for the smaller wolf to be hiding out here. Andalib appraised the other, then shook his head. Not an issue—

He dunked a little lower, grimacing at the water lapping up at them before he drew back his paws. His shoulders were gonna burn for days at this rate, but he would weather it for now. As his side clipped the edge of the shelf, baring the width of his back and shoulders to the other, he asked, Did you hear anyone else? .. in here?

The expectancy was obvious - surely the smaller creature could just sit and hold on long enough for him to paddle them to shallower ground. Though, a hint of fear and dread trickled back up his spine, the worry that he might fail them both stinging. Still, he didn't hesitate, already glancing back across the water, searching for signs of life, but mostly for their path back.

wah! sry for the holdup!

oh, he was to ride his rescuer to safety! glamours. how tavina would laugh!

ah.

gucci paused with a lifted paw not yet touching the other. lips a thin line, he resisted the urge to look around for the umpteenth time.

no. the little lord said firmly.

then added with a dark smirk: nawt a thing ah didn't imagine.

with a sharp inhale and slight bounce of joints, he hopped up onto the other man's upper back. it took a bit of panicked fumbling, but gucci managed to nestle himself with enough grip in his limbs to hopefully not roll right off and sink like a boulder.

onwards, ah suppose. he said with a slight tremble.

no worries!!

Andalib's face shuttered in a brief regret, despite the fact he couldn't do much at all to have saved anyone else lying at rest in the caverns. Still, he huffed, being the type of wolf, young and wild enough to hear the joke for what it was, and to not disparage it. Making light of the dark, something a trickster could appreciate.

Andalib dipped a little deeper in the water as the weight settled across his spine; but he was quick to adjust after a precarious thrash of his limbs. He waited just a moment to ensure the stranger was steady, or as steady as he could tell, and began to swim forward. Even still, he reeled a little, overcompensating, water washing up onto the both of them before he evened out once more.

He blinked bleary eyes, blowing water off his nose in an ungraceful noise. Whether it was the anxiety, the rising relief, or the simple beauty of water beginning to shallow out beneath his paws with every kick, he only felt more confident as they neared the escape from this watery grave. Helpfully, he called to his impromptu passenger, Almost clear!

see NOW you get a proper apology! here's a doodle for patience, gucci's knight in shining armor ↓

it was with eyes firmly shut and his quadruped grip as firm that gucci spent the short yet tense journey - to avoid being blinded by water, as much as to not see what's become of his home kingdom, or - he flinched at the thought - whatever might float up from beneath at this inopportune moment.

his reply to the young man's shout was stalled by needing to sputter. spitting off to the side, he cracked an eyelid open just enough to see the light.

gawds witcha, son. the older man mumbled, not letting himself feel any ease just yet.

not until his steed had placed four paws on solid ground, and the former vizier of pharaohs rolled off and flattened to the dry rock with a wet and splashing schalp. he wheezed for air the fall sent out of him, and with the inhale began to tremble as the sneaking outside breeze caressed the length of his fattened spine.

gawds! he cried, and his composure went with it. the chihuahua shivered, chin to the ground and hindlimbs splayed out without a smidge of will to get up.

gawds... was that tears or stale water stinging his eyes? a paw furiously wiped it away all the same.

you... mah man, mah good man. gucci turned his head to look at his rescuer in full. what sentcha here? 'cause this moment, ah ain't so sure y'ain't an angel.

omg stop!! you drew him so cute tysm!! <33

A great shake and the water flying through the air was almost its own catacylsm as Andalib shook his pelt free. It was a strange relief, the damp 'dog' smell overtaking the strange smell of deepening rot and death. A huff blew more water from his nose as he fought the urge to lick his tongue across it - better not to sully his tastes with mud.

Still, the burgeoning sense of freedom was enough to make his heavy paws lighter and pushed away the sting of muscle well and truly used. He looked to his new companion, and frowned a little, his ears perked forward as he leaned over the other, tilting his head. Andalib didn't say anything at first, knowing well enough that there was more here than he could rightly understand. He would wait for an offering, rather than pry. A surprising show of tact for young Andalib.

He only spoke when wet eyes looked back his way, and his sodden tail gave a few little wags. His head tilted further as the smaller wolf talked, and he paused a second, before a mirthful glitter took up his eye. The sun lit my path. Ra, as Pharaoh Samirseti says.

He laughed though, a bubbly thing, wrinkling his nose up. No wings here.

sam'rseti... gucci repeated, eyes drifting down as his memory worked. in the end, it was the title of pharaoh that gave him a bigger clue.

you, you wouldn't be fram th' sistah kingdom, that- that one consort rashepses has family in? how many pharaohs could there possibly be? you- when didja come?

stumbling, gucci righted himself onto four paws, slipping on his own wet pads.

didja pass any, any survivahs? have any been to your territory? there was still wide-eyed hope in him.

Andalib nodded, an eager, light thing - then he paused, looking troubled. He trailed off shortly, Consort... Rashepses?

He sort-of stared off for a long few moments. Then he frowned, pulling himself up and back in a skittish gesture - before he was listening again, letting the other fumble toward him. He stared.... and then blinked. Maybe?

Then he shook his head, sharp, looking a little more solemn, I have no idea if word even.. has spread.

His tail wagged then, a little light spreading back across his face; wishing to blow air into the smaller wolf's sails, to put some strength back in exhausted legs and dour heart. But there's no knowing who got out, there were other scents beyond.. I didn't realize..

He trailed again, before he was turning, gesturing for the cavern exit. He glanced back at the wetland graveyard behind them pointedly. Let the dead keep resting.

gucci wilted in the pause - expressed by the droop of his ears, brows and the corner of the blank smile he tried to keep. the following sentences did only little for bolstering, and the man sat, raised a paw to his mouthline and muttered into it as he summarized his options.

maybe.

maybe was enough to have hope. the name wasn't outlandish enough to the young wolf's ears to be dismissed, but even if this "samirseti" had no relation to the divine husband - this scout clearly knew of akashingo.

if members of it were welcome in the court of the new pharaoh, gucci could seek asylum.

no knowing...

ah, but gucci knew, didn't he? a vast majority of his compatriots now laid dead beneath the red keep, and in the quiet of the previous night the little lord had shed tears and screamed mournful wails til the echo reverberated within his own ears. 

but some must have lived - he knew gods wouldn't let a fool like him go and take other, far kinder and devout souls.

you- gucci's head snapped up, paw lowered. what's ya name, son? ya pharaoh-- he- he needs ya back now, yea?

It was a funny sight, even given where they were; the way the other perched up, mumbling, thinking into a paw. Andalib almost copied it, pausing abruptly, passing it off as if he had only shaken more water from his fur. He blinked then, still patiently waiting. He had little tact in many, many things, but he knew when to bite down on temperance and hold... sometimes.

He perked up when he was addressed, smiling with dagger teeth, the awkward grimace of a piranha more than the grin of a wolf, Andalib!

He froze again, looking puzzled. Then added, unsurely, Pharaoh calls me Senedjet.

He nodded then, as if certain. Helpfully, he answered, I wasn't due back yet but... given this.

His ears tipped back, a little bid of remorse written across his face. Returning is my only path. Oh, and I'm sure you could come, too. Pharaoh spoke nicely of Akashingo.

His tail was slowly wagging behind him, the remorse trickling away to something that could almost be excited or elated. He was obviously eager to see the other returned somewhere safe, regardless of the distance.

andalib. senedjet. yes, not local names, not thick-coated forest hunter names - in fact they had that flair he'd come to expect of the lands of high summer and sand.

hope budded, blossomed to hear the mesa was in good regards with the foreign pharaoh.

then, anda-lehb - lead us there, boy! the lord hauled himself upwise, shook out (finally!) his heavy coat, tousled himself into the shape of a wet lint ball.

he took focused steps past the young man, in a random direction (opposite the lowlands, in fact), then paused.

..how far's it y'all live? he asked with one cocked ear.