Young Writers Society

Lunis waved to the hole they'd crawled out of. "Then lead the way," he said, not especially trying to hide the bitterness in his voice. "It's your bright idea, after all."

Liz faltered.

"Oh, um..." She adopted a sheepish expression. "I'm not really sure how we should all get out of here."

The village that she had first ended up in had seen her as a god, but two years hadn't made her feel any more comfortable with the idea of being a leader. She didn't have the slightest idea what she was supposed to do next, and something told her that Lunis was telling her to take the lead out of spite.

Rolling his eyes, Lunis pushed past the others to stand in front of the hole. "I guess I can get us out of here," he said. "Worst case scenario, we'll just have to go the way we came, which shouldn't take too long."

He gestured for the others to follow, then leaped down the hole, Mal hissing curses in the process.

"Thanks," Liz said as she followed Lunis through the hole. There was a soft thud as she hit the ground, quickly followed by Aquarius jumping down. There was really no need to, but she caught her boyfriend regardless - and refused to put him down as the others followed. Aquarius seemed a little flustered by the action, but he put his arms around her neck despite how he might have felt about it.

Glancing back, Lunis decided to follow the lead of the couple behind him. He picked Mal's robes from the ground, dropped them over the lion, and draped the lion's paws around his neck.

"Having fun?" Mal said, poking his head out through the robes.

"Mhm," said Lunis, before he leaped over a gap in the floor.

Liz carefully sidestepped the holes, now fully carrying Aquarius in her arms. She hoped her boyfriend would return the favor when this body was more like her own again - even though Aquarius was on the smaller side, he did have the ability to shapeshift. Both of his brothers frequently reminded the two of that.

Behind her, Apophis and Pride each easily glided over the holes in the floor with simple yet effective shows of darkness, covering up the hole and letting the darkness fade when it was gone. Ari was the only one who actually jumped over the holes that she probably could have gotten around - she seemed to be having a lot of fun with it, especially after Zion took their place as her shadow again.

Fortunately enough, it didn't take long at all for Lunis to find a way out - another hole, a gap in the wall of a dark room, and the panther found himself in the midst of the desert.

"Looks great," he said, rolling his eyes. Admittedly, clear as the sky was, it didn't look like there were any sandstorms in the vicinity. Still, he could already feel himself roasting in his fur; he grabbed Mal's white robes and set them over his head, hoping it'd reflect at least some of the light.

As the others climbed through the hole, Apophis surveyed the group - and the vast desert that was before them. It brought back memories of when he was first created; he had spent what felt like an eternity wandering through the deserts in search of something, even though he didn't know what that thing was.

But there had been a benefit of that whole experience, and he gladly used the tactic he had devised now: he made a large shadowy "umbrella" to stay above them and block some of the sun's rays.

Of all the ways that Kellach could've gone into the desert, diving face-first into the sand wasn't one of his favorites.

"You shouldn't have tried to jump through the hole," Aegeas said, squeezing his way out of the ship.

Coughing and spitting out sand, Kellach took Aegeas's outstretched paw and let the other otter pull him up. "It would've looked cool," Kellach mumbled as he tried to rub the sand from his eyes.

"If you'd pulled it off, maybe," Aegeas said. Kellach didn't have to look to know that Aegeas was smiling; Aegeas speaking softly and starting to brush the sand off of Kellach's face was all that Kellach needed to grin right back.

"Get a room, lover boys," Lunis growled. Blinking his eyes open, Kellach watched as Lunis glared at the rest of the group. The shade (?) that seemed to be coming from Apophis made Kellach feel almost normal. The desert he'd worked in had had more rocks and shade than this one, but the heat and dryness weren't all that different. Lunis, however, looked hot and miserable. Not that Kellach felt especially sad about that. "So, which way are we going?"

Liz looked back at the wreck behind them for the briefest of moments before pointing forwards. "I think that's the best way to go," she said. "If we need to, we can always just walk right back the way we came and easily get to this spot."

"Because it'd be so easy to figure out where we came from in a place where the dunes can hide the ship and make our steps disappear," said Lunis. That didn't stop him from walking away, Kellach and Aegeas running after him.

Liz faltered when she heard Lunis's pessimism, but she just had to imagine that it was Aleks saying those words - that made it easier to handle. While Aleks had seemed like a pretty terrifying guy during her first few conversations with him, they had formed a weird bond that she hadn't quite expected - he was still terrifying, and a tsundere, but he had underlying traits that also made him a secretive dork.

The panther turned back, throwing his arms out. "What?" he said. "Shouldn't we get going? The desert isn't coming to us - at least, I don't want it to."

"Sorry," Liz apologized before chasing after Lunis. The others quickly followed, though only Ari darted after him as quickly as Liz did. Which was fairly impressive, considering that Liz had longer legs.

"You don't have to say sorry," Lunis mumbled, beginning to make his way up a dune. "I would've liked it if we'd gotten caught in another conversation or if I'd scared you and then we could've wasted a bunch of time by the ship and had to go back in because of a storm or because it's nighttime, but whatever."