Young Writers Society

Now she was really being reminded of Aleks.

When she glanced over at Aquarius, she could see that he must have been thinking the same exact thing - it was clear from the expression on his face.

"Okay," Liz softly said, beginning her ascent up the dune. A second later, she heard protests coming from behind her - Apophis had picked Pride up, probably because the homunculus had the shortest legs of everyone there.

Lunis fumbled his way over the dune, paws sinking into the sand as he almost toppled over. He yowled and let go of Mal long enough to catch himself. Then, the lion falling from his neck and beginning to tumble down the other side of the dune, Lunis looked back at the others. "What's the point of this?" he growled, robes partly covering his face. "I want something my claws can grab onto, not this garbage."

"Maybe we should try another way of walking across the sand," Zion suddenly suggested, popping up besides Ari. "I think all of us are struggling with it."

"Except Apophis," Ari clarified. "And Pride by extension, since Apophis is carrying him."

Apophis seemed like he was made for a place like this. Maybe because he was; he was a god of ancient Egypt, after all, and Egypt had lots of deserts from what she remember of her middle school history years.

Peering over the side of the dune, Lunis watched as Mal flopped down to the bottom. The lion pulled himself up, glanced down to see how much sand had gotten caught in his fur, and made a crude gesture in Lunis's direction.

The panther returned the gesture, then looked at Zion. "If you have any bright ideas, I'd love to hear them," Lunis said. He couldn't tell what was more annoying - someone pointing out how much of a hard time he was having climbing the dunes, or the idea that somebody had a solution that they'd decided to tell nobody else about.

Though they had no eyes, Zion gave Lunis a look that clearly conveyed their lack of pleasure at being addressed with that tone. "We could put something on top of the sand," they said, turning their gaze away. Instead, they focused on Ari, who was approaching the dune with gusto. "Apophis could create darkness underneath our feet, and we could walk on that instead of the sand."

Lunis slowly walked over to Zion, partly crouching down to keep himself from tumbling over the other side of the dune. "How does that work?" said Lunis, eyes darting between Zion and the sand beneath them, "Also, I'm a big fan of darkness like I'm a big fan of sand, so you're going to need to tell me why I should trust it."

If Zion had eyes, Ari would have guessed that her shadow was giving Lunis an incredulous look - considering that they were a person made of literal darkness. In fact, now that Ari was thinking about it, a lot of their group seemed to have to do with darkness. Besides Zion and Apophis, Pride had control over shadows, and even Ari was learning a shadow-related spell here or there to impress her best friend.

The panther spent the few seconds of awkward silence that settled over the group by staring at Zion, then the shade that appeared to be coming from Apophis.

"Whatever," Lunis said, looking away. "Go do that."

Though Apophis had only been referenced in the conversation, he did as requested - what could almost be compared to a red carpet from the movies was rolled out in front of the group, stretching as far as the eye could see. It was solid and provided more traction than the sand had. Liz, who had been struggling to get up a dune since Zion and Lunis started their impromptu staring contest, easily climbed it by sticking where the darkness was.

Reaching down with a claw, Lunis tapped the path Apophis had made. Sturdy enough. The panther gritted his teeth as he set one paw on the path, then another.

"Fine, I guess it's okay," the panther said, no longer crouching. He folded his arms and looked away from the others.

Ari and Zion exchanged a look at the reply, although Zion really had no facial features to convey something like that - Ari just knew her shadow well. Giving Zion a thumbs up, she hurried on after Liz and Aquarius. Zion easily covered the distance, and it wasn't long before they had joined their host once more.

It didn't take long for the others to adjust. Kellach and Aegeas went from walking alongside the path to sliding down it as it headed down a dune. Even Mal stood on the path, stepping out of the way as the otters slid by.

Walking down to the bottom of the dune, Lunis looked down at Mal, who was currently running his paws up and down his arms. "Sand in your fur?" the panther said, rolling his eyes.

"No thanks to you," Mal shot back, not looking up at the panther.

Sighing, the panther picked up the lion, carrying him down the path. "I guess it's my fault," Lunis said, after Mal glared up at him. "And I'm not going to stand around and watch you spend the next hour getting rid of it all, so I might as well walk you around and watch you spend the next hour getting rid of it all."

"...Maybe I can help?" Aquarius hesitantly said, momentarily leaving Kaito's side to join the two. "I could wash the sandy areas of your fur with my water. It might even make you feel cooler if the shade isn't enough..."

Against his better judgment - he didn't like the idea of anyone using magic on his fur, much less a stranger - Mal nodded. It'd be a lot faster than anything he could do, and he did feel a little hot.

Aquarius tapped into the magic within him, summoning a gentle burst of somewhat warm water to rinse off Mal's fur. He kept the flow of water calm and slow - starting in one place and meandering his way to the next.