Water.

It's the sole thing on her mind as she navigates her way down the winding gorge-- down to where the stream is. She's trod these steep, rocky walls before. One single misstep can spell certain death, but barring the waterhole in Andal Oasis, it's the only source of water for many featureless miles. She's become quite deft at moving across this treacherous terrain, so much so that she's pretty sure she can do it blindly... or at least, that's what she thought.

A tremendous sandstorm has shrouded the desert in a pale brown film of sand, blotting out the spectacularly bright blue sky and impeding visibility. She's picking her way down slowly, claws extended for a better grip. Tentatively, she sets one outsized paw down on an ostensibly sturdy outcrop. Her heartbeat thunders in her ears as it gives way and crumbles into tiny fragments, clattering down the gorge and into the stream to meet their inescapable demise. She pulls her paw away, her gaze seeking out her brother. "Careful."

@Ambrose, @Lachesis

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His legs are wobbly with fear as he negotiates the ledge, fighting a rising panic as Uma leads him down a steep decline. Usually, trekking along such heights wouldn't have been a problem for him, but the sandstorm combined with the altitude has him feeling like he might throw up. Maybe he's getting old, and the thought of imminent danger has become less tantalizing? He quickly pushes the thought aside, his tail desperately whipping around for balance as he tries to keep up with his twin sister.

His heart lurches as Uma dislodges some stones beneath her feet, calling the stability of the entire place into question. "You're telling me." He answers, voice tense with fear. "This is the last time I'm following you anywhere. Your problems inevitably become my problems because I'm stupid enough to get involved. I warned you about the likelihood of a sandstorm, but did you listen?" Why is it that no one ever listens to him? "Takes a dumbass to know a dumbass." He feels his hind leg slipping on some gravel, and a startled shout escapes him.

More dirt and rock disintegrates beneath him and his other leg is sent dangling over the ledge. Gravity begins to pull his midriff over the ledge, and he extends his claws and slams them into the earth in a bid to slow his fall. It's happening. It's really happening.

This is how he dies.

BG — ART — CODE

He had not intended to be out in a sandstorm. Being covered in dust and debris did not fit the glorious image he had for himself, and yet, here he was. His goal had been simply to scout the lands around his home, temporary as he expected it to be. It was crucial to learn one's environment, he found, for then there was less opportunity to be taken by surprise. More than that, his machinations required such vigilance — escape routes, places to hide and the like. All of that, however, was tossed to the wayside when he overheard the sound of a voice and crumbling rock.

Before venom entered his blood and changed his very view on the world, he would have simply ignored it and moved on. The plights of others were hardly his concern unless he found them beneficial to himself. But this was not before. This was a new age. A different age and one where he would not be subject to the whims of a mistress most cruel. One would expect his callousness and claim another for her own.

He would not allow it.

As he rushed forward through the swirl of sand and dust, he caught sight of the lion hanging perilously from the edge of a disintegrated ledge. It would have been far easier to stand there and watch, but that would be what she wanted. And he would be damned if fate got anything else from him.

Moving quickly, Lachesis lunged forward, snapping his teeth around the scruff of @Ambrose and pulling hard to drag him to safety far from where the ledge was crumbling apart.

You will not die today, friend, he says, though he does not truly believe in the word itself. Friend. Whatever did that truly mean? Did it matter? But you should pay more attention. Death lurks at every corner for the uncareful.

@Uma

Observing Ambrose with a long-suffering look, one ear swivels lazily back as her twin complains. Of course, making hard decisions isn't easy, but somebody has to do it. As the dominant sibling, she's felt responsible for both of their survival for as long as she can remember. She doesn't have time to worry about whether Ambrose is going to end up breaking a precious nail or something. The shout jerks her back to attention, visibly startling her. Her eyes blow wide open as her brother loses his footing, rock giving way beneath his paws. Before she has time to blink, he slips off the cliff's edge. "Ambrose!" The shout tears from her throat like hot lava, echoing around the gorge. At the last moment, he manages to anchor himself, claws digging feverishly into into the earth. Instantly, she gathers herself for a jump, thinking better of it as rock crumbles beneath her bracing paws. Instead, she attempts to backtrack, inching her way back toward him with painful slowness.

She looks up, cold fear clenching her heart. She's not going to make it. Just then, a pair of jaws snap open, snapping closed around her brother's scruff. They drag him back to safety, and Uma's pretty sure they're the sharpest, most beautiful set of teeth she's ever seen. Carefully resuming her climb back up, she finally makes it to the top of the gorge. She scans her brother for injuries, relief flooding her when she finds none. "Who's a fatass now?" She says, attempting to mask the fear accelerating her heartbeat with a faux casualness. Getting her first real look at her brother's savior, her gaze drifts to the other male, poison-green eyes set behind a white skull mask. Paradoxically, he looks like a reaper, but to Uma, he is not like Death at all-- quite the opposite. "You're strong. And you saved my brother's life. Thank you." She offers a small dip of her head. "I'm Uma." She gives her brother a quick nudge of her muzzle, both to assure he's okay and to give him an opportunity to extend a word of thanks for himself.

@Ambrose, @Lachesis

code by corvus

His heart hammers loud in his ears, loud and irregular. Somewhere far away, Uma shouts his name, but his brain barely registers it. She seems galaxies away, now, and as the unstable rock falls apart beneath her feet too, it looks like there's nothing else between him and infinity. All-polluting terror squeezes the air out of his lungs, and for the first time in his life, he can't speak.

Adrenaline crashes through him as his grip proves insufficient and he slides down further... and further. In a last ditch attempt to haul himself back over the edge, his back legs scratch against the rock face, but find no purchase. Looks like that's it. Curtains. Here lies him.

Suddenly, the erratic, overwhelming sense of fear is punctuated by obsecure sorrow. If the gorge takes him now, what will happen to Uma? Will he ever see any of his compatriots again? Suddenly, he feels a disproportionate sense of guilt for calling her a dumbass not seconds ago. He can't leave. He can't! "Uma—" His voice sounds small and distant. "Sorry. So-"

Just as he braces for the long fall, a firm set of teeth clasp his scruff, and he's being hauled back onto the gorge. Sprawled out on the edge of the cliff, he spends a few moments trying to steady his breath, in disbelief of what just transpired.

Then he laughs. Small bursts at first, then manically.

"YES!" He hollers, obnoxiously. Half-delirious with joy, he takes his first look at @Lachesis. "You—you saved me! I'm so happy, I could kiss you!" He doesn't. But he does hug him. Tightly.

BG — ART — CODE

Truly, he had no other goal than to spite the forces he was certain were working against him. Why should a young lion die on the whims of fate, who cared for none and did as she willed? However true it was that he often cared little for others unless they could give him something, he was not above changing his mind. More importantly, this only proved to him that he could take control.

How easy would it have been to let the lion he just saved fall to his death? Too easy. And, deserved, if he was honest. What fool flounced around a gorge like it was not dangerous? He supposed he could not fault the young for being foolish.

Besides, whatever other judgment he might have had was quickly put aside when a lioness climbed up the gorge, calling the one he rescued a fatass. It made him laugh and he didn’t care much if it should have. The most important thing of this entire interaction thus far, is that she thanked him, dipping her head as a sign of gratitude. It inflated his ego plenty and he would have introduced himself if the younger male before him did not start…laughing.

Before he can step away he is brought into an uncomfortably tight embrace. Words…of thanks…will…suffice. He grunts out, not quite sure how to process the hug. I…am…Lachesis. He says to @Uma before he tries to disentangle himself.

@Ambrose

Something like grave disapproval crosses her face as Ambrose gathers the other male into an unceremonious hug. "Sorry. He's a hugger. I told him it's for weenies... how it hurts our credibility. Makes both of us look weak. He won't listen to anything. Except for the sound of his own, horrendously high-pitched voice." She tells him in an emotionless, matter-of-fact manner. A sidelong glance is given to her brother. He'd been listening to the sound of his own voice when he'd almost plummeted to his death, hadn't he? As his twin, she's always been hard-wired to protect him from harm-- one might argue she protects him too much-- but how is she supposed to save him from his own stupidity? It seems harsh, and it probably is. Her heart is still jackhammering away in her chest. One would be hard-pressed to tell, but she's afraid-- and angry at Ambrose for scaring her like that.

He'd been on the verge of saying something, right before he almost dropped away into nothingness forever. Their life together, everything they'd gone through... everything they'd fought for... gone. He'd known what was coming, and so had she. From that point onward, there was only one way down, and that was up, straight up to heaven's golden shores. No one lost their footing on Red Rock Gorge and survived. No one. Except that faith had had different plans. Lachesis had had different plans. She didn't believe in divine intervention, but at that moment, he'd had looked a whole damn lot like some kind of holy savior to her. "The desert doesn't typically forgive mistakes... without you—" She stops herself, adding: "I'm glad you came when you did." Uma has never bent a knee to anyone, and she's not about to start now-- but she does the next best thing, and bows her head in respect. "My brother and I are eternally in your debt."

@Ambrose @Lachesis

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Being brought back from the literal edge of death does have a tendency to make one a bit hysterical. He doesn't really realize that he's half hugging the guy to death until he's politely pried off. A but too stubbornly, he retains his clutch on the man before finally conceding. It's nice, holding on to someone solid after thrashing around above a bottomless pit for what felt like years.

"Not a hugger—gotcha." Awkwardness aside, he doesn't seem too bothered, especially after literally having his life safe saved by the other man. Lachesis. It sounds like the most beautiful name in the world right now. If Lachesis hadn't been around, he might very well have been history. Upon closer inspection, he realizes the man has facial markings that practically scream bad guy, but to Ambrose, he's quite the opposite. A saint, in fact. A skull-faced angel, if you will.

Of course, Uma has to ruin the moment. "For the last time, I don't have a high-pitched voice. I almost fell down a ravine! Can you be a little more... sensitive, or something?" He turns to the white-faced male. "Ambrose. Wish I could say this was the first time this happened." He confides, a tad apologetically. Why is he always getting his ass saved, again?

@Lachesis @Uma

BG — ART — CODE

Admittedly, being squished was not what he intended when he had come all this way. Still, he could not deny he was intrigued by the pair he had come across. The sister — Uma — spoke of not looking weak and protecting one’s credibility. She then proceeded to insult her brother in what he assumed to be sibling banter — he was not particularly familiar with it, to be honest, but he did not care to comment on that one way or another, for she said something, far, far more enticing to his ears.

‘My brother and I are eternally in your debt.’

It took a great deal of self-control not to grin from ear to ear like a madman, lest they think it was at all possible to rescind the great power they had offered him. What was a god without followers, after all. The way she bows her head in respect to him, fills him with a wave of superiority he had not felt in some time. It is not forgiving, no, but I am not the desert. I am a god. Still, he did not say that, thinking it would be evident in time. I am grateful you think me to be worthy of such a thing. The thanks came smoothly from his tongue, in spite of thinking he was deserving of it from the beginning.

As it were, however, it appeared Ambrose, was it? Did not appreciate his sister’s admonishment, which almost made him chuckle. Almost. Not the first time it happened, eh? You should listen to your sister. Your life is far too valuable. Now that it was tied to him, anyways.

But I am new to Amaryllis, perhaps you two could tell me more while we get away from this gorge?

@Uma @Ambrose

Tri-colored eyes cut toward Ambrose. He's right, of course. He almost did fall down a ravine, and it had scared the hell out of her. It's wrong to go off at him, she knows that, at least somewhere in the deepest reaches of her heart, but she's still angry. At him? At herself? She doesn't even know. "Don't need to be sensitive. Need to be savvy. And I told you. Not talking about feelings in front of friends." They've had this talk plenty of times, and it's humiliating enough without anybody present. Being sensitive is for weaklings. And poets. And she's certainly not in the business of showing any sign of a soft underbelly to a complete stranger, lest he take quick advantage. Though that ship probably already sailed when her brother all but lobbed himself into a hug. Still, for all his annoying tendencies, she's realized one thing... and that's that no matter what, she wouldn't want to miss him for the world. "Uma." She introduces. "My brother..." He's all I have. I couldn't protect him today, and without you, he'd be gone now. That's what she wants to say, but she doesn't, of course, something precluding the words from leaving her throat.

She decides to strike out into a different direction instead, and heeding Lachesis' suggestion, starts away from the gorge, setting off toward the cactus farm. She doesn't want to look at the gorge anymore... the gorge and its never-ending drop. Not today. "My thoughts exactly. I know another place we can go." She doesn't like sucking on cacti anymore than her brother does, but maybe he shouldn't have went and nearly fallen down a damn ravine then. She speaks in high volume, focused on enunciating clearly in case her voice sounds as shaky as she feels. "If it's information you want, you've probably come to the wrong address. Me and my brother, we like to steer clear of politics. It's how we survived so long. The desert's a quiet place. No drama. No distractions. Guess you'd have to be very lost to venture here. Or half-insane." She regards him coolly, and wonders idly which of the two categories he falls into.

@Ambrose, @Lachesis

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