Under a Distant Sun

[Anonymous]

The sun seemed to taunt Dahlia from all directions. From above, its relentless rays both burned the skin and blinded the eyes as its merciless rays cast out over the white sands on the horizon. From below, that same sand reflected back nearly intolerable heat even through the leather of her kidskin boots.

To further complicate her plight, Dahlia was out of water… And a rough tumble down the side of an impressively tall dune had rendered her lame on her left leg.

Marvelous… really. Just lovely. Quite.  How did I ever get here, Tryst pondered for well over the hundredth time. In all honesty she knew exactly what she was doing in the middle of the desert during high summer with no water and a gaping wound in her leg. She was running away, what else would she be doing. At least she could rest assured no fool in their bloody right mind would have followed her out here.

For hours she marched or rather staggered on, pausing only occasionally to retie the strip of her gown she had used as a tourniquet on her bad leg.  She missed her horses, she missed her family, she had no idea how she was even carrying on. All this was utterly foreign to her, having never left the safety of her home in

I could die out here. Truly, I could die, she realized sometime well before sunset. It was precisely as she was making this assessment of the situation when a glimmer of hope appeared on the horizon…

Was it? Could it be… she strained her eyes, squinting into the intolerable brightness.

Yes. A being… and not so far away really, when one considered the scope of the desert. She took a deep breath and committed to it. She burst into the closest thing to a run her tired broken body could muster. Her skirts dragged in the sand, catching and pulling at her but she pressed on. It was her only hope.

[Anonymous]

Hanzo let out a low sigh as he traversed the desert, those dual hued eyes peering about boredly. He had initially set out to collect on a bounty placed upon bandits in these wastelands. There always seemed to be an abundance of them in these areas. His nose twitched lightly, and he glanced back to see what looked like a woman hobbling towards him.

Stopping after a few more steps, he gradually made his way toward the stranger, that scent of blood hovering about her had caused a bit of a conflict between the wolf and human within him, but he hid it well. His head canted to one side as he neared her, stopping a few paces away. "Riiight, let me guess... a runaway bride. Y'know this is one hell of a distance to run, and a bad choice of terrain".

He glanced into her eyes, quickly aiming to close the distance between the two of them, and in the process get into her personal bubble to look closer. "Your pupils are starting to pinpoint, you need water", He commented with a light shrug. "Ah... let me guess you don't have any, well normally I'd just leave you to die, but I'm in a pretty good mood today" He removed a gourd from his side and offered it to her.

Those eyes next focused on the wound on her leg, "And what type of moron would be walking on this" He scolded rather harshly, "There are some rather unsavory creatures out here that could easily track you down and gobble you up moving around with a wound like that.." He shook his head, "Even if I am heartless, can't leave you out here like that... want a ride back into town?" He asked, though no horse was present so it was a bit of a bizarre question to be proposed.

[Anonymous]

Dahlia eyed the man for a moment before her sense of self-preservation won her over the she took the gourd from his outstretched hand. She gulped ferociously at the water it contained until she felt faintly nauseous, then stopped and wiped a hand across her moist lips.

“I doubt there’s anything more unsavory here than there was back there,â€? she replied breathlessly, jerking her head in the direction she’d come.  She suddenly felt exposed with the man’s odd multi-hued gaze burning into her. She crossed her arms across her chest hoping they cover the rips in her bodice.  She wasn’t sure what to do. The elders had always warned her not to trust those from outside the village, and her first experience with an outsider had resulted in nothing short of horror. Still, she was exhausted, lost, hurting.

“I would like to go… away from here…� she answered softly. A moment after making that statement she simply collapsed on the sand.

[Anonymous]

He rolled his eyes lightly as she crossed her arms, "I might be a blood thirsty animal at times, but I'm not a pervert" He growled lightly, "Oro?, Hey.. oh well that's just perfect" He grumbled as she fell to the ground. "You know you wouldn't pass out like that if you drank water and didn't go injuring yourself!"

He glanced up at the sky and sighed lightly, it was far from nightfall, and he had exhausted a good portion of his energy tracking down outlaws. Shifting to his far more swift wolven form was going to take a lot of exertion. "You are so lucky I'm in a good mood" He repeated his earlier statement to her collapsed form.

Hanzo took a knee and carefully placed her on his back placing her arms around his neck, he then placed his hands on the ground. That blue eye closing along with his green one. Those bones grinding, fusing, lengthening and shortening. It was always a painfull process for him, and the fact it was daytime and this thought let along act was bordering on insanity. As his bones and muscles tore and reconstructed within himself that black fur was sprouting, his front right paw having a crimson patch along with the tip of his tail. The fur would provide decent padding for the stranger that rested on his back.

He gently took her wrists in his maw, squeezing lightly, but only enough to grip, a few moments passed as he peered at the sand lifting a paw at the hot surface a muffled whimper issued before he began to run towards a nearby oasis, he was having extreme difficulty keeping her centered on his back, and this prevented him from actually maintaining a full speed sprint. Those dual hued eyes focused ahead, if anything he looked pretty pissed off. 'Why do stupid people do such stupid things and then moronic me has to help stupid them and then... ugh!' he thought to himself.

[Anonymous]

Dahlia could tell she was in motion before she even opened her eyes. She could feel the rhythm of each measured stride and the cooling sensation of the wind blowing across her badly burned skin. She was a born rider, as horse-maiden by birth and breeding and it was an immediately recognizable feeling. But the gait was all wrong and the fur beneath her was far too dense to be horsehair. She roused herself only to find herself staring at the ground, and a furry paw mid-step.

Frantically, she lurched up from her reclining position and let out a shriek that could likely be heard halfway across the continent.

“BEAST! FIEND! Release me!â€? She scrambled off the creature’s back, jolting her bad leg in the process. A wave of pain so intense that it made her nauseous ran through the injured limb and brought a whimper to her lips. Still on her hands and knees she backed away from the beast, eyes wide with terror.  Murmuring something incomprehensible, she curled up, clutching her knees tight to her chest as tiny rivulets of tears tumbled from her aquamarine eyes down her scalded cheeks to evaporate on the hot desert sand.

She assumed the creature was one of the dire wolves of myth that elder’s told stories about, scaring their children away from venturing too deep into the woods. Though, this creature didn’t look nearly so ferocious as the ideas she had conjured in her head. There was, at least, no blood dripping from giant fangs, and as of yet no wicked claws raking her flesh off. On the contrary, it cut quite a striking imagery staring down at her.

“Are you going to eat me alive and give my bones to your brethren to chew on?� Her voice was small and childlike.
She had no idea whether the creature spoke her tongue, or any tongue at all…

[Anonymous]

A light growl was released as she shouted at him, and treated him like some sort of horrific monster. While a part of him enjoyed the fear, the slightly more sane half was peeved. The rather large wolf let out a deep exhale that seemed like it could be compared to a 'grunt' issued by a person.

'Only if you go treating me like a monster again' He thought to himself at her question. 'C'mon it's hot out here, and being covered in black doesn't help' He swatted at her arm with a paw. It seemed far from threatening and was actually pretty hillarious considering the sand caused him to slightly lose balance in the process.

After a bit of sneezing from the sand that managed to get into his nostrils he merely let out a deep exhale and glared at her with those dual hued eyes. 'It's not like I'm a dragon... I mean think of me as a big dog as insulting as it may be for me' He kept thinking to himself though he had no telepathic abilities it was all just ranting to an audience of none.

After a bit of glaring and pondering he came up with and idea, carefully he drug that paw in the sand using it as a writing pad spelling out 'It's that jerk from before with the bad temper that gave you water, and no this isn't a trick' the thought of her assuming he was some sort of super-intelligent man-eater that somehow managed to learn how to write had obviously crossed his mind.

[Anonymous]

Dahlia stared blankly at the dog-beast as he began scrawling something in the sand. Yes, she remembered the man now… He’d saved her. But this, assuredly, couldn’t be him! She was beginning to think this was all some sort of heat-induced hallucination. She reached out and touched the creature’s back lightly. Real enough. In the distance through the shimmering heat waves she could make out the faint silhouettes of trees, clearly an oasis of some sort. She sighed, wiping the tears from her eyes and staggered to her feet.

None of this made any sense and she wished she was back home. She should be getting ready for a wedding, preening, relaxing, weaving flowers through long blond braids. Instead she was stranded out here with a wolf-thing that claimed to be a man in the middle of the desert. None of it made any sense and it just wasn’t fair.

All the same, she figured if it was going to eat her it likely would have done so already. And, for that matter, if it changed its mind there wasn’t much she could do to stop it. Besides, she didn’t have the strength to walk the distance to the oasis and if she stayed out here in the sun much longer she would die, for sure.

“Alright doggy-man-thing… nice doggy…â€? she whispered as calmly as she could, feeling a complete fool as she tentatively straddled the creature to sit upon its back once more.  â€œOk… Alright.. this isn’t so bad.. “ she muttered as if trying to convince herself, waiting for the creature to do what it would… Carry her off to the safety of the oasis or throw her off its back and have a delightful afternoon meal.

[Anonymous]

He let her touch him, and slowly began getting annoyed again as she talked to him like he was a dumb animal. 'I'm a wolf... a wuuuuuuuuullllfuuuhh' He thought to himself, once she got back on his back he took off at a full sprint this time, considering she was actually awake and capable of attempting to maintain her balance.

The fact she was a bride was already obvious information to him, the issue was exactly what was she doing out in the desert, he had assumed she was jilted and left for dead. He slowed as they neared the small water source with palm trees dotting it's perimeter, he stopped at one near the water, a tree offering shade. He leaned just enough to drop her off of his back, but it was a far cry from throwing her off.

He padded off and returned with a rather large amount of aloe vera plant in his mouth, dropping it in front of her. The plant was known to relieve the pain from sunburns and also aid in their healing. He moved over to drink a bit from the water, attempting to get the waxy taste of the plant out of his mouth.