"Dust and Embers"

Hope you like this story. It just popped into my head while I was in an English Literature Lecture last week. let me know what you think so I can decide if I should continue. Chapter 2 is ready, let me know if you want it!

Pride comes before a fall.

"Scully, hold on a second!" Mulder panted as he scrambled up the hill after his partner. He was finding it hard to get up the sandy slope. The sun-baked soil was disturbed under his heavy feet and rose into the air in a dusty cloud. He coughed as the dust blew back into his face and the orange powder coated his sweat-drenched white polo shirt.

Scully had already reached the top of the ridge. "Come on, Mulder." She called down to him, pulling her binoculars and a bottle of water from her backpack. She took a swig of the water and when Mulder joined her she handed him the bottle.

"I'm so hot and thirsty!" He gratefully gulped down some of the liquid as Scully scanned the desert before them. Mulder finished the water. "See it?" He walked behind Scully to place the empty bottle back into the bag.

"No, no sign of it. Hey! That water was supposed to last the whole day! Why did you drink all of it? Well, if you think I am trekking back to the car to get more, you have another thing coming!"

Scully raised her eyebrow at him and he just smiled.

"I'll go back later." Mulder said and grabbed the binoculars from her, putting them up to his eyes and looking over the edge of the ridge. "LOOK THERE IT IS!" He yelled. Scully ran to his side and looked to where he pointed. Mulder smirked and laughed. "Ha! Made you look!"

Scully rolled her eyes, sighed and took off the backpack and dumped it on the ground. "Well, now you can carry this on the way back!" Mulder nodded, not really listening.

Scully walked to the edge, a few feet from where Mulder stood, and stood beside a huge rock. She smiled to herself as she picked up a small rock. Mulder paid no attention to her; he was too busy scanning the landscape for any sign of their quarry.

Scully crouched behind the very large sandy rock, clutching the small rock tightly. With a deep breath, she threw the rock over the edge of the ridge so it dislodged some of the sand and screamed,

"Argh! Mulder!"

Mulder looked around and panic came across his face; he thought Scully had fallen. He ran to the edge and leant over, yelling "Scully! SCULLY!"

She emerged from behind the rock, smirking. "I had you!"

Mulder looked embarrassed and angry. "No you didn't!" She continued to smirk and he was cross, but he didn't say any more on the subject. "Come on. Let's look somewhere else."

He swung the backpack onto his shoulder and proceeded down the sandy slope. Scully watched him go, smiling to herself. She was always able to trick Mulder, and he was always gullible.

She began to follow him, but lost her footing on the sandy soil of the ledge. It crumbled beneath her boots and she fell. "Mulder!" Scully screamed, holding tightly to a root protruding from the cliff. It wouldn't hold for long and the soil around it was already starting to crumble and fall the hundred feet down to the valley floor. "MULDER!"

"Whatever, Scully!" He was at the bottom of the slope, heading back towards the dirt track where the Taurus was parked. He called back to her over his shoulder, "Don't think I'm gonna fall for that again!"

Scully's sweating palms were making it difficult for her to maintain her grip on the root, and her feet scrabbled against the rock face, her heart racing.

"MULDER!" She yelled again, desperately. "Help me! Please help me!" her scream echoed around the valley and Mulder realised that this time she wasn't joking. He spun round and began to tear up the crumbling hill.

The soil moved under his feet in a perpetual landslide, but somehow he managed to progress closer and closer to the top. His boots scraped up the last few metres and he flung himself to the edge, peering over to a distraught Scully. He lay on his stomach and extended his hand to her. "Grab my hand!" But she couldn't reach. Mulder stretched further and further out to her, and almost toppled over himself. "Mulder be careful!" Scully wailed, tears beginning to form.

"Hold on Scully!" Mulder yelled, turning back onto the ridge and opening the backpack. He searched through it in hope of finding some rope or something for her to grab on to. Nothing.

He stood up and began to undo his belt. He held the leather strap over the ledge and leant down so Scully could grab it in one hand. "Both hands!" he instructed. With a deep breath, Scully let go of the root and grabbed the belt tightly. Mulder began to haul her upwards. He had pulled her up about a foot, when the root system she had been holding onto gave way and fell far down to the valley floor.

"Don't look down!" Mulder yelled. "Almost there." He gave one last pull and Scully cleared the edge of the cliff and fell into his arms. Mulder hugged her to him.

"I'm sorry." She said quietly. "I was so stupid." Mulder just hugged her, and then together they descended the slope, back to the safety of the car.