Notes: I had no idea what I was doing with this one, but it was fun. Maybe someday I can add to it.
Day 19: AU Anzu. Generic fantasy setting.
Exhaustion
"It's hopeless," Ishizu insisted. "He's been lost a full two days in the desert. You'll only join the dead."
"Then I'll die satisfied," Anzu shot back, "because at least I cared enough to try."
She whipped her cloak around her and pulled her scarf up to cover her nose. The fierce wind stung the moment she entered it, but she dug her boots into the sand and walked. Stubbornness alone wouldn't help her find Marik, but she didn't need it to; she clutched the pendant around her neck and felt it chill her fingertips. Through the whipping sand, a thin blue light took shape, guiding the path.
She headed North.
As the daylight faded into evening, the wind gratefully faded with it. Anzu made excellent time in the cool darkness, aided by that thread of seer light. It led her to a half-buried rock formation.
And curled in the shade of the largest rock was a familiar form.
"Marik!" Her voice scraped her dry throat. Laying there as unmoving as a rock himself, he no longer seemed like an enemy, and she found her heart in her throat as she dropped to her knees and checked for a pulse.
He was breathing.
She sighed in relief, then carefully trickled water across his chapped lips. He barely roused. Just enough to get him to drink. It was past dawn anyway, so they would have to shelter here for the heat of the day.
The weight of the rescue hit her, and Anzu scooted a few feet away, to the edge of the rock. Marik slept most of the day, clearly exhausted, his only words a raw plea for water. It was mid-afternoon by the time she saw the fog clear from his eyes enough to recognize her. Maybe he hoped it was a desert mirage.
As the sun set, he truly spoke for the first time: "Why did you save me?"
Anzu frowned. "I don't know."
No one else had been willing to make the effort, not even his own sister.
But maybe that was exactly why.
"This doesn't change anything." She swallowed. "It's still your fault he's gone."
Marik didn't seem to have a response to that.
"Why did you come out here alone?"
He lifted one shoulder the smallest degree. But a weak answer wouldn't satisfy her, and she pressed until he finally admitted:
"I was looking for a tomb."
"Why?"
"Because there's something in it that can bring him back."
Her heart jolted, but she crushed the hope. Nothing could bring back the dead.
"You're trying to trick me," she said. "Pretending to care. Pretending to regret."
He looked away, muttering, "Believe what you want."
He'd nearly gotten himself killed on a fool's errand. No one could navigate the desert, not without a seer.
Anzu curled her fingers around her gold pendant.
When Marik tried to stand, his knees wobbled. Anzu caught his arm.
Her voice was hard: "Let's find the tomb."