Cash Me Outside

"The hell kind of detour is this, Alkali?"  Pyralis lifted her eyes to the hawk that glided above her then back down to the skeletal corpse of some poor fool that had been trapped in quicksand and likely starved to death.  She hadn't meant to venture this far east but Alkali had assured her the resulting view would be worth it if they could survive the pitfall.

"Actually, I suggested going farther north through the mountains but you just had to go chasing that coyote."  Ok, so the bird had a point.  She licked her lips, that had certainly been a fun little game up until the coyote got swallowed by a pit of quick sand and of course curiosity got the better of Pyralis so she just had to go a little bit farther, and a little bit farther and a liiitttlle bit faaartther… until she might as well finish the journey.

Pyralis moved slow, carefully gauging each step, testing her weight lightly.  It was torturous!   Pyralis wasn't the most patient of creatures but she could when she had to be and Alkali, to her credit, was helping as she could.  The bird had taken to dropping stones, bones and whatever she could find along the trail to try and gauge the softness of the ground.  Pyralis was so focused on what she was doing that she almost missed the furry gray butt ahead of her.  She stared at it for a moment then let out a barking laugh as she trotted a bit to her left to gaze at the large female who was half stuck in the sand.  "Digging for treasure while tanning your backside, now there's a girl after my own heart!  Need some help?" She glanced at the woman's hind end and frowned slightly. "Did someone eat your tail while you've been out here?  It'd be easier to haul you out if you had a handle."  She snickered to herself while Alkali perched silently on a nearby cacti.