It was four moons today.

Four moons of the same ruthlessly incessant cycle. Our lives consisted of nothing more than waking, walking, and sleeping; occasionally food paid a visit to our bellies if we happened to be lucky enough to stumble upon something mildly consumable on our desolate travels.

We had come a long way, scaling and descending a mountain range or two, across countless acres of fields and forests, the occasional barren wasteland of nothing but sand or snow. There was no sign of any other weary travellers, and we had not stumbled across someone since the kind, hooded stranger who offered us a meal before we faced the first range of vicious alps.

Father's hometown was still nowhere in sight but somehow I felt better now than ever having a couple of mountain ranges shrouding me from my old life.

We'd left another forest behind a week or two ago, and the weather was getting warmer and warmer with each step. Hot pebbles and sand appeared, somehow finding its way under our paws in a few short hours, the only sign of life- or what once was- being the occasional shriveled up shrub. The sandy dunes rolled and folded over each other like a desolate barren wasteland, and the world seemed to stretch on longer than forever.

We had faced deserts before, but only to follow the borderline around them, where the air was not yet parched and the sun not yet scorching. Understandably so, I hadn't been too fond of the idea of crossing this dry wilderness, especially after waking with a pounding in my head, and an imaginary mass weighing down my paws.

We should have stayed in the forest, even a scrap of shade is so much better than none.

I winced as another wave of dizziness seized my body, but managed to catch myself in a stumble, and recovering quicker than Jupe could turn around and spot my weakness.

He had insisted on making the daring journey today, despite my protests and pleas that 'we should just go around' and that it was 'safer'. Oh, the patience it must have taken to remind me that there was no fast way that involved avoiding the desert, and that if we did go around it could take us so many more moons because the village was 'just past this sand bowl'.

I had sighed, still unsure why my father wanted to run so far away when we already had countless miles beneath our paws. Running from mistakes is like treading in quicksand, there's no way to win against something that has always been unbeatable.

But alas, I followed, trusting that this place would turn up sooner or later.

After hours of travelling, the horizon seemed to shimmer, and my fur felt heavy and damp with sweat, the bowtie tight around my neck caused chafing against my throat that brung intolerable irritation with every small movement.

Trudging along under the remorseless heat, with no shade, comfort, or relief the world began to rock beneath me, harsher and harsher with each slow step, my vision reduced to no more than a spinning blur.

"Father," I croaked out weakly, beginning to stumble. "I... I don't feel..."

Somewhat pathetically, I fell forward, collapsing in a tangle of limbs, the sand burned hotter than fire but I found myself unable to move. My paws were so heavy, and so was my tongue, and my tail, and my eyelids, my body felt like one giant boulder.

Everything felt suppressed through the rapid pulse in my ears and a pulsating pain at the base of my skull, as if someone was squeezing an orange, tighter and tighter I felt like my head was about to explode. Yet through the haze of pain and blue and yellow, I saw my father turn, his eyes wide and round with concern.

"Lloyd!" He cried, bounding over to me in a few steps that knocked on the sand like an angry neighbor and echoed through the earth, the reverberation reaching my ear in a heartbeat.

Numbly, I realised he was shaking my shoulder desperately. "Lloyd? What- What happened? Are you alright?"

Ugh, so many questions, please just let me sleep, I'm so tired.

I grunted in response, even just the thought of forming a somewhat coherent sentence seemed to drain all the energy from my body.

Through the fog of pain and exhaustion, I felt him place the back of his paw gently against my head.

"My god, you're burning up," Jupe murmured, cursing softly.

I felt him draw away, and after a second of hesitation, felt myself being dragged onto something solid and warm and... fluffy?

Is he carrying me? Are you actually carrying me, father? Please just leave me here, all I want to do is sleep.

Through my delirium I blindly attempted to slip off of his spine and join the sand in a peaceful slumber again, only to be stopped by a quick paw.

"Oh no you don't. We've made it this far. I refuse to abandon you here."

Deciding protesting took too much precious energy I obliged, instead choosing to focus on the slow swaying, occasionally accompanied by the sharp shoulder or hip bone protruding into my underbelly.

I didn't remember much of the next few hours as I slipped in and out of consciousness, from time to time muttering something incoherent but all the while understanding that he was struggling across the scorching stretch of land, and all the while aware that there was nothing I could do to help him.

The heat grew ever more intense even as the day came to an end, I didn't know whether it was just my imagination, or if there really were birds circling the air above them, beady eyes and sharp beaks waiting for Jupe to finally stop, to finally give up and collapse under the wicked claws of exhaustion.

I felt his legs shuddering with the effort of carrying extra weight, I felt sweat-slick his fur, I felt his bones grinding and his muscles barely managing to push on; yet through it all, he didn't. Stop. Once.

As the sun slowly slipped over the horizon, a slight glow in the distance dawned to my eyes, a glow that through the incoherence of my mind, I could have easily dismissed it as the sun setting, but with the stars beginning to poke tiny fractures in the twilight sky I willed myself to believe it was something more and dragged myself from dormancy.

"Father, I-" I rasped followed by a dry cough, my throat felt shredded and withered with thirst, "I can walk now."

"Nonsense, it's only a few hundred metres away now." His voice was equally raspy, and I would argue it was almost worse.

"Exactly why you should let me walk."

An empty reply, a slow thought, and only then, did he stop.

"I suppose-" he croaked, gently sliding me off of his back, and allowing me to lean against him for support.

"I suppose you can manage, but I'm not letting go of you until we get to a safe place for you to rest. If you want me to carry you again, just ask."

I nodded, unable to form words on the sandpaper that was my tongue; and so we leaned on each other all the rest of the way to the village, we were leaning so heavily on each other that when one of us stumbled, the other almost lost their balance, it would have been funny, I probably would have chuckled.

And I could argue that although I was walking, consciousness still refused to commit to my mind, everything remained at the minimum, a blur. The pang of a chill that turned my paws numb, the wisp of a breeze once so hot turned icy, the bright lights that hurt my eyes, the unrecognisable muffled voices, the strange smells, the softness of a nest, and finally the crisp, chill of water finding its way down my throat, soothing my throat and relaxing my whole body, lulling me into a sense of security and safety.

My last thought was hazy but laced with overwhelming relief.

We made it. We really made it.

And then consciousness abandoned me entirely.

damn guys o no whats gonna happen to lloyd 

jk hes fine :D

next chapter he does end up having an interesting encounter though :)