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Reality only seemed to return to Howl as the pressure of Boreas' arms abandoned him. And when reality seemed to return, it came crashing down on the poor fellow.

His eyes blinked open behind the sunglasses and he literally glanced from Boreas to his own lower body (which was mostly covered in sand now), repeating the process a few times. Each time he completed the motion, his face turned a shade darker in red. By the time he was finished drawing his own conclusions about the scenario, he looked as if he had a horrible sunburn. This whole place was beginning to mess with his internal guards, for normally such an embarrassing scenario would not have even received a blush. Perhaps it was the exhaustion that was finally taking its toll.

"...I... apologize for being such an inconvenience, Mr. Boreas." The young man began to try and wriggle his way out of the sand. It was no longer a tight hold like before, for he was able to shift slightly within the millions of grains of sand, but one thing became obvious pretty quickly. Howl was still stuck.

With a heaving sigh, the teal-haired half-a-figure ceased his struggles. "I suspect I will require your assistance if we should like to continue with our travels." With this confession, it sounded as if Howl's pride had taken yet another blow. It probably had something to do with how the Senshi of Winter was continually needing to assist the mere 16 year old lad, and the 16 year old lad, in return, was unable to do anything useful.

Howl's dry lips frowned very slightly. "I fail to see what is particularly humorous about this situation." In all honesty, the frown couldn't stay, and soon enough it was replaced with a neutral expression. It took far too much work to frown under these conditions. As he was lifted out helplessly, he turned away and attempted to add a bit of distance despite their close proximity to each other. The moment he was set down, he tended to his clothing carefully, delicate hands sweeping across the fabric of his pants, trying to get rid of every loose grain of sand from his outfit. It was obvious that the teal-haired lad was particularly meticulous about his appearance. It would explain why his hands looked so lovely, even after being in the desert for endless hours upon hours.

During the whole time that the effeminate one tended to his outfit, he did not speak a single word. Certainly, he kept his ear open and listening (in fact, he had two ears open and listening), but he did not offer to add to the conversation. He rattled the edges of his slacks, and then after a quick inspection of his own hands, he then finally acknowledged Boreas.

"I had no right to snap at you earlier. I apologize for my outburst." Apparently in Howl's mind, his mention of not seeing the humor in their situation was an outburst. "I am indeed ready to continue forward. One does not accomplish anything by idling around."

Howl took a step, and his foot sunk into the sand, but continued to sink until the sand was covering his whole shin.

"Bloody hell!" He attempted to pull back his foot, and when he found himself unable, he uttered "I suspect, if you are not exhausted with this extra burden, I may need to hitch a ride, Mr. Boreas."

How come Sailor Boreas, Senshi of Winter, could make it seem so easy to get out from the sand? When Howl tried to get out, the sand felt like solid concrete trapping him in place. Yet, the senshi dressed in all white and ash grays could easily sweep in and just merely pull him out of his problems? With much ease, the barefoot lad took his familiar place and formal stance upon his steed. Appearances were everything, and in all honesty, he had been emasculated enough today. He was not about to add to the notion that Howl Wickham was a weakling by leaning in and clinging to his fur-clad savior. It might have made the ride less bumpy, but it was something the teal-haired lad was willing to risk.

His teal eyes remained focused on the path ahead, keeping a lookout for that speck from before. However, his mind did wander slightly, circling back to the subject of his sand trap encounter. There was the saying that if you struggle, you only make things worse, and that if you do not resist, then it is easier to escape. How would that have worked with the sand of all things? It did make Howl wonder for a mere half a second if Boreas' shoes were magical in some sense, and if Howl being in this crimson skied desert with bare feet put him at a disadvantage. However, the notion was waved off as foolish after half a second had passed.

For a moment, his eyes wandered from their pathway ahead to the fluff upon his companion's shoulder. Casually, he offered a slight compliment to hopefully lift the Sailor Scout's spirits even more.

"I must admit, you have quite a bit of stamina, Mr. Boreas. Is this because of your swimming hobby?" He laughed, though it was a bit weaker than his usual non-heat-exhausted version. "It would make sense if that was the case. Either way, you are a very impressive young man, Mr. Boreas."

Once more, his eyes returned to the pathway ahead. Again, he attempted to locate that speck, even lifting his sunglasses for a moment just to get a better view for a second or two.

Howl's compliment brought a smile to Boreas' face. He needed it more than the teal haired boy could ever guess. Sure he was optimistic and brave to an altruistic fault, but one can only do so much on his own before the blaring hot sun causes you to start wondering at which temperature your blood boils. He needed the compliment like the desert needs the rain. Speaking of rain:

Uhh hello desert? Two dried up husks of men wandering you aimlessly? Yeah, thanks for the acknowledgment... Not.

"I appreciate that Howl. To be honest, I think this may make me a better swimmer than the other way around. I usually don't get this hot when I exercise since I'm in a pool. Well, I've actually never been this hot in my life."

He made himself laugh or maybe the heat did. Either way, he found it slightly funny to mock himself. After all, the desert was doing a fine job of that as is, why not jump on the bandwagon?

As the two travelers came closer to the then black now brown speck, Boreas' tracks mimicked in the hoof prints in the sand. Each step closer met with even more hesitation, bordering on fear. Though he tried to be subtle and not stray from the path too much, he couldn't help, but to focus his gaze to the ground below and not acknowledge the foreboding speck ahead. Not to mention the crazy terrain they were now encountering.

"Hmm... I think this is the first time I've seen sand dunes like that out here."

Closer, it seemed to be some kind of -- creature, perhaps, something with fur. Not moving.

The hoofprints were scuffled and ruined, here and there, the sand tossed haphazardly.

Boreas was also exhausted. He stumbled on his feet, having a bit of trouble regaining his footing in all the sand. God, it was hot.

Many things were easily messing with Howl's perspective on the current situation. He had not necessarily been the most optimistic of the pair, but now there some sort of creature huddled off in the distance. At least, it seemed that way. Sailor Boreas mentioned a struggle, and as best as Howl could, he glanced to the ground to find that indeed, the prints which had been so uniform during the journey were tossed about chaotically in the sand.

However, the straw that broke the camel's back (figuratively of course) was the obvious slip in the Senshi's step.

"I suggest we stop for a moment so you can rest." In a tone that could be seen more like an authority figure, such as a strict teacher, he instructed "Set me down, Mr. Boreas." Before the Sailor Scout could complain or disagree, Howl easily pushed himself off of his companion's back, standing on the sand without any problem this time.

"If we could get all the excess clothing off of you, I think you would be in better shape, Mr. Boreas. However, I know that might be impossible. Miss Vanadis confided in me about your strange situation dealing with your uniforms." For a moment, he cautiously seemed to fuss with Boreas' fluffy shawl.

Closer still: the footprints seemed to lead up to the creature, except where they were gouged out by rents in the sand dune. There was blood everywhere, making it hard to distinguish any of the details if they didn't approach closely.