Thread: Eternal Sands - Closed

Lucky was still asleep by the time it was noon. Despite his room being in the upper level of the guild hall where it was quite exposed to daylight through a wide window, it was not enough to wake up the old wolf. Just the night before, he had stayed up until well past midnight to read, fill out and sign a number of contract forms which he would then have to scan copies of and post onto the guild's notice board. All this he had left until the pitch black of night because he preferred to go out in the city, looking for entertainment. He had deliberately left his voci link off so that his day wouldn't be ruined by numerous calls, which he eventually got an earful about when he returned to the guild hall. And so he continued to slumber in his bed, sleep deprived from the late night's work which he had yet to complete.

Amethyst adjusted the red witches hat that was upon her head, then pulling on her sunglasses, looking around the building for a few minutes before heading up the stairs. It was rather tiring just sitting around the place, waiting for Lucky to wake up, she may have been with him for years but that didn't change the fact that she wanted some action, to find some treasure. "Lucky!!!" she called up the stairs, waiting a few moments before she gotten a sly smile on her face, bounding up the stairs quietly. Opening Lucky's door just as quietly, she peered inside, seeing the sleeping form of the werewolf. Chuckling to her self before she tip-toed over to him, sliding into the bed and begin to cuddle with him. "Lucky. You old dog, it is time ti get up and go on an adventure." she whispered into his ear as she stroked his fur.

Lucky woke up with a snort and spluttered when he realized who was in the bed with him. "Amethyst, gorram it, can't I get any shut eye in my own room?" He pushed the witch away then sat up, scratching at his bare chest. Despite his age, he was still a hulking mountain of hard muscle and grey fur, but right now he felt like a deflated hot-air balloon; an aircraft he once had the misfortune of going down with after a storm ray attack. "It's- it's very rude you know," he said as he yawned widely, then winced when he made the mistake of looking towards the window. The sunlight stung his bleary eyes like spear tips. As if that wasn't enough, his voci link began to buzz incessantly, signalling that someone was calling.

"Yeah, hello?" he asked after tapping the link below his right ear.
"Have you done all the paper work yet?" the caller replied, her voice petulant and loud in the old wolf's ear. It was almost too much for him to bear listening to.
"Uh..."
"You do realize no one can do any jobs until you set them up, right?"
"Lyssa, I just woke up..."
"And it's about time too, now get off your lazy caboose and start doing your job."

The call ended and Lucky sighed heavily with a great sense of defeat. Lyssa was the first apprentice he had ever taken, and an Academy mage at that, and now she was firmly in the role as the most responsible member of the guild. "You know, Amethyst, there are some days when I wonder why Lyssa can't be more like you," Lucky complained.

Amethyst got a fake hurt look as she was pushed off the wolf, looking a bit dejected before she smiled, standing up and stretching as she watched the male, chuckling slightly before she wrapped her arms around his neck. "I thought it was a rather nice wake up call. Or would you rather me waking you up to a blood covered room?" she said to him teasingly, humming to her self as she picked at a string hanging from her hat.

She gave a sigh as she let him go, pulling the shade down low enough that the sunlight would not hit Lucky in the eyes anymore. She turned around, looking bored as she waited for him to get off the phone with Lyssa, knowing it was her considering she had seen her earlier, only because she had been asking about Lucky.

Though the compliment, well she took it as one, caused her to smile as she moved back to the bed and sat down on it, tilting her head back before she pulled her sunglasses off to reveal her violet eyes to the wolf. "Because Lyssa is still very young and does not have my years of experience on her. If she was more like me then we would never have these private times and you would not have me waking you up like this every day. Though she does have a reason to have her panties in a bunch. It is almost two in the afternoon." she said to him in a seductive ton as she leaned towards him, flashing him a charming smile as she pushed her hand up the fur on his chest.

"Bah, that's too early to do anything fun," Lucky quipped as he got out of bed and dressed in the white and gold robes of a guild master. He always felt a little pretentious for wearing it, but custom was custom and here in the Empire, clothes served much the same role as tattoos and other markings did in the clan Lucky was raised in. Amethyst herself was also a nomad, but the witch and the werewolf couldn't be any more different from each other than a horse and a struthid.

"Or maybe it's too late, not that there's much fun to be had any more anyway," Lucky said as he sat on the bed again to pull on his boots (white and gold like the rest of his attire). "The Empire loves its paperwork and someone has to take care of it... and there's no one else for the job but me." He sighed wearily as he buckled his boots then turned to face Amethyst. "It's all I'm good for these days, you know. Reading, writing, signing, talking, ah, I'm old. Sometimes, I wish I took that damned tomb guardian's offer of immortality, but then I'd be stuck doing his job for all time and that wouldn't be any better."

He stood up to look at himself in the tall mirror beside the window. Gaudy and imposing, just the way a guild master should appear, although it wasn't necessarily how Lucky felt. "I tell you what though, that's no reason why I have to stay cooped up in here all the time. It's been a whole month since I've last walked the sands, and I'm thinking we should go do that once I'm done with the work."

As he looked at the mirror, he reflected on all the years he had spent with Amethyst since those adventurous days in the desert, him a young relic hunter and her a wandering witch. She was still a wanderer, still as lively as ever, and she did not look any older now than the day they first met, but Lucky always regarded her as the one to show him the life of the desert in ways that his clan never could, which only understood death and survival.

Nowadays, she would come by from time to time, taking jobs to relieve her boredom or help the guild, or perhaps both, Lucky was never quite sure which. Even to this day, he did not know the witch very well, but what he did understand was that her visits always brought about a revival of those good early days, which was a kindness beyond measure. Lucky walked over to his study desk and picked up a contract scroll that he had set apart from all the others last night.

"Yep, as soon as I'm done, I'll get Lyssa to take care of things while we..." He turned towards Amethyst with a grin as he showed the scroll. "We take a special trip to a familiar place. Remember Oruk, that ancient city where we first met? As it turns out, there's another one underneath it and our client has no idea how big it is. It'll be just like old times."

"Awww it is never to early or to late to have fun!" Amethyst automatically replied, chuckling to her self as she tilted her head to the side, watching him get dress, not like she had not seen it all to begin with. Soon her mind begin to wander back to the time he had drank one of her experiments and turned human for a brief moment. It had been quite the shock for the both of them, but it had only brought them closer together in the end.

She chuckled to her self once more before she stood up, walking over to him as she wrapped her arms around him, looking at them both in the mirror. "The dessert has been cruel and kind to us. She also has many more secrets to offer up to us." she said to him as she reached a hand up, scratching behind his ear before she spun around, her skirt flaring out some as she went to the window.

Her shirt was just big enough to cover her chest and nothing more, showing plenty of scars that she had on her body. She tilted her white head back as her violet eyes looked the grey wolf over, thinking for a few minutes. "There is always fun to be had, just have to find it. As for the paperwork.....the empire and can just stuff it where the sun don't shine." she said to him before she strode over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she looked down at him.

"We maybe old and most would say that we need to retire and that you behind a desk is a good thing. I know for a fact that reading, writing, signing, and talking is not something that fits you." she said to him as she chuckled, kissing his forehead as she caressed his cheek, a caring look in her eyes as she thought about his next statement.

"Sometimes i wish i had not took up magic. Freezes your body in time, so my mind may get older with the years that past but i shall never grow old." she said a bit sadly, after all she was rather old and had watched her clan and friends die out, that seemed to be the only bad thing about being her, watching the people she cares about growing old and dying away.

She let him go as he stood up and moved towards the window, she couldn't help but trace the tattoo of the moon and cat on her arm, thinking for a few minutes as she looked towards his bedroom door. "How long will your work take you?" she said to him, if she was a wolf like him, her ears would have perked up at the comment, though a smile was on her face as she stopped fidgeting in a sad way.

"Oruk? How can i forget that place." she said with a fond chuckle, thinking back on their first meeting, though she was quickly brought out of her thoughts when he mentioned that that they were going to go back there, a grin came to her face. "Old times, so are we going to share a tent once more? Oh maybe find some deeper treasure chamber that is much larger then last time? OH i know!!! We are going to find the crown of the first Marutuk's wife!" she said to him, her eyes lighting up with excitement as she thought of all the wonderful things that they could find, after they get what they need for the client, the rest of the treasures would be theirs for the taking.

Lucky laughed as he considered the possibility. "You know what, we actually might," he said, gradually recalling every scrap of history he had ever learnt about Oruk. "Even though no one knows who the first Marutuk's wife was, there's reason to believe that she was actually the princess of Oruk. Can you imagine anything so incredible? Taking the daughter of your arch enemy as a wife... if it's true then I'll bet that the king of the city is still turning in his grave to this day."

Still smiling, he placed the scroll back on the table and went to stand beside Amethyst by the window. Outside, the shining streets of the Capital gleamed in the sunlight, reflecting off sleek vehicles, pristine buildings and the bright clothes of the affluent. Here in Marutukkai was where the rule of the Dune Emperor was strongest and this city was a primary example of what the Empire had to offer. Yet for all its qualities, Lucky felt that it simply could not compare to the raw beauty of the desert, and he saw it now as he looked at Amethyst, every inch the vision of freedom as she always was.

"You know, sometimes, I wish I did take up magic," he sighed wistfully. "It might not be in my blood, but I know there are ways. Indeed, the price is often heavy for each of those ways, but I would have gladly paid them to get to know the desert for just a bit longer, just a little bit. I'm not greedy... but, I suppose you know better than I do about it. It might be selfish of me anyway, I'm not so old that I have to start thinking like that yet."

With rude abruptness, Lucky's voci link clicked in his ear and he tapped it with a little annoyance. "Yes, Lyssa?" he said wearily.

"The guild hall's filling up, but there's still no jobs on the board," Lyssa replied. "What's taking you so long to come down here and sort everything out?"

"Just hold your horses, I'm on my way."

He tapped the voci link again to end the call and resignedly gathered up the scrolls on the table.

"I'll try to get this all done as fast as I can," Lucky said as he set aside the contract scroll regarding Oruk and made to leave. "Shouldn't take more than an hour if I really get into it. Heh, how do you think Lyssa will react when I leave her in charge of the place as we go on our adventure? Should be good, eh?"

Amethyst smiled as she listened to him talk, she didn't like the city much with all the noise, buildings and problems that came with it. The only reason she came to the city was because of her dear friend Lucky, she enjoyed helping him out and causing some trouble with him even if he thought he was to old to do such childish things sometimes. "She is a great mystery to everyone. I have heard about every rumor consisting on who she was and where she came from." she said to the grey wolf as she chuckled, running a hand through her white hair, the only feature on her that showed her age not that anyone considered that. Placing her hat back upon her head as she adjusted her skirt slightly.

She couldn't help but laugh at the rest of his statement, thinking about what he had said before she nodded her head. "If she was the princess of Oruk then the question is on how and why they got married and not who she is. Could she have been kidnap and sold off as a slave and then the Marutuk bought her and married her? That would be an even more interesting find." she said to him as she chuckled once more, fingering the star under her left eye as she thought once more, after all to her it seemed hard to have anything to do with your archenemy but then again love was blind which she knew first hand.

She smiled up at Lucky when he moved to stand next to her, she leaned against him as she held his arm, smiling as she just enjoyed the time with her friend as much as she could as she continued to look at the faint sign of the desert beyond the city. "Your speaking as if your dying, Lucky." she whispered to him, not trusting her voice to hold if she spoke louder. She looked up to see him answer his voci link, she would admit that she had one too but the only person that ever called her was Lucky.

She looked away once more as she tucked some of her hair behind her ear, pulling on her sunglasses once more as she watched him get the scrolls off the table, he had worked so hard on them. "Lyssa is going to flip when you leave her in charge." she said to him as she laughed, imagining what the female would do when she gets told such a thing, after all Lyssa didn't like her. Who knew what the reason was, maybe it was because she supposedly distracted Lucky from his duties constantly. Amethyst smiled as she snatched the scroll up from his desk, tucking it away as she looked over what he had left to do, debating on wither or not if she should help him out with it. "Do you want some help?"