I walk a lonley road....

Raven would look over at Angie and would flick her ears back. "I was stupid." She would say. Her voice cool and flat. Her blue eyes would soon find the young tri colored fem giving her a comforting gesture and she would blink. She really didn't believe the young fea. Tyrone might hurt her too. "No." she would say. "When he comes again....because he will....I will kill him if he tries to hurt me again...myself."

Her voice was cold and she still felt broken inside. A hollow shell of what she had been.

"If you say so," Angie replied, shaking off her own weariness. It was just a little further... They could make it. She knew they could. The slope was narrow and pushed into the vertical face of the mountain; Angie had to look both down at her paws and ahead to keep herself from falling. To fall from such a height, at this point, would be certain death. The air became cooler and soon the path widened, revealing a flat peak with a small den and encampment. Bones, dried herbs, a tortoise shell, and other strange, assorted materials littered about the area; an eccentric arrangement. Firefly stars and rainbow nebulae danced in the dark sky, the hot sun finally setting and giving way to the cool night.

Angie spotted a hole of water. She was tempted to dart to it and start drinking it all down, but had to restrain herself - this was somebody's home, afterall. She took a tentative step towards the den. "Excuse me," she said, voice raspy. "Are you the Doctor of the Desert? If you're in there, at all?" She could only pray that she was right... If it wasn't the doctor, then their adventure would be worthless.

But a small creature emerged from the den. It was a creature with large, bat-like ears and pearly, marble-sized eyes. It was much smaller than either of the two wolves, and only came up to their knees. Angie took a step back and realized that it was not a wolf at all, but a fennec fox, a native resident of the desert. He was an old thing, skinny and blind, his loose, sandy-colored coat hanging off of him in patches. However, despite his age and thinness, he did not carry himself as sickly - in fact, he moved with caution, looking up at the wolves even though he could not see.

"Who beckons Aku-Aku from his den?" he croaked, shaking as he came to a stand. Again, he was old, but neither sickly or in bad health. A large leaf was tucked behind his ear and a twine necklace of sorts with different ornaments on it hung around his neck. A vulture feather was tied into his plume. Angie stuttered and looked at Raven over her shoulder. They were here more for Raven's sake and Tyrone's, and thus it only made sense that she speak first.

---

Umbulai took Shayde's silence as a yes... She was his follower now, afterall. If she disagreed, she could always step back or speak up. It wasn't like he was holding her hostage. With a deadly smirk he entered the clearing, the setting sun now fading away and being replaced by the moon, silver light spilling over the bleeding Darrel, his injuries deep and gorging. It was obvious he would not make it, but Umbulai had to see this death for himself. "Would you look at this?" Umbulai crowed, standing tall over Darrel's form. "Looks like you made me a killer afterall."

Darrel's yellow eyes cracked open, peering up at the massive brute above him. "Tyrone..." he squeaked. "You don't have to do this... We're brothers... I wanted to help you..."

"And help me you have," he replied. "But it seems that's all you were good for. Thank you. Goodbye." And he stepped on Darrel's throat, crushing it, the wolf's eyes bulging and gasping for breath. His legs kicked, blood gushing from his side, until he went limp and still. The light faded from his eyes. Umbulai looked over his shoulder at Shayde in the shadows. "I know that wasn't the most exciting kill in the world, but it was good enough."

He turned and headed northeast, out of the basin. He stuck his nose to the ground, following the scent of Raven's sex, weakened by the rain. He passed the waterfall and Barbos' corpse, squeezed through the tunnel he had raped her in, navigated through the tall brush to the creek, and then swerved into a dry cave where Raven's scent settled... Along with another's. Umbulai's senses flared at this other scent, something in the back of his mind waving a red flag, but he ignored it. It was probably just Tyrone, trying to get out because he had something to say. Well, that wouldn't be happening any time soon. He paused and observed the tracks, watching how they would get up and lay down, until the circles led him out of the cave again.

"Don't worry, sweet Raven," Umbulai said, sprinting out into the desert. He needed no rest, no feed, no thirst; all he needed was a goal, a drive, to keep him going. "I'm good at hide and seek."

Aku-Aku's bat-like ears flopped in Raven's direction. "Ah, that I am. Or at least, that's what most around these parts think," he said with a wily smile. He walked over to the tortoiseshell, dumping its contents and picking it up in his mouth. He brought it over to a pile of herbs, strong in scent but dry in texture, picking several up and dropping them into the makeshift bowl. He put his paws into them and began to crush the herbs with his pads and talons. Obviously, he didn't even need sight to know what he was doing. "Help yourselves to the water hole. It may not be much, but it is enough. But drink too much, and your thirst will only grow," he said in a sing-song voice, tail swishing. "And do not be fooled by my size or age, Raven. I am a doctor of many talents, most that which cannot be seen."

Angie turned to Raven, raising a quizzical brow. "Did you say your name at all?" she whispered, wondering how the little fox knew. She knew that he was a witch doctor of sorts... Was he a psychic one as well? But psychics weren't real, everyone knew that... Right? Trying not to think about it too much, she helped herself to the water, quenching her thirst, but keeping in mind not too drink too much...

Angie blinked, lifting her muzzle from the water hole and glancing over at the fox, who was now humming to himself as he crushed up the herbs in the tortoiseshell. "I thought so too," she said in a low tone, hoping he wouldn't hear. "Then again, the wolf that had returned didn't say if it really was a wolf. He just said it was a doctor. I guess me and the rest of the pack assumed it was a wolf, because how many fox doctors do you know?" She looked over again at Aku-Aku. He didn't seem to be paying attention to them at all. He went over to an indent in the ground and dug at it, pulling up dark, wet moss and tossing it into the tortoiseshell. Angie nosed Raven in the shoulder. "I think he's waiting for you. Go on."

"And now for a pinch of salt..." Aku-Aku murmured, dilly-dallying back over to his den. He ducked inside and pulled out half a skull filled with salt. He took a tiny bite with his fox-like lips and dropped the crystals into the tortoiseshell filled with muck. He mixed the concoction with his paws once more, now smelling very foul, but paid no mind to it. He picked up the edge of the tortoiseshell and dropped it at Raven's feet. "Ah, here you are. Eat drink... or slurp it, depending on your tastes." He said, plume wagging, as he tended to the mess he had made.

Angie walked back over to Raven and then recoiled at the stench of the concoction. "Fenrir above! What is that?" she spat, covering her nose with her paw. Aku-Aku chuckled. "Not for you, obviously," he whistled. "But I can make you one if you'd like." Angie frowned, ears folded back. "Uhh... No thanks, doc. I'll stick to water."

Aku-Aku chuckled. "Why, of course I expect you to eat it," he said. "It is for you, that is what it is. I don't really have a name for it yet, because I don't like to name things... Perhaps I will call it Raven's... Oh, now what would you call that? Perhaps a potion? No, no, it doesn't really do any restoring of the sort... Medicine? Nah, that involves a healing of sorts... Food? No, slurp is more like it... Oh, vulture necks..." He turned away and then started making lines in the ground with his tiny paws.

Angie couldn't help but raise a brow, a paw still covering her nose. "I don't think you really have a choice," she whispered above a cough. "And I don't think you'll get a straightforward answer outta this guy... Try it, I guess? It could just smell bad, but taste delicious... Y'know, like elk liver." Angie wagged her tail, hoping that Raven would eat the stuff, even though neither of them knew what it was... But Angie couldn't help but put some amount of faith in the strange little fox. She looked out at the desert, now a dark, cold landscape. Had it only been hours ago that they had traveled through the same place, but with blinding heat? And hopefully, there was nobody on their tails...