It was ridiculous, how many times he always managed to screw things up. It was amazing. Even I still can't possibly screw things up as much as he did. True talent. I've got to give him credit where it's due, he at least made it possible to for to fix things. Or maybe that's just my amazing talent. Probably the latter. What happened? Long story. I'll start from the beginning.

I opened my eyes. This probably sounds like an easy task, but in that moment, it was one of the hardest things I ever had to accomplish. Why? Because I was tired and warm, that's why. Now may I continue? Thanks. I opened my eyes, dragging the lids from each other, every inch of my body in protest. My eyes snapped back shut. I sighed. I really needed to get up, but... my body just wasn't having it. I raised my arms out of the wool blanket that covered my body with warmth and placed my hands around my eyes. I counted in my head, 5... 4... 3... 2... On one, I stretched my eyes open with my fingers and leapt out of bed. I screamed and ran out of the cave.

I ran as if there were knives at my heels and dove outside, my fingers still forcing my eyes open. I screamed, the bitter cold rushing over me, my body begging to run back to the warm makeshift bed. My mind knew what had to be done. Kadir was already outside, standing next to the cold water jug that we used for washing our dishes and ourselves. He had jumped to his feet the second I came barreling outside, screaming. His hand reached for his sword and his eyes ran all over the place, wondering where the enemy was and why I was screaming. I ran straight at him, like a bull charging a red flag. He leapt to the side as I leaped into the freezing cold water jug.

My eyes flipped open and my body spasmed. I was definitely awake now. The cold seeped into my skin, making my limbs numb instantly. I pushed off of the bottom of the jug as fast as I could, and leapt out of the jar. The wind of the desert jabbed me, and I stood there, shivering, completely awake. I stared at Kadir. I had accidentally splashed him as I dove into the water jug, and he was sopping wet. Drops of water slid off of his thick hair and poured over his lips. He looked up at me, a mixture of horror and amusement in his eyes. I grinned shakily, my body shaking uncontrollably.

"I­I­I'm a­aw­a­awa­k­k­ke n­n­n­now­w­w, K­k­k­kad­d­dir." I gasped. Amusement overtook his gaze and he began to laugh. I shakily chuckled along with him as he led me back to the cave where I could change. As soon as I dried off and got dressed, I was amazingly warm, compared to the beginning of the morning. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. 

Kadir and I took down the campsite and cleared any trace of us being there. As soon as we had poured water on the fire and kicked dirt over the still­-warm­-coals, we set off over the terrain. We always found a butte to set camp in, so we were both very experienced in climbing. It would seem that someone who has to climb a butte every night to find shelter would be pretty good at climbing right? That's what I thought too. At least, until Kadir fell. He didn't even fall and then hit the ground. He has that bad of luck. He just had to hit the ground weakest in the entire area and fall through a hole. He just had to fall into one of the most cavernous underground canyon known to humanity.

I leapt off of the rock and slid the rest of the way down the butte to find him. Rocks and dust were slowly trickling into a small hole in the ground. I rolled my eyes. With his luck... Then came the coughing.

"Shiza!"

I gripped my hair in my hands and groaned. Yep.

"Shiza, you've got to come down here!" Pause! Did you notice that last sentence? I hope you did, because this is where everything went kaput. I'll say it again for you. "Shiza, you've got to come down here!" Notice how I didn't say that sentence, but Kadir did. Notice that the next few events happened, not because of me, but because of him.

"Are you crazy?" I called down the hole, shaking my head. (Notice how I protested)

"No, I'm not kidding! You've got to see this, you've really got to see this!" I don't know what that boy was thinking. Well, actually, I did, but I'll save that one for later, shall we? I sighed and told myself how bad an idea this was. As usual, I didn't listen. I carefully leapt down into the hole. I looked up. I gasped.

It was a small corridor, just big enough for me to slide through. Sometimes along the corridor, there were areas where the wall would veer away from each other and create a sort of room, where about four people could fit, but the walls always came back together. The walls were perfectly, beautifully scraped, small lines in the walls, where the sand had been weathered away over time. The lines wove and dove among the wall, all following the other, like bark or age lines on a tree. Lines of red and gold and orange flew through the crevices and I had a fleeting image of a large, square shaped thing with a triangular top. Black clouds and white light flashed as water poured down from the sky. A flash of light lit up the house and I saw the lines, placed on the box in the exact same pattern as on the wall, except for a large animal covering the front. Just as quick as that happened, I was back, my hand and forehead leaning against the wall, Kadir looking up at me, grinning slightly, but worry in his eyes. "We need to leave."

Kadir looked confused, but his face quickly glossed over to determined. He may have bad luck and always get us into situations, but at least he had the good decency to trust me to get us out.

The hole that we had fallen through was too small and too high up for us to reach it. We couldn't climb up the walls, since they were slicked smooth. I couldn't use my wings to fly up there, since the space was so narrow, and we didn't know what dangers lay ahead of us. I sighed and looked at Kadir. He was grinning apologetically, but his eyes held no sorrow at what he had done. He looked triumphant at getting us so helplessly lost. I rolled my eyes. He was an idiot. Adorable. But still an idiot.

"C'mon, you douchebag." I flicked my chin forward, gesturing towards the nearest tunnel, and started walking towards (hopefully) our freedom. I paused and looked back. Kadir was standing there, staring at me with a soft smile on his face. I grinned and skipped back over to him. His eyebrows raised, almost as if he were expecting something. I rolled my eyes and shoved his arm. (I don't know what he even brags about. He has no muscle, whatsoever.)

"Guess what?" He looked over, looking as excited as a puppy.

"What?" I leaned in really close, my cheek almost touching his, and whispered in his ear...

"YOU'RE IT!" He stumbled back from me, stunned for a second, before attempting to tag me. (I dodged). I ran down the hallway, giggling, him running after, all the time knowing he wouldn't be able to catch me.