"WHOOOOOAAAAAA!" Eshek cried admiringly as Applecrumble powered up the rock, like a hype girl, doing a little dance to accent her cheers. When she was near the top, Eshek started bouncing up and down with unrestrained excitement, like this was a play date between kid best friends who hadn't seen each other for months and not a run-in with an adversary who had put her on NightClan's List, given Littlestar her true name she didn't want trickling back to Foxstar and Glowstar who only knew her as Carriondare, and given her three slash marks across the face that were still faintly visible through the white fur and would likely stay that way for the rest of her life. It was just that it was rare to find someone who was as much of an adrenaline junkie as she was - League cats were stupidly calculating, DayClan cats were hindered by their own beauty; but Applecrumble, she was as good a match for Eshek as she'd ever met. They just clicked, even if they'd been trying to kill each other at the time.

"Play queen of the mountain?" she jeered back, leaning down over the rock to grin openly at the SunClan warrior; there was complete, thrilling joy in her voice. "Who's playin'?"

Without another word, Eshek turned and launched herself down the other side of the rock formation at scrabbling, sprinting spreed, little shards of red stone raining down from her paws. It was completely life-threatening - if either of them fell, that was it. And that was what made it so exhilarating. Sliding wildly down the rock, she snatched a glimpse of another formation rising close by and, not even stopping to think, suddenly bunched her muscles and threw herself at it through thin air. She flew through the air, hundreds of feet above the desert below - and, colliding with a thud, scrabbled for a claw hold on the other rock, clinging to it vertically. "HAHAAAAAAA," she scream-laughed wildly, throwing a joyous, wild-eyed, unhinged look over her shoulder at Applecrumble before hauling herself up it in a quick, frantic flurry of claws and darting around to the other side. "EAT DIRT, SUNCLAN WAAARRIOR!" Warrior sounded taunting the way Eshek shouted it. 

Eshek couldn't stop giggling madly as she sprinted and skidded and scrambled and leaped away from Applecrumble, climbing up here, falling back down there, everywhere claws and red shards of rock and stinging sand. The giggling wasn't helping with her coordination, and she became clumsier and clumsier as the laughter built - the kind of laughter that's the pure glee of being chased, making your legs feel all tingly and rubbery and your heart like it's going to burst with chaotic joy. She wore a huge, quivering grin on her face as she ran from Applecrumble.

Finally, when her lungs were burning from the hot air and her paw pads were scraped and raw and her fur felt like it was on fire, she slowed to a stop atop a rock formation slightly lower than the one she and the SunClan warrior had started on. "Okay, okay, pause," she panted to Applecrumble, doubled over herself. "Truce." Then, in an instant, she swept red sand and bits of rock debris at the other she-cat's face, kicked out with her hind paws like she was a bucking horse, let out a cackling laugh, and continued racing down the sheer rock face.

That was then she saw, rushing up to meet her, the edge of the rock. There was nothing else beyond it to jump on it - just thin, hot, blue desert air and a twenty foot drop. "STOP!!!" she shrieked, scrabbling desperately to try and stop herself - but she was on a slope and was going too fast. Rocks flicked up around her; sand skittered in front of her, raining down below. With half an inch to spare, she finally scraped to a stop and leaped up, standing sideways against the sheer drop and looking back at the SunClan warrior; if Applecrumble leaped at her, or if she didn't stop in time, they were both going over - Eshek was so close to the edge half her forepaw was hanging off it, her back slightly arched and her fur beginning to spike along her spine. "APPLECRUMBLE, DON'T YOU DARE-"

(do it)

"APPLECRUMBLE, GOD DAMMIT IT-" Eshek screamed as they both went over the edge. She clung to the SunClan warrior as they fell through mid-air - and then, at some point, the exhilaration of perfect adrenaline won out and she was grinning wide-eyed at the other she-cat. Letting out a squawking laugh as they plummeted through the hot, desert air towards the red sand below, Eshek sank her teeth into Applecrumble's neck fur, digging her back claws deep into her stomach. They spun round and round, somersaulting towards the orange abyss, one second Applecrumble on top, the next Eshek.

It was the most incredible thing she'd ever experienced. As close to religious euphoria as she'd ever gotten.

Then, somehow, through the flurry of black and tortoiseshell and blood, Eshek spotted a jutting rock ledge racing up to them and, with a split second decision, snapped her forepaws out. Her claws caught the crumbling red stone, the jolt of suddenly latching onto a stationary object while moving so fast almost wrenching her forelegs out of their sockets and making her shriek. "Applecrumble, I swear to God, LET GO OF ME," she shouted down at the she-cat, looking down at where they were both now dangling with all their weight hinging on Eshek's claws. Shards of stone rained down over Applecrumble and onto the desert sands, which were now significantly closer. If the insane she-cat (God, it was so nice to have another insane woman in her life) didn't let go, they'd both fall.

Oh, hell.

Scraping her claws in, Eshek let go - and they both plummeted to the sand below, just managing to land on safe, open ground amid the cluster of sharp red boulders that rose all around them. It was like they were in the middle of a natural, jagged stone circle, or a jaw full of teeth. The shadows were almost cold compared to the heat everywhere else. Eshek landed with an oof on top of Applecrumble, completely winded, covered in her blood and the SunClan warrior's, and with her claws feeling like they'd been ripped out. Red sand sprayed up around them from the impact.

For a long moment Eshek just lay there in winded silence, panting on top of the other she-cat and gazing up at the wispy clouds drifting across the sweltering, bright blue desert sky. Then, finally, Applecrumble was saying 'that was fun', like it was so casual, like they hadn't just almost died, and suddenly Eshek was laughing. It started out as a small, disbelieving breath of laughter, so floored by the SunClan warrior's casual fearlessness, but it steadily grew until she was laughing her absolute ass off, tears slipping down her cheeks at just how unbelievably ridiculous the situation was, at how- at how funny it was. She thumped one forepaw against the red sand, sobbing with laughter and gasping for breath. It was that contagious sort of laughter where everyone around them, even if they didn't know what was going on, soon forgot all the context and were cry-laughing as well.

"You're insane," Eshek finally sighed, the words coming out on the end of a moan; it sounded loving and extremely fond, like it was the greatest compliment she could give someone. The other she-cat's chest rose and fell beneath her, the warmth of her almost unbearable in the heat of the desert, even in the coolness of the shadows. "You're literally insane." She let out another long, contented sigh as she finally caught her breath, her ribs falling low-

And then she hurled herself to her paws, leaping away from Applecrumble. Springing around, she bucked like a horse, all her weight on her forepaws, and kicked back with her back legs, catching the SunClan warrior square in the face and sending her, in all likelihood, crashing back against the sand. She didn't stick around to find out - snapping her tail like a bull whip, Eshek let out another crazed burst of joyous laughter and sped away across the desert sand. The second she left the shelter of the shadows cast by the towering rocks, her pelt burned from the sun. In the distance she saw rolling red dunes, the breeze picking up sprinkles of sand and scattering them against the blue horizon like stinging mist. Forcing all her speed into her aching legs, Eshek sprinted towards them, aiming for the great big ball of yellow sun, the sand making every step difficult as her paws sank into the blistering heat. A tumbleweed bounced across the desert and smacked her in the face; she sputtered and shook it off, and it continued thwacking along the sand. "You live in Hell!!" she screamed back at Applecrumble, a laugh shrieking from her mouth as she threw her head back. "I LOVE IT!"

Eshek was at the foot of the first dune; now she stopped dead and let the shifting sands carry her back down like she was a pirate queen holding onto the rigging and sliding down to deck. "Dinner?" she purred, her head turning slowly to hold Applecrumble's gaze as she was carried slowly past her by the sand. "So soon? But I hardly know anything about you." Her voice was faux-sombre, concerned, like a Victorian lady being asked out for a walk in the park without an escort. The scandal.

As soon as she was past her, Eshek sprayed sand into Applecrumble's eyes with one forepaw and used the momentary distraction to race back up the dune, heading for the top where the sun was burning so brightly, making the horizon of sand glow and blinding her. It was a silent challenge that she knew the SunClan she-cat would pick up on: catch me and we can have dinner.

"Says the crazy chick chasing me to make me go on a date with her," Eshek cackled over her shoulder, delighted by everything about the situation. "Does this usually work for you? You gotten a lot of girlfriends like this?" The visual image of Applecrumble sprinting after she-cats across the desert until they finally caved to dinner made her laugh again and she threw her head back, cackling in a way that was less manic and just purely, truly joyful.

'Course, the problem with closing your eyes while you're running is- well, obvious. Suddenly, the dune ended and, very beautifully, silhouetted against the huge orange sun, Carriondare suddenly plummeted into thin air in a panicked flurry of long limbs. She crashed onto the soft sand and, taking it as her cue to finally give in, relaxed in contented, well-played defeat and let herself be carried leisurely at high speed down the hill, sand spraying up around her. Finally, she slowed to a gradual halt, forepaws entwined on her chest like she'd been reading peacefully in a private library wing-back chair and her chest heaving for breath, and tilted her head back to follow Applecrumble's descent with a congratulatory grin. "You win, Crumbs. Where we going for this dinner? You got any of those, uhhhhh," she swirled her paw in the air as she searched for the word, still lying on her back, "oasis-es? Palm trees, blue water, that kinda thing? Magic carpet? You be the prince, I be the damsel?" She grinned up at the warrior, batting her lashes and holding the back of her paw under her chin. A second later, she collapsed her head back against the sand, letting out a final winded breath and dragging that same back of her paw across her forehead. "Man, it's hot here. You guys are always tryna convert everyone but I think you might be in hell." She let out a single bubble of laughter from her chest, humming close-mouthed at her own joke like she was so funny, and dragged her paw down her face to collapse again on the sand.