Something Better

Chapter 16

"You can fly?!" Sheph said, baffled by the sights flowing far below them as he clung to Mark's back for dear life. He saw Mark smirk, and give a bountiful chuckle. He might not have really been flying per say, but as far as Sheph was concerned he was, and he was fine with that.
"I told you I was the coolest." He recounted leaving Sheph awestruck. The wind coursed through his dark fur. It was certain that the drop to the rocky floor was treacherous if faced, but it seemed impossible as Mark soared with his arms outstretched. 

Sheph finally broke the silence by throwing out his own arms and giving a mighty yell of excitement.
"Woooohoo!" He exclaimed as loudly as he could.
"Focus you two." Came Kyle's chastising voice from below. Sheph blushed and looked down at the wolf apologetically. "You two should be searching for dangers considering you guys have the best aerial view." He half muttered. Sheph pursed his lips, and leaned onto Mark so his face was on the left of Marks. 
"What are we looking for exactly?" He asked curiously, but with that curiosity came a fear of what could possibly made such a large ruckus to get all  these heroes to come, or at least make the mess that was in front of them.

In front of Sheph was destruction. The what had once been elegant spires of rock were now rubble in a massive ring of desolation and jagged rock. Sheph tensed unsteadily on Mark's back, and Mark noticed.
"We can land, and look a bit before we go to the scene of the crime if you'd like." Mark offered. Sheph laughed nervously, and quickly assured the jackal in a forced calm.
"Why would you? I'm completely fine." Sheph replied surely, but Mark was already descending as Sheph spoke. 
"We'd be in the open anyways." Mark explained cooly as he lowered into the shafts of grey rock. 

Sheph immediately felt claustrophobic as Mark's feet touched down on the dry floor. Sheph hopped off of his back, and looked up to where they'd once been. 
"It felt a lot better up there." He commented looking back down at the black shadows that surrounded them. Farther in the rocks had thinned to tree-trunk-like rods in the same monotone color of grey. But here they were spaced much farther apart, enough for someone to lay down and be fine.
"Feeling good?" Mark questioned. He tilted his head at the nervous dog, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't be nervous." Mark said carefully. Sheph seemed to brighten.
"As if." He scoffed bravely, puffing out his chest in a comical way.

,"Nice, using a fake sense of bravery to mask your fear." Came Kyle's voice, Sheph jumped, and spun towards the voice indignantly to face Kyle's bored expression.
"N-no." Sheph argued sheepishly. Kyle only shrugged, and gave a meaningful glance at Mark who nodded. Kyle turned away from them and started to walk into the rock trunks. 
"Yell if you see it." Kyle commanded. "It goes without saying that you wait for us to get there." He finished before he disappeared into the shadws. Oddly, Sheph felt better knowing that they would be fine around Kyle. Even if he was, mean..
"Why do you follow his orders? Aren't you older?" Sheph asked as they started walking in the opposing direction. Mark laughed. 
"I guess I do have more experience." He agreed. "But it is customary for the one trained by the previous leader to take the role, since they have the strongest powers." Mark explained. They walked side by side when they could. Sheph thought for a second. 
"How is that fair?" He asked skeptically, at this Mark laughed even louder than before. 
"None of this is fair. Our lives compared to yours are completely different, and when you get up to ranks like ours. It's easier to follow what was set up previously for us." He began to lament, "and I never said I wanted to be the leader." Mark continued. Sheph sponged up the info with fascination. "Being a leader sucks when you're given such a crucial role. Everything counts. I'd only take the role to give him a break, if he ever acknowledged he needed one." Mark continued, "and then I couldn't spend as much time with you as I'd want." Mark finished with a nudge. Sheph laughed and blushed slightly. He stopped, and turned to Mark. His hands wrapping around Mark's caught him off guard. 
"Hey, thanks for bringing me along." He said as he looked into Mark's blue eyes. Mark laughed, but didn't pull his hands away.
"No prob bob." He said jokingly, which was unusual for him, was he nervous? 
"No really, you didn't have to." Sheph continued. Suddenly Mark was leaning in closer to him.
"How could I not Sheph?" He almost whispered into Sheph's ear. "With you I just-" A loud boom threw them both to the side. Immediately Mark was alert. He grabbed Sheph's arm. 
"They found it." He said darkly.