graphic gore ★ genderfluid ★ albino fennec fox

The fennec fox cautiously crawled out from the tunnel beneath the plaza. Despite the stars in the sky, the sands burned vis paw pads worse than any previous noon under the sun. The sands shimmered, too, like a mirage, ‘cept Vale always thought that shit only hit in the day.

The fox knew summer under the desert, but ve had never crawled into a cave with the rest of the overheated critters. It wasn’t every summer that the temperatures climbed into the triple digits, and this shattered Vale’s definition of hot. This had been the hottest day of the year—including those days yet to come—had passed, but the heat remained well after the sunset. Too hot for mischief. Too hot for joking. Too motherfucking hot to think!

“Fuck. How is it still hot?” Vale rubbed vis cheeks between vis paws. The air aboveground burned–just breathing made Vale feel like coughing–and vis skin crawled right off the tissue from the dry heat. The fluffy skin twitched in the sand, oozing black goop, before stilling into simple scraps of meat.

Backpedaling, the skinless ardent grumbled. Ear cartilage twitching, Vale huffed. “Fuckity-fuck, I’m going back inside for a fucking nap. Someone wake me when it’s not hot enough to hardboil eggs in the soil. Though cooked eggs does sound hella good right about now…”

// 200+ word replies to this thread can count as for prompt #4 of the july monthly challenge!