[OLYMPICS IV] Obstacle Course - Printable Version

She watched the race carefully, flying along with them on the sidelines, to ensure that there wasn't any cheating happening or the no one became seriously injured. Thankfully, there weren't any major accidents, although a few of the participants quite halfway through.

She flew ahead to wait for the gembound that would run across the finish line first, noting each one as they crossed by. She nodded to each and then waited for the rest of the runners to make their way to the end. Once all (but one) of the racers had finished the course, she hopped onto a rock that would hopefully make her a little more visible.

"Thank you, everyone, for participating in this year's Obstacle Course! Congratulations to our three winners! In first place, we have Yew!" She gestured to the hybrid creature and a strange pang passed across her head. She hesitated at the sudden feeling for a moment, but pushed it away. Later. "In second place, we have Hemlocke!" She gestured towards the small alien. "And in third place, we have Sorda!" She waved a wing towards the bird. "Thank you, again! This brings the Obstacle Course to a close! Please enjoy the rest of the Olympics!" With that, she hopped down from her spot and made her way through the crowd. The day had been fun, but she was getting a little tired of all the noise and pressing bodies. Time to find a nice place to rest.

*exit

Huckleberry stayed sprawled out on his stomach when the judge that sounded like Blackberry announced the winners. Of course, he hadn't won anything at all, but he hadn't expected himself to get anywhere. That was fine - at least he'd gotten out and involved in things, as Shiny had told him would be best!

The catsquirrel came charging from behind him, having run all the way along the sides of the course, and throwing herself at him, purring happily and clambering right back onto his shoulders. With a chuckle, Huckleberry stood up and began edging out of the crowd. There were a lot of Gembound here and he didn't really wanna get pulled into any conversations. It was fun, but now he was feeling self conscious and just kinda wanted to go home.

*exit

Beta, unlike some of the others, didn't wait for the winner announcements. It knew that it hadn't placed and it didn't care about who had. It had noticed Hemlocke at the forefront of the race but it didn't want to risk running into it, in case it wanted to gloat.

Moody and frustrated with itself, Beta left quietly, spotting Orthoclase-Alpha in the crowd and, in a sudden fit of bravery, sped up and bounded over to it. "Was Master Vargas watching?" it asked, trying to keep the worry out of its voice.

She wasn't going to give up. Not here-! She was so close... but not really, though. They were announcing winners, and she was still on the track!

The shame prickled her at once. The announcers declared it over. That was that. They were just leaving. Not a WORD to her, no acknowledgement or even mention that she could stop. Bug turned, staring back at Nameless with immediate indignant anger. "HEY!" she yowled. And then, much more quietly--"...What about me?"

Bug turned away, head low, tail hanging, ears pinned back in misery. She was doing so badly she'd been forgotten. She'd already been last, but...

It was only with shame and sadness that she half-crawled over the ledges at last, and slunk along toward the finish line, keeping to the shadowed edges of the course.

How... humiliating.

Beta breathed out a sigh of relief, not even minding Alpha's cutting remarks and turned to watch it fling itself off the cliff. ...wait. Eyes widened with shock as it lunged after it, grabbing the edge of the cliff and looking down to make sure it was okay. And...it was? Beta watched with shock and confusion as Alpha just stood up and walked away, as if it hadn't just thrown itself down the side of the cliff.

It blinked, confused, but then breathed out heavily and stood up taller. It was tired of dealing with its siblings oddities to be perfectly honest. And it just wanted to get out of here. Even if Master Vargas hadn't been watching, a lot of others had. And it wasn't going to tarnish its reputation.

Turning the opposite direction, Beta set off at a quick gallop towards the nearest exit.

*Exit