Fable was having a great day.

This tunnel had been kinder to her-- the small nooks that mice liked to hide in were too small for them to fit-- the rest, Fable could wiggle into herself, and she had caught plenty of mice today. It was nice to just eat even long after her belly was full, and for a time, she slept comfortably in a moss nest with her limbs curled up into herself.

When she awoke, it was to heavy footsteps. Her eyes split open into narrow slits and she started out into the dimly-lit cave, waiting for them to approach and walk past-- but they never did. They stopped, abruptly, and she heard the slight shove of skin on rock-- and then that stopped, too.

Slowly, Fable's head lifted. Logic (and laziness) told her to leave it, and that it wasn't worth investigating. Childlike curiosity bit at her limbs on the other hand, until the physical act of doing nothing was painful and aching and the sphinx was pushing up to peer past the wall.

And she saw someone's ass.

Okay. Weird.

The someone seemed to twist and yank-- they were stuck??? --backwards until they just stopped completely, with their entire lower half sticking out of an alcove in the caves. For a moment, Fable wondered if she had hallucinated it-- maybe there had been something bad in the rats, or maybe she'd just eaten too much in general.

But then, she was creeping forward, quietly, her fingers seeping into the soil underneath.

It was big. Kerberos-big. Five or six feet bigger than she was, in fact-- but surely it could have just broken out of there? It seemed strong enough. Even from back here, Fable could see massive, rippling shoulders and mole-like claws.

Very sharp, mole-like claws. But this did not stop her from committing to her new plan of action.

The cub crept right up behind the amber creature until she was in range and her body dipped very low, close to the ground. Her weight shifted back into her hind legs, and then-- "AAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" She screamed, and she went leaping through the air and latched onto Amber's haunches.

Because scaring an eight-foot-tall creature out of a rock is exactly what you should be doing with your day.

"AAAHHHHHHHHHH!!" Fable continued to scream, because at which point when a gigantic creature is trying to buck you off its butt do you stop screaming?

Fable sure as hell didn't know, and when it started kicking and shouting and telling her to get off, Fable only felt the urge to grip harder. Pinprick claws when gripping into Amber's sides, leaving thin marks and drawing small droplets of blood.

She breathed heavily, air hissing loudly through her teeth, but galliantly, heroically, the sphinx held on, still screaming, and partially, just a little bit, starting to tear up as the creature swung her around.

"Just get OUT OF THERE???" Fable yowled in the meanwhile, hind paws scrambling at Amber's meaty thigh to try to keep herself attached on.

"Well try HARDER," Fable snarled back-- but it sounded more like the furious squeak of someone who was only two weeks old and thought attacking someone was a good way to rile them out of a cave.

Which, it had worked, so maybe Fable was onto something.

Another furious, hysterical noise left her throat as the rocks fell around her and the released creature-- bits of pointed rock fell and buried themselves into her heavy shoulders, scraping deep enough that they left little golden cuts behind.

The cub growled and she thrashed herself out of the rockfall and Amber, leaping herself unsteadily to the side to start padding at the seeping, yellow blood spilling from the cuts left behind. They stung, a little painfully, but it didn't seem too bad, from what Fable could gauge with no experience.

Her eyes flicked back to Amber, after a moment, and she puffed her chest out to (unsuccessfully) look menacing. "I helped you!" She insisted, loudly, sitting down and curling her tail up around herself. "I'm very happy."

She didn't sound it, though-- but this was exactly where Fable left it, opting instead to study Amber up and down. "Why'd you get stuck in there?" She asked.