Shade made his next move, feeling confident this time. He reached for the next hold, but what happened instead…?

His grip slipped up completely as he shifted his weight, and suddenly he wasn’t holding onto to anything at all. He was falling with alarming speed back down to the ground. It was a good thing he hadn’t gotten very far up or he might have seriously injured himself. As it was, when he landed — on his feet, mind you, like any good cat — he felt a back foot twist and his ankle suddenly hurt like hell. He let out a yowl and crumpled to the ground completely.

Now what was he gonna do? How could he hunt at all if he couldn’t run?

Shade slowly stood back up on all four paws, testing his weight on his back left leg. It wasn’t great. He winced and nearly crumpled to the ground again, but he managed to stay upright. Maybe he could just walk it off. He looked up at the cliff he’d just tried to scale and shook his head. How could he have been so stupid? Cats were supposed to be great climbers! How could he have failed so miserably? He pouted as he began to limp back to the “city” in the center of the room. Now he was really hungry, but he still wasn’t sure he could pull off a hunt right now in his condition… What was he gonna do?

Well, since using traditional means of finding food hadn’t worked, Shade decided he should use his spell. His orange eyes lit up in the dark as he cast the spell, and so did the orange carnelian stone in his chest. He looked around, even though the spell had nothing to do with his vision, and soon felt/heard the heartbeat of a small lesser Gembound nearby. He crouched down and followed the spell to its source. It was some kind of lizard. He was still somewhat far away from it, hidden in the shadow of an old building, so it didn’t notice him. If he could just sprint for a few seconds, he’d be sure to catch it. Only problem was that his ankle still hurt… But he really needed this lizard. He was starving!

Shade began running towards the lizard, but after taking only a few steps, his already in-pain ankle gave out underneath him and he ended up twisting it even more. He yowled in pain and surprise, flipping head-over-paws onto his back. The lizard, obviously, scurried quickly away, out of his reach, but he wasn’t even thinking about that anymore. His ankle hurt so bad he wanted to cry now. He lay on his back because he was too afraid to roll onto his stomach at this point and accidentally jostle his ankle. Now he was well and truly stuck, and there was a chance he might starve to death if his ankle didn’t heal quickly…

After lying still for quite some time, sniffling and trying not to cry out, Shade decided he’d been laying there long enough. He couldn’t lay in the middle of the street on his back forever. If he wanted to heal, he needed to find a place to hide so nothing would bother him. He was terrified of moving at all, but he didn’t have a choice. Slowly, carefully, he rolled onto his stomach. His ankle twinged, but he was careful with it so he didn’t bang it around. He picked himself up on three legs, curling his back left leg up off the ground, and actually somehow made it to shelter with ease. His ankle still hurt, but he’d finally managed to at least do something right today. Still, worry gnawed at his belly as he thought about the fact that he wouldn’t be able to hunt for some time. What was he gonna do now?

He crawled into the cave-like space where a wall had collapsed and was leaning against another wall, making a triangle-shaped entrance. As long as the wall didn’t fall down on top of him he’d be fine here… Hopefully. If he didn’t starve to death…

[End.]