Pip's eyes lit up with the glow of fire. She watched as the pile of sticks began to crackle and burn. A sound almost like the chime she made. But better. She shook. Her body tried to mimick the crackle, but it was off. Too high pitched and squeaky. It sounded strange and immediately different from fire. But this was a dragon, Pip memorized. Not tree monster, dragon. Big things with scales that made fire. They could make fire crackle noises. She would remember that, for the next day atleast. Hopefully. Dread roared, and Pip wished she could cover her ears. It was more vibration than sound at her size, but it still hurt. Pip got an idea, and flicked her bud wings.

Why should the gembound only jump over one fire? This gembound surely had a lot of fire. And Pip wanted to see more. The whole tunnel burning. The thought was pinned to the forefront of her mind. The whole tunnel, orange and flaming from floor to ceiling. That would be the best obstacle. Everyone would want to do fire jumps! They should do them forever!

"Hey! Big dragon! Can you make more fires like that? And help gather big sticks!" She paused, thinking. Did gembound want things for helping? Probably not, she concluded. Back at those weird wheels she'd found everyone just did spells cause it looked cool!

@Dread

Scout blinked and walked over to help where she could, before just making her way to Tupu. Birds of a feather...

And what was with the dragon?

"Is there anything I can help with?", she asked, a bit out of her comfort-zone.

She looked to Madhukar, though she really didn't know what the Hell they said. They weren't listening because a dragon just came in and breathed fire. Wack.

Exit Scout too IG.

Wow so uh this was incredibly strange. Tahi apologized, and that didn't feel too offbeat, but then something HUGE showed up and started yelling at everyone. There was talking. Then there was fire.

Yeah... Madhukar didn't do great with crowds. Or parties.

Seemed others were starting to leave. Madhukar understood that. She'd gone looking for something... right? Oh yeah! Because Tahi had stepped in her bile. And she couldn't... well, she just wasn't gonna think about that right now. What should she try to look for then? Sticks? Stones? Broken bones?

Hmm... yeah. Anything sharp would do.

Choosing to ignore the massive yelling beast and the rising heat meant choosing to ignore pretty much all of her surroundings. Fun. She tripped on a pretty smooth stone and fell flat on her face. OUCH.

She begged all of "fate", whatever that was, to not suddenly come out and reveal that this obstacle course was actually for Madhukar. Aha. Because if it did that she was going to murder "fate" and everything it held dear.

Scrambling to her paws again, the kitten stormed off in a flash. She was DONE investigating tunnels, and she was SUPER DONE with setting up obstacle courses. People and nature were obstacles enough. The only thing Madhukar could add was a little decoration at this point!

- exit -

Dread wasn't sure exactly what they wanted, and some of them were just... wandering off? But one was asking for more fire and that much, at least, he was content to provide.

An inhale.

A rearing back.

This time, when his neck snapped down and out, his jaws opening, it was a torrent of roaring flame. He swept his head from left to right, slowly, igniting long swathes of... anything, really. He avoided the other Gembound, but any sticks, obstacles, branches, carefully-gathered soon-to-be-tinder, was treated to his engulfing dragon's breath fire.

Then he stopped, swallowed down a jagged piece of snow, and grunted.

"THERE," he yelled, past the backdrop of burning wood and billowing black smoke; "YOU HAVE FIRE."

He waited, a beat. "NOW YOU SAY THANK YOU," he informed them, matter-of-factly; and after waiting another moment, he said, "GOODBYE," and wing-walked away.

exit Dread

Pip's attention was elsewhere nearly immediately. "Wait, I have an idea!" Her request was pushed aside. She turned to Tupu. With a hop she landed halfway up Tupu's leg, and skittered to the front of her head. Tupu's attention had been on Dread, but a couple of pokes on the nose turned her around. "I'm gonna use this not talking thing to create fire!"

Within this tiny creature, her mind was a land of infinite fire. And she would use Tupu to execute her plans. Although the gerenuk resisted at first, they eventually turned. They resisted again when Pip tried to get them to pass the fire. But Pip was a certified gerenuk rider, and Tupu followed her lead. "Can you carry sticks silent thing?"

Tupu blinked heavy lashes. Pip took that as a yes. Tupu seemed to understand it better than Pip would've thought. With barely any input from Pip, Tupu took over the search. Tupu gathered bundles in her mouth, and as Pip directed her, created a second pile. This one was larger than Pip's first. Pip would've brought a tiny flaming torch to it, had Dread not lit the tunnel on fire. The whole tunnel. The place was an inferno. Pip giggled as she watched the fire crackle and roar, consuming everything in its path.

"Yesss," Pip hissed, and then once reminded by Dread, called out a "Thank you!"

((I posted on Effluvium accidentally BUT rolled a 20))