With the stick and stone in their jaws nearly choking them, they bounded and dashed in a bouncing, hopping, dancing fashion away from the stone piles that had held them relatively still for so long. They'd had time to relax, so now, with the knowledge that the other competitors had taken off ahead of them, they charged ahead, unleashing all their pent-up energy into a sprint until they were finally able to dump their burden onto the dirt and dig a shallow hole in order to half-bury the stick.

And then, as they scooped the pebble up once more and took off, they knew that the end was in sight.

"speak."

Even with his feet all tingly from climbing on the spire Bremen ran toward the finish line like he was on fire. Was he on fire? No that couldn't be right. Even if he'd been climbing all over the spire trying to get the branch to stick before he hadn't once burst into flames.

Despite that as he ran a small trail of blue energy sparkled behind him, the intensity of his dash being fueled in part by the excess energy from his earlier escapades. His feet moved faster than he could ever remember them moving before and in addition he felt like he was almost going two steps for every one step taken. A shrill cry of delight echoed out from his throat; high pitched to those he was passing and lower pitch as he zoomed past. It was like someone had attached rockets to his back and he was just along for the ride.

Eventually though the excess magic drained out, leaving the hyper little hybrid to almost tumble forward and faceplant feet away from the finish line, but to catch himself Bremen opened up his wings and caught himself into the air, gliding upwards in an arc before landing gracefully on the other side of the line.

"That was awesome!" he exclaimed loudly, giddy adrenaline coursing through his blood.

---

’Thinking... thinking... thinking…’
"This is my voice, isn't it neat?"
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Eying the stick to make sure it would stay standing up, not wanting to have to waste time to put it back up, Sebastian turned. There were already a pawful of Gembounds at the finish line, and he growled, taking off as fast as he could. He took advantage of his long legs and large size, running at full speed to the finish line.

The puma crossed the line, and looked around, stepping out of the way and sitting down, tail wrapping around his paws as he waited for everyone else to finish.


___________________________________________________________

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

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The filly turned away from the pile of sticks and stones, clutching her stick and stone in her teeth. Her knees throbbed as she began to canter back to the Spire, forcing her to slow herself to a trot as the wounds bled. But, soon enough, she was back at the Spire.

Turning her head, she attempted to push the stick into the soil, only to huff as it fell over, disturbing the dirt.


"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

Llamrei huffed, picking up the stick, and attempting to push it back into the soil. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to want to cooperate, toppling over once again.


"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

Red-marked stone clutched tightly in their jaws, the little weasel jittered and bounded their way over the finish line and skidded dramatically to a halt. They dropped the stone and sat upright but a quick glance around them told them immiediately that they’d lost. The little creature’s ears drooped, an angry look coming into their eye.

Of course they would lose! Everyone else was so much bigger and stronger than them! Their legs were so much longer which probably made them infinately faster, and Envy felt their temper fizzling angrily. The little weasel stomped a paw on the earth snd then scsmpered off, not bothering to stay and congratulate the winners, but risking a jealous glance back at them over the shoulder.

-Exit Envy-

"speak."

Llamrei could have cried. The stick fell out again! She took it in her teeth, cantering around the Spire, trying desperately to find somewhere to put it. She shoved it into the nearest patch of dirt, only to watch in absolute disbelief as it tumbled out once more in a poof of dirt.


"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

In a fit of humiliated temper, Llamrei picked the stick back up, jamming it into the dirt. When it proved to stick, she reared up, bringing her hooves down on it several times, watching as it was buried into the dirt. Then, she spun around, picking up her stone.


"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

Taking a moment to look back at her stick, making sure it was in place, the filly whirled, beginning to gallop back to the finish line. Her hooves clattered loudly, and she cringed, not wanting to draw any more attention to her. Unfortunately, considering she was by and far the last, there was little she could do.

Crossing the finish line, the filly came to a stop, head dangling as she took deep, gasping breaths, barrel trembling.


"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

Winter watched the obstacle course closely from her perch, although she didn't exactly have the sharpest eyes. She partially relied on the extremely loud bird screaming out commentary to make sure that no one was cheating. She was just waiting for the final stretch when she could judge each one of them at the end.

It seemed a lot of them had dropped out of the race or fallen so far behind they couldn't catch up as only close to half of the contestants showed up at the end. However, she made sure to watch very carefully at who got through the finish line first.

Once she was sure that she had judged correctly, she cleared her throat and waited for the crowd to go quiet enough for her little voice to be heard over. "CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR CONTESTANTS! YOU ALL RAN AND FLEW WELL THROUGH THE RACE! WE HAVE THE FINAL SCORES FOR THOSE THAT FINISHED!"

She paused for a second as the crowd waited for her announcement. "IN THIRD PLACE IS THE...UH...HYBRID, BREMEN! CONGRATULATIONS! IN SECOND PLACE IS THE DARK PUMA, SEBASTIAN!! CONGRATULATIONS! AND IN FIRST PLACE IS THE FOSSA, MONGO!! A BIG CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU!! AND THANK YOU TO EVERYONE ELSE FOR PARTICIPATING!!"

She slid off of her rock, her heart beating out of control and her throat burning from how loud she had been yelling. As fast as possible, she slunk into the crowd, intent on finding Kielo again. She now discovered that she wasn't really a fan of public speaking.

*exit

Congrats to the winners!!



"And still I feel I said too much."
"My silence is my self defense."

Tags: @Mongo @Sebastian @Bremen @Howl @Envy @Gypsy @Llamrei
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