The Fossa ran, listening to the group around him. Some of them were falling and failing, tripped up by the barriers, while others made it and kept on going. He was among the latter, and galloped after the cat, the dog and, although he didn't see it, the parasite.

A familiar voice began to echo out, and he had flash-backs to many Cycles before, when he had been very young, rattling around inside the skull. It was a bit disorienting, but he had gotten good at focusing on just the original voice.

So when he called out his voice, the Fossa jumped up in acknowledgement, his own voice echoing and coming out odd as he hollered "Vinnie!" before continuing to run, surprised to realize that the seagull hadn't seen him since he'd gotten the skull. Had it really been so long since they'd seen each-other?

He'd missed him.

His eyes widened when his paws landed wrong, body twisting as he tried to correct, over-corrected and slipped, rolling down the side of an incline and laying at the bottom for a long moment, standing once he'd caught his breath.

Various different Gembounds bounded above her head, some she knew - "Jay! Pale!" and others she didn't "Hello! Hi! Hiya!" as she got her bearings.

But finally she stood, bracing her paws on the ground and shaking herself, gathering her senses. "Here I go!" she kicked off the ground, attempting to go through the hole that she had missed, and -
bonk
hit it again. She grunted as she found herself on her butt again, blinking wide-eyed as she stared at the hole as though it had betrayed her.

Having made it across the hurdles, Rift was now running as fast as he could towards the Spire. They had to do laps around it so he readied himself from the sprinting. He began to go into the first turn around the giant crystal, but he was not prepared for the smoothness of rock. His paws were used to the springy earth, the foliage, or the rough texture of trees. Suddenly he found himself without a grip and he stumbled out of his run, tumbling off to the side as other competitors went right past him. He scrambled to his feet and broke back into a run, but he was already behind again.

Palefur shook out her head from where she had hit it against the wooden boards and backed herself up, but she was careful to be quick about it. She didn't want to get any more behind. She leaped off at a sprint and, this time, was able to make the correct size of jump and soared over the first hurdle, and then the rest. With a sigh of relief, she burst away from it, towards the Spire.

Huckleberry was sprinting towards the Spire as fast as he could, although, to be honest, it wasn't very fast at all. He was a better flier then he was a runner, the combination of hooves and claws didn't make for good traction, but he did his best. As other competitors lost their footing in the turn, he managed to hold himself steady, making his laps around the Spire as fast as he could.

Lamia flopped forward, clawing her way with her arms, although they burned with the strain of propelling herself on land. She got into a sort of rhythm with her tail, whipping it to and fro, which helped her worm her way across the floor, although a good amount of dust and grit clung to her scales, making it extremely uncomfortable and making her cringe at how grimy she was going to be. She hated being on land. She would never get this dirty in the water.

But she was able to successfully get around the Spire at a surprisingly swift pace. It hurt to do it, but she was determined to get to the end!

Aside from his initial bout of trash-talk, Howl was actually somewhat focused and quiet. His mismatched eyes were set dead ahead as he plowed toward the Spire, keeping an even pace and heartrate. The past cycle or two of pure mania had given way for a somewhat normal sneak thief hell-bent on winning this damn obstacle course, once and for all.

Upon reaching the spire, he skidded to a halt and skittered off in the other direction. Keeping his turns close --- but not dangerously so --- to the Spire, Howl put on a burst of speed and counted his laps based on a particular rock formation. Just before he finished his last lap, his hand slipped, hit a stone wrong, and sent him careening onto his face.

The hybrid felt herself glide over each hurdle with relative ease. She had not yet learned to use her wings, so there was no tempation to spread them in each leap. Instead, they remained neatly folded against her thin, furless frame.

A goofy, dogish grin was spread across her maw as she looked about. Everyone seems to be having a blast! So many other gembounds were running about and bouncing over the hurdles. Being slightly behind, she was able to follow the crowd around the spire. She watched as a few took the turn too sharp and lost their footing.

Pollux bounded after them, confident that she could make the two laps. But as she completed one and began to run around again she too lost her footing. One of her talons slipped under a rock, causing her to stumble and fall with a puff of feathers. Oof! Falling had startled her enough to cause her skin to blend into her surroundings.
Pollux thinking.

Things had gone from nothing--from a long, long stretch of peace--to very, very loud. His mind slowly swam up from nothingness to become aware of the sounds: shouting, cheering, the sounds of a great deal of running very close by.

For a few moments he simply lay there and listened--and then he began to remember. He remembered the fight. Astraea. The agony--and the memory of that made him shiver within his stone. The white place, the white creature.

Oh-... and his new task.

Slowly he began to move within the stone--and now the footsteps were close, rushing past, over. His ugly butter-jade chrysalis lay spiked through with the Spire's teal, but the others seemed to be in too much a rush to notice the pustule on the beautiful stone. It was a stone that wasn't about to last that much longer, regardless. The horse gave a kick or two, and when the chrysalis cracked, he began to gradually pull himself out.

_________

In the middle of the obstacle course--as Gembound raced by, looping the Spire--a large black stallion stepped seemingly out of nowhere. He looked a little bewildered--turning his head this way and that, his soft brown eyes blinking in the bright light. He staggered a little, and then wandered as if lost right through the racers, pausing to look around. His coat was wet, with sweat perhaps, and he hesitated as he stood there.

He tried to speak, and it took a couple of tries to find his voice--strangely warm and quiet. "What are you all running from..?" he asked, concerned--what was it that was chasing them so..?

The lost-looking black stallion stared behind them, looking for some danger--but he could see only a clustering of Gembound in the distance, watching.

Ayr hadn't quite noticed the butter jade chrysalis-- or, if she had, her mind simply cast it away as a growing or recovering gembound and forgot about it. She kept her eyes on the gembound sprinting around the spire from the formation of rocks, ears flicking back and forth.

She'd only just managed to catch her breath when said chrysalis began to splinter and crack, lifting her head a little higher and drawing her eyes away from one of the kittens to watch it cautiously. "Is that..." she whispered, more to herself than to Mercurius.

It couldn't have been a newborn child, surely? It must have been larger than her. But it looked about as confused as one. Ayr passed an uncertain glance to Mercy before she picked herself up and went clipping down the stairway of vines.

"Ahh, horse?" She called, trotting along the side of the track, waving a whip-like tail to try to catch Khloros' attention. "You-- may wish to stop standing there? Before you get trampled? Come here." She tried to beckon him over, carefully, before the racers came looping back towards him.

"What's your name?" The unicorn asked flutingly, regardless if Khloros moved or not. "How did you end up here?"