Astraea had come to observe the chrysalis every now and then, to glare at it from afar, to think that somehow, somewhere, They remained a part of this place despite Astraea's growing efforts to reclaim the cave for Him.

And he appreciated the gatherings the Gembounds rallied themselves to, it was great training and so he never found himself opposed to, what could appear to be, such fun.

Of course it would be this day, their day of festivities that the chrysalis would awaken. Astraea stood as a wraith in the crowd, watching with bated breath as the stone cracked and out emerged—

His eyes narrowed in an attempt to focus his vision. It was the horse, except, it had been... healed. Astraea was not sure what he might have expected from the chrysalis, but a fully cleansed and healed Khloros? It upset him to think there was another reborn such as he within the cave, and that it kept its original body, too, where Astraea had been reborn into... this. He stomped a hoof and turned to leave.

The stag needed a strategy and he had several guesses on where to start.

(*exit)

"Speech." Next after the hurdles was sprinting around the Spire two times. Kallista supposed that shouldn't be too hard...but it might seem more difficult once she actually does it.

So she ran toward the Spire, prepared to make her two rounds. It came rather easily - she ran around the Spire her two times, passing some who had failed. During her second round, she noticed someone had hatched right next to it. She frowned, but gave them little thought as she continued on her way, now toward the river.

He had arrived at a different hurdle, denouncing his affiliation with the previous, and readied himself to try again. There was a rush of running as the Gembounds sprinted away but Lilymoth refused to take failure for an answer. His feet wiggled beneath his tiny, crouched body and his prismatic eyes locked onto the opening between the planks.

One... two... three...!

There was a brief moment of breezy air, the brushing of his fur against rotten wood, and then..! He felt his feet plop onto the ground and he knew he had been successful, confirmed by his cleared vision. Well, now he saw the dust of the others and he huffed, sticking his fluffy kitten tail into the air and easing into a slow gallop after them.

The creature that emerged from the chrysalis startled him into pausing and he hesitated. What were they... running from? Is that what was going on? His hackles raised as he peeked behind him at the other stragglers. Had there been a threat?!

Eli shook the stars from his head and backed up, preparing to try the hurdle again. He had a lot of catching up to do! Flapping with wings with excitement, he raced forward. With a big leap, he cleared the hurdle, but only just barely! Eli's back paws hit the log and he stifled a cry as pain stung his legs.

Well that could have went better. He thought to himself as he took off towards the Spire.

The wolf watched as the unicorn - although she did not know the word for it - trotted away, keeping at her own trotting pace as she thought.

She wasn't going to leave, no. Huckleberry was running, and she would stay to support her Brother. But she could easily support him from the sidelines, and look for Mother from the same.

So with a nod, she continued to trot, but slipped down into the watching crowd, weaving through them. She intended to stay in the back, where the shadows would hopefully help to hide her (or, at least, make her look like one of the many other black wolves in the caves by blurring her scars), planning on holding her tongue so as to keep from giving herself away with her voice.

-Jayberry forfeits the race-

Kera went careening for the river's shore, half-barrelling into the rock pile as she started going through it, raking stones back with her massive paws. Perhaps she was going too fast, or perhaps she just wasn't looking hard enough, but she couldn't find any that'd been marked.

Deeper down, perhaps? Kera let out a frustrated growl, sticking her nose straight into the pile of rocks as she resumed her fruitless search.

Jay continued kitten-trotting along, breathing heavily. She grimaced as a massive, shaggy wolf overtook her and began furiously digging into the pile of rocks, sending waves of stones behind her, directly in Jay's direction.

For a moment, the kitten thought she was going to be hit in the face, but when she looked down-- "what the fuck," --a stone with a small red mark was right between her white mittens.

I mean. She wasn't going to complain.

Jay picked the marked rock up with her teeth and turned to start careening down the path back towards the spire.

The stag was so fixated--frozen as he was, adrenaline coursing through him--on Jayberry that he noticed nothing else. He didn't notice the other racers rushing past, nor the black horse or even Astraea, something he might have been fascinated with at any other time. He hadn't, after all, ever seen another stag.

But Jayberry! The nerve, to show her face here! At first he didn't want to act. Mercurius was here, after all--and so many watching eyes. He stood tense, his magicka itching at him, fury driving him to act rashly.

But still, he held--until at last she began to slip away, unseen, into the crowd. He knew he had but a fraction of an instant to act. He kept her in his mind, even as she moved out of sight--closing his silver eyes and focusing heavily upon her. If he lost track of her now, that would be it, and she would be lost to the shadows; he would not get another chance. It took a more powerful spell--his usual magicka required him to see his target, but not this one. Not this magic.

He did his best to grip the murderous black wolf with his very mind, to lift her high above the shadows she lurked in, as high as he could--and then drop her.

Let gravity sort out the rest, he thought, with a sort of grim savagery.

@Jayberry

Quickly getting a hold of his balance again, Rift took off, now behind many of the competitors, although he noticed that there were others that had fallen as well. As he took off, he was careful to watch his paws, to keep them from tripping him up again. It slowed him down but at least he didn't fall again.

Huckleberry dove towards the pile of rocks, beginning to search through them, finding for one with a red mark. There were others nearby and he needed to hurry but in his haste a number of them fell from his grip and he just couldn't find what he was looking for.