Ayr trotted quietly back to the rock formation towards Mercurius, with Khloros in tow. Although she still quietly watched the obstacle course, her attention was semi-divided on quietly answering the black horse.

Her eyes, briefly, darted to Mercurius to handle the majority of the judging while she tried to take care of the recently-emerged stallion.

Mercy, for lack of any better phrasing, watched the proceedings with a careful eye. Ayr had left her post again, leaving him to judge. So far, the leading competitors were... odd, to say the least. A cat, a... speck(?)... and a fish. How are they breathing? he pondered briefly, flicking an ear back, would... casting some sort of breathing magic be considered cheating?

He'd have to ask Ayr about this, later.

The storyteller's gaze followed the race, watching as some of the rock-holding Gembound approached the Spire a second time.

ROUND 4 HAS BEGUN!

Due to voluntary choice or inactivity, Eli, Pollux, and Lilymoth have dropped out of the race!

@Rift @Huckleberry @Kallista @Squick @Kera @Jaysong @Calypso @Max @Adderstrike @Howl @Palefur @Lamia @Mongo

Kera was beginning to mildly panic as her massive paws dragged through the rock pile. A few gembound had ran past her and taken stones from under her nose and she fought to restrain a snarl at the passing gembound.

Luckily, she managed to find one. She grabbed it between her jaws and turned to go bolting back for the spire.

Jaysong was breathing hard out of her nose as she went sprinting back to the Spire. She found the boulder that was meant to be tagged, and slammed her nose straight into it. There was a sharp clink of stone meeting stone as she tagged the rock in her mouth against the boulder.

Then, Jaysong turned and went careening back for the finish line, almost rabbit-hopping as she reached the ending flower field towards the end of the race.

Howl rounded the Spire and immediately bolted towards the ever-familiar and imposing pile of rocks by the river. Now this bit was always the straw that broke the camel's back year-after-year.

No rock.

As Rift finally managed to get to the rock pile where many were gathered already, he immediately dove forward and began shuffling through the pile, keeping an eye out for any flash of red that would indicate his prize.

It took a few moments before there was a dash of color and he immediately grabbed at it. A rock with a red mark appeared from the pile and he clutched it in his jaws, turning around to face the next part of the course.

Others were coming and going around Huckleberry and a trill of fear sent him scrambling through the pile, throwing aside rock after rock as he tried to find the one he needed. At long last a red rock appeared for him and he snatched it up in his mouth and whirled away from the rock pile.

Thoroughly embaressed and frusterated, Palefur struggled back to her feet and finally got herself into a pace that took her the rest of the way around the Spire. By the time she was approaching the rock pile, most of the contestants had already moved off. Snarling furiously, she sped up her pace to reach the rock pile in shorter time.

Miraculous as it was, Lamia was somehow one of few that had made it this far already. But she was growing tired, exhausted really, from all the strain this was putting on her poor arms. She'd never moved on land like this and never so much. She couldn't go any farther. She sucked in another breath of her precious water and slowed, pausing for a moment to regather her strength.

The calico hauled, running as fast as she could in an attempt to reach the glowing boulder before everyone else could. She failed, but thankfully wasn't one of the last, and so she considered that somewhat of a victory.

She was in such a rush that she almost missed the boulder, skidding as she flung out her paw to slap it. But then she was off again, continuing her run.