Easily holding the rock in his mouth, the dog loped after the other Gembounds, tail wagging so fast it might as well have served as a paddle. His fur flowed around him as he trotted, looking around at all the Gembound watching them, smiling as though this was just a show for him.

He hoped everyone else was having as much fun as he was!

Oh, they were running! It was time to run, then! So he began to run, galloping towards the glowing boulder, not stopping until he ran into it at full speed. Dropping onto his butt, he sneezed repeatedly, his sensitive nose throbbing.

Alright, alright, what was next?

She stood still for a moment, watching the other Gembounds run laps around the Spire, before it clicked! 'Oooh, okay!' as fast as her stubby legs could carry her, she began to bound off, struggling around the Spire - at a fairly slow pace, she wasn't terribly fast considering her heavy weight and puny legs.

Staggering, the Fossa attempting to catch his footing, head throbbing from being stepped on. His eye widened as he found nothing beneath his hind paw, and then he was falling, tumbling skull over tail down that same damned incline, landing at the bottom with a wooshed breath. For a long moment, he laid on his back, wheezing as he caught his breath.

'This is fine.'

The she-wolf slipped into the shadows, finding a place to stand where she could watch Huckleberry as he ran, intending on adding her voice to the din but then -

"Oh shit!"

her eyes widened, and she flailed as her paws left the ground, yipping in fear. Her head snapped around, eyes widening as they landed on that Caves-damned stag; she may not have been the brightest Gembound in the caves, but even she could put two and two together and get four... most of the time. Okay, some of the time.

Aaand then she was falling. A high pitched squeal of terror tore from her throat, and she twisted like a cat, attempting to get her paws beneath her, only to land with a painful thud, aching ribs cracking, one of her legs snapping beneath her as she landed on it. She whimpered in pain, laying still, stunned.

@Pride

What had happened..? Pride could not see.

Past the rush of the crowd, the racing contestants, he couldn't get a glimpse of where the black wolf had fallen. Tentatively he touched his magic; he could still lift her, look at her again to see. But what was the point?

Surely she'd be dead from such a fall. He'd lifted her as high as she could, until she'd been nearly out of sight, and dropped her. What had it been--thirty, forty feet? She had to be dead. And what if she isn't? that little voice nagged. Did he really care that others might see who had done this? Did he really care about interrupting this little game to get rid of a murderer of the caves?

Some of Jayberry's prior words rang in his mind--her calling him a monster, her defending herself against being called such. Perhaps just another broken child of the goose, but-- and the flashing memory of Blackberry sparked his rage again, but she believes she did nothing wrong. Undoubtedly she would do it again.

He closed his eyes and gripped the wolf's stunned body with his magicka, feeling the threads of doubt winding through him--faint guilt--but acting nonetheless. If he had killed her, he had to be certain. And if he hadn't--he had to finish it.

Pride felt the grip, felt it slip, felt his mind as it seemed to close on nothing at all. For a moment, his magicka--instead of snagging and flinging the wolf skyward again--brushed over her pelt, and he'd have sworn that he was petting her. Then, he lost the magic entirely. It felt like a crush of weight inside his own skull, and with a sharply-alarmed hiss of pain he released the spell, buckling to his knees. For a moment he simply lay there, stunned and trying to recover.

If she was alive, it seemed that providence had spared her, though he did not think she could have lived through such a fall. For now, however, he'd have to sit aside, recover, and wait.

@Jayberry

"Speech." Kallista watched as those who had found their rock were now heading towards a glowing boulder. Her eye narrowed and she began to head in that direction, rock clamped firmly in her mouth.

However, she was beginning to grow oh so very tired. When was the last time she had run this much? She tripped over a paw and fell, flailing. Somehow, she managed to keep the stone in her mouth. But now her paw was hurting, and others were speeding past her. She would have scowled in the rock was not in her mouth.

As it reached the pile, Squick held its breath and squeezed in amongst some of the larger rocks, peering around for a marked pebble or piece of grit small enough for it to swallow. Its eyesight was poor, but the red mark it was looking for was something it should be able to pick out of the blur. So the little worm clambered through the cavernous belly of the pile, clambering up sticks and squeezing its boneless form into the tiny gaps between stones.

It took a while, and the pebble it found was larger than it would have liked, but finally the little parasite was successful. The object was just a tiny bit smaller than its head, and it would be heavy for the little worm. It would be most easily carried by a gembound the size of a medium rat, but Squick didn't think that the hosts running this competition would have ever expected a worm to join.

...And that was okay!

Squick ran its soft little mandibles over the pebble, before opening its maw wide and engulfing it whole. Although the worm could only digest things pre-digested by a host, its empty stomach made for some fair storage space. Finally it squeezed its way out of the pile, wrinkles deepening as it squinted in the brightness of the outside, and continued on its long journey, although it was suddenly a lot harder to manoeuvre.

---

When I think.

When Jay reached the field of flowers she was, at first, greatly concerned. Some of the plants were higher than she was after all-- but it's not like she had the time to stop and hesitate it over. The kitten kept running, bounding forward, until the white tail-tip was lost in the field.

At first, she just ran. Then, she discovered, hopping was faster. She was a dark shape hopping and weaving through the plants, narrowly avoiding the crater engraved into the cave floor, and skidded easily over the finishing line. She dropped her rock and hunched over, breathing heavily and shutting her eyes.

kera is forfeiting!

Kera had almost reached the boulder to tag her rock when she heard someone scream. The wolf stopped dead in her tracks, some other gembound running straight past her, brushing her shoulders, as she turned her head to the direction of it.

Someone, somehow, was in the air, falling, and falling, and then--

Crunch.

Kera dropped her rock immediately and left the track, careening just as quickly through the crowd and to where the wolf had landed, a blurred white shape as she went.

She skidded to a halt in front of Jayberry, wide-eyed. She didn't know who she was, of course, else she may well have just left her there and continued on the race. Instead, Kera wondered why.

Why now? Why during a race, with a lot of people? To send a message?

She tried to shake the thought away. "Who are you?" She asked breathlessly. "Are you awake? Dead? Can you hear me?"

@Jayberry

From one round to another, Mercurius was in a far different state of mind. For one, his world had been shaken to its actual roots. There was far more to the Spire than met the eye, and he had adopted a horse as his son. Sure, the horse was probably close to the same age as him --- he had seen Vazi at some point --- but still...

Another thing: the old storyteller had realized that there was no officially instated truce, here. There was a sharp cry, and a dark blur shooting into the air. Mercurius recognized it as, perhaps, the Gembound that Ayr had spoken to and subsequently forfeited. Moonlit eyes finally found Pride in the crowd, and his magicka began to spin.

Near instantaneously, a mental link was established between himself and the pale stag: this is Mercurius --- I hope this link works. Way to sound like an old man. I won't overwhelm you with all of it, now, but I need to talk to you after this is all over --- perhaps, after you are done with whatever it is you're doing over there. Please don't be behind that Gembound kissing the ceiling.

ROUND 5 HAS BEGUN!

Due to voluntary choice, Kera has dropped out of the race.

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

And, for actual interaction purposes: @Pride