The hybrid sifted through yet more rocks, fur visibly beginning to bristle with barely-contained anger and frustration. His tail slashed through the air as he pointedly squatted. Mismatched eyes glanced over every single pebble, and every single bare one gave Howl a greater conniption.

Why did this happen every year?!

It was hard for the little one to see, but some subconscious compass must have guided it as it waddled on its way, weighed heavily down by the rock now sitting in its belly. Blurred shapes bounded ahead of it as the first hosts finished and won. It trundled, squelching quietly to itself as it found its way to the rock as quickly, and as strongly, as it could.

It took some time, but it finally made out the glow, growing steadily larger. It hauled itself up to the boulder, raised itself up onto hindmost set of legs and then gently placed its forepaws on the rock. Then it turned back, taking a moment to catch its breath as it struggled to pick out the finish line. It was almost there! It had almost done it. It squeaked with glee and began the final trundle to the end.

---

When I think.

The stag's ears flicked back as Mercurius' voice reached into his mind. Was it his imagination, or was there a faint urgency to the thoughts..?

He saw Kera rushing off from the race course, but he wasn't sure what it was the wolf was doing. It was in the same direction as Jayberry; had she seen her? But the stag tore himself away, after a moment, turning to pace back toward the judging station.

I would never, he sent the thought back to Mercurius, dry, totally void of emotion. The "tone" of the thought held the openly-offered possibility that it was a lie, blatantly-stated, but it was clear he would not outright claim that "yes, I threw a Gembound toward the cave roof in the middle of the obstacle course." His mind beneath the words, however, held the obvious adrenaline and cold and flickering rage.

When he reached Mercurius his gait was stiff and his gaze cold--not directed at the lion, but at what had just happened. He peered at his friend, all precise politeness and class, waiting for Mercurius to finish with the judging, and address him.

"Take your time; I trust that everything... else, is all right?" he said, aloud. He could tell that something was wrong, but he had no desire to disrupt the event further.

@Mercurius

'Come on come on come on!'
The little queen ran as fast as she could, using every once of speed she had, attempting to reach the finish line before anyone else. Before any of the bigger Gembound could get near and threaten to crush her with their too-big awkward feet.

So she strained, and pushed herself, tail like a flag beneath her as she ran, stone still held in her mouth, paws silent as she darted across the finish line.

With the red rock now firmly in his mouth, Rift turned around and raced towards the Spire. There were a couple of people already ahead, but he wasn't going to worry about it. If he was determined and kept going, he had a chance to still place (maybe). Besides, even if he didn't, he wasn't going to fall any further behind!

As soon as he was at the Spire, he lifted a paw and tagged it before turning and racing towards the finish line.

Huckleberry went running towards the Spire, his lopsided run slowing him down. He wanted to spread his wings and fly but he had to resist. He didn't want to get disqualified or anything. About halfway there, however, he tripped over himself and dropped his rock with a cry. He scrambled to his feet as soon as he could and began searching around for where he'd dropped his stone.

Everyone was already ahead of her, but Palefur wasn't going to just walk away like that wolf was doing. She didn't care. She didn't care about what anyone else was doing. She jumped forward towards the already ruined rock pile and began shifting around for any rock she could find. It didn't take long before she found a red one, which she grabbed in her mouth and turned, racing towards the Spire with all of her speed.

Lamia was starting to run dangerously low on her water supply. When she took another breath, she realized that she only had enough for maybe two, perhaps three small breaths. She needed to hurry it up.

Still holding the rock in her mouth, she pushed off again, using her arms to propel herself as she got into a rhythm of using her tail to push her forward, very similar to a snake. It was sloppy and lopsided and perhaps not as fast as a snake, but she would improve with time. It got her all the way to the Spire, which she smacked with one of her webbed hands, before taking off towards the finish line, her lungs burning.

Finally sneezing away the throbbing of his nose, the Golden Retriever scrambled to his paws. Grabbing the rock that had been flung from his mouth, he began to lope off again, woofing around the rock and wagging his tail.

He wasn't quite sure what he tripped on--if one looked close it would reveal that his front paws had crossed--and he face planted, tumbling head over tail, ending up sprawled out on his back, tail still wagging happily.

This was fun!

Finally, she managed to make it around the Spire, wheezing from the effort. Oof, she needed to lay off the Cavemice. Maybe it wasn't just some kitten weight?

Anyways, time to find a rock! Oversized paws fumbled through the heap, having to dig for a bit as it had been mostly picked clean. But finally--yes! Mark! she picked it up in her teeth.