Vinea's only concern was whether or not Vinea would survive.

He continued to flare bright through the mist, not daring to yip and howl for help like he wanted to - even he was smart enough to know that making the least amount of noise was his best shot.

Despite his vote to stay quiet, though... here came that awful rumbling. Vinea felt like his heart was hammering like a homing beacon for the ice worm. His breaths came quicker, scraping at the bottom of his lungs and leaving ice in their place. He was freezing and he was going to die here if he didn't pick up the damn pace!

So, pick up the pace he did; towards that ever-important blue glow.

Vinea is trying to save himself and rejoin the group!

Hargrave whirled around at the terrified shriek aligned with the cascading rumble approaching, the floes of ice and snow shattering upwards.

Her hope - her light! It was in danger.

The newly reinvigorated side of her thought that this heavenly being would survive whatever lay in that pit, that it was a guide from above that must return through less otherworldly means. Her other half, though, saw a test. Something to prove her worth and benevolence, a necessary exchange for her salvation. To simply turn away and run would be to fail this being's test.

But, there was already someone aiding it.

Her tired gaze turned elsewhere.

Bloody pawprints traced her path to the shifting ground, teeth flashing in the dim nightlight and seeking that prickly mane to haul her savior's sibling - she'd heard it say something along those lines, right? - to relative safety, out of the death-bringer's warpath.

Hargrave is attempting to save Shida Ivory!

M for kalama using a bad word correctly, once.

"Coward!" Kalama called as the rumbling of the worm surged ahead. Maybe they had found a better meal? While the dark thought disturbed her, she couldnt help but feel a little relieved she wouldn't have to fend off another worm. Then she realized something. She hadnt seen or heard any of the others, not for a long while. They were behind

"No!" She squawked.

"Imp, we're behind! We gotta keep going!" She wouldn't lose! She had to get first place. Failure wasn't an option for them. Kalama mustered her strength, and pulled her body forward with one wing. She tried to repeat the motion with the other wing, but in her panic she went to fast, and felt a muscle pull painfully. She made a sound of pain, and flopped onto the sand. Kalama made an angry noise in her throat. Kalama swiped the snow in front of her with a wing. "Fuck! This stupid trial is rigged!"" She said. She couldn't lose. Even the prospect that she might was setting her off.

"Collector!" She screamed into the blizzard. "Your trial sucks!"
think "speak"

short post bc i have a bunch of things to finish o man

Imagine, a blind idiot thinking he was 'saving,' or at least helping, a shatter-boned crippled idiot. The stupid blind, it seemed, leading the mad. But he had the common sense to know--to remember, from the prior trial--that being loud, out here, was dumb.

Really dumb. And he could hear, past his own shivering, the strange and dragging gait that Kalama was exhibiting. She wanted to move: but she was going nowhere.

"Shhhhh! Shut up!" he hissed, urgently, swinging around to face her with wide eye... sockets. Well, the lids were still closed, but his brows arched in very clear surprised disapproval. "Listen, I might be blind but I can see shit magically." Even as he spoke his magic flared, and he turned blind eyes to watch as the red and hulking form of the Ice Worm--terrifying as it dwarfed everything else--surged into the distance. "And that thing is fucking huge. It isn't scared of us. There's no way it's scared of you." He paused.

They'd never make it back to the group, now; not with whatever the hell was wrong with Kalama. He could fly after them, but something in him didn't want to just abandon her here. He hated it, but there it was.

And then Imp, in all his glory, had an idea.

"...Listen," he said again, mischief sparking in his tone. "If you can get us back to the entrance, we can just... hide there. Wait. All we gotta do is survive, right? So if everyone else dies or does stuff and we just go back, we'll be the first back, right? It'd be super smart." Plus, he thought, It doesn't sound like she's going anywhere else any time soon.

"They're already really far ahead, and the Worm is chasing them. I can see it--with magic. Let's go back," he urged. "While it's not here. While we still can. We can go back to the tunnel. We can win."

If Kalama refused--if she insisted on dragging herself forward, through the snow--Imp wasn't sure what else he could do but follow. Hover, perhaps; offer warmth when she inevitably collapsed. And if the dumbass dies, I can go try and find the rest of them, I guess, he thought, reluctantly.

[M warning for explicitly broken brones n blood]

“

i will refuse to break

···

As she slowed, Vinea came closer, the rumbling increased in volume, and-

She was flying. Maybe she would have enjoyed it if she couldn't see the different shade of white hurting closer. Adrenaline drove her to scream in flashing fear, the key flying from her mouth as wind whipped past and deafened all sound around her. She barely got a glimpse of what breached through the snow behind her.

She didn't have time to. As soon as she began her ascent, she landed with a sickening crunch, crumpling in on her front right paw and nearly shearing off the limb itself. Her body didn't want to leave it at that- at the shock her jaw smashed into the ground, followed by her ribs, shoulders, and hip, her muscles mangled over mis-placed bones.

Another scream let loose from her as she trembled. The pain slammed into her, and she short-circuited, blood leaking where bones dared to pierce through her jawline. She couldn't close her mouth- trying, she squealed with the white-hot stabs digging into her, barely able to move with everything she gave.

She had to. She had to, or this would happen again- she stumbled on her leg, twisted completely in the wrong direction, and crumpled back into the snow as she tried to power through.

The key. The key. She had- to get it, had to cling to it- the others wanted it. She couldn't fail them. Blubbering through tears, she managed to crawl on her belly with the snow pressing into her screeching flanks, reaching forward as bile rose from her throat. She had to make it.

For Hargrave.

She could barely close her mouth around it. She couldn't even close it all the way- fighting the swells of nausea, she stood on the three remaining legs she had, nearly falling from the pain on her hips. For the others. She would do this. She would do this to find out why she was even here- why she'd risked herself in the first place, why everyone else had risked themselves. This thing must have some value for everyone to want it.

She steeled herself as she hobbled to shelter, the stinging cold her only comfort against tears, drool, and blood marring her jaw and fur. There were several times where she fell, but- she made it. She had to make it. She had to power through!

Irony taunted him.

The winter storm raged, and through the darkness, the roaring of the ground being rent by a massive maw swallowed any sound of the other's shouting among the chaos. Wynter surged onward, but he could not hope to escape the charging void and teeth. He could only hope the find the others, and narrowly avoid his second (or was this third?) brush with death itself.

If all else failed, maybe his neck would snap, and it would be painless.

Wynter froze as the ground shook so violently it threatened to throw him aside, but the worm tore past him once again. He was hit with a spray of snow and ice, wincing as it cut through his fur and woolly coat. He heaved a deep breath, turning his fuchsia gaze forward. This was all a terrible nightmare, and his bravery-- what would be left of it after this-- was being tested to the very frayed edges.

The hybrid rushed toward the glow in the distance, hoping he was not leaving anyone behind. Somehow, beyond belief, and beyond logic, he made his way in one piece.

WYNTER HASIRA
Like walking in the rain and the snow
When there's nowhere to go
And you're feelin' like a part of you is dying

cw for gore, mutilation, death [highlight whitespace]

—

The ground shifted and churned nearly underfoot, a widening sinkhole chasing after him, nearly catching up to his ankles — Vinea ran and ran, but some deep, unsettled part of him knew; knew that he wouldn't be slipping from this, he wouldn't be escaping scots free and going back home to tell his mother and siblings all about the trials he'd endured—

A soft, dread-filled whine escaped him as he hit a patch of looser, finer snow, and sunk in to his chest. Cyan eyes screwed shut tight as the rumbling grew to a deafening hum. The rapid climb of the ice worm muffled his shrill wooping call, his last not-word that he knew so well: "mom—"

I'm sorry.

Millions of teeth guttered into him, splitting flesh and sinew before the beast'd even broken through the snow and sand again. Bioluminescent blood spilled from his ruined jaws, face messily sheared in half from cheek to cheek, mixing with saliva and tears. An eye split, slackened out of place by the lack of support underneath. His consciousness winked to black at the first turn beneath the sands, body quickly separated at the bone into a thousand different pieces. Within seconds, Vinea in any capacity was gone, and only a bloodied, butchered mass of viscera and bioluminescent blood remained. Not even a gemstone was left - if any part of him ever even saw the light of day again.

—

goodnight, vinea.

One by one, by one, the Gembound arrived in the strangely muffled, almost peaceful silence of the Crucible. Some arrived sooner; some later, but all would need to choose their path through the treacherous ravines. The soft blue glow is intermittent, out in the heart of the canyons, and there are two paths to get there on foot.

The broad, frozen river--having overflowed its banks before freezing--spans the full breadth of one canyon. There are occasional ominous cracking sounds: groans and creaks, soft but eldritch sounds that echo in the dulled near-silence. Failing to negotiate the frozen river will result in stepping on a thin spot and cracking through the ice, and falling into the bitter rapids sweeping along below the surface.

Or, down another path, a narrow ravine. This has lots of icy overhangs, sheltered but ominous, the towering sides of the canyon high up to either side. Occasional muffled whumphs from snowdrifts--small, roiling avalanches--collapsing from high above, and cracks from the dangling icicles, break the eerie quiet. Failing to traverse the ravine may result in being struck by falling ice or icicles, or buried in a falling drift of snow.

Flying would also be possible, for those capable: but the snow higher up is driving and blinding, and the quiet at the top of the canyon is unsettlingly still. Failing this route may result in dangerous collision with terrain, becoming lost, or being attacked by half-frozen Eyehooks defending their icy nests.

The Ice Worm, finding that the irritating surface-creatures were--for the most part--too small, and swift, and agile to catch, lurched down and away beneath the surface once more. Those who had spotted it, there in the curtains of snow, may have seen the bits of tattered, spotted hide and splattered blood briefly glimpsed in its gullet. It turned, grinding and churning its way back the way it had come... in the direction of Kalama, and Imp.

_________

Gembound must roll to progress further into the canyon, and at last locate what might be their destination: the strange, intermittent blue glow. Imp and Kalama must roll to survive the blizzard on the Dunes, and may attempt to aim for any destination they wish.

Please clarify in your post: path choice, and whether your character, on a success, is moving forward or staying with their group.

Gembound who are already critically-wounded (Hargrave with frostbite, Null and Kalama with broken limbs) will perish should they critically fail this round.


Placements:
1st: Palefur
2nd: Desert Rose
3rd: Agate
4th: Null, Virgil, Hargrave, Ivory, Warrior, Wynter, Fisher, Lyra, Shida, Oleander
Last: Kalama, Imp

Critically-Wounded:
Kalama, Null, Hargrave, Virgil

Dead:
Vinea

@Desert Rose Thirty-Five (Null)
@Imp (Ivory, Warrior)
@Agate Two-Three-Six (Wynter, Fisher)
@Virgil (Hargrave)
@Shida (Palefur, Lyra, Oleander)
@Kalama

Helping Ivory up seemed to - at least momentarily - quiet down the rising anxiety and flurry of dreadful sensation crawling through her. Hargrave ducked beneath the death-bringer as it lurched out of the ground, missing any part of its prey except for the brown beast. Her shrieking bellow cut through the air, even over the blizzard.

The Gray Hare's breath caught again, static roaring in and flooding across those shreds of hope she was clinging to - oh. She'd finally spotted Null and the decrepit state she was in, blood marring her path through the snow. Hargrave hurried over, high-kneeing and trying to minimize contact with that burning, burning snow. Her voice wasn't very strong - lost to the snow still wailing on her coat - but she called nonetheless, "Null..."

Her snout pushed beneath the fox, shrugging her on a bit like a pelt before moving back to the group, heading for the ravines. There was too much risk in falling through the icy river and... Hargrave couldn't save Null if they fell through.

As she took them both through the narrow pass, Hargrave worked at her magic - trying to maintain her body heat and igniting from within.

Hargrave stays with her group and attempts to go through the Ravine.

Imp sort of bobbed along, wings flapping. Sometimes he landed, sometimes he took wing, magic flickering as he tried to look around them.

"Where are you GOING?!" he demanded, for the third time in ten seconds. "The entrance is back the other way, dummy!" He spun in the air again, turning and trying to get an idea of their location--gauging by the sand worms littering the Beneath of the Sand Dunes--there, and there; which put them... a little west, and there was "THE FUCKING GIANT WORM!" Imp screeched, flailing higher, shivering, into the sky.

Its vast, pale red shape was surging and churning through the sand, huge and fast and impossibly fucking large. Imp felt his own heart rate skyrocket.

He was out of harm's way, but Kalama-? "Don't move don't move DON'TMOVE let it pass!"

Imp was seeing pretty damn well, for a blind guy.

Imp is following Kalama, whichever way she chooses to go (I think forward). He is staying with her (not moving ahead of her).