"No, this way!" Pip said. She stuck one of her raptorial forelegs into the nose of Tupu, directing the bleating antelope the correct way. She'd nearly walked past the tunnel, following a rat that moved off the path. Pip had heard rumors of the Olympics, it sounded fun! The obstacle course was said to take place in Tunnel M and ooh, she had to help! She could help! Pip was very useful! She'd gotten instructions to the tunnel from a neighboring gembound. In fact, she'd been on her way to Tunnel M, when she ran into a pack of red rats.

The rats that had, of course, thought she was a snack. Luckily for her, they were the rats that Tupu had made her herd. She'd been fast enough to hop onto the back of Tupu. She was pretty sure if she hopped off she'd have been dinner. And she didn't like that. For obvious reasons. It was faster getting to Tunnel M this way, anyways!

Tupu trotted into the tunnel, eyes blank as always. Pip watched her surroundings, curious. The tunnel looked like...an average tunnel. No markers or any such thing.

"Wheres the fire to leap over? The tar pits? I thought there were others here." Pip thought for a moment. "Ohh! Big brown cat tree--can I call you that? We're the first ones here! We get to MAKE the obstacle course."

Pip rubbed her two toed hands together in anticipation. Tupu was silent below her, chewing cud. "I know what I want to do! I'm going to make this the coolest, most awesomest Obstacle course ever!" Pip paused to crawl upon Tupu's ear. A rat was trying to sniff at her.

"Go away," she said, shooing with her forelimbs. She shook her abdomen, but there was no pleasing tinkle, just a dull barely audible thunk, as if she was a held bell.

"Hello!" She called, as a last resort. "Anyone coming to help setup the obstacle course?"

James, thankfully, had already been on his way. He trotted along through the tunnel, his hoove clip-clopping against the stone. He was nearly fully grown by now, his baby fur shedding and his mane and tail growing longer (though, thanks to Ari's grooming, not tangled). He stopped when he heard a voice, nearly too faint to hear. The horse picked up the pace and came into view of Pip and Tupu, his ears up.

"Ah... I'm not late, am I?" he asked, ears perked forward and tail swishing back and forth, "I'm excited for this- I hope it's a lot less... dangerous this time around."

Hopefully, no one nearly got eaten by a hoard of Batcat Jr.'s. He shuddered at the thought before stepping forward.

"But an obstacle course? That sounds fun. If we're building it... I can provide markers for each- er, section. I can make rocks glow and we can put them on sticks or hang them, possibly," he said, a bit anxious as he shifted from foot to foot.

Madhukar had been in Orion, and she'd decided to explore yet another tunnel. They could lead to some interesting places. That is, if you could get through them. Madhukar wasn't sure that she could get through this one here. The farther she went, the colder it got, and her little paws did not like that one bit. She much prefered the climate where the bug homes were. This coldness was both like and unlike her birthplace in all the wrong ways.

Voices caught her attention, though. Words about an "obstacle course". Hm... what was that? The kitten decided to investigate.

"Whutz an obstacle course?" she mewed towards... whoever was talking. Whatever they were. She padded up to the creatures, but not too close. She was just here for the information. Maybe. If there was something else interesting to do, she'd be there for that as well.

"Oh! Hello big brown thing!" Pip greeted, with the wiggle of her abdomen.

"Second big brown thing! Cat thing!" She corrected herself. The red rats lost interest when James arrived. They scattered quickly, slinking into holes or fleeing the cave. And with Madhukar's arrival they weren't likely to return for a bit. Pip's laugh tinkled as she watched them flee.

"Yeah! Run dumb red-cat things!" She shook, like a cat about to pounce, and fluttered down to a rock. Tupu's ear flicked absently.

"Hello, hello! I am Pip! I don't know what that thing is called-" She gestured to Tupu with a limb. "-it doesn't talk! It had a buncha weird smelly rats around it though! You're not late, big brown thingy! I think! Theres nothing here."

Pip wiggled excitedly at James' idea.

"Yes! Yes that sounds good! Make them very bright!" Pip gasped. "Make them bright and make them blink like you wet eyes do! I'm gonna make a fire jump."

She said, proud of the fact. Even though her managing to drag enough firewood, let alone light it was little more than a pipe dream. Another arrived, and Pip hopped in place.

"Ooh!" She said, excited to explain to Madhukar. "Hello white cat thing! I was told by a big gembound an obstacle course was a thing where you."

She hummed in thought. "You jump and run around obstacles! Things that are very big and hard to move around! Which are things like trees and rocks I think!" Didn't that mean everyone here was an obstacle then?

"And fire! Fire and tar can be obstacles! Very good obstacles." She nodded.

Tupu had followed Pip, absentmindedly. She hadn't really even realized the tiny voice was someone speaking. Nor had she realized that the sharp stings when she walked a certain way were anything but fly stings. She flicked her ears quietly, trying to rid herself of the parasites. The cud she chewed was grass flavored. Her favorite.

Another sting, and she drifted into the tunnel. Her fellow short red gerenuks followed, until they didnt. The rats scattered, and Tupu spat in shock. They were all worming into cracks, fleeing away from her and the tiny voice. Tupu's head swiveled around, watching in confusion and horror. She didn't know whether to follow or freeze.

She chose freeze. She stood still as a board. Waiting for the others to pass by, or leave her alone. They didnt leave. It was a big, dark one that looked like it also ate grass. Also known as the horse James. And a short one with brown fur and a long tail. Madhukar in Tupu speech. Tupu watched, blinking as they used the Forbidden thing known as Speech. Tupu didn't understand all of it, but she didn't understand much of anything.

"SNACC." She screamed. Tupu drifted closer to James. James ate grass. James was gerenuk. Short red rat herd was gone. Tupu stick with new herd. She turned her head to the ground, and began looking for grass to graze on.


((OOC note: Tupu will follow and assist literally whoever chooses her. She can grab rocks and plants real good. complex tasks she can try but.))

James was a bit disgruntled to find out he was the most mature out of everyone there. At least linguistically.

He cleared his throat and smiled gently, "Hello- er, if you're looking for a snack, I think I brought some fruit."

The stallion dipped his head to nose through the weird net around his neck, filled with various items, mostly rocks. He pulled out an apple and set it down in front of Tupu before starting to pull out rocks to set them down a few feet away.

"I believe that an obstacle course is something to test your agility- or how fast you can get around things. Like if there's a low branch, you have to choose to go under or over. Things like that. Challenges that make you think," he said, and felt deep within to try and light up the first rock.

James huffed happily as the rock lit up. He nudged it over to create a new pile and looked up, "Is this good?"

Tahi had trailed after James after hearing that the horse was going to investigate the site of the obstacle course. However, his legs were shorter and he'd left later than James had (after all, it was just in the tunnel right outside Orion -- not exactly a lengthy journey) so he was arriving a little late to the party. However, as the fawn tumbled into the tunnel, he took distinct notice of its chill and wished for a moment he'd stuck to just the magic section. He took stock of the situation here -- there was the kitten he'd met in Orion previously, and James. Then there were two creatures he didn't recognize -- some kind of little purple bug he'd have sworn was a Lesser and something that looked quite a lot like a tunnel runner, but was deer-shaped enough for him to smile at.

"Oh, we have to set it up?" he asked absent-mindedly. "Perhaps we should make them weave through a field of mushrooms or something. Or maybe put some of this ice all over the floor..." Not that he had any ideas for doing that, but the mushroom thing he could probably handle. Tahi-shei was mostly trying to impress the older gembound, though at a glance it seemed like that was barely true. James seemed to be among the oldest here, and he wasn't all that much older than Tahi-shei.

The uh, small green thing? It referred to her as a "white cat thing", which was silly because there was no white on her and she was entirely a cat, not a "cat thing"-- but anyways, this green one said an "obstacle course" was where you ran around big things like trees and rocks, or fire and tar. Another creature simply said "snack" and yet another (one whose speaking abilities Madhukar much preferred) described it as a test of agility; how fast one could get around stuff. Presumably stuff like what the little green one was talking about.

Hm. Well. That was... well, it was... how to put this? Annoying? But in a very specific way. It was interesting... really quite interesting actually. But it kind of got in the way, didn't it? Wait. Did it? In terms of time, it seemed like a waste, but perhaps she could have fun AND be efficient. At the same time! This didn't have to be a project; it could be a PART of a project!

Multitasking!

Madhukar had a bit of an idea. She knew it could work in her favor sometimes-- okay, maybe actually like once. But it could be fun and a good test of her own skill if it worked.

The kitten went over to just... a random spot. Anywhere in the path would do. She stared at it, rather intently -- not at anything in particular, just the floor -- and thought about embarrassing herself and being pushed in the water. And when the bile started trying to rise in her throat, she let it happen.

And soon enough, with a surprising lack of difficulty, and a whole lot of pride swelling in Madhukar for being able to direct this chaotic ability rather than choke it out (it wasn't complete control but BABY STEPS!), the kitten had spat out a wad of charged bile on the ground. "No touch!" she warned (because then if they did touch, she wouldn't be the one at fault). "It hurts."

She looked around, wondering what to do next.

@Pip @Tupu @James
@Tahi-shei

"Yes! Yes that is a good way to say it big brown thing!" Not tree, she remembered this time. She was curious about the pouch on James' neck. Pip had half a mind to ask about it, and how she could get one, when another gembound arrived. There were many here! Pip liked many gembound. This one seemed similar to the deer that could not talk.

But this one, clearly, could talk. And looked much less stretched out. She gave one short hop of excitement before replying.

"Yes! A field of sticky dangerous mushrooms! And ice fields! Ice mushrooms that freeze you!" She wriggled. It was unlikely ice mushrooms existed, but Pip enjoyed the idea enough.

"Yes! That is good, I think." She touched a forelimb to her mouth, and began to groom. She hadn't done this before, and she wasn't sure what was to be expected. But surely this was all a step in the right direction! Her moment of musing ended quickly. The light of the baubled item desttoyed her train of thought.

She watched James work flicking her abdomen once or twice in excitement. She touched a paw to the stone. Madhukar's electrobile has the same effect, and Pip would have touched it as well, save for the warning. She liked these gembound and their (comparatively) strong powers. Much of the gembound Pip had met had powers as such. Pip had to work too!


"I will go make my fire pile!" She said.

Pip scurried off, deeper into the tunnel, in search of sticks. She didnt have to go far. Perhaphs by luck, or an old abandoned trap, there was a giant collection of sticks. A pile of them. Just...laying in the center of the tunnel. Well that took care of her having to look for them. She hopped to the top of the pile with a flutter of wings. Tilted her head.

"Hey!" She called, back up the entrance. "I found my sticks!"

"Oh- if you make more of that, we could spread it out along the ground and make an invisible maze. Mostly- but yes. It would test gembounds' problem-solving skills and allow them to figure out how to use their minds rather than their bodies," James said to Madhukar, pointing with a hoof at the bile.

He watched Pip run off and started to make more baubles to use as markers.

"If you can make a small section of mushrooms, some too thick to weave through, some tall, some short, some sparse, then it could be an agility test. Gembounds will have to squeeze through, jump over, or duck to get by."