While she was visiting tunnels, Madhukar decided to try another one that branched off from the place where she kept meeting the wiggler. This one was not like the one where the "obstacle course" was being made. No, not at all. That one had been cold, and full of creatures, and this one... had a big oddball monster made out of the stone. Madhukar easily slipped by the inanimate sentinel, wandering somewhat further into the tunnel. It was smooth, with some strange entities carved into the ceiling. It was desperately in need of a buzzing, as was... pretty much every place Madhukar had visited. But could it support the plants that the bugs liked was the question. Madhukar didn't know anything about plants, so she figured it could. Maybe it just didn't because.... it was.... dumb.

There were things scattered all around the tunnel. It was kind of a mess. Maybe the bugs would like all the things. Maybe Madhukar would like some of the things. She looked around, prodding at a few objects, searching out one that could catch her attention...

And she came up mostly empty. Everything here was rather dejected in quality, rusted to smithereens and broken by little fragments of time. The lack of any soothing sounds, or any soothing climate, or anything at all made Madhukar kind of upset. Was there nothing here of interest, nothing at all?! She needed the bugs, she should return to them soon lest her head blow off her shoulders.

Hastily, she wandered further down the tunnel, wanting to be at the end of it so she could go back up as fast as possible, and at one point she came to a steep incline. Except she didn't notice the steep incline, or the strange different in the shape of the floor once it reached that incline. So she tripped and fell.

She was lucky her neck hadn't landed on the rim of a stair. Instead, her chin took that blow, and it hurt. She was already rather covered, head to toe, in a few injuries. She was a reckless kind of kitten. This certainly wouldn't help!! Angrily, the disgruntled kitten scrambled to rise to her paws. Stupid carved floor!! Who ever thought of putting you HERE, of ALL PLACES, in the MIDDLE OF THE WALKWAY?! She stomped as hard as she could down the rest of the stairs, trying to really make the ground feel her ire. And at the end, perhaps out of fear, lay a gift.

It was a sad one, laying like a useless squiggle on the floor. A chord of leather, that might've been pretty once, before it was covered in dust and snapped at the clasp. It looked worn, worse for wear. Madhukar wasn't even sure she wanted to care about it, but before she could jump to her decision, a memory flashed in her head. The bugs, the pretty catch they'd helped her find. The tail of it she'd taken. It needed a place, didn't it? Somewhere that wasn't constantly having to be dug up, moved, and then buried?

Maybe she could find a better one of these things. An idea was forming in her mind.

She began to look around the bottom of this staircase, prodding and brushing dirt off of a few specimens. And she found ab-solute-ly NOTHING. She found nothing so hard, she ended up tripping over some object stuck in the ground that she had failed to notice, and fell on her chin. AGAIN. OW!!!!

A yowl let loose, echoing through the tunnel. Was no one else here?! Madhukar could see why! She ought to get going as well. Back to the bug place. BACK TO THE BUG PLACE! SHE NEEDED THE BUGS!!!!

Her chin hurt, a LOT. Her muzzle, her paws, everything! Dear goodness she needed to rest. This sucked! She wanted to go back and calm down! She wanted to be with the bugs again and not the weird goopies or the uncontrollable magic! Away from brats, away from silence, away from EVERYTHING!!!

She raced up the staircase, deciding to nab that chord as she went. She was OUTTA HERE!

Well, as outta here as she could be. She was also tired. Maybe she'd lay down for a bit and just... not do anything stupid for a while.

((NOT EXITING YET YOU HAVE TO DO MORE YSP YOU GOTTA))
((+1 flimsy broken-clasped leather chord to Inventory))

As she laid there, she began to focus on her paws. Maybe... maybe she could make something happen. Every bit of an attempt to control what was going on with her abilities might be helping. Who knew? Maybe this would be another time when she could control it. When she could make something happen because she wanted it to. Maybe this was just her searching for something to stave off the boredom, or a way of getting back at the ground for punishing her just for being here.

She tried to make her own magic flair. To give it a path, a direction.

And it happened!!! A spark, small but visible, lept between a few hairs on her paws. Her tail twitched and her whiskers quivered. Had that been her?! Had she done that?! That flash; that was hers, she had made it!! WITH HER MIND!!!!

The kitten's confidence in her control over her own abilities rose like a balloon filled with hot air. Her conscious brain, NOT her emotions, had made that spark! She could almost control where it WENT! Almost entirely!! It was exhilarating, to feel such power over herself. While she was resting, Madhukar simply had to try again. Maybe this time, with a BANG!

She stared at the ceiling above her, the gaze of beasts hanging down and clinging to her pelt without ever even really touching it. She didn't want to have to be angry at them, but alas, her heart couldn't be stopped. They just looked to goofy, it was upsetting! Madhukar didn't want to cede control to her wrath again, but that part of her would take more than a lesson in magic to solve.

So a tiny puff of a boom happened, probably only audible to the kitten herself, right above her head. Barely even an echo. Part of it was her emotions leaking out, and another part her trying to make it happen by thought rather than instinct. And maybe it was the war between those two that had confused the little puff and fizzled it out somehow. Perhaps, but who actually knew?

All Madhukar knew in this instance was that she might want to stick to something a bit smaller. More visible. Less... hard to predict. She focused back on her paws again. All she thought about was that tiny little zippity zap, darting between points on her paw -- points she could SEE! She wanted to see it again. She wanted her mind to create that for her, without having to force those terrible thoughts of the brat or the water or the goopy ones again.

It was faint, this time. The lightest flash Madhukar had ever seen. She actually had to strain her eyes to see it, and she definitely couldn't feel it no matter WHAT she tried. But she could control it, almost. She traced a path for it to go with her eyes: wrist, to paw, to toe -- simple, right? But at the last jump, the toe, she lost it, and out it went.

ARGH!!

Now look, Madhukar could be pretty... silly at times, but she was no idiot. She knew trying her luck wasn't doing much for her right now. Her chin felt badly bruised, and her past bruise from meeting the not-shroom had not yet faded, and in general, she felt HURTY! TIRED! A little, just a tad PECKISH! But...

Madhukar was a stubborn lil' thing, and she wasn't giving up now. She was so focused, so hungry for that control. So she strained her eyes, and flexed her claws, put on her poutiest face, and willed her spell to do it right.

And it DIDN'T!!!!

It was SO simple. A hop, skip, and a JUMP! But it would never JUMP!!!

MMMMmMmMMmMMMmmmmm.... FINE THEN! IF IT WASN'T GONNA JUMP, MADHUKAR WAS GONNA DO THAT INSTEAD!!!

Misdirected force of will redirected its course and made impact in the kitten's feisty little paws. She shot up right quick and stormed her way out of this STUPID tunnel and its STUPID junk scattered everywhere and she was gonna take this FLOPPY LITTLE CHORD and her FLOPPY LITTLE MAGIC with her!!

GOOD. DAY!!!

- exit via angery -