This was fun, and Bug was finding a tiny little competitive heart in her little dog-sized-cat-body. Ember eyes were bright and excited, wings threatening to lift (and then closing again as she got control of herself) on her back again and again. Over-long claws gripped the ice, and at last--she was over.

Now there were--hair... balls? -Ahead, and she wasn't too sure about that but she figured she probably shouldn't touch them. She sped up, squeaking with delight, sprinting for all she was worth through the furry minefield.

Bug had never had experiences before to teach her to pace herself, and she wasn't about to learn that lesson now. Not yet, anyway.

ZZAAAAP. Foot hit fur. Black cat-dragon went skyward--not flight, but a leap worthy of the best cucumber-cats. A startled yowl, and in that time who knew how many would be able to rush past her--she landed surprised, struggling to get her footing and get back in the race.

Ivory clattered along, a barreling beast of white, wondering why exactly she'd chosen to get herself into this. It was fun, sure, but chaotic, her usually-loner senses a little overwhelmed by the chaos all around her.

She wondered, briefly, where (and how!) Virgil was; but right now she had to focus.

As it turned out Ivory was very good at running (all that practice from Hydra, maybe...) and she barreled right past the hairballs. Some were shunted out of her way purely by the wake of air pushed before her-... Perhaps following in her footsteps would be one tactic the others could use.

Whoo! Sniffles was able to get passed the slippery!! As they came darting to the next area - their sets of eyes were feasted on... Whatever that was. Nasty little hairballs that looked like they had a shock inside (kinda reminded the snake of small thing!!) They moved to slither within that area - only one way to go! They had to get through somehow! Which was... Only by going forward.

So they did. At least they tried. If they touched one of those nasty things they would surely be in for a shock!

'Let's go let's go let's goooo!'

Short legs scrabbled rapidly, dull claws desperately trying to gain traction on the ice, until finally, still slipping and stumbling and sliding on new legs, the puppy managed to find her feet and take off with an excited "Awwoooo!"

Electric furballs - why?! But Yew had dealt with more disgusting things, so she just tucked her wings in as close as they'd go and bolted for the minefield, bounding through it with little more than some feathers that sparked to show for it, fighting the urge to look for Merucurius -

'Uncle Mercy, are you watching me?'

[Madhukar is spectating]

The kitten had had her eyes trained on the faces she was surprisingly familiar with. Sniffles, the wiggler, Tahi-shei... two seemed to be doing okay, but one was lagging behind. She felt bad for Tahi. She was kind of rooting for him-- one tended to root for the most familiar faces. She was also wanting Sniffles and the wiggler to do well for that same reason, but honestly watching them trip over themselves sounded like a fun experience. Oh, and she caught the wiggler's giant grin at her.

She um... didn't know how to feel about it. But she wasn't going to wipe her own grin off her face just yet, so she supposed the wiggler could have that. As a treat.

Fast forward to the next stage, and we find Madhukar having the time of her LIFE.

She watched with baited breath, the ominous promise of a storm of laughter to come, as the runners came to her section of the course (at this point her eyes had lost the three faces they'd originally been following). If she'd been running this, she would've rather broken the rules and floated above it all, if she'd been able to. Maybe that was just personal preference, or maybe it was personal experience. Didn't look like many of these suckers had experience in this field.

HAHAHA!!!

Two stumbled, one leapt into the air, it was MARVELOUS! Certainly more and more reactions would come that would simply make her day!

Or so she thought until she remembered the familiar faces on the course.

She scanned around for them, remembering that Tahi lagged while the other two were still going. And her brain and her heart... did two very conflicting things.

Her brain began imagining the two goopiest ones struggling through her landmine maze, tripping and falling and feeling the remnants of buzzing ire. And it was satisfying. Funny, even. It made the corners of her lips flicker up in a smile.

But her heart... no. Her heart must've been laughing! That was it, surely! Surely it wasn't racing along with those two, hoping they did well. Especially not Sniffles, who bugged her to no end, right?! RIGHT?!? Oh gosh was that Sniffles down there right there was Sniffles making it out what was happening--

Sniffles appeared to be doing... almost annoyingly fine. A begrudging sigh of both relief and annoyance escaped Madhukar. She hadn't even realized she'd been holding her breath. AGAIN, WHATEVER! Madhukar glared at her left paw and traced a path... ready, aim... BZZZT, it followed the path. Brief, strong. Not a single fizzle. That's right, Madhukar, control, control! You are in control.

At least the two parts of her could agree: her eyes simply must remain fixed to this show!

It moved ahead some of the others that were falling behind, tail streaming behind it as it ran, clawing over the slippery surface. Now it was time for...hairballs? Strange. It glanced over at some of the other competitors and watched a cat jump straight up in the air after touching one. Did they make you jump? Or cause pain? Hm, okay. So don't touch them.

Beta, agile as it was, easily wound its way across the field of hairballs, not a single claw touching a single hair. It could feel the static in the air as it wound its way through - so electricity was the problem - but it didn't get held up for anything and quickly cleared the field of hairballs.

Huckleberry glanced behind him briefly, at the gembounds falling behind. He breathed a small sigh of relief before turning back. He wasn't in the last few places - no, he could keep going! Would he win? Maybe not, he was behind a lot of the others, but he'd do his best regardless.

He wanted very much to just spread open his wings and go flying over the field of electric hairballs, but he knew it wasn't allowed - that would be a straight trip off the obstacle course. So, instead, he did his best to be agile, carefully making his way through, perhaps sacrificing a bit of time for care, but it was better to be safe then sorry, right?

the   thorn produces delicate roses
sharp

One section down, four more to go. The ice underneath Sharp's claws slowly thinned until it was nothing but mildly slick rock. She smiled, a little, toothy reptilian grin. She did it! Not all of it, but some of it. There were some charging ahead of her-- a black-red-feather-friend, a weird-white-horn-wing-friend, and even a black-wing-beak-friend. So many new friends!

She charged on in her goofy lizard sprint when-- 'What's that?' ... Furballs? Sparky ones too, like the magic she could control. That was strange, to say the least. But no matter! Sharp is good! Sharp impress everyone! She slowed down a tad and raised her tiny feet high, trying to keep off from the electrifying masses.

She did good! A quick skitter through, and Sharp was waddling past without a single zap.

♠ ♥ ♣ ♦

Doug got to the next section of the race with no (well, maybe a few) problems. The ground was much less slippery, which was good. He hated slipping and sliding across the ice!

Some weird slimy sparky things on the ground intrigued him, but the other racer's reactions to touching them, and his own desire to win kept him from investigating further. Whatever they were, it seemed like it hurt to touch them!

Run, run, RUN! That's how you won races, right? Trying to go around the many slimy landmines, Doug continued running as fast as he could, still smiling all the while. A big white creature with wings was running SUPER fast, even faster than him! The path they left behind only had a few hairballs left, so he ran behind them, not having to worry much about being careful, just about running fast, just like how he liked it!