Sorda found herself at the front of the pack, that is, until a weird rabbit-thing sprinted right out of nowhere and took the lead. Oh, it was ON. She didnt say anything, though, unlike the rather loud chicken nearby. She just focused on the path ahead of her

The ice and slime gave way to… hairballs? She didnt want to step anywhere near those, even if there hadn't been sparks flying off some of the slimy wads. Eww... who had even thought up of this?

She slowed down in order to not accidentally step on the slimy, shocky blobs. She briefly glance behind and saw Tupu running, beginning to catch up. She quickly turned her attention back to the race. Tupu would be fine on her own, right?

coding by wulf for template purposes

Tahi-shei flailed a little bit on the ice. He absolutely did not have the feet requisite for this task, and was already falling behind! Still... perhaps the electro-balls in the next section would slow everyone else down long enough for him to pull ahead, since he already knew where they were and hopefully, the others would spring the one-time traps before he could trip into them. Tahi-shei tried to get himself to his feet at the base of the hill, thankful that the ice was... mostly gone.

Unfortunately, he was a deer. Deer did not, in fact, have the sort of hooves required for getting up on ice. In fact, it was almost totally impossible for him to stand with the last bits of ice underneath him, and so he was left having to lamely scoot forward on his belly (very slowly, mind you) towards solid rock so he could actually get his feet underneath him. Embarrassing! Then again, he hadn't been expecting to do awfully well in the obstacle course anyway. This was mostly just for fun.

The Trials prepared something for anything: Eyehooks, sucking sand, chaotic shadows - not a minefield of hairballs that apparently shocked all those unfortunate to touch them. Hemlocke mourned the stipulation against wings in this section, because it'd much prefer to flap over it than risk sliding through any of that. It'd been brutalized more than once and taken it in stride (as much as a fundamentally prey animal could) but spit-laden balls of fur?

Absolutely not.

Ruby-red eyes squinted, and its face crinkled into a harsh grimace as it tried to traipse over the smooth ground, fixing pointedly on it and where it was going.

Ghostly little eyes shook as Hunter offered a hand. Crown sniffed, swallowed (a sad little attempt at keeping the crocodile tears from spilling over his scraped knees) and awkwardly mouthed it. Hauled up onto solid ground, it was... time to take another stab at it. The tall-hybrid was still slipping and sliding all over, calling to the medics that he was fine and -

- and there were already others so far ahead.

The lamb took a shaky breath, and carefully slow steps in the direction the runners had gone. It helped, a little, to stare at the baubles lining the trail. It was something to focus on with his snail's pace shuffling along.

Except, he well and truly ate it. Wobbly knees and teary eyes weren't a good mix, and he wound up finding out which wins in a contest of tooth and gem. A canine chipped, and blood immediately flooded his mouth. Crown gave a doglike whine and spat it out as fast as it bled.

[Origin Cave]

Round Three has begun!

... ouch

The group spreads out more as they cross Madhukar's electrifying hot-coal walk.

All of those head have... quite a tall order ahead of them: a roaring column of fire several feet high. There might be some nooks and crannies to weave through if anyone's too small to jump, but... well, you can fly once (1).

Svartis is on fire extinguisher standby to put any poor folks out!

Current Sections

1. Slip and slide! Tahi-shei, Crown, Hunter

2. Um... electrifying. Lady, Tupu, Pumpkin, Bug

3. It's just fire. Yew, Ruby-Beta, Hemlocke, Sorda, Ivory, Doug, Kalama, Sniffles, Sharp, Huckleberry

For your point-tallying convenience, here's a link to a Google Sheets detailing rolls on the current section and who we're waiting on!

@Hemlocke (Crown) @Bug (Ivory) @Tahi-Shei @Kalama (Tupu) @Yew (Lady) @Sniffles @Hunter @Sharp @Sorda (Doug) @Pumpkin

tw here, folks! tahi dislocates up his shoulder :(



Tahi-shei tried to get back to his hooves, but he was pretty sure that he was mostly providing entertainment to anyone watching over the obstacle course. He felt absolutely ridiculous, squirming towards more stable ground and trying not to break one of his legs. Why did ice have to suck so badly? Tahi-shei swore to himself that he was never going to go on ice again unless he absolutely had to. This was awful!

Speak of the devil. Tahi finally managed to gain purchase on a stone and pull himself up... only to lose his footing and slam into the ground with his full weight on one of his shoulder. He heard an unpleasant pop and thought dimly, I might have broken my leg, before the pain hit. Tahi-shei screamed, sounding remarkably similar to how he'd wailed when Orthoclase-Alpha had nearly killed him.

He shifted onto his stomach as the scream petered out into a whimper, noticing the awkward angle at which his shoulder was hanging. A joint and not a bone, at least, but his mind was fuzzy with the pain of it and most of his body was shaking. He could move the leg still, it just hurt so bad oh my Stars no, no, no more--

Tahi let out another stifled sob. He was desperate for someone to help.

Hunter was covered head to toe in scrapes and scratches by this point, as he scrambled over the last third of... well, the first part of the race. He wasn't worried, though, even though there was a lot left to go. He heard a whimper behind him, and spun around to see what had happened. "Are you okay?!" He yelped, trotting backwards (a good way to fall on his butt again, but shh!)

"Don't give up!" He called back to Crown. "We can still finish the race!" But-- oh, they were bleeding, weren't they? The metallic taste in the air sent a shiver up Hunter's spine as he passed a deer who had fallen. Okay, maybe he should leave this stuff to the medics. Shoot. I'll see you at the finish line, I swear," he mentally promised the two that had fallen behind, spinning on his heels.

He stumbled over a few more places, but finally, he bolted out of the first section of the race and into the real deal. Hairballs and goop, watch out! Hunter was about to blow this race out of the water!

Sniffles made it passed the zappy balls of hair! Woo! They kept slithering, surprised their very long body hadn't hit one of them on accident. But anything to live passed one of those shocks! They didn't want anything to do with those electric things.

As they moved, they came upon a rather... Large wall of fire. Sniffles, did not like that. They couldn't jump or fly, so they were left to find a dip in the fire somewhere. If their goop caught aflame... It would lead right back to the snake and engulf them. Which. Would most likely kill them. Not good.

Doug paused right in his tracks upon being confronted by the huge column of roaring flames. He's never encountered fire, but the sight of the dancing flames and the scorching heat on his fur was enough to strike fear in him. He was so scared he considered running away and forfeiting the race. He had to win, or at least try to win. The angry fluff was watching, after all!

He spotted a gap in the flames just big enough for him to squeeze through if he was quick. He was much too small to jump over, so this was his best bet. He took a deep breath. One… two… three… Go!

Fueled by the absolute terror of getting caught by fire, Doug sprinted through the small gap in the fire. Flames briefly licked at his fur, scorching parts of the golden yellow a sooty black, but he managed to emerge mostly unscathed.

Kalama managed to avoid most of the hairballs. It was gross. They were all slimy and crackly. As she passed the minefield, she was met with another sight. A tower of flame, blazing in strength and stretching high. She nearly faltered. Her beak was agape. Who put this in here? Whatever, she could get through it fast and easy. Kalama wasn't gonna fit in any holes within the kindling. But she could fly. Not well, but it was possible. With a crouch, Kalama prepared to sail over the tower of flames.

And immediately got a face full of flames. She clucked in terror, legs working to attack the fire. Forward momentum lost, she fell unceremoniously to the ground. Her feathers were still on fire. Panicked, Kalama rolled to her feet. Screeching and running in circles, flames crackling at her back.
think "speak"