Amber was not having a good day.

It started as most days did, stepping through the overgrown tunnel she’d walked countless times, feeling the earth below her churn with every passing footstep and revelling in the scent rising to her senses. It was an onslaught to them all, but a pleasant one, at least.

And then she found that rock. It was just a little thing, but it shimmered so nicely, like a black piece of glass- she wanted it. Was it a hunk of obsidian, maybe? She had to get closer, and so she had wormed herself into the little crevice where the strain weaved through glowing green.

And then, after inspecting it, she found her shoulders had gotten stuck.

It wasn’t anything new, but this time there was that obsidian, visible from the inside as she twisted her head around and scraped her horns against it. A wince came at that- while she didn’t feel it on her skull, she certainly didn’t want to harm the nice place she’d found, even if it was too small for her. There weren’t any orders to destroy it, so why should she this time?

She huffed, her chest compressing on either side as she tried to recollect how she even got in there. One leg over, and a pop and her shoulders had slotted into place- she figured she could just come back out, right, but with the rock so nice on this side she just couldn’t bring herself to damage it. Oh, the curse of appreciation!

A growl rose in her throat as she contorted her thick body this way and that. Her arm just couldn’t reach back like how she entered, she couldn’t get her shoulders to squeeze in enough like the crevice required, and she couldn't twist her head sideways like she had to enter without eyes on the back of her head. Eventually, she ended upside down with her belly to the air, half her forepaws stuck out against either side of the walls. She was trapped. She had to break out and damage the obsidian, and it had to be broken and shattered for her to emerge, but she cringed at the thought of even testing it. Why did she have to have such a heart for rocks? It wasn’t like she hadn’t cut through countless strains just like this before.

She sighed, her legs going limp as she let herself regain a little of that strength that she expended as she auditioned to become Origin’s next contortionist. Maybe she could just appreciate the situation she got herself in, if not for a few minutes, right?

@Fable

Fable was having a great day.

This tunnel had been kinder to her-- the small nooks that mice liked to hide in were too small for them to fit-- the rest, Fable could wiggle into herself, and she had caught plenty of mice today. It was nice to just eat even long after her belly was full, and for a time, she slept comfortably in a moss nest with her limbs curled up into herself.

When she awoke, it was to heavy footsteps. Her eyes split open into narrow slits and she started out into the dimly-lit cave, waiting for them to approach and walk past-- but they never did. They stopped, abruptly, and she heard the slight shove of skin on rock-- and then that stopped, too.

Slowly, Fable's head lifted. Logic (and laziness) told her to leave it, and that it wasn't worth investigating. Childlike curiosity bit at her limbs on the other hand, until the physical act of doing nothing was painful and aching and the sphinx was pushing up to peer past the wall.

And she saw someone's ass.

Okay. Weird.

The someone seemed to twist and yank-- they were stuck??? --backwards until they just stopped completely, with their entire lower half sticking out of an alcove in the caves. For a moment, Fable wondered if she had hallucinated it-- maybe there had been something bad in the rats, or maybe she'd just eaten too much in general.

But then, she was creeping forward, quietly, her fingers seeping into the soil underneath.

It was big. Kerberos-big. Five or six feet bigger than she was, in fact-- but surely it could have just broken out of there? It seemed strong enough. Even from back here, Fable could see massive, rippling shoulders and mole-like claws.

Very sharp, mole-like claws. But this did not stop her from committing to her new plan of action.

The cub crept right up behind the amber creature until she was in range and her body dipped very low, close to the ground. Her weight shifted back into her hind legs, and then-- "AAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" She screamed, and she went leaping through the air and latched onto Amber's haunches.

Because scaring an eight-foot-tall creature out of a rock is exactly what you should be doing with your day.

@Amber

Amber could feel her breathing get a little stuffy in this alcove, but she was fine. This was fine. Being compressed wasn't all that bad, actually.

There was the fact that she could barely breathe, but she could handle that.

Until something- or someone decided she had enough of handling it. With a guttural yelp as pinpricks dug into her, she launched one hoof-ish foot up to the sky, body in full alert as she rolled away from whatever the hell had just latched onto her. Her sternum hit hard rock- and wind whuffed out of her in a hard breath as she recoiled and flexed her back against the other wall.

"Hey!" She barked quickly, trying to draw more of herself into the cave she was stuck in. "Off!"

She kicked her leg a bit more in emphasis. Panic flushed through her- she couldn't see what'd latched on, even as she twisted again to try and take in anything about her attacker. Her horns were just not built for backing up like this!

@Fable

"AAAHHHHHHHHHH!!" Fable continued to scream, because at which point when a gigantic creature is trying to buck you off its butt do you stop screaming?

Fable sure as hell didn't know, and when it started kicking and shouting and telling her to get off, Fable only felt the urge to grip harder. Pinprick claws when gripping into Amber's sides, leaving thin marks and drawing small droplets of blood.

She breathed heavily, air hissing loudly through her teeth, but galliantly, heroically, the sphinx held on, still screaming, and partially, just a little bit, starting to tear up as the creature swung her around.

"Just get OUT OF THERE???" Fable yowled in the meanwhile, hind paws scrambling at Amber's meaty thigh to try to keep herself attached on.

@Amber

At the attacker's scream, she screamed back, although a bit more like a freight train than the hiss-cry of a little lion cub.

Y'know, just a normal day in the caves.

Amber roared harder with an open-mouthed growl when the pain grew, leg spasming this way and that. "I'm TRYING!" Not that someone attacking her was going to help in these matters.

Well. One quick, snapshot goodbye to the obsidian as she jerked her elbow back, bashing it into the fragile rock and curling up to the side. A spray of black shards rained down on the two of them- Amber winced as they bounced on her body, briefly, as she twisted with momentum to try and roll the creature off.

She could see it- her, now, and she growled as she tried to plant her front legs on the ground. It was small, and obviously sentient, so why did it decide to attack?! "Are you happy?" She huffed out. There was anger there, yes, but her voice carried disappointment in particular- a level of sulking at destroying the alcove she'd found herself half-sequestered in. Despite this, it came out as rough as ever, underlaid by a growl and a spiking of her back.

Such a shame about the rock, but, right now, she had more pressing matters to deal with.

@Fable

"Well try HARDER," Fable snarled back-- but it sounded more like the furious squeak of someone who was only two weeks old and thought attacking someone was a good way to rile them out of a cave.

Which, it had worked, so maybe Fable was onto something.

Another furious, hysterical noise left her throat as the rocks fell around her and the released creature-- bits of pointed rock fell and buried themselves into her heavy shoulders, scraping deep enough that they left little golden cuts behind.

The cub growled and she thrashed herself out of the rockfall and Amber, leaping herself unsteadily to the side to start padding at the seeping, yellow blood spilling from the cuts left behind. They stung, a little painfully, but it didn't seem too bad, from what Fable could gauge with no experience.

Her eyes flicked back to Amber, after a moment, and she puffed her chest out to (unsuccessfully) look menacing. "I helped you!" She insisted, loudly, sitting down and curling her tail up around herself. "I'm very happy."

She didn't sound it, though-- but this was exactly where Fable left it, opting instead to study Amber up and down. "Why'd you get stuck in there?" She asked.

@Amber