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@ariella-newheart @anne_the_noob14 @christlover @elisha-starquill

I’m back! xD Sorry it took so long, here’s what Runawin was up to while everyone was eating…

***

Runawin ducked into the tunnel, her jaws stretched into a smile at the sight of the warm firelight. But as she took another stride onto the shadowed tunnel floor, her paws met air. She lurched downward, choking out a yelp. Wind slithered through her fur. She flailed and her paws struck dirt, but her fall didn’t slow until she broke into a dimly lit room. The ground raced up to meet her. Runawin clenched her jaw, bracing herself for the pain, but her body thumped gently to the floor. She blinked and pushed herself to her paws.

Tipping her head back, she squinted at the roof, but she only saw dark, carved beams—not the hole she’d fallen through. Her skin prickled. Yet another thing about this place she that couldn’t explain.  If this castle, as the pale creatures had called it, was magical, couldn’t it just send her back to Ekwiel if it wanted to? Did that mean she was a prisoner here? She drew in a deep breath and glanced around the room. She’d just have to look for another way to escape.

A soft, thin red pelt that smelled of dust stretched across the gleaming wood floor, leading her eye to a gilded entryway. Words were carved over the top:

PARIMI ALCA WARS
HALL OF FAME

Runawin frowned at it for a moment, hoping it might offer some guidance, but the only word she knew was wars. That couldn’t mean anything good, but a quick glance around the room confirmed that there was no other exit. She sighed and trotted through, ears pricked and fur bristling around her shoulders.

The entryway led into a long tunnel with pictures hanging on each side, about two bounds apart. Tiny fires burned in cages that hung in between the pictures. She slowed her gait to a walk and studied the pictures as she passed.

The first one on her right showed a very young female pale creature standing on a big metal monster that spit smoke. Staring down at Runawin on the left was the painted face of a stern young man who wore the same sort of pelts as the pale creatures she’d left in the dining room—including the huge long, flat fang that slid in and out of a sheath. In the next picture, another female pale creature with black hair, a bit older than the first, gazed at a glowing, golden planet in the sky.

Runawin trotted forward a few steps, scanning the pictures on the walls up ahead. They were all of pale creatures in various poses—except for one, which was a horse with it’s lips pulled into a smirk.

Odd.

Shaking her head, Runawin eased back into a trot. No time to be distracted. Dagwir needed her. The pictures weren’t important.

Until one of them moved and a boy pale creature tumbled out.

“Good grief! Again?” the pale creature groaned, picking himself up.

Runawin whipped around into a crouch and backed up slowly, narrowing her eyes and stifling the growl in her throat.

But the boy’s back was to her and he didn’t notice her. He brushed a clump of shaggy brown hair out of his eyes and tapped at a lump that was strapped around his foreleg with his strange, pale-creature paw. The lump beeped like a bird.

“No, no!” The pale creature jabbed the lump again and took a deep breath. “Keep it together, Vinnie, keep it together. Not another Beethoven.” He continued tapping the lump. “Two. Thousand. Fifty. Three. There.”

The lump beeped, and he grinned and disappeared.

Runawin stared at the empty hallway for a moment before spinning around and racing towards the exit she could see about ten bounds away. This castle was getting far to strange, and it was time to get out. Now. Before she lost her chance.

***

For anyone who remembers Vinnie… 😛

P.S. I’m planning to have Runawin join back up with everyone next time I write an entry, but feel free to have her join them/have them run into her before then if you want.