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The labyrinthine underground home of the zikwa is as treacherous to other kin as the mountains the totoma face or the dangers of the swamp -- but to the zikwa themselves, the cave systems they live their lives in are familiar, safe, and comfortable. As the newcomers to the swamp as a whole, the zikwa wanted to enter this event to show their hospitality -- and so they devised a maze to run through one of their caves, full of dead ends, pools of cold water, and -- more than anything else -- the dark. It is darker than the darkest night in those caves, the only light coming from patches of dimly glowing lichen and the occasional zikwa or salamander standing guard to prevent kin from getting into too much trouble.

You find yourself standing at the open mouth of a cave that sinks back into the side of a hill. A cool, humid breeze wafts out of the mouth of the cave, and you think you can hear running water inside. A zikwa stands near the entrance with a kimeti helper, next to a pile of large leaves and a hollowed-out log full of sticky sap. They are going to blindfold all contestants. You hope you won't get lost and have to be fished out -- or worse.

Tribe: Westfen
Kin: Westward Bound

The blindfold he accepted with ease, and then he walked forward.

Well, he tried, anyway. He only managed a few kin-lengths before his nose touched rock. Ah, yes, a wall. Sun's ears twitched, for a moment, as he thought, and then he turned his head right: he hadn't heard anything. Immediately his nostrils filled with the scent of wet cave. Ah, more water - of course. He thought, for a moment, and then turned around completely, so that he was facing the direction he'd first thought of as the left.

Water was dripping there, which implied that he'd have some sense of direction. He didn't like going blind, and he liked that he could hear whether the drops were falling on, well, rock, or on more water - which would certainly be difficult to navigate blind.

Tribe Westfen
Kin Flame of the West

Flame of the West accepted the blindfold. The sap stuck to his eyes, and if this were the first time such a thing had happened to him, then perhaps he'd be bothered. But Longclaw had often blindfolded him and the buck was now used to it, as odd as that sounded.

He decided to follow his ears, and turned left.

Tribe: Westfen
Kin: Dual Natures

The sap and leaf combo was placed over his eyes and Dual let out a slight snarl. He knew he would be fine without sight, but it was hard for him to trust non-kimeti to place it on his face. Breathing in and out slowly he let it go; his tribe needed him.

It was time to begin and his ears flicked immediately in the direction of the water hitting rocks and dripping. He was concerned that meant moving water he could fall into. From the other direction he could smell water, which didn't mean much in a swamp and would still leave him blind by all of his sense ... but there was a higher chance of him not drowning. As long as it wasn't deep standing water.

His brows furrowed beneath the leaf as he weighed his options. Ears flicking towards the moving water again he shook his head. It wasn't worth the risk of losing his sense of hearing to the cacophony of all that moving water. He chose and moved to the right.
I forgot to roll. Sorry.

Two kin choose silence and would have ended up in the pool of water needing to be fished out, but due to their lack of sight, they still end up heading down the left path, having been jostled into that direction or perhaps they bumped into a wall and mistakenly turned around. Either way, their luck allows them to continue with the maze.

Tribe: Westfen
Kin: Westward Bound

He navigated easily through the puddles, glad for the dripping, because it meant he knew where to avoid. It was wet, certainly, but he could discern the difference between soil and water, and that helped more than he'd thought. When the dripping faded he felt himself steeling for what he felt was true blindness - but of course, his nose nudged against more rock before that happened. Ah - of course.

The sound of pebbles dropping lured him, because it was probably the easy way: but ultimately he turned right. His curiosity, he found, had always taken precedence for him. And echoing, to Sun, meant empty, with walls that he could use to navigate. He'd like to learn how to do that with more grace, he thought. He'd already 'practiced' navigation by fallen object.

Tribe: Westfen
Kin: Shameless

Shameless continued to traverse the damp cave, finding the whole process growing more and more disdainful as she went on. It was completely dark now, as it had been, but it felt even more so now that she didn't have the warmth of the sun on her back. It felt almost like being swallowed by the cavern itself, and the whole thought made her fairly glad she was born a kimeti and not a zikwa; even the mountains and plains were far far better than the conditions underground.

But she had no time to complain (saying something, for one who often found and made time for said complaining), since she supposed she was representing her tribe and, more importantly, she wanted to finish this maze and get the whole ordeal over with.

She stopped when she heard two different sounds, coming from two different directions. She didn't trust the sound of the pebbles much, for something had to have caused the movement and sound, though at the same time she couldn't discern the echo from a cave sound or a beast or... anything. Taking a huffy, perhaps slightly agitated breath, she weighed her options and finally decided to head right once again.

One kin stumbles left and finds that the pebbles are falling from a crumbled part of the cave that creates a dead end. He crashes into the pile of rocks because he can't see it, but luckily there are kin stationed there to lead him out of the cave and back into the light.