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Well the loudspeaker went off indeed with a hitch, but thanks to Ginger's quick thinking Fellah was able to make a bit of a recovery.
Now was time for the actual dance. Simple and classic was the route he decided to go with the waltz. It encapsulated everything he imagined should be present in an ice dancing competition. Style, grace, uh...other big fancy descriptive words. However, a gerbil waltz was bound to be completely different from a troll waltz. Who knew if it would be able to match up.
Hopefully the gerbils had recovered enough from whatever had spooked them under the ice in order to perform an actual dance. For everything that had gone on so far, there hadn't been any dancing, yet, but now it was time for the gerbils to shine. The duo had been through a lot (for gerbils that is) during the competition. Fellah wanted to give them the best fighting chance he could (which probably wasn't a very good one).
With a little instruction, confusion, and enthusiasm, he got Ginger and Jazzercise to start the routine. It wasn't half bad, or at least Fellah thought so. Whether or not the judges agreed was a different story.



The night prior, Fellah had found himself lucky enough to compile (what he thought) was more information on the winterbeast. Things were going slowly, but smoothly, who knew just where things would wind up. He noticed a number of trolls around the supply station looked just as optimistic as he did. It was safe to assume that he wasn't the only one making progress. In fact while looking around he noticed that he may be one of the less informed individuals. It shook his confidence a bit, but the redblood didn't quit, and he wasn't going to now.

Tonight things were coming close to an end. There wasn't a lot of time left to find the elusive winterbeast. Papabuff, who started out completely apathetic, was starting to become more and more anxious to the nightly adventure.
"Alright Papabuff, we've gotta make sure we find something good tonight," the lusus just shook his head in affirmation.
"Okay, let's get a move on then!" Fellah secured the wagon and the contents inside before the redblood and his lusus took off towards a location that they both agreed on tonight, hoping that putting their heads together they'd be able to come back with even more evidence.

"Yes, keep at it, you two." The crowd seemed to totally enjoy two gerbils munching away on a bunch of flowers. Cerpin preferred edgier shows, like rock concerts or daredevils, but who was he to judge? He signed up for this, he had to see it through without half-assing it. The purpleblood cleared out the stems once they were done but left some of the petals spread around. They looked rather nice like that, as if a whirlwind of beauty had passed through. He was okay with this.

Next they had to actually do some kind of dance. This part had him sweating a little bit. How was he supposed to actually get the gerbils to do something coordinated together? Cerpin was far from a perfectionist, he was really more of a 'just wing it!!' kind of showman but he still had standards and didn't like getting booed off a stage. Maybe he needed to pick something that didn't require much synchronicity.

"Everybody put your hands in the ae-yaaaa!" He laughed as the gerbils began to mosh together to some obnoxious music he had picked out. He was a party guy through and through so it only made sense for his gerbils to follow suit!



"Erm... this is kinda gross." Amonee did not look pleased at finding winterbeast droppings. Still, it was a sign that they were headed in the right direction. The scratch marks on the scenery around them kind of made him nervous that an encounter with the beast could be dangerous but he had to take that chance and push through the fear. He had two lusii with him after all, they were totally safe! Right?

Nucleo and Amonee continued to trek through the snowy landscape in search of further clues. The tracks of other trolls adventuring through the same zones threw him off and the jadeblood wondered if they were ahead of the curve or behind it. Well, at least they were having a good time, he supposed! The boy stumbled over a couple of rocks but his endurance held out fairly strong. This wasn't Amonee's first rodeo. He lived his whole life wandering from landscape to landscape after all!

"Trail mix?" Pulling a baggie out of his stuff, Amonee offered some of his snacks to his friend. They'd been at this for a while now and definitely needed to keep their energy up! It was a harsh time of the sweep to be hunting animals, especially with temperatures below freezing. The boys ate in a happy easy going mood before continuing on in search of something grand and amazing!

Keionx breathed in the snowy air - sweet and heavy and cold. Familiar. Nothing like the thick air of the swamp.

There was something to be said about snow. How it fell, quiet and soft, how it felt, cold and malleable... Keionx had taken it for granted for so long, and now... she missed it.

The next night, she trekked along the ridge of the mountain, heading south into the valley lowlands. Rock and snow crunched under her feet, leaving a trail behind her in the virgin snow. She took a moment to look back at it. She had come so far, and had so far yet to go. But it was heartening that she left footsteps in her wake. A story, to be unraveled. To be told.

But she had other things to worry about – the winterbeast. The hunt was nearing it's end – she knew it – and it was time to knuckle down and be the one to find it. If it existed.

Keionx stepped down from the elevated foothills through the rocky paths and felt her feet sink into the dark soil of the valley. A new place to search. A new place to find what she needed. She'd done well with clues thus far – it was time to find the clue that would clinch it.

Or, at least, find a lead.

The slow fell, the wind howled. Her footfall was muffled by the thick snow that covered the planet, and in particular it seemed, this region. Chiara had tried to reason with the troll on top of the mountain, but he must have been delusional. When she had offered to sell him Zindel merchandise only 50% marked up he had gotten mad. Guess he didn't swing that way. Chiara rolled her eyes. Red was always the way to go, if you got sick of one there was always another around. They were like rabbits, practically everywhere. Now a purpleblood, or a blueblood, those were treasures. Chiara sighed and grinned pleasantly as she thought of her special ourpleblood. Eridia would probably wave the complement away, but Chiara knew a rare troll when she saw one, and Eridia was IT. The queen was really something, but apparently Chiara had ruined her chances with her. It was probably nothing. I mean, its not like you needed the ruler's approval to get power, right? Like, there were other ways, right? Maybe all she needed was a different angle. Things like this were hard. Even tho Chiara didn't find the stupid beast thing she was supposed to be looking for, this ice cold solitude was perfect for thinking over plans.


The gerbils squeaked the gerbils squawked. The gerbils beeped the gerbils bopped. Everything was going to plan. Chiara grinned to herself. Maybe this ice dancing figure thing wasn't such a bad idea. The blueblood was sure there was a way she could mix this in with her Dance Battles to make a profit. Maybe if she had the dance battles on ice, and the players could only attack with the blades on the bottom of their skates. Chiara mused that over. But ice was cold. Zindel already whined and struggled enough as it was when Chiara tried to get him into his skimpy Dance Battle outfit. If it were cold he would just have another reason to chicken out. Chiara humpfed in thought of that certain redblood. To think that boy had had the gall to call her out to dance the other day. What nerve. The blueblood tried to shake it off, forget about that redblood and his mocking ways. She would be better without him. The orangeblood too for that matter. They were all unnecessary emotional luggage.
The blueblood turned to look out at her gerbils on the ice. The roses had helped, but the two were still just standing there. The blueblood pulled out her trusty whistle. This thing worked wonders on Zindel, and Chiara had been using it to train the gerbils as well. A loud tweet sounded and the gerbils were at attention. Now it was just a matter of them remembering their tricks.

With the poppoms in the air, Elidae did a quirky dance routine, eyes blazing with determination on her gerbils to get their tails moving. Luckily, her display worked with Janderbilt and Twinkie Heart. Mesmerized by the glittery pompoms, the gerbils calmed down enough to not freak out on the ice and continue their performance. Elidae could only sigh in relief. 'Yaaay! You guys are doing great! Just keep this up!" Elidae exclaimed, jumping up and down with excitement. Her gerbils were doing so well! Perfect pair, wonderful performance! As the pop music continued to sound through the rink, she realized she should really try to get them movin' more! Time to finish this show! Time to dance!

Grabbing her carrot, Elidae promptly began to move it around to test the waters. Yes, Jander and Twinkie began to move with it, and so she was going to try to make them to dance! Hmm, but what would go well with this music? What would entertain her audience for the night and dazzle them with her superb gerbil performance? How about the polka! Bobbing the carrot as best she could, Elidae smiled happily as she tried to get the two fuzzy gerbils to dance on the ice, watching them bounce up and down, slipping together as they tried. D'aww, didn't really look like much of a dance, but it sure was adorable!



"This is ******** ridiculous. I've been out here for SO LONG and not only have I not found anything, but I sincerely don't believe this thing even exists. I mean, I should be in a whole gog damn herd of winterbeasts right now." Malice ranted on and on to no one in particular, her rage however slowly simmered down when she began to feel a light warmth to her skin. What was this? As she neared the hot springs, the warmth traveled down her spine and into her core, defrosting her limbs slowly. Ahh, this was.. actually nice. For a moment, she wasn't even angry. With her angry subdued, Malice fell into a peaceful silence finally, obersving the area. Even if she couldn't find the winterbeast here, this would be a good place to set up camp. She wasn't going to stop now, but for the moment...

What. What was this. Oh. It was... it was an imprint. Not just an imprint, but what looked to be something that resembled... no. Holy ********. Was that? It was. It was the imprint of a winterbeast in the mud. "WOW." Was this fresh? Did this mean it was close by? Malice's head whipped around, eyes darting around the perimeter. It had to be somewhere around here!

"Steamtrain! Milkman! Come here!" Tevini cried as the music ended, signifying the performance was over. She wanted to go out on the ice to get them but knew better. Tevini was in no way an athletically inclined or graceful troll. She needed to work on her stamina, coordination, and well... everything. Stuck at the edge of the rink, all she could do was crouch and try to coax her gerbils over. She was proud of them for making it through that awkward dance and even happier that whatever was under the ice hadn't managed to eat them. All that was left was to grab them, stuff them in a box, and then flee to get Steamtrain to safety.

This was also the hardest part of the operation. There were so many trolls around that it'd be hard to slip away undetected. All she could hope for was that her gerbils didn't win, and after some of the other performances there was really no way they'd beat them, and everyone's attention would be on the winning gerbil pair's coach. The question was, had she flubbed hard enough to lose decently average? As her gerbils slowly tilted their heads towards her as she called, Tevini supposed it was time to find out.



"This is so cool! Look at all this stuff!" Nucleo gasped at the sight of a little den of sorts. This winter beast obviously liked cozy things! It was kind of cute in a weird and still creepy way. This went over the greenblood's head, however. He was more focused on investigating how a winterbeast could knit socks and what size they were. Was this a sock being unraveled or created? They'd stumbled into a clearing of mysteries! He was excited.

"Do you think this is it's home?" Logic seemed unlikely but the boy was having so much fun thinking up wild theories that it didn't matter what the truth turned out to be. He just wanted to have a blast romping around with Amonee now that they had something to go off of. As long as they made it back to Bloodfest in one piece anything was fine!

"No, it can't be. But look over here!" Leading his pal out of the clearing, the hunt continued! He thought he had a good idea where to look next! If his hunch was right, then down this mountain path and then take the right of the fork and they'd be there in no time!

Well, that didn't seem like a hit! Oh well, Kolako followed her pump-biscuit, and that was what counted, right? Right. Even if she didn't win, she still had a lot of fun! They seemed tired too, so it was good that they'd call it a day! She gazed them from afar and then realized-- How the heck was she supposed to get there? She'd break the thin ice from her and Papion's weight combined, as he would most definitely follow the crazy haired troll onto the ice just in case she got hurt. And by him doing that, he'd just put them all in more danger. Like always! But she couldn't help it, and didn't blame him for wanting to keep her safe. She'd thought about maybe bribing them over, but maybe if she pretended to be their people, maybe they'd listen to her and maybe she would have done alright? She made the same chittering sounds they did, letting out small whimpers and screeches like they normally did. She finished it off with a loud REEEE before waving at them from afar and trying to beckon them over toward her. Maybe they'd listen to her and everything would be okay!!

Seeing as the a*****e who tried to kick them off the mountain kicked them away from that area, Austri decided to try a new approach-- Pointing at a new area on the map, she immediately pushed Staglebro in that direction and by the time they began to investigate, it was something nearby to a... waterfall?? Snapped branches, trees, what is this area?! Austri adjusted her comfy sweater and big poofy pants, wide smile on her face as the girl grinned at the data that was very much visible before her. She snapped pictures, good pictures, of the entire area-- Every stone marked, every twig snapped, just to be extra careful. She then grabbed all her info and sat herself down, comparing all her information over the past few days while keeping her swively hair out of her face. This clue, that spot, these signs... More information came pouring into her head as she watched it eagerly, eyes following all the data until it all connected in one spot. Austri grinned. It had to be there!! Maybe!! Hopefully!! With a final look over through all her information, she then called Staglebro and immediately hopped on to catch the beast, declaring it time to FIND THE WINTERBEAST, FINALLY!!