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Artemis was a picture of calm as she sat, waiting until the judge finished explaining the rules to her. These should be simple enough. She encountered worse while out hunting and roaming with her mate, or so her constantly worried bonded told her. Always be more careful... Bah.

She stood slowly as the judge and her rider backed away from the starting line and stretched languidly, showing off with a wide yawn. The moment the judge gave the signal to go, she was sprinting, appearing more like a streak of starfield than a Kyn.

The Kyn reached the edge of the precipice and jumped, holding herself as close together as possible to streamline her body.

Her claws helped immensely as Artemis padded slowly over the bridge, but they didn't help as much as she hoped!

Due to the slick ropes, Artemis seemed to slip with every other step, forcing her to stop often and disentangle herself. The Lunar could almost feel her rider letting out a deep sigh of relief as she finally stepped off the bridge, shaking herself off.

She couldn't help but grin at the next task. Swimming across the river should be easy with as much time as she spent playing with Magoi!

She'd been warned that it wasn't very deep, so it'd be best not to dive in... She didn't want to brain herself, after all. Tail flicking in excitement, she bounded suddenly into the water, claws once more extending for purchase as she started to swim across the swiftly flowing river.

The swift current picked up the Lunar, who had angled herself as a sailboat would to sail aside the wind. Tucking her legs close up against her, save for a kick to get herself back angled properly, the current carried her quickly to the opposite shore with not a scratch, bruise, or even a single tumble.

Artie let out a triumphant, growling bark as she shook off the water clinging to her star-riddled coat...just in time to spray the judge who was trotting over to offer her the scent of the glowing ball. She grinned apologetically. "Oops? I didn't see you..."

"I needed a shower anyway..." the judge sighed as he offered his hand. In it was a wedge-shaped portion of one of the balls.

"That's the glowy thingy I need to find? Right..." She nodded to the judge, giving the object a snuffle before he stood. "Thank you!"

She trotted off ahead as the judge retreated to his shovel and pile of "glowy thingies," getting ready to bury another one after this one was removed. Sigh. Such monotony today.

The Lunar put her nose to the ground immediately upon coming to the tilled field. "Gotta find that bright green smell... No, that's dark blue... Maroon... Ew, pink! Uggggh, Isis was here befor me, ick..." Artemis sneezed, trying to rid herself of the hideous pink smell before putting her nose back down, trying to track the burial of the "glowy thingy."

Gah, another beetle in this hole!

Now she was getting annoyed. The last three holes she'd dug all had beetles. Save for the one. It had a small ball of worms. She licked her lips thinking about those juicy worms...

IT IS NOT DINNER TIME! she screamed mentally, allowing herself a frustrated snarl before digging again.

She landed easily on the first pillar, or so she thought...until she skidded, nearly toppling over the edge. Artemis sat down hard on the pillar, holding the glowing ball between her forepaws as she caught her breath, trying to shake off the nervousness of nearly falling back into the river.

The Lunar resolutely climbed to her feet and picked the ball back up. The next jumps were considerably easier, and she barely touched the remaining pillars before jumping to the next, until she stood upon the last, peering at the opposite cliff. She backed until her hindpaws were on the very edge of the pillar and dashed forward, seeming to sail through the air before landing easily on the cliff.

Artemis took a moment to collect herself before starting down the cliff face path and to the ledge. Now for the tricky part...

She eased down the ledge, clutching the glowy thingy in her mouth as she made her way down to the ledge, situating herself across from the gap between the two closest pillars. She shook herself out and jumped...

As small as she was, Artemis had no trouble at all crawling through the tunnel. Had it been her mate Deimos running the course rather than she, he probably would have gotten stuck at the first dip!

She wriggled her way through what she only could hope was the lowest area of the cave. If it got any lower further on, she'd have to dig again, and it wouldn't be easy in this muddy tunnel. She lowered her head again, getting mud into her mouth from where she clutched the glowy thingy, expecting to have to slither under another ledge...when she slid out into the open bottom of the pit. Huh. She had gone much farther much quicker than she had expected.

Squinting, she tilted her head up to look...and accidentally swallowed the mud that had gotten into her mouth. She spat out the glowy thingy and started to cough up the mud, hacking and spitting. "Oh, augggh blegh PHTBT!" Once satisfied with the lack of mud, she picked the glowy thingy back up and started searching for the first ledge.

She was getting impatient now, voicing her frustrations with angry snarls as she searched for the lower ledge. Somehow, she kept coming back to the high ledge...

"This can't be it! There has to be another one!"