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Meadow stood at the starting line next to Twi, running her fingers through his mane. She'd be doing this all the time to calm herself whenever she got a Lunar, she knew. His fur was very soft...

"So do you think we're going to do well?" she asked. Even though all the riders had been given the option to let their Lunar go on their own, she was still going to ride Twi despite her anxiety- that had been the whole point of asking Draconis if she could ride him, right? Oh well, no matter what her mind was made up... although, later she would remember the judge had mentioned a tunnel of some sort. And not specified much more than that.

Twi had been sort of slack, as if asleep, through most of it- Meadow's gentle strokes didn't calm just the girl- until the judge came. The Lunar's head snapped up, and he listened to the judge, as did Meadow. Pit, bridge, swim, lantern, hop, weave, tunnel, climb, finished, use the rescue kit if you need to. It didn't seem too hard.

"Alright," she said, taking the rescue kit as she mounted. She'd hold onto it, no need to make Twi carry more than he already had to. "C'mon, we can do this, right?" It would require a little bit of luck, true, but they could manage it. What was the worst that could happen?

(If you're wondering, the answer to that is, most likely, 'a whole lot'.)

Rope Bridge

2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, x

---

Twi slowed, skidding neatly to a halt about an inch in front of the rope bridge. "Do you want to do this seperately?" asked Meadow. "It might be easier..." The Lunar shook his head. Easier or not, he was fairly proud- not as much as some others, maybe, but enough. "Alright then," Meadow replied. "Let's go."

Tentatively the Lunar put a paw on the rope. It wasn't too bad, a little wet but he could handle it. He lived on a mountain, after all, a little wetness wasn't that much of a challenge. Slowly but surely the two crossed the bridge...

and got across without a single slipup. Meadow grinned.

"Told you we can do this!"

River Cross, Take Two

1, 5, 6, 7, 9, x

---

After a little bit of planning, Meadow decided it might be best to start further upriver, then swim across the deepest part, get a hold in the mud, and then simply continue on walking with a grip in the mud.

The plan seemed to work until it came to the letting go part. The current again startled them both, and swept them into the net. Again.

"I know it'll work! We know what to expect now." Meadow, even though she said this, seemed worried and unconvinced. "We'll get it, Twi. I know we will." She started running her hands through the Lunar's mane to calm herself.

Not a good sign.

Lantern Dig

3, 5, 8, x

---

Twi looked curiously at the small wedge of... something. It was glowy and it smelled kind of weird. Meadow dismounted; it would probably be easier for Twi to do this one without her on his back. The Lunar looked at her curiously. "You'll have to scent that," she explained, "and find the little glowy thing buried over there" -she pointed to the field- "that smells like it. Weren't you listening to the judge?" Meadow smiled at the Lunar. He had an expression of understanding now, or at least as close as a dragon was going to get to an expression of understanding, as he sniffed the wedge.

Ew. That did NOT smell good. Although there was a very easily followed trail of the scent leading directly to the object. He dug it out and carried it back to Meadow, and allowed her to hop on once more.

"That was fast."

Pillar Weave

3, 8, x

---

Just jumping, right? Not so easy.

Meadow and Twi had gotten stuck on the second ledge. The Lunar had landed exactly the wrong way, and now they had to wait until he was good enough to continue the weave. It wasn't the difficulty of the jumps; they proved fairly easy. No, it was just a little bit of unluck.

At least the view was nice. In fact, it was amazing. The waterfall and river looked like they owned the land, and nothing else ever would- until you noticed the nets, but Meadow tried to ignore those.

Pillar Weave, Take Three

3, 8, x

---

"Still not good enough, huh?" Meadow sighed as Twi gave her a nod. She was thinking of using the Rescue Kit. He looked miserable, being hurt and unable to go on. Surely the Kit could heal him... but what if she needed it later?

A little more waiting, then she'd use it. This was wasting a lot of time...

Pillar Weave, Rescue Kit- finally!

3, 8, x

---

A small, glowy thing fluttered out of the bag. It was pink, incredibly sparkly, and it looked at Twi curiously (or seemed to- neither the Lunar or the Rider could tell what direction it was facing) before Twi held out his injured paw. The thing circled around the entire leg once, spitting out sparkles crazily, before flying off. "Does it hurt anymore?" asked Meadow, and Twi shook his head as he stood. Nope, his paw was fine now.

Mounting, Meadow grinned. "Doesn't it feel," she laughed, "like we should know what that thing was?" Twi nodded slightly. It was weird.

Then all strange Rescue Kit things were forgotten as they leapt across the remaining gaps, landing easily on the last ledge.

Tunnel Crawl, Take Two

1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, x

---

Thankfully, there didn't seem to be too many more roots in the tunnel. And if there were, Meadow didn't get caught by them.

After several hours- or at least what seemed like hours- of crawling, Twi and Meadow finally emerged into... more darkness. Joy. Looking up, they saw a net; this must be the pit, the first obstacle. The judge had mentioned that...

She wished the judge had gone into a bit more detail.