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Sand witch run

Running as it turned out? Harder than it looked, as she barely made it down the second passage before she was spotted, and now she couldn’t slow down even though it felt like her legs were made of hot lead, and she had the mother of all stitches in one side. But in all fairness she did still manage to keep running (it’s amazing how great a motivator a vision of your own impending death can be, especially when your pursuers have some kind of giant creature, a massive axe, and a heavily armoured guy who is making good speed despite wearing what looks like a stone hula hoop as an accessory, hard to say which was scariest.)

She was determined to get away though, the longer she could stay on the run the more time she bought them, and that was something she valued over even her own life. So despite her exhaustion she kept running, thankful for the first time in her life for the few seconds delay on the traps that meant they were going off right behind her rather than in her face. Because it meant she got a head start and a distraction.

Though from the crashing sounds of breaking machinery followed by muffled cursing coming from behind her it was fairly obvious that the traps were not slowing them down overmuch. So as she ran she shaped sharp glass spikes throwing them behind her, they wouldn’t buy her long unfortunately, especially since from the great thundering ruckus raised to the rear the majority of the group were wearing fairly sturdy boots, and her powers as solid as they were had their limits which were fast approaching, but she knew this place better than the intruders did, she had been born and raised here.

Finding a hiding place was an option she supposed, but being pulled from a hole like a rat to meet her doom hardly seemed like a desirable outcome, and if she could make it outside they would never find her in that mess, much less catch her. From that she formed some semblance of a plan (at least if you squinted at it really really hard in the right light like one of those optical illusion puzzles.)

With that figured out she started to turn towards the surface, with a heavy heart. She had already seen what was up there, but it was absolutely Hobson’s choice here. The shattering glass spurred her on as up ahead she saw the exit coming up. She felt sick to her stomach as what she had seen before played back, and she decided once more to try to thwart her fate, carefully ducking the grasping hand from her vision, but remembered that most things had two hands if they had one. Her heart sank as following her dodge a second hand reached from the shadows of the doorway, and seized her tightly around the waist. She tried desperately to wriggle free, but it was too strong, and she felt the darkness enclose her as she passed out.

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Mibbet was fed up from this bloody labyrinth, and absolutely determined to get to the bottom of this mess after hitting her sixteenth dead end in quick succession. But whoever had designed this place had either built it while extremely drunk, and maybe high (yes frogs knew all about humans getting high thanks to several unfortunate cases of mistaken identity where they got confused with toads, which was annoying for multiple reasons including, but not limited to 1. a limited understanding of zoology as people who went around licking amphibians were usually not herpetologists, after all a herpetologist with half a brain, and maybe a weeks training knows better than to do that. You may have a long career doing so but the short life does somewhat preclude that. And 2. The assumption any toad will do which just like the previous reason. It was easy to assume any toad will do, but it is not a mistake you make twice. Rule one of herpetology is no matter what do not lick the science. Remember not all toads, and if you have a brain in your head not any folks.)

Alternatively it could be that this place was designed without any humans in mind at all, which all things considered based on the history of the place did seem the most likely option. Then as Mibbet rounded another corner she saw a young girl in a pointy hat making a break for it. That had to be the witch (other people can of course wear pointy hats too, but they seldom do it with the same level of panache.) Mibbet knew she stood a cat in hell’s chance of navigating this place without the witches guidance so she called out, but instead of slowing down the girl hit a full on sprint, at which point Sir Leeroy and Errol’s training kicked in, somebody ran, you chased. (Not too quickly though in case you caught them, nothing but trouble comes of going around catching folks.) Mibbet of course had less training, so she made a silly mistake and ran after her target full tilt. Meaning she ran into every trap, every tripwire, and every spiky piece of glass along the way. Which was definitely not happy happy fun-times. But she couldn’t navigate this place alone, and she sure as hell wasn’t leaving a marshland to turn into a desert forever no matter what. So she smashed and shattered her way through obstacle after obstacle. Grimaced and cursed at glass caltrops, and desperately dodged derelict devices as she dashed after her target, spurred on by Rosalind who obviously had good reason to dislike people in pointy hats given the curse and all, (just because you learn to live with a situation doesn’t always mean unconditional forgiveness for the people connected to those who put you in said situation in the first place.) As the witch slid under a grasping hand from Addy, but failed to dodge a second as with a scream she got caught and passed out.