[center][h3]Stealing First III[/h3]
Level 7 Therion (267/70) and Level 13 Ms Fortune (141/130)
[b]Word Count:[/b] 838 (+2 Exp)[/center]
Secluded in the icy cave, Therion and Nadia enjoyed their short break in near-silence, allowing themselves a slightly longer reprieve than their first. The only sound seemed to be a rattling noise nearby, which steadily waxed, waned, and waxed once more. While typically a lot chattier than her companion, the feral didn’t feel the need to force any small talk. They’d come a long way together, sure, but with the finish line nowhere in sight just yet, the two needed their heads in the game. For all the ground they covered in Balan’s amazing make-believe wonderworld, it had been only five minutes or so. In some respects it felt like a lot longer, but while in the zone Nadia scarcely felt time pass at all. [i]Time sure does fly when you’re having fun.[/i] Of course, winning would be even more fun, so when voices echoed up through the fishy mines, the thieves readied themselves to run what would hopefully be the final stretch.

Right away, a conundrum blocked their immediate progress, but as they rested the two had plenty of time to figure it out. With no possible handholds above and only a floor of crumbly blocks below, they wondered if their route forward might lie below, and when Nadia’s protruding ears picked up that familiar rattling noise, they put together a plan. “Okay,” Nadia murmured, ears swiveling. “...Now!”

As the sound grew louder again they dropped onto the floor, even without any fuss from Therion. It fell away beneath them to reveal another mine cart, which the thieves barely managed to grab onto. They clambered aboard, hearts already racing again, and it carried them on an L-shaped path. From there, more tricky block-jumps awaited them, this time with barely any safety net beneath them. By now, though, Nadia and Therion were hitting their stride. They were adjusting for one another, unconsciously changing their timing to synchronize better. With a lot of dexterity, a little luck, and just a teeny tiny little bit of cheating, the two pushed past a gauntlet of crumbling stones, underhang grapples, and two-person swings. Most tense of all was the cart ride that slid just beneath protruding rocks, forcing the team to hop over each and land back on the cart. At one point, Nadia tripped on one of the stones and slipped between it and the cart, but Therion stuck the landing. With no time to be pulled up before the next block, Nadia swung beneath the cart to land on it from the other side, and the two continued from there.

Finally they jumped from the fish bucket to solid ground, where they found themselves in rosy pink light. A cool wind tousled their hair, reinvigorating them with the knowledge that they were almost outside. Climbing so quickly they almost fell again, Nadia and Therion raced across an open stretch surrounded by stone walls, the pink glow quickly deepening to atmospheric purple. After a couple icy jumps, they reached the open air once more, at a height where strong winds turned idyllic snowfall into buffeting flurries.

Nadia bounced up and down in excitement. “We gotta be near the end!” she told Therion, looking around for any sign of the competition. While a few other pairs blew through the first part of the climb, those mines had been the great equalizer, with different routes -and dead ends- that could confound cheaters as easily as anyone else. Here, though, all those routes converged.

Therion's scarf and shawl billowed with every gust of wind, easily showing its force and direction. It seemed the gale blew down from the mountain top, actively trying to dissuade any climbers from reaching the summit. That summit still loomed over them, but given all the progress they'd made and how distant the penguin town looked, Therion couldn't help but agree with his partner. The end was, technically, in sight.

There was one other thing that quickly became apparent to the two of them. The wind died down in steady intervals, meaning they had to contend with not just the gusts strong enough to threaten to push individuals off of their feet, but remembering the wind's timing so they weren't caught in a gale at the wrong time.

Timing, as much as teamwork, had been the name of the game so far so that didn't come as a surprise. While preparing to start the final leg of the course, Therion's own feline ears twitched and he turned his attention to where Nadia was looking. It seemed like they had company, a few other pairs arriving at about the same time they had. Now they had no time to lose.

[color=BC8DBF]"We can do this,"[/color] Therion said, stated more as a fact than as a mere encouragement.

That wind would make jumping harder than ever, and with a very long fall between here and the entrance to the mines, blunderers had more to lose than ever. The thieves needed to not just finish strong, but get everyone else before they got got themselves.