Cassian bolted through the decaying tunnels. They felt their heart pounding in their chest and their lungs filling up to maximum capacity to fuel their sprint. She had just escaped from the clutches of that weird fungus thing. Well, escaped might be a strong word. But, still, she wasn’t expecting to run into anything like that down here. Cassian was glad to put that creature far behind her. 

Her hooves kept pounding on the stonework. The sound was satisfying and soon it faded into the background. Her mind wandered to other topics; like what she’d do with all the glorious treasure she found. She could set up a little shop. Florrick could help her with it. It’d be better than what he was doing with his life currently. Which is to say, he was doing nothing at all. 

Their brother wasn’t the adventurous type. He had a hard time even leaving the house most days. So yes, setting up a shop with her brother sounded delightful. Cassian was so lost in thought that she wasn’t paying attention. 

Without warning, the floor gave way to a massive maw. Equipped with large and even sharper spikes, it was just waiting for a poor Courser like themself to fall into it. And fall they did, though it wasn’t for lack of trying not to. 

Pebbles spilled over the ledge as the blue roan frantically tried to slow themself down. Her hooves scabbled in vain. She went over the edge and squeezed her eyes shut. Hopefully death would come quickly and be relatively painless. So much for opening that shop with Florrick. 

Then, the strangest thing happened. 

Cassian had fallen into the pit. No doubts about that. Only, she wasn’t harmed. Aside from a few scrapes that she’d have to patch up later, she was unscathed. A miracle that appeared to be as she gazed around at the bottom of the pit. 

Bones were littered all throughout. Coursers that weren’t as lucky as her. Some animals too, maybe. She heaved herself off the dusty floor. They shook their mane and tail out, getting most of the grime off. They breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed to her that, in slowing herself down, she had managed to avoid the worst injury. 

Taking another deep breath in, she gathered her thoughts and picked her way around the spikes. Now… How was she going to get out of here?