Duskwalker doesn’t even see it until it’s too late.

The dungeon here is more open than it has been the rest of their journey. The walls don’t scrape her sides, and the path is made of sand and flat, gray rock. It had been the perfect excuse to open up and move just a little faster. The moment her and Knots had stepped out onto it, she had tossed her head and moved into a long, fast trot. Knots, smaller than her, had been forced into a canter. He hasn’t complained yet, though, and Duskwalker knows that he has good endurance.

It's a crack in the stone that catches her, hiding behind a slightly rise in the path. She sees it the moment she takes another stride forward. Her front hoof slams through it, sending her sprawling onto her knees. Behind her, Knots skids to a halt. “Dusk?”

Cursing, Duskwalker carefully gets her free hooves back under her and stands. Her stuck leg aches, and her flared nostrils catch the metallic scent of blood. Carefully, she tries to pull her hoof from the crevice, but she keeps catching the toe of it under a lip in the rock. “How did I even get it in there?”

Knots stoops down to investigate, swishing his tail in a long arc of inky strands. “How did you get in there?”

Duskwalker pins her ears. “I didn’t even see it,” she snaps. Knots, to his credit, simply sighs at her.

“How bad is it?” he asks. “You didn’t break anything, right?”

Duskwalker pauses, taking stock. “I don’t think so. Just scraped myself up. I think.”

Knots nudges at the edge of the rock with his own hoof. It crumbles slightly, but not enough to help her when she tries to pull back again. “Hm,” he mumbles.

She watches as he does a slow semi-circle around her, eyeing the problem from all angles. He even gets down close, ears angled back in his complete focus. “I think,” he lifts a leg, “if you angle it just like this,” he demonstrates with his own hoof, “you can slip it out through this side, over here.” He points with his nose at a different part of the crevice.

Duskwalker eyes him critically, but he seems confident. Shuffling slightly to the side on three legs, she shifts her fetlock and hoof accordingly and brings it up. “Knots,” she mutters. “It’s not working.”

“Well I didn’t think it would come out easy,” he tells her. “Pull a little harder.”

Duskwalker sighs, and yanks back hard. Knots yelps.

“Not that hard!”

Duskwalker stares at him from where she sits on her haunches, and then looks pointedly down at her now freed foot. It is scraped up, but it’s nothing detrimental. It aches, too, but she won’t say it aloud. “But did I get out?”

Knots snorts loudly at her. “Be more careful next time.”