The four Coursers hadn’t worked together before, and they had never been on a campaign this deep down into the ground. But they were still happy to join each other.
Halix, a blue roan, led the small group as they slowly made their ways into the shrinking tunnel ways of the cavern. It had slowly become so small that the four of them couldn’t turn around and rather had to keep going forward.
Torali, a bay splash Courser, was walking second and was trying, with her bigger build, to not scratch her new leather bag up too bad. She wasn’t too happy about their choice of way but she wasn't one to complain either. She could have said something earlier for sure but she didn’t and now they reaped what they sowed.
As the third Courser, a Bay Pangare roan Courser named Soralix, made his way through the same tunnels the other two had already gone through quietly he complained every time he accidentally got a stone in his side. He complained so much that the fourth Courser, a Red dun with a somatic marking on his neck that contrasted the red with a deep black coat, called Sandarli told him that he could either let him climb over him and then they’d just leave him to back out of the tunnel or shut up. Soralix quickly shut his mouth after that but still managed to get a few disapproving snorts out whenever the tunnel got even tighter.

The four of them made sure to take it carefully as they walked through the tunnels. They were slowly getting tighter on them and getting hurt this early on felt like such a failure for all four of them. But eventually the tunnel managed to get so tight that they actually had to control their breathing just to pass certain points. It felt as if the cave was trying to figure out how close it could hug them without them having to stop.
“If it does get any tighter.” Torali said as she breathed out after having passed an extra small part of the tunnel. “We might actually have to back our way out of this.”
“Yes. I do agree.” Halix didn’t sound as if he agreed with her statement. But it wasn’t because he found it annoying or anything like that. He realised that if the tunnel was going to get any tighter than this he would have failed them. He would have made the bad choice that led them to danger. “The tunnel should soon open up.” Halix did try to sound confident in his words, but the confidence drowned out as he spoke.
“It better.” An annoyed voice said behind him as Soralix pressed himself past the tight space.
460 words