Safira had watched Mircea come back from his ‘dungeon dive’ with a sense of calm and his poor Osprey fluffed up. She gives a glance to Goosestarion, who seems nonplussed by it all and is choosing instead to snuggle up to her side.

“Should we go and see where they’ve gone?” She asks him gently, leaning over to run her muzzle over the top of the gooses’ head.

“Honk.” Goosestarion answers her, as if to say ‘uhm, excuse you, we know what we have to do.’ She climbs up to her feet, legs graceful and built for traversing the heavier terrain, almost like a goat. But she was not a goat, she was a courser.

Goosestarion flaps his long and snowy white wings and lands on the coursers’ equally pale back, and together they step into the cavern system that Mircea had left from. There are marks along the walls from brave and strong Coursers that had gone before her. Coursers that knew what they were doing…or didn’t, as she sees some joke writing along the walls: Something about ‘watching ones’ step?’

And watching her step she does, moving further in than the moisture on the floor that the invertebrates wave to her from as she passes. Caution and care is taken in every step, right until…She sees it.

There is a hole at the end of the corridor, just after the hall splits to a gently sloping walkway to…well, Safira wasn’t sure. She hadn’t been down this particular way before, but that hole was VERY tempting.

One step in front of the other, one careful clop,then clip, then clop again, and Goosestarion had moved to between her shoulders, carefully curving his long and graceful neck around hers, trying to see what she was lurking up to.

It was a hole, and it was so…curious. She wanted to see what was in it, just a peek, just a look. They were on the first level of the dungeon, surely there wasn’t anything wrong with it, right?

Goostarion, ever the observant, noticed the crimson sheen that the floor held near the hole, and was that a glint of teeth?

He had to move, and move fast, or else Safira would be mince meat. Or worse. So he did the best thing that he could do: He goosed!

Safira felt the beak gripping her mane and tugging, causing her to panic. She whinnied loudly, rearing up and lashing out at the hole with her front hooves, striking–

That was supposed to be a hole, wasn’t it? Why was it solid??

The “hole”--which she now realized in horror was a creature—-howled out in pain, and with Goostarion holding on for dear life on her back she lashed out with her hooves again and again and again until the mimic (which had clearly been expecting her to be more of a frightened new courser than anything and was NOT expecting to be attacked) was no more than a pulverized mess on the floor.

Her chest heaved when Goostarion honked to reassure her she was done, it was over, eyes wide and wild. She swung her head and the goose honked even louder while he was dislodged from her back and landed on the floor.

“Oh, s-sorry!” Safira explained hurriedly, righting the now indignant-looking goose.

“How rude! Honk!” Goostarion retorted, sticking his beak in the air and making his way out of the cave with a quick little waddle. Safira sighed heavily and hurried after him–seems they’d go diving another day.