If he’d have had a map, he would have crumpled it into tiny little pieces, as he surely knew exactly where he was and where he was going. He never got lost, not the great Makenzie! He was strong, and brave, and oh so incredibly smart. And if others - like his parents - told him he was acting too much the braggart… so what? A peacock only struts because he already knows he’s worth it. Makenzie never, ever told a lie… that people would easily pick up on.

For instance, he did not have a map as he had never learned to read maps, and frequently surprised himself to know that he could read at all. It shouldn’t have been a surprise for such a one as he, but he enjoyed not knowing everything about himself. He also did not bring a map as all a map really does is prove that you’re lost, and if he happened to get lost, he wouldn’t want to know anything about it until he had found himself and then could congratulate himself on an (unnecessary) job well done.

As such, it would not be prudent to currently claim that Kenzie was lost. He wasn’t! He was still in the exploratory phase, and could likely find his way out again if he truly wanted to. The entrance was… well, it wasn’t that way, so that only left two or three paths he could take (minus the branching, which might turn it into a few hundred, but that would be too much of a pessimistic outlook).

As he wasn’t lost, it stood to reason that he would come across someone - something? - who was obviously lost. Its eyes were vacant, its mouth open and panting entirely too loudly. It moved rather sluggishly, especially when compared to the quick whipping of its oblong head. Makenzie might have thought it was a Courser, but he didn’t enjoy being wrong so he barely attempted to think on what it could be. “Are you lost?” the deep pink Courser asked, making sure he was far enough back to not be sprayed by the spittle he imagined - but did not see - was flying from the other’s open mouth.

It looked at him, head cocking with a jerk, eyes even more wretched than Makenzie had noticed before, because he had not cared enough to look. But it didn’t say anything, not a word, just watched him like a hawk watches a bug - interested, but perhaps not something to eat.

Kenzie sighed, entirely put out by everything that the world had done to him. “Do you need help?” The other took off, and he congratulated himself on a job well done. He had provided the assistance that was needed, and that was all anybody could ask, after all.

He continued walking, eyes traveling the halls, a sound like many clawed feet brushing the rocks. It was likely just that strange being, doing some strange movement to get to some strange place, and Makenzie put it out of his mind. However, he was getting tired, and rather hungry, and perhaps a small bit lonesome and he wanted to go home. He paused in his walking just to pout, to strike the ground and go “Harumph!” before continuing his relaxed pace. Throwing a little tantrum always made him feel better.

It wasn’t long before the hall opened up and he saw someone else, this one a big and strong (at least, they were somewhat taller than the pink), with a small child by his side, one that looked like it would either rattle when it walked or might just squelch. It didn’t look much like the taller other, but it could be their child. Its other parent would just need to be something strange, vaguely Courser-shaped, and… Kenzie looked back and forth quickly, his face changing to a mask of unconscious, visceral disgust. “You had a child with that thing?” he asked, hoping he sounded equal parts horrified and intrigued, though he really felt next to zero interest. He just wouldn’t look at the child again, thank you very much.

The other looked at him in surprise. “What?! No! Who?” They caught themself, shaking their head as though to clear it. “I don’t have any children. I found him walking by himself, poking into holes that clearly housed something with claws, and thought it might make sense to walk him elsewhere.” They paused a moment, as though to allow their thoughts to all catch up and exit their mouth together. “And - do you know their parent? Also, I’m Prosper.”

Prosper really was entirely too attractive to be the parent of this stringling beast, but Makenzie was not one to judge until he could determine just how harshly he should mete out his judgment - everyone knows that little, snap judgments don’t actually count as real or mean or damaging. “I’m Makenzie, and I’m not sure, but I did see some… being, I suppose, who could be related to all of… that.” Kenzie had never learned to gesture like a human, as he had no mechanical way to gesture with hands he did not own, and he knew less about humans than he did about maps or leaving directions for himself. However, if he HAD been able to gesture, there would have been much of it before the simple summary of “that.” “They have the same… Hmm. Well. They same level of cave to them?”

The other just looked at him, their confusion obviously not placated. “What does that even mean?”

Kenzie snorted dismissively, again gesturing with a hand that would never be real and that he had no context for. “Weren’t you leaving? I thought you were going to show me which way you use to get out of here.”

“I - what? I haven’t been in for long, and I really do feel like I should probably find this child’s parent.” Prosper’s voice was steeped in doubt, the tannins bitter at the back of their tongue, but the paler stallion tried to wash them away.

He sighed, long suffering. “Yes, yes. Of course that’s how we’ll find the thing’s parent - it probably thought that its child went back home when it got lost! And, if not, we can always find others to come search - do you really think you’ll be able to find anyone in this maze? I barely found you, and how much more difficult would it be to find someone that you’re actually looking for - especially when you don’t know what they look like!”

The deeper red courser took a breath, holding it gently while they thought. “That does make sense, I suppose.”

Makenzie shook his head, a droll smile kissing his lips with sweet little twist. “Of course it does! It was your idea - I just helped you to flesh it out (here he would have apologized to the child had he had any respect for it, but he did not know that was even a possibility) so that we knew what we were doing. So, shall we go?”

And they left, with Prosper guiding the way and only getting lost when Makenzie thought they were going the wrong direction.

Now, before anyone gets worried for poor Creature and its small, wet child, they were reunited eventually. Likely hours after they would have been, had Prosper and Kenzie actually looked - Kenzie could have backtracked, after all, and he never did end up telling the deeper red what the thing’s possible-parent might have looked like, but the ends justify the means! Don’t they?