the place is crawling with danger. nikolaj is probably having a heart attack right now because the radio signal is on the fritz down here and her phone's been offline for hours. 

sweat glistens on her skin, but her eyes are bright. she wouldn't say she's had it easy so far, but she's on an exploratory team, and her group's been kept away from some of the rocket skirmishes she's heard about through the grapevine. 

igor is at her side, ready to move the earth around if and when they find their missing companion. 

"yes! we're super ready!" she says and peers down into the chasm. most people are afraid of small spaces. not sasky. she buzzes with anticipation, forgets her own safety wear, and scrapes down into the crevice. 

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"pshh, naw," she says. overconfidence is going to get her killed one of these days, but she can't be stopped now, and besides the gravel underneath her is kind of sliding and even if she wanted to trek back up, it'd be difficult. 

oops. 

fear knifes through her - too little, too late - and she yelps as she stumbles. igor rolls into a ball and cushions her fall, but she looks up, dazed, at robin and is too thin-lipped to manage more than a weak, "...i'm okay."

and then, after a breath, "maybe i need a hat."

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the hard hat goes on! she blinks owlishly, and very gratefully, at robin while she secures the straps under her chin. it's a bit tight. she has a big head. but now she's perfectly safe!

sin goes on ahead and igor uncurls, trunk spraying grit as he hobbles after them. some of the moisture in the air gathers on the rock and aside from their shuffling are the intermittent drips. she crouches and her fingers find damp rock. 

"oh, it'd be so cool if we found, like, an underground waterfall or something! there's gotta be a lake with all this moisture around."

except it's not a lake. igor trumpets as softly as he can manage while warning the girls to stop in their tracks. 

poor andrew is suspended from a rope, legs tucked against his chest, while the craziest two-tailed blue monster snaps up at him. water sprays with every crack of its jaws and sasky startles. 

"oooh!"

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the scary puppy looks confused for a moment. sasky's eyes are starry, adoration aglow on her face. she practically bounces on the balls of her feet, crowing about how "amazing! that was amazing!" poor andrew doesn't seem to think it's amazing though. 

he stands there in shock until he keels into her, gripping her ranger jacket for dear life. he's a couple inches shorter than her so she awkwardly wraps her arms around him and says, "um, okay. we're - we're gonna get you out of here and...err, robin?"

the twin-tailed pupper is no longer confused. in fact, it knows exactly where its prey is and it intends to take back what was snatched away from it. 

"igor, go!" the donphan rolls out, spraying rocks behind him and saskia shoves andrew back the steep slope from whence they came.

"there's a rope attached! climb!" the earth shakes and rocks start to fall. 

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saskia at least has the sense to recall igor as soon as he's stopped the monster in its tracks. good thing, too, because those claws do some damage when they hit nothing but the earth. 

she pants, praying she doesn't fumble with his ball and drop it into the cavern. rocks spray overhead as robin calls orders and she thinks oh my god oh my god oh my god and honestly, stops remembering what she's doing. she just lets her body go through the motions until suddenly she's standing beside robin, who is pulling out a medkit and is all business. 

"oh. no, i - " she starts and looks herself over. "i think i'm okay."

she plops down onto the ground and shakily takes a swig of water while robin tends to andrew, who seems just as much in shock as sasky. 

"you're incredible, robin," she says with a sigh, and just a tad bit of envy laces her affectionate words. 

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