The Tangle court dismissed, bring in the dancing lobsters

No one speaks out against the idea, instead they both shift and prepare for the hike ahead of them, she turns on her heels and picks what she thinks will be the easiest path. She doesn’t say anything at first, realizing she’d had some questions for Easy that she can’t ask in the presence of Artaax and well, she also can’t say a word to Artaax that can allude to anything that may or may not have happened between them. The last thing she needs is someone suspicious, especially after her night with Blixen.

Mallaidh is careful, far more graceful than Artaax would give her credit before, but it doesn’t stop the occasional slip of her paw when loose grovel rocks beneath her feet. If she’d known Artaax’s thought, she’d have scoffed and worked harder to prove him wrong.

Eventually, she comes to a stop on a flat-topped ridge, turning and waiting for the other two to finish their descent. The only way down is a sharp decline, about twenty feet downward, that certainly wouldn’t kill them but would give them a bumpy ride with one wrong slip. Mallaidh peers over, uncertain she wants to be the first to make it down.