Private [DGF and OriginalLelis]

[DGFone]

Kopa shook his head. "No, I've never been that far out," he said, "but hey, there's three of us. What can go wrong?" They continued walking along the edge of the gorge, which stubbornly refused to end.

But after some time, they finally arrived at a place that looked promising. Instead of the vertical cliffs that made up most of the gorge, they got to a place with lots of boulders. And these, at least Kopa thought, looked passable. "Hey, guys I think we get across here," he told the others and scampered up a rock to get a better view. "Yeah, it looks like the gorge is ending. And over there- ooh..." His voice trailed off as his eyes fell on what lay past the gorge. Not on the other side, but down below them: a vast expanse of ground like they never saw before.

Delano followed Kopa up the rock to see what got the cub's attention so well. When he saw the flat lands, he too was amazed. "Oh, wow," he breathed out, "hey, Awali! You gotta see this!" He turned to Kopa. "Think we can go there instead? It looks so strange..."

[Awali]

As Awali painfully jogged to see what Kopa and Delano were talking about, his jaw dropped. "Whoa," he said, quite surprised. "What is that?" he asked to no one in particular. "It looks so.. awesome. We should go see what's down there!"

"I'll race you both to the bottom," Awali said excitedly, forgetting the pain in his ankle. "Though, Kopa," he said, turning to his friend, "I'd hate to see Delano lose. Maybe we should give him a head start."

Awali began to scan the way down, looking for a quick way down, to give him an edge over Delano, who would probably decide to run as fast as he could right over the large rocks.

[DGFone]

Delano grinned at Awali's challenge. "You're on," he said, "first to the bottom is a snail!" But Awali was right about one thing: they really should go and see what is down below there. "Just say when and we can get down there."

Kopa grinned at the other two cubs. "Race or not, let' really see what's down there." One look at Awali told him that there would in fact be a race. "Alright then, Awali, on your word..."

All three cubs crouched down in preparation of the race to the bottom, and to the border of the Pridelands.

[Awali]

"Alright then.. Ready.." Awali said as he watched the cubs tensed, waiting for the start. "Get set.." Awali knew for sure he would win this race. He almost always does, though Kopa has been known to win here and there. Awali designated the path he was going to take already: To the left of the cubs, there was a less-rocky path to the bottom, meaning more speed.

Looking around, he saw Delano & Kopa were quite ready to race. He shouldn't keep them waiting, though it would be an unfair advantage.

"Go!" he shouted as he attempted to dart across the rocky cliff, heading for the path he had noted earlier.

[DGFone]

When Awali called it, Delano and Kopa darted off towards the rocky section of the downhill. While it was the straightest path, it was also the slowest. Kopa raced Delano, having lost sight of Awali almost right away. "I'm going to beat you!" Kopa shouted, making himself run as fast as he dared on the rough ground. Next to him, Delano fared not much better as the two cubs stumbled their way down.

Finally reaching solid ground again, Delano broke away from Kopa, out sprinting his way to the border, and when he reached it, he turned around to gloat at Kopa when the slower cub also reached the end. "Ha! So much for you beating me!" Delano taunted. "Now you were saying something about... oh, darn.." Delano spotted Awali nearby, looking at them with a smug grin. So while Delano beat Kopa, he wasn't the first one to get there.

[Awali]

"Well I suppose that means I won!" Awali gloated. Delano looked quite confused by the fact that he lost to Awali, while not seeing him once during the whole race.

He looked around. It was a truly awe-inspiring scene, especially when looking back up where they had started racing. It was a lot farther down than he originally guessed. "This place is amazing!" Awali said quite loudly, creating an echo.

A lot of time had passed walking here, and the sun was almost below the horizon. The winds were starting to pick up, too. He turned towards the other cubs. "So, what do you want to do while we're here? It's losers pick, so you choose, Kopa," Awali chuckled.

There was so much to explore, and so little time to do so.

[DGFone]

Kopa looked around, not knowing where to go. Eventually his eyes fell on the place beyond the border. He knew that he really shouldn't go there, but it looked harmless enough, and now that they were actually here, they might as well go here. "Let's go over there," he said, and began to trot over to the desert. "Wow, I've never seen anything like this before," he muttered.

Delano and Awali followed Kopa to the desert, amazed as the hard rocky ground turned into soft flowing sand. "This is so weird," Delano said, pawing the sand. "It's so... dry." He didn't see any plants anywhere except for the occasional bush.

The wind started to get stronger, but the cubs didn't know that they should have been wary of it. So when gusts of air became strong enough to lift up sand in the air, Kopa ran towards the wave. "Hey, look! The air's picking up the ground!"

[Awali]

"This is insane!" Awali shouted, running full speed into a wave of sand. When he had enough speed, he jumped one of the moving waves of sand. When he landed, he remembered his injury. The reminder: sharp, crippling pain.

"Aaah!" Awali let out, as he fell to the ground. The winds were ever prevailing, and he could hear Kopa, but not see him. "Kopa! Where are you?" he yelped as loud as he could. He could move, but not very fast, nor easily. They needed to get out of here, fast. There was only one problem, there was no way Awali would be able to climb back up the rocks to the edge of the gorge.

Delano was nowhere to be found, either. For all Awali knew, he went back home. Or, he's with Kopa.

Just then, he spotted a small rock outcropping, at the edge of the horizon. He needed to find his friend, and get there before the wind picked them up and threw them apart.

Awali began walking up the side of one of the shrinking dunes, sand blowing in his face the whole time. He spotted his friend Kopa, along with Delano, looking around, probably for him. "Hey, over here," he shouted, and they looked in his direction, squinting into the blinding sandstorm.Awali started limping as fast as he could down the side of the dune towards his friends. On his way down the shallow yet tall incline, Awali stumbled, rolling the rest of the way down. He kept his eyes on the prize, which was getting him and his friend, along with Delano, safely to the outcrop.

He had to keep going. He was almost to Kopa.

[DGFone]

Kopa chased Delano around on the sand, and temporarily forgot about Awali until he heard his friend call out for help. "Awali? Where are you?" Kopa shouted, looking around for his friend. "Delano, do you see him? Awali!"

The wind was now getting very strong and the sand blowing in the air was making seeing anything rapidly more difficult.

Delano was busy running away from Kopa, but he also heard Awali, and slowed down. He quickly ran back to Kopa. Together, the two of them ran up to a rocky outcrop where they might see more. "I don't.. there he is!" He pointed down to where Awali was struggling toward them. "Come on!" He told Kopa and jumped down, running towards Awali.

When Delano jumped down to get to Awali, Kopa hesitated. He wasn't sure that it would be a good idea to leave the safety of the rock he was on. But when a particularly strong gust of wind fully covered his two friends, Kopa had enough. He jumped down and ran towards them.

Kopa saw that Awali was limping rather badly by now. "We need to get out of here!" He said, more shouting than anything just so that he can be heard. He turned back to the rocky outcrop he left when he stopped. It was very close to them, but already, he wasn't able to see it. The sandstorm they walked into already made him lost and disoriented. "Come on," he said, making sure that he was able to know where Delano and Awali were.

Picking what he hoped was the direction that would lead them back to safety, Kopa lead his two friends through the blinding storm.

[Awali]

Awali kept pushing towards what he believed was safety with his friends. He couldn't see anything, but Kopa appeared to be knowing where he was going. The pain in his leg was overpowering, almost too much so. The other two cubs were walking at a much faster pace than he was able to, thanks to his leg.

"Kopa, slow down! I'm injured!" he said as loud as he could, though the wind was drowning him out. It was now a fully-fledged sandstorm. Blinding, fast, and disorienting. He thought his friend heard him, which was confirmed when he slowed down, though he didn't stop. It appeared Delano did not hear him, sadly.

"We're not going to last very long out in the storm like this. We need to find somewhere to hide, quickly!" To add to all the pain, his voice was beginning to get raspy, which means he may lose his voice soon.

Awali kept scanning the horizon, until finally, he spotted what appeared to be an oasis: The Sun was shining, the trees were nice and shady, though somehow it appeared to be midday there, and there was a nice pool of water, with a small cave to hide in. "K.. Kopa, this way! There's the perfect spot over in this direction!"

In reality, while it was still shelter, Awali was actually leading himself and Kopa to what was only another rocky outcrop. Not the 'oasis' he though was ahead of them.

"Come on, Kopa," Awali said, "..we.. we're almost there. Don't give up now!" When the cubs finally made it, the sun had gone down. All Awali could think was Pain, Tired, Sleep, and that's exactly what he did, then and there: slept like he had never slept before.