That's the roundest turd that I've ever seen! And my brother has goats—giant goats!

[ they run, and Loki keeps pace with her. it splotches sickly toward them—splat splat splat—gaining traction. he can't pick up his pace without putting more pressure on her injury, so he doesn't. there's a certain level of independence that he doesn't intrude upon her, but it looks like they're either going to both go under, or he'll have to deem this one of those times that he has to violate that personal pact.

so, he violates it.

very gracefully.

the next step they take half a leap, and his arm slings around her hips and pivots her forward with her next step. it almost—almost—would be like he was causing her to trip, but he catches her under the knees and hefts her into his arms. the pace picks up as he kicks through the muck, the soles of his feet beginning to glow as he treads above the wet slop so his feet don't stick. ]

There's magic here! [ he says as he runs. ] It won't allow me to breech the top of the maze. Very annoying. [ the ball gains on them and Loki hisses under his breath. ] Crapcrapcrapcrap ...

We'll have to be cleverer.