Her thoughts had been so far away they might as well have been located on the other side of the land mass, that it took her more than just a few moments to realise she wasn't moving, and with a quick test of her legs, a second realisation that she couldn't move. Not one to panic immediately at the first sign of something wrong, Inoki began to think about her situation methodically. Three legs up to just below her knees and elbow were firmly embedded in the strange sand, and even some intense upwards tugging was unable to get any of them free. Her front left leg was only sunken to the ankle, and after some twisting and tugging she was able to wrench it free. She scraped away at the sand with her free paw, but the sand merely burbled and slid back into the clawed trench she was making like she had never even attempted the action. Pushing all her weight to one side in an attempt to pop free her back left leg only resulted in her right side limbs sinking deeper into the sand. Okay, now she was beginning to panic, but just a little bit. "Help! Is anyone out there?" Inoki called out with a short howl, hoping there was someone nearby who could get her free.

Aster flew over from the Soulless Forest, heading directly towards the howling wolf to investigate. Fortunately for Inoki, Aster was a curious sort who was far too interested in what idiotic nonsense was happening to fear the large mammal. She dipped her left wing and began circling Inoki.

As much as Aster loved the foggy atmosphere of the Soulless Forest, the wolf neighbors ruined her vibe. First a wolf disturbed her sleep and stole directly from her. And now this wolf tried killing herself by traversing the dangerous quicksand puddles?

“Hey, you, I see you! Don’t panic, you’ll only slide in deeper.” Aster called. Even after her terrible experience with Medusa, she wasn’t going to leave an innocent animal to suffer in quicksand—it was a fate she wouldn’t wish on even that awful thief. “This is going to sound crazy, but lie on your side! You won’t sink as fast, and you can use that time to work the rest of your legs free. Can you do that?”

He'd been traveling, mostly to build his endurance up again, and paused, ears pricking forward as a short howl reached his ears - a call for help. He started forward, then rocked back on his haunches as he felt the ground beneath his hooves give. He stepped back and lowered his head, letting his whiskers trail over the sand. Treacherous place this; he'd have to go carefully. His horned head rose and he called above to Isolde. "Check ahead, would you please, Isolde?" The hawk tip-tiped her wings in the air and wheeled off ahead in the direction the howl had come from, large golden eyes picking out the dark wolf moored in the quicksand and the bluejay chirping directions. The hawk dropped to the ground nearby, adding, "A friend's coming. He's large and strong enough to pull you out. I am Isolde, and his name is Taliesyn." Her voice was crisp and efficient, and she pushed off into the air, winging back to the stallion to report. The horse nodded and began picking his way through the veritable minefield, testing with whisker and tentative hooves for solid ground that didn't give underhoof until he spotted the situation ahead and gave a rumbling nicker of greeting. Wangui moved along his back and hung from his dock, working his heavy tail into a braided rope as the horse studied the situation closely before stepping forward and lowering his great head to a level with the wolf's, tilted slightly to regard her with one soft teal eye as he he asked, "I can tow you out if you grab my tail in your teeth. What side do you want out on, so you don't have to cross or circle this spot again?" Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think

The answer to her cry for help came swiftly, albeit not in the form she was expecting. A small blue-coloured bird appeared and began circling above her, offering some actually helpful advice. Inoki stopped her struggling, even though every instinct told her to continue trying to get her limbs free. It seemed to work, and even as the sand burbled around her she didn't feel herself sinking any deeper, but she couldn't very well stay there forever. Her head tipped back to look up at the bird, ears flattening back along her skull as it continued to speak. This bird was correct, the very idea of laying on her side as she was slowly devoured by the wet sand was quite preposterous, but she didn't have much else of a choice. "You'd better be right about this," she grunted as she did her best to tip herself to the right, allowing her left front leg to wave in the air as she began to slowly work at freeing her left hind leg. The sand squelched into her fur and even into her fur, and she gritted her teeth as she twisted and turned her hind leg until it popper free. Well now she had two legs to use at the very least. Another bird appeared, this time a hawk, and she blew a sharp burst of air between her teeth. Why were there so many birds about all of a sudden? Inoki nodded at the hawk, hope blossoming inside her at hearing a large and strong creature was on its way to pull her free. Even with half her body out, she would have struggled immensely to crawl her way to hard ground without getting stuck again. "Please hurry!" She wanted nothing more than to be free and able to walk freely again, and the thought of drowning in the sand was a terrifying way to die. It didn't take long for an enormously large horse to appear, and she was so caught up in her despair that any of the strangeness of the horse went unnoticed, as her tail began to tap loudly against the wet sand where she lay. "Alright, if you're sure my teeth won't hurt you. And over that way, away from the volcano." Inoki motioned with her free front paw in the direction directly opposite from where the volcano lay in the distance. She was very thankful for all these wonderful creatures who were offering her assistance, and didn't want to think what would've happened had she not been found by them.

“Trust me!” Aster chirped. She sounded offended, as the idea of her giving deadly advice offended her to the core. “I have absolutely nothing to gain if you drown in quicksand, right?”

The hawk’s arrival, however, terrified the blue jay. She drifted out of her circular path and flew higher to stay away from the bird of prey—too far away to catch what the hawk said, though she heard the wolf—and though she remained overhead, she didn’t resume the circular flight, even though it took much more effort to evasively fly.

Aster softly cursed to herself. Of course she ran into a hawk in a place with absolutely no cover at all, not even a bush. If there were trees or scrubs to hide in or weave around, she’d have felt much better about the two’s arrival. Their presence might mean the wolf got saved, but Aster hoped that didn’t mean she’d end up on the menu.

“I’d offer to help with the braid—” Aster said to the horned horse. “—but, uh, I’m not convinced the hawk won’t eat me. I can watch for quicksand up here! But if that hawk attacks me, I’m out.”

The wolf's response brought a rumble of a chuckle to the horse's chest, nostrils flickering as he assured, "I've had foals latched onto the end tugging away and only lost a few hairs. They played rough. It's when only a small amount is grabbed that I lose hair and feel it." Isolde clicked her beak as she caught the jay's remark, regarding her with one golden eye as she landed on the stallion's back. "I prefer small mammals like rabbits and mice. Birds are too stringy." There was a hint of laughter in her crisp voice. The stallion shifted, swinging his hind end around, and Wangui clung to his tail with her lemur hands, swinging the end of the braided tail out over the wuicksand to the wolf as Taliesyn lowered his hind end enough to make grabbing for the tail easier, calling around his shoulder, "Now, as you're coming out, shake your legs like you're trying to get water out of your fur after a swim. Rapid friction helps loosen the grip fo the sand, especially at an angle." He waited until Wangui patted his haunch once the wolf had clamped down, then leaned forward, letting his weight gradually pull forward as he inched forward, steady and patient. Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think

The little blue bird seemed offended, and had Inoki not been in a very traumatic situation she might've apologised, but as such she merely offered a noise of agreement as she struggled to lay on her side, her two remaining stuck legs making the position quite difficult to achieve. The conversation between the two birds went by completely unnoticed as she shifted her focus to the horse, hanging on to his every word. Well, if he said it was alright, then she'd grab on as tightly as she could. Getting free of the sand was her number one priority in that moment. The primate on the horses back flung the braided tail closer, and she stretched out her body, extending her neck as far as it could go so she could grab as high up the braid as she could reach, hoping that'd make it easier and less painful for the horse to pull her out. Clamping down tightly, Inoki looked up as he spoke again, a muffled affirmation escaping her mouth in response to his directions. "Al'igh'!" As he began to pull she shook her two legs that were still suctioned tightly in the wet sand, using her free limbs to provide a bit of leverage, even though in doing so they sunk a little bit into the side. But it seemed to work, and the more her stuck limbs became free, the easier it felt to shake them around, which in turn made them more free. It took some time, but she eventually felt herself become fully free of the quicksand, and allowed herself to basically be dragged until she reached proper solid ground, before letting go and simply laying on her stomach on the ground. She was so glad to be out of there, and took her time just letting the relief wash over her, before finally lifting her head to look up at all the other animals that had helped her out, gaze shifting between the horse, the primate, and the two birds each in turn. "Thank you, everyone! I don't know what I would've done if you guys hadn't shown up." She let out a deep breath, flexing her toes now that she was beginning to feel a slight ache in her legs from all the struggling. "I'm Inoki."

“Uhhhhhhhhhhh, thanks, I guess?” Aster didn’t know how else to respond to a hawk claiming no interest in eating her because of the flavor of her meat. No way did she believe the hawk. Even if the hawk’s equine companion saved a wolf from quicksand, that didn’t mean shit; the equine couldn’t very well fly to intercept a hawk taking out a blue jay, could he?

“My name’s, uh, Aster!” she chirped to the rescued wolf, in between nervously eyeing that hawk. “I’m glad you’re safe! Very glad! Looks like my assistance is no longer needed! Byyyyeeeeeeeeee!”

Aster’s wings leveled out; she stopped flying in a circle above the quicksand pit, and flew off as quick as she could. Hawks usually killed from above, so she hoped she was safe from the hawk with her back turned. Even so, she would feel much better once she found a forest—or, at the very least, a bush!—to hide in.

// out unless intercepted, she’s terrified of hawks lol