Charlie trotted down a recently excavated tunnel, his large mesh bag dragging along the dirty ground, occasionally tripping him up, causing him to stumble along for a few moments, before hurriedly regaining his balance and continuing on at a steady pace. His white and red fur was streaked with brown from the dirt and dust constantly being disturbed in the mines, and was twisted in several intricately matted masses of knots.
The words to his special song were running around his brain, filling his every thought and movement, giving him a spring in his step and a gleam in his eye as he searched for the special blue rocks. He often wondered why the humans were so intent on getting the dogs to find the blue rocks. Why couldn't they come down here and do it themselves? It seemed as if they were afraid of something. None of the dogs were really sure, but Charlie wasn't too worried about it. He didn't mind being down here… Much.
A flash of blue amongst brown caused him to skitter to a stop, nose twitching as he scampered towards the blue gold, as the other dogs liked to call it. He carefully clamped his small jaws around the rock, pulled the back open with his feet, and placed the rock inside. He licked his chops, grimacing at the rather foul taste. Even though he had been collecting the rocks all his life, he still couldn't get over the taste; like dirt mixed with powdery….yucky things.
He was just about to trot off back down the tunnel when a dog pushing a mine cart went flying past. He yelped loudly, leaping back against the wall of the tunnel, feeling the vibrations as they rumbled through the ground and up the walls, circling up into the roof and rumbling up through the layers of dirt and rock and minerals. The cart passed, rattling off down the tunnel, and Charlie slowly padded back onto the old rusty rails. He glanced around, his ears quivering as the rocks around him continued to rumble. His nose twitched, and he quickly scooped up his bag of blue rocks. He could feel the vibrations through his paws, and he turned to run off back the way he'd come.
There was a loud crack and rumble, and a section of the tunnel roof fell away about ten metres from him. He yelped loudly and spun around, dropping his bag of blue rocks to sprint down the tunnel. Behind him, sections of the roof were falling away, sending clouds of dust and dirt sweeping over him, urging him to run faster. He skittered around a corner, and came to a fork in the tunnel. He slid to a halt, panting loudly, and glanced behind him. The tunnel was still collapsing, but he didn't think it would continue down the fork. At least, he hoped it wouldn't.
Drawing in a deep breath, he yelled, "Tunnel collapsing! Take cover! Find another way back!" down the left tunnel, then raced down the right tunnel, shouting as he ran. "The tunnel's collapsing! Take cover! Find another way back!"
He ran, then he stumbled, then he crashed right into another dog, sending them both skidding across the dirt. He yelped on impact, and cried out each time he hit a rock or bump in the ground, before he dug his claws into the ground and slid to a halt. He sat up, aching all over, then saw the dog also laying in a filthy mess just ahead of him. He trotted over, and nudged the dog anxiously. "Uh, hey? You okay? Sorry for uh, running into you, but I uh, kind of, uh, almost got dead."
{{woo drama and openness for anyone hinthint yey}}