Casey coughed and groaned as he blinked. He was on his back, looking up at the sunlit hole in the sky, dirt all over his jersey and even in his shoes. His hearing first only caught the nearby sounds of dust and pebbles tumbling on the ground near him. As his vision came back, so did his hearing, and he could hear the distant muffled sounds of Robbie calling his name.
"Case! CASE! Casey, dude!"
Casey winced as he stretched his arms and groaned louder. Robbie was able to finally hear that noise. "Oh thank fugg... Dude, you good?"
The kangaroo paused and rolled his eyes. "Ohh... Damn, man... I'm... alive!"
"Yeah, no shit! But, like... concussion? Are you paralyzed? Hurt? Do I need to call an ambulance?"
Casey slowly rolled up to a sitting position. He looked down at his legs, slowly rubbing them. They didn't feel broken. Nothing felt numb or stinging. He placed his hand on his forehead and didn't feel any bumps or cuts. "I... I think I'm alright!"
Then he stood, looking up at the opening. "Whoa... That was quite a trip!"
Robbie looked nervous, but more relieved than he was a few seconds before. "Shit, dude..." He reached down as best as he could into the pit, stretching his arm out to his friend. "Here."
In the pit, Casey took a look around. Towards two sides of the pit, it looked like the walls were receded further into the darkness. But after a second glance, Casey noticed the walls only receded because they led further in those two opposite directions. "Hey, dude... I wonder where this goes."
"Goes? What do you mean?"
"It's a tunnel."
Robbie hesitated, processing what Casey said. Then he slowly stood up and backed up, retracting his hand. "Uh... a tunnel? Hell, man, I don't think I'm in the mood for cave exploring today. Not here!"
Casey ducked down and started walking to one end. He saw a bunch of dirt clods and rocks fallen into the tunnel a short distance away, blocking his progress. He crouch-walked back to the hole. Looking up, he could see the scaffolding of the abandoned construction site. The sky was starting to turn an amber color.
Robbie's face was visible from a short distance away. "It's getting late, man. We gotta get home, or else our parents..."
"Yeah yeah, I know, man." All the same, Casey looked the other tunnel direction. And he started crouch-walking there. "I'm just gonna check to see if it's something. Not going to go down it, I promise!"
Robbie was about to vocalize his protest, but his friend was already out of sight. Casey didn't have to go far to see that the tunnel was able to keep going that direction, leading further, somewhere. He placed his hand on the wall and gasped, smiling to himself. Wow, this definitely looked cool!
Upon placing his hand on the wall, though, Casey felt a strange sensation. He looked at his hand and pulled it back slowly. On his hand was some sort of strange, sticky substance. On the wall was a spot of even stranger, oily-black stuff. The kangaroo tried rubbing the stuff off his hand, only to get it on his other hand. He kept trying to wipe it off of his hands, vigorously rubbing his hands together to try to roll it off.
A slight stinging sensation revealed that he didn't get out of his fall without a scratch -- apparently there were small cuts on his hands made from him landing on rock fragments and harder dirt clods. His broken skin stung as the sticky stuff pulled at the wounds and opened them slightly, causing Casey to vocally gasp. He carefully used his fingertips to peel off the sticky stuff and remove the sticky resin from his hands, and he threw the balled-up substance onto the ground.
Looking at the ground, he noticed that the floor of the tunnel in front of him also had a patch of this oily, sticky stuff. He was a few centimeters away from stepping in it. Then he looked to the sides of the tunnel. He could see the shine of the oily surfaces further down the tunnel until darkness ruled it. All but a small hint of some light source further down the tunnel, almost beckoning him.
"Case! Come on, we gotta go, man..."
The kangaroo was shaken out of his stupor, and he turned back to the entrance, briefly looking over his shoulder to the tunnel before leaving.
At the tunnel's newest entrance, Casey easily hopped up and out, landing next to a distraught Robbie. "Phew... You okay, man?" The thylacine helped brush off some dirt and mud from his friend's clothes and fur. Casey shook himself to get some dust off. Ehh, it was an attempt.
Casey spread his arms out as if to display himself or bow to his audience of one. "Yeah, I'm just fine. All in one piece after all, huh?"
Robbie just shook his head incredulously as Casey walked to a cinder block pile off to the side, picking up his basketball. "Dude... I'm glad it was you and not me. I'd have a sprained ankle, for sure. Or worse!"
"Robbie, I'm fine! Really! Sometimes, I feel you ought to take drama classes or something, man."

"Honestly, Casey, for how well you lie, I feel you ought to take drama classes or something." Casey's mom held out Casey's soiled jersey in her hands. "Got into a tussle, my foot. You're lucky that it was only your hands that got scraped up a bit."
"Oh, cut him some slack, Violet baby," Casey's father's voice preceded him as he walked into the room. "The boys are adventurers. You can't just deny boys their adventures, not at their age. Remember when we were that young?"
Violet shot Jonah a glare, before sighing and shaking her head. "I'm just happy that it just ended in a dirty shirt. But keep away from abandoned work sites from this point on, okay hun?"
The topless roo raised his hands and shrugged. "I promise, Mom. No more."
She put her hands at her hips and sighed in defeat. "Alright, then. Wash your hands and help set the table. I know you have some test to study for, so let's not keep your father hungry."
Jonah chuckled as he shuffled his way to the dining room. Casey made his way to the bathroom to wash his hands, wondering if Robbie was getting a similar chiding from his folks next door.
As he ran water over his hands, Casey recalled the feeling of that sticky stuff on his hands. What was that? It looked like oil, but it looked too solid, right? Too... fresh. What could've made that?

Little had he known that earlier that evening, inside that tunnel, as he was leaving, a skittering came from further down the tunnel. A careful hand hovered over the wad of discarded sticky substance, before three clawed fingers grabbed it. The ball was easily molded in the creature's hand as if it was putty, before it was brought up to the creature's tooth-ringed maw. A slender tongue slithered out and passed once over the mixture, tasting it.
The creature snorted lightly. Tasting its own wax wasn't that pleasant of an experience -- it was too bitter, not salty enough, to be tasty.
But within the mixture, the creature did detect something.
Filtering out the tastes of the dirt with which it was familiar, and the taste of the wax, the creature tasted something new. The scent of another creature. Young, able-bodied, masculine.
In a flash the critter descended back into the depths of its tunnel system, contemplating the stranger's presence. Wondering if its dreams, its curiosities... could be answered by him. Whoever he was. Wherever he went.
It decided to wait and see.