“Cedric.” Wake up. “Cedric!” Brie pushes and prods Cedric but to no avail. He remains asleep.

“Hah, this is going to be fun.” Patrick says, thundering up the stairs with a bucket of ice water. Sloshing it around.

“Cedric — wake up. We’ve got to go.” Brie pinches him in the arm. “You wanna wake up.” She says, as she sees Patrick emerge into the room.

Splash.

“Ugh.” Cedric groans, drenched in water. “What, where — oh.”

“Well, get up then son.” Patrick booms.

“Alright Pat.”

“And call me pa.” He ads.

“My parents are still out there. I know it. I just do.”

Patrick grunts and walks out of the room. “He’s not exactly a morning person.” Brie says. “But between you and I, I think dad’s got a soft spot in there somewhere, between the cart full of food.”

They chuckle. “But he’s not my father. Mine’s still out there somewhere.” Cedric says in a serious note.

“Alright. Just try to not keep your hopes up. I mean, no one could have survived — should have survived that.”

Cedric gives a nod.

“Change into your school robes, you’ll be needing them anyways.”

Cedric with his soaked clothes continues on saying, “I know there out there.”

She leaves the room and shuts the door behind her. “Wait a minute. There’s a school here.” Cedric mutters to himself, letting the realization sink in. “Aw man!”

Cedric, walking down the stairs, notices that Brie’s now in her school robes too, identical to his, like a hoodie but one piece, pieced together with long flowy pants, all black in color except a symbol on the right of the chest, a white rabbit peeking out of a tophat. Balanos’ purple robes show a wolf, bear and elk head, all circled around each other.

“Take this.” Balanos says, handing him a stack of toast. “We’ve got to get going.”

The three of them step outside, wave goodbye to Patrick and set off across the same trail they were on only the day before.

“Shouldn’t be long now.” Balanos says.

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“During the day Hodgepodge Maze, this trail, won’t confuse us.” Brie ads.

Cedric is very confused at the statement. Confused at why it won’t confuse them, but then realizes that the hour or so journey from yesterday, is already almost over. Looking back behind him, he can see the house, and in front of him he can see Snapdragon city. No twists or turns this time.

Then comes a scream. Resonating through the forest.

Cedric dives into the forest from the direction the sound came. “No Cedric!” Brie yells after him.

“Brie, stay here.” Balanos says. Sprinting after Cedric. “Cedric — Cedric, come back! It’s not what you think!”

Deep into the forest, where the dense pine trees cast long shadows and block the light, Cedric keeps running, “Where are you? Balanos they need our help!”

The screams rather abruptly stop. All that can be heard now are the pleading yells from Balanos, calling him back.

“I’m over here!” He calls out.

Then from all angles come dozens of shrieks. Ear splitting wails, each as loud as a jet engine. Holding his ears tight, Cedric falls to the ground, shaking all over. The things making the screaming crawl towards Cedric. Shrunken heads upon long, shriveled bodies. All having the same, thin threads of white hair.

Now being more than fifty of them, they crawl forward as a pack, surrounding him from all angles, bloodying and tearing themselves up from the rocks and roots, all giving the screams. More and more come, now an uncountable number, covering every spot in sight. All hurradly crawling towards their prey.

An instinct kicks in, inside Cedric’s head. He seizes his wand from the depths of his robes and points it up towards the sky. From it comes a great purple fire. Whirling around and around, forming that of a giant flaming bird, attacking and warding off the onslaught of creatures.

Balanos leaps into the circle of fire. “We’ve got to get out of here.” She shouts through the screams. “Back to the path.”

“I — I can’t hold it any longer.” Cedric shouts, staggering backwards and lowering his arm. The fire smolders and settles down into ashes, allowing the creatures forward passage.

“Get, away, from him!” Balanos holds her wand up to the sky and cuts an X, funneling a vortex of air, pushing the creatures back.

They run back in the direction of the path, Cedric taking double the strides to keep up with Balanos. He leaps over one of the creatures. Balanos cuts the air with her wand again, pushing another back.

They are now in view of the path. Brie with an open mouth points back behind them. Joining the creatures is Cedric’s most dreaded nightmare. With two of it’s gigantic strides the woebegone reaches them and slashes at Cedric, gouging a deep cut in his side. Balanos sends it flying back in the wind.

With another swish of her wand; roots come out from the ground, wrapping around the woebegone, but it quickly tears free. Cedric takes a leap over a root and falls into the path.

Balanos raises her wand up, forcing one of the creatures into the air, smashing it into the woebegone, cuts the air again and sends them both flying back. The woebegone crashes into an oak tree. Balanos then falls back onto the path.

Brie, tending to Cedric’s wound, spouts water out of her wand, cleansing it.

“Get up! Let’s go.” Cedric says, pushing Brie off of him.

“Cedric. We’re fine now.” Brie says.

The woebegone and some ten or more of those creatures punch and slash at the edge of the path, blocked by an invisible barricade. The woebegone gives a ram into the path before running off in the opposite position, followed by the other creatures, crawling after it.

Brie presses her wand back against Cedric’s wound. “Ahh.” Cedric groans.

“Oh, sorry.”

“I got it.” Balanos puts an open hand over the wound, producing new skin over it, giving Cedric a strange sense of numbness. “Lucky it wasn’t very deep.” Balanos says, standing up and starting forward to Snapdragon city.