This was it, I had to options, sink or swim, or fight in this circumstance, as we bucked up into the air, I stretched out grabbing hold of my sword in the edged of the raft and pulled it free, rolling through the air with a wild slash which took out another shog as the world around me span, blues, brows and reds mushed into one like I was in the centre of a tumbled dryer as I braced my self to land in the cold water rapids where we would be well and truly dead.
That didn’t happen though, I grunted loudly as I slammed into solid ground, rolling fast across the earth as I bounced violently until I eventually stopped. My body ached with a pain like I had never experienced and I tried to push myself up, my arms were shaking so much that they nearly collapsed under me as I frantically looked around.
“Raven?” I called out, “RAVEN” I couldn’t see her and I panicked, worried that she had not landed on land and been consumed by the rapids, where the shogs would have certainly finished her off.
I don’t know why I was worried because she was absolutely fine, in fact she was more than fine, she was bouncing around like that was the wildest ride of her life, she was so animated, bouncing up and down, signing god knows what at me although this time she wasn’t her aggressive self. She looked happy.
I rolled out my back and let out a huge sigh before another wave of pain tore through my body. Sitting up I looked down at my mangled right leg, the shot had made a right mess of it. Iquickly accessed my inventory and took out one of my potions and I downed it in one, the thick viscous fluid went down like I was drinking warm syrup and instantly the relief was the best sensation. A warmness trickled down my body like something was coating my skin, then there was a hot sting like I had sat in a bath with the water temperature too high, it was oddly satisfying. When I looked at my leg again, the blood was still there, but there was no pain, when I touched my leg there was no shredded skin, there was however a shog tooth, sat next to my leg.
“I am definitely making a necklace out of that.” I said as I stood up and tested that I could walk on my leg ok. It was as if nothing had happened to me, the pain just a memory now and I was so grateful that potions existed in this world. “Next time though, we are taking the long way around.”
Raven gave me a disappointed look, her shoulders dropping.
“Shit the raft,” I said as I spun around to watch it carrying on down the rapids, it looked like the shogs were trailing the raft and not us, which I was grateful for. “Sy is going to be mad, we lost his raft.” To be fair I didn’t really care, he could be as pissed as he wanted to be, it was a miracle we had made it down this far.
“Now all we need to do is find this labyrinth,” I was facing the river, looking round for anything that could point us in the right direction, Raven was stood opposite me. She walked towards me and grabbed hold of my arm, forcing me to spin around. “What are the chances of that,” A head of us was the outer edge of what looked like the opening to a labyrinth, well as best as one could look in the middle of a forest.
Giant hedged walls ran across from one side to other, as far as I could see, they merged with the trees from the forrest, branches and vines inter twinning.
“Holy shit,” I said as I looked on, “Well I guess we found it.”
“Did you guys make it down the river?” Sy’s voice called out in my ear, causing me to jump. The was going to take some getting used to. I raised my hand to my ear, instinctively, not sure how to communicate back, so I just replied.
“Yeah, barely, next time I think you should warn us about the shogs that may want to east us alive.”
“You were attacked by shogs? They are not usually this far down stream, sorry about that. Did you find the labyrinth?”
“We are looking at it right now, it looks kind of ominous.”
“It’s beautiful isn’t it? No idea how it got there but do me a favour, if you come across some Piya Shrooms, will you pick some up for me?”
“I wasn’t aware this was a grocery run,”
Sy set about laughing in my ear, Raven looked on, oblivious to his part of the conversation.
“What do they look like?”
“Pretty much the same a sa toad stool, except these will have purple spots on them.”
“I’ll keep my eye open for them.”
“How about my raft?”
“Yeah that thing didn’t make it, we got tossed off while the shogs were trying to make breakfast from us.”
“Piss it! Ah well guess I will just have to make an other.” There was clear frustration in his voice but at this stage I didn’t care.
“Now magic might get a bit squiffy inside the labyrinth, so I may not be able to communicate with you as clearly, I will still try and touch base though. Remember, you need to get to the centre, that’s where the Orb Of Zephyr is. As soon as you find, =you high tail it out and get your asses back here as fast as possible ok. Just follow the river back up north the way you came and sure enough you will be back here in no time.”
“Erm, how are we going to cross the river when we get back.”
“We will cross that bridge when you get back.”
If only it was that easy, I thought to myself.
“Now keep your wits about you in there, it not going to be easy, that labyrinth is going to play tricks on you, both of you and yes there may be some creatures and monsters in there of varying levels.” Just like that Sy vanished from my ear, leaving me and Raven gawping at the entrance to labyrinth.
The entrance way looked as beautiful as it did deadly, the branches at the entranceway spiralled into a tunnel, natural steps forming between each section like it was a giant ribcage that e were walking into. Red rose like flowers were scattered around in the over growth as well as some orange gerbera, the petals of which were vibrant and fresh. The floral smell was alluring drawing us in closer. The ground had a cobblestone looked to it, stones, placed specifically to create a pathway in, someone had made this, it wasn’t natural. How, how had someone created this place.
Beyond the entranceway I could just see the coiling branches and flowers decorating the sides but as I got closer the entrance it was clear that we needed to be carful, thorns as large as branches protruded from the over growth, from the sides and above, like gnarling teeth waiting to bite down on us at every moment. As we stepped inside, all sound around us was immediately dampened, the roaring noise of the rapids vanished in an instant, the chatter of birds stopped and a looming, heavy sense of dread sat on my chest threatening to suffocate me.
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All I could hear was my own heartbeat, our breathes and footprints as we started to navigate our way through the initial entrance of the labyrinth.
“Try not to touch anything,” I whispered. “We don’t know what this maze can do and Sy said we needed to keep our wits about us.”
Raven didn’t hesitate to draw on her sythes, twirling them in her hands, ready to strike out at anything that might jump out at us. The entrance way was like an illusion, from afar it looked like a winding tunnel but as we walked deeper it was clear the tunnel was getting smaller, the thorns reaching in closer and closer to us until we had no choice but to start hacking at them to clear a oath through.
One of the thorns caught my arm, tearing my shirt and drawing blood from me, but it was only a light scratch. It was enough for me to become more aware, my senses were heightened and I continued to use forward until finally we were through the first section. I I dint realise how much I was holding my breath until we made it through the tunnel and I was no longer crouching, reaching an opened up area.
It was a maze inside a maze, the outer walls reaching up to the tree tops as high as I could see, the flowers dotted around like an ancient tapestry, inwrapped around the walls as if they were holding the growth back from truly taking over the space. In front of us though was a much smaller maze, one that at first glance sat at around my head height. From this vantage point I could see the pathway to the other side.
“Looks easy enough, We can do this one or two ways,” We take a mental shot of the path from this point and then we both go in together. Or you go in an dI will guide you through from here. The second one makes more sense, we are both just more vulnerable if we split up than we are together.”
Raven pointed at herself before then pointing down at the labyrinth, then pointed at me and held her hand up in a stop motion.
“Ok you want me to guide you through, that makes sense. Id rather we stuck together but if that’s what you want to do then ok. Any sign of trouble I will be straight down. Besides i’m pretty sure my dad always said in any kind of maze as long as you keep turning right you will always come out of the other side, or was it the left.”
Raven looked at me like I was talking in riddles and hopped down to the lower area and walked at a crouch until she was at the entrance away of the smaller maze.
“Ok, set off straight then take a left, then a right.”
Raven set off following the directions. They were simple enough to follow.
“Ok now you are going to carry on straight, there will be a turning on your left, ignore it, then your right ignore that too.”
Raven continued forward, slowly, keeping her guard up, understandably. There was no sign of anything else being in here except us. I continued quiding her, but one thing I hadn’t considered was that the further she got from me, the louder I needed to shout. I kept giving commands and Raven continued to follow them but the last couple, it took a second or so from me shouting to her actually moving.
When she reached a cross section, I needed to take a moment to scan ahead to figure out which way it was that I needed to send her.
“Just hang on. Second,” I shouted, my words bounced around like I was skipping a pebble of water, it was disjointed, as it bounced around the labyrinth. Raven remained still, but she was getting farther away and I couldn’t see her as clearly as I liked. “Ok, I think you need to take a right here.”
As Raven took a step forward though she vanished. “Shit!”
I stepped forward and as I did, something snagged on my ankle sending me smashing into the ground, a vine had wrapped around my ankle. One that I sure as shit knew was not there earlier. Without hesitation I reached for my sword and brought it down on the vine, severing it. It squealed like it was a living thing, the shriek cased me to wine and sent a shiver down my spine. The rest of the vine around my ankle fell loose and I kicked it off before scrambling to my feet and sprinting towards the labyrinth.
“Raven, if you can hear me, keep moving!” I cried out as loudly as I could but my echoing words, continued to bounce around me naturally. At one stage it sounded like the echo clapped past me from behind. “I think this place is alive, like it can move on its own!”
I set off at sprint through the entrance, as soon as I passed through the entranceway collapsed in on itself.
I rushed forwards, skipping through the uneven ground, trying to retrace the path that I had given Raven, I had no time to think no time to get this wrong, as the walls behind me continued to collapse in on itself, the ground rumbled, as everything around me tried to consume me.
Was it left then right? Right then left, then straight on?
As easy as I thought it would be there was something about being under this amount of stress that made my memory turn to mush.
Left then right, then straight ahead, I told myself.
Thankfully I was right as I started navigating the path, the walls felt like they were closing from the sides, rustling as if something was ready to jump out at me at any moment.
“Raven,” I called out, “I hope you can hear me, just keep pushing forward. It's collapsing on itself.”
Spiked thorns shot out from the walls, spraying my arm, they felt like bee stings, easy enough for me to ignore but I could only tolerate so many. Vines started whipping out that I either had to cut through, hop over or duck as I continued to push forward, tracing my memory as best a Is could, the last thing I wanted was to hit a dead end. Another spray of Thors fired at me, this time from my right hand side, they made the sound of multiple blow darts as they covered my left arm, one or two snagging into my neck. I swatted them away like mosquitos, my focus solely on getting the hell out of here.
The wall, the ground, everything skipped past me so fast I barely had time to think which way I needed to turn, I just took the direction I though was the right one and thankfully it seemed to be so.
When I reached the second cross section I knew this was where I saw Raven last, I scanned around quickly, sure that I had said to turn right, but did I. My brain was in hyper mode and I was overthinking everything.
“Raven, RAVEN!”
The ground continued to rumble, enough to case me to stumble slightly, I was a head of the collapsing walls but they were catching up with me after than I liked.
Try as I might I just couldn’t remember which way it was, I was about to to turn right certain this was the way I had told Raven to go when I noticed a scuff mark on the ground, a line in the dirt, it was a mark made by hands, I could see the tracks raking the soil. Then there were red settles sporadically scattered on the ground.
“Raven you genius!”
I sprinted, following the petals, raising my arms to shield me whenever the walls sprayed the next line of dart, thorns at me. I had gotten used to the sting now, my legs were tiring and my breath was heavy, I activated my berserker skill once more, hoping it would help me keep going through. My vision turned to a red tinge, as my energy levels increased, suddenly I no longer felt tired and as hard as I ran, I did not lose any breathe.
I felt like I had drank a potion of invigoration as I sprinted fast and hard, continuing to follow the petals, as the collapsing walls seemed to speed up behind me, I could feel the whoosh of air on my heels as I continued to hop over some loose vines and roots that were protruding out of the ground.
As I rushed around a corner, I nearly skidded into the wall but when I looked up I could see an opening at the bottom, and stood in the centre was Raven, she was waving frantically at me. At least she was ok.
There was about fifteen seconds left on my berserker counter and it was a straight run from here so I lowered my head and put everything I had into making it out of this place.
It was a race against time as soon as my berserk ran out I knew I would slow down and I was only just keeping enough distance between me and the collapsing labyrinth. When I reached the end of the final section I leapt as hard as I could as the last of the walls collapsed behind me.
When I landed on the ground I thought I was free, thought I had made it but a vine grabbed hold of my ankle and started pulling me towards the growling bushes.
Raven tried pulling me but she wasn’t strong enough and quickly let go before flipping over the top of me and throwing one of her sythes down, if she had missed I would have been an amputee, I wouldn’t have cared as long as that thing doid not drag me back. She didn’t though. He scythe cut through the vine and with a squeal it retracted back into the collapsed mini maze.
I rolled onto my back.
"When we are done here, I need to find a bar. I need a drink!”