How would I be able to get to them? Sneaking up behind them and attacking was suicidal, the lions were proof of that. They might even have a Card that helped them detect people. That would be a real issue. What if the Prince had some sort of card that let him sense movement or danger?

I remembered how I was able to deal with the sword birds, they had not been dissuaded at first by my pan wielding skills they had been wary of attacking me due to my Smokey Hands Card. I had known that the gas it produced was toxic to living things, could I use that against the Prince? A plant started to form in my mind, but to do it I would need to get ahead of the Prince.

I didn’t have maps for this far away from our main camp so I couldn’t just go a separate route. There was also the issue of going too slow. I didn’t know if the Prince was going back to his city or going to another tribe to trick their inhabitants into letting him butcher their children as well.

If they were going to another tribe I’d have a chance as they were taking or killing the children, but if they were going to the city then it would be much less likely.

I looked up, to the tops of the walls of the Labyrinth. I didn’t know how much, if any of the stories the adults had told us were true of the things up there, but it was a possible way for me to jump ahead of the Princes group.

I continued to follow the Princes group until they rounded a corner with viney roots going all the way up to the top of the maze. Then I climbed, luckily there were several places where I could hang my weight onto the roots or ledges big enough to hold all of me otherwise I don’t think I could have made it to the top. By the time I made it to the top the sun had begun to set and I could only barely make out the sheen of armor in the distance.

My arms and legs shook, but I had taken enough breaks while climbing that I was still able to walk. I looked down and shuddered. I wasn’t particularly scared of heights, I was however scared of falling to my death like any sane person.

Then I gazed on the tops of the walls for the first time in my life. I nearly fell over from the vertigo. I had never seen something so… wide, so endless. I had only been able to see the world through the slits in the Labyrinth’s pathways, but seeing all this made me feel so small and insignificant.

Then I saw the pillars, I had passed a few on my path following the Prince. Some were in thin tree like forms while others were so wide that they looked to be hundreds of meters across. I knew that those were were the larger flying monsters stayed, like the ones that had been responsible for the giant birds deaths that started the FallingBird tribe.

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As I thought so I saw another shape moving at the top of the walls, it was a snake, so long that I could see its form clearly even from what had to be a mile away. It slithered over the wall and began to go down the other side.

Then from somewhere in a clouds two forms fell like arrows down towards the snake. The snake curled up, trying to defend itself but the falling object, a huge bird, spread its wings in the last moment, stopping only a few feet above from the range of the snake.

As it’s wings opened a ground shaking boom echoed out accompanied by a flash of lightning. The snake flew up more than a dozen meters only to be caught by the second bird and carried towards one of the large tree like pillars.

I looked straight up a shiver at the idea of something like that happening to me, and from the cloud above me I saw a form flying with wings. Only these wings dwarfed the lightning birds own by many times. It didn’t dive down to kill me, I was too small to be considered prey.

I had to catch up to the Prince, the walls of the Labyrinth were so wide that only a complete idiot would fall off the ledge, but as I moved my legs were still shaky and my eyes roamed the skyline for any sign of danger. Beavs the lovable lifesaving beaver was still with my and I took comfort in its surprisingly soft fur as I traveled on the wall of the Labyrinth.

Just when I was starting to get comfortable I was attacked, not from above however, below. I had noticed the holes in the ground, each only as wide as my big toe, but for some odd reason I was not expecting them to start having worms shoot out of them like arrows.

It started with a stinging pain in my elbow, I thought Beavs had smacked me with his tail, but the pain changed as I felt something twists and burrow into my flesh.

A worm a bit shorter than my forearm and a pale fleshy grey like scar tissue was bitting into my elbow something in its mouth trying to stab or scrape further and further in.

I immediately dropped Beavs and grasped the slimy worm yanking it off my flesh and tossing it away. It made a screeching sound so quietly I almost didn’t hear it. Then the things started popping through holes one by one, going dozens of feet into the air at high speeds.

Beavs made a high pitch cry of pain then his low growl, but these worms were apparently not dissuaded by the noise. I saw two worms latched onto Beavs, but I didn’t have time to pick him up and take the worms off, so I kicked him. He yelped in pain again, but was kicked just outside the boundaries of the holes in the ground. I felt another sharp pain in my thigh and something smack into the soles of my boot.

I ran to follow Beavs, and got two more painful stings, one on the same leg and the other on my arm, but I pushed through. As soon as I made it to the edge of where the holes were I yanked off the worms from myself then Beavs, who gratefully leapt into my arms with a deep growl.

Then I felt another pain, followed by a second, both in my back. I ran, glancing behind me to see that the worms were… condensing? Flexing? It reminded me of a bicep, when relaxed it was long, but flexed it was more compact and shorter. These did the same thing, and then they shot towards me like they had through the holes in the ground. I ran as fast as I could, clawing at my back to throw the worms there off the side of the Labyrinth as I made my escape.