I followed the Prince and his entourage from above that night. I made sure not to have my entire body sticking out or be right above them, but I was still able to get a good sight on them as they got ready to sleep that night.

They had purposefully stopped near a cave and one of the Princes knights who wore slightly more ornate armor pulled out something from his pack. He did… something and the thing expanded to cover the mouth of the cave. It was a wall, even with a door on it. In the FallingBird tribe we didn’t have permanent residences. We would often have to move because of the weather, resources or because of migrating monsters, but I have heard of the stone and wooden buildings that the Safe Zones had.

This stone wall that appeared out of nowhere reminded me of what I had been imagining just more ornate, and in the wall of the Labyrinth instead of standing on its own.

The wall was both a good and bad sign for my plans. I had expected them to put up tents that the less armored knights would be carrying in those large packs, instead, they had created a quasi building with some magical contraption.

If all of them slept in there with only a guard or two outside then I would have a higher chance of my plan failing. However instead of all of the soldiers going into the cave only the prince and the man that I assumed to be the second in command went in.

The rest of the soldiers started pulling out tents from the packs on the less armored knight’s backs. Only a moment later the second in command exited and began setting up his own tent.

Was the Prince staying there alone? Was the cave that small or was he just that selfish? Perhaps the Prince was so strong that the knights didn't complain. Or maybe he just commanded their respect that much.

They finished setting up camp and began to bed down. I had no intention of staying up top of the wall to be picked off by some flying bird or eaten by the worms that had tried to burrow into me. So I walked a bit further down the top of the Labyrinth until there was a viney wall like the one I had climbed up to get to the top.

I went down a few meters and made a little makeshift harness to hold myself and Beavs comfortably. Then I went to sleep as well.

—

By afternoon the next day I knew I only had one chance to kill the Prince. Off in the distance was a bump, it wasn’t unusual at first. The walls of the Labyrinth were not all the height or width, but I realized what that bump truly was the closer and closer we got.

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It was a massive curved wall, so large that I was sure if I stood next to it the wall would go from horizon to horizon.

The Princes entourage was heading straight for it, but luckily they were taking their time. The Prince was still making sure to kill any monster in their path. He must be trying to fill up his Lotto Box as fast as possible.

Several times that day I had to hang on to the edge of the wall as I saw something flying in the distance, but I was able to get well past where the Prince and his group was to head through their most likely pathway and destination for the night. It was a cave on a forested area. The trees were tall and covered everything but for a few dozen meters around the cave in a semicircle.

I climbed down the side of the wall, and it was scarier than when I had climbed up. When climbing downwards my balance constantly felt off, like I was always just a moment away from falling down… to my death.

Eventually though I made it down, and once I did so I noticed something that I hadn’t been able to about the last cave from so high up. The caves were not natural, or as natural as it normally would have been from the Labyrinth.

It had been cut out intentionally, I could see the marks from picks and hammers, with wooden beams supporting the weight in some areas.

Were these camping spots that the city had made for travelers?

Either way I was almost certain that this was where the group would stay for the night. The city was just far enough away that it would be too much to continue on through the night.

I crept into the cave to see if anything was inside, if there was something that I would be unable to handle then my plan was screwed, but nothing was inside. It was just a shallow cave with a few supporting beams, with leaves and dirt.

I went back out and put down Beavs, he looked around curiously, then at me. I gave him a shooing motion and moved back towards the cave. I felt his fur rub against my leg as he tried to follow.

Closing my eyes I took a deep breath, I needed to be ruthless in order to kill the Prince, selfish. With the tip of my boot I gently pushed Beavs away.

It looked up at me with a bit of wariness and hurt now. Since I had first captured it I had not done anything aggressive towards the beaver. It scooted back a few steps then cautiously took another forward. I stomped on the ground.

“Go!” I growled out, it probably wasn’t very threatening seeing as I was a twelve year old girl, but hopefully it would get the message across.

Beavs flinched back and let out its own growl, its throat bloating up then letting out the ground shaking growl.

It slowly walked backwards then disappeared beneath the underbrush of the forest. I turned and marched back into the cave, it was time to set my trap.