He did not know what was happening. Truth just saw Maple and Tiger just standing there. Frozen. Like ice cubes.

“Oh,” he said. “My friends are ice cubes. This is very annoying.”

That was apparently an understatement on Truth’s part. He didn’t like to make understatements. But it was the only option in this situation.

He patted over to the maze. After a not-so-long while, he noticed something strange. The walls of the maze were made of the same stone that smacked Maple in the side. Where was that stone anyway?

The stone, now that he looked at it, was still grey, like most other rocks. But it had other specks of color only visible if you stared at them for an extended period of time.

He patted back over to his ice cube comrades to see they were both touching the stone. Barely breathing. It was the stone that had frozen them. His heart quickened.

Are they alive? He thought.

A chill ran from his tail to the back of his skull. As if someone was watching him. Closely. He slowly turned to see nothing. Nothing but a stone. A small stone. An evil stone. A cold stone.

No written message. Was it a tool? A sort of warning? It did have the same specks of color too. Truth did not know. Nor did he want to. But what should be done? Thus starts Truth's hatred of rocks.

Because of this, he threw the stone at the cavern wall. It shattered into hundreds if not millions of tiny pieces. This did nothing. Nor did he think it would do anything. He just wanted to throw it. But soon thereafter, another stone smacked him in the rib. He looked down to see a slight trickle of blood. He just laughed. As if his brain had taken a week's vacation.

Yet another stranger metaphor his brain made.

He started to laugh harder.

And harder.

He fell to the ground and was knocked out, cold.

Gone.

Not gone.

Just away.

His brain had not returned, but some actual thinking was taking place. This was very surprising. He’d expected the Master not to do this. But then again, it could be someone or something else.

Who will ever trust me? I have failed my mission. And now Tiger HATES me. Should I just go back to Jaguar and report failure?

Considering these things, he started to cry internally. But there was one way for him to start to prove himself. To save his comrades. But this thought did not come to him for another twenty-six minutes. Yes, he was depressed for that exact amount of time.

The Master might’ve been doing this to destroy Truth. Or, perhaps a benevolent entity had done it to strengthen him. The tears he shed hurt. It hurt like a salve that hurts when it is working.

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He then remembered the maze. And the stones. And… and– and the shatter. The shattering was the answer. Hopefully. It seemed like a long shot, but he was desperate. He demanded his muscles obey his command. They did not listen the first time.

MUSCLES! MOVE! YOU LAZY DIMWITS!

That seems to get their attention. They obeyed, albeit very resentfully due to his harsh words. He walked over to Maple and Tiger and pushed them away. And took the maze and shattered the stone. He started to use the maze as a hammer to smash the stone An very out-of-the-box way of completing the mission.

Tiger and Maple watched him continuously beat the rock into a pulp. But the rock pulp reformed into a rock. With more might, he smashed, burned, and just gave up on killing the stone. If you could kill something that was never alive.

Maple took her torch and pushed the stone away. It became apparent that whoever touched the evil stone would enter into a frozen state of being.

Tiger slowly, cautiously walked towards Truth. “Did you save us? Even after impersonating my cousin?”

Don’t tell him. DON’T TELL HIM! Truth’s brain shouted. “Yes. And, well I didn't ‘want’ to kidnap you. I was forced to after my village was destroyed.” The memories threatened to come, but he quickly yelled at them and they went away.

Seeing Truth’s eye water, Maple walked over and put a talon on his shoulder. “I wasn’t forced into this. I chose to conform to these ways of the organization. I thought it was for good and it is. But it does have its ugly bits.”

“You mean you chose this path?” Truth asked.

“Well, no. It seemed to be fate that led me to this path. I did not desire it. But it seemed that that was my lot,” Maple said.

Truth didn’t like the fact that she chose to conform to this evil group that wanted power and, if they got the power, they would surely pervert the natural order of things.

Despite this, Truth started to speak. “As both of you probably know now, my name is Truth. And, don’t be alarmed. I am missing a claw.” he proceeded to take off his pinky. “Here, Maple, you want it?”

“No.”

“Ok.”

Now it was Tiger’s turn to get hit by a rock. The rock did have a message. But only said: four days.” something about it was obviously important. Truth picked up the rock and read the message out loud as Tiger rubbed his side, where the rock had hit him.

“What?” asked Tiger. “That sounds… ominous. I don't like the sound of that.”

Truth looked toward Maple, who looked toward the ground. The ground did not say anything. How could it? It was giving them the cold shoulder. But the message it sent did make the ominousness more observable.

“You know something,” said Truth.

“Yes. I do.”

“Tell us, please,” said Truth.

“I cannot,” Maple responded. “If I do, it will put Tiger in danger. And I have caused enough danger in my life.”

Truth remembered the time when started a diary as an outlet for his anxiety. He wrote down what he wished would happen, and it did soon after. It could be nothing more than a coincidence, but still, his brain thought it wasn’t. He knew it was silly, but if he could make the same happen now…

This statement caused a chill to run across his scales and made him frozen in place. He knew he couldn’t trust Maple. Yet he wanted to. His first potentially real friend. Would she ever be a friend? Or was she working for another?

She may just be another pawn, or knight, or bishop, more of, on the board. Or was she a promoted pawn? She likely knew something. But what, if she knew anything, was hidden from sight?

“If you want us to trust you, Maple,” said Truth, “You mustn’t tell us all this.”

“But that too would be a breach of trust. It would be a bring condemnation,” said Tiger.

Tears ran down Maple’s cheeks. Did she feel the coldness and darkness of this country and this cavern network? Or was she just ignorant? If the latter was true, could anything be done? And if the former, there would be a great amount of hope.

“Maple, can we trust you?” asked Tiger.