This is horrible, was all Urn could think as he squirmed and twitched as the space around him shifted and stretched; he felt like he was being thrown into the sky at 500 miles an hour, yet he was standing completely still. Clenching his stomach tightly, he closed his eyes and tried his best not to puke his insides out. The overwhelming darkness surrounding them began to dissipate, making way for an entirely different environment. They were in some sort of enclosed room that seemed sort of like a jail cell.

“What? Is this th-” Urn was cut off by the sound of the locket rattling as it tightened around his neck, strangling him. Falling to the vine infested floor, he gripped the locket tightly, trying to loosen it, but to no avail.

“URN! SHIT, SHIT!” In an instant Ralph transformed from fish to man, shooting over to Urn and grasping at the locket with all his might;but to his horror, the locket refused to come off. Pulling desperately as the locket continued to tighten it’s grip, Ralph whipped around, looking for something, anything that could break the locket’s hold. And there stood a hooded stranger in the doorway, staring at the spectacle silently.

Urn let out a gasp of relief as the locket loosened itself, seemingly at the same time the hooded stranger had arrived.

“URN! WHAT HAPPENED?” Ralph asked frantically as Urn slowly rose off the ground, sitting up as he panted for air. Grasping at the imprint the locket had made on his throat, Urn clenched the locket, and found that it’s eye was…bloodshot.

“Don’t…know.” Urn said between deep breaths, turning his attention to the hooded stranger who’d watched the scene unfold quietly.

“Sorry, that was me.” The hooded stranger said rather friendly. “When I sensed your arrival, I assumed you were enemies, and came here to kill you! And I guess the locket sensed my bloodlust and panicked. Silly me.”

Ralph sprung to his feet , denting the floor in his wake as he sped across the room and swung at the stranger without hesitation, but was quickly halted by sturdy vines which sprung from the walls, floor, and ceiling, wrapping around his entire body in an instant. The stranger walked past the furiously quivering Ralph as if he’d never attacked, and extended a hand to Urn. “Welcome, Urn. I’ve been waiting for you for a long time now!”

Urn gazed at the stranger uneasily. “...You said you wanted to kill me first. What stopped you?”

“Huh? I never said I wasn’t going to kill you!” The stranger said, and then burst into giggles upon seeing Urn’s horrified expression. “SORRY, sorry, I’m kidding! Don’t worry. If you’re here, that means you picked the right decision. So you aren’t my enemy anymore.”

“HEY! GET AWA-” Ralph’s shouts became muffled as the vines spread over to his face, tightly binding his mouth. The stranger patted Urn friendly.

“You don’t mind if I gag him, right? He’s annoying me.” The man asked.

“Well-not really honestly.” Urn shrugged his shoulders and got to his feet. The man had an emblem resembling an eye within a sun emblazoned on the long white cloak he wore. Just like the one on the doors. So he’s allied with my grandfather?

“Bingo, bingo!” The man barked, and then grinned at Urn’s unsettled expression. “I’m a long-time friend of your grandfather. I’ve been waiting for you to arrive here for quite a while now; I promised him that I’d guide you, after all.”

“I see.” Urn glanced down at the locket. This thing…it’s much more dangerous then I thought it’d be. If it wanted too… The image of the locket snapping his neck clean in half clouded his mind. “But that doesn’t mean anything.”

“Huh?” The man tilted his head.

“Being allied with my grandfather isn’t the same thing as being allied with me. Whatever his goals are, my reasons for obtaining the locket are completely standalone.” Urn said, staring at the man calmly.

“Really?” The hooded figure’s smile widened. “Well, I suppose that you can say I’m on your side as well, then. That should clear everything up, right? After all, you’ll need my guidance to leave this place and learn magic. Trust me, any intruder that managed to escape from me ended up dying to the traps scattered across this place!”

Well, whatever his reasons for helping me, I can’t exactly refuse him. I don’t even see an exit out of here; plus, if he could restrain Ralph so easily… Urn groaned, reminded of his complete and utter weakness. Then I don’t stand a chance! “I’ll follow you.” Urn said after a lengthy pause, and the man clapped his hands excitedly.

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“HOORAY! Just follow right beside me, and you won’t die. Oaf, you heard everything I said, right?” The man asked, turning to Ralph, who made a bunch of furious muffled sounds. Waving his hand, the vines coiled around Ralph slithered off him and retreated back into the cracks along the room.

“URN, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING? THAT GUY IS SHADY AS FUCK!” Ralph barked out, and Urn shrugged his shoulders again.

“You’re shady too. You were secretly a grown ass man this whole time and you never told me.” Urn retorted.

“I’m a fish! Just because I can turn into a man doesn’t change anything!” Ralph whipped around to the man, stomping angrily as he pointed. “That guy wanted to kill you, and now you’re gonna follow him when you don’t even know his NAME?!!”

“Oh. My name’s Abrax.” Abrax said charmingly, pointing to himself with his thumb as he pressed a palm onto the stone wall. The sound of a button clicking could be heard, and then the wall shook, a doorway standing where Abrax had pressed his palm to the wall.

“We have two choices; follow him, or get lost. I’d prefer to follow him. What about you?” Urn asked, and Ralph let out a sigh before dejectedly trailing after Urn, who followed Abrax out the room.

The hallway was filled to the brim with what seemed to be hundreds of wriggling, worm like ethereal beings, with a single blue eye. They slithered along the floor, flew through the air, and stuck to the walls, and all possessed a small door engraved in their backs. Abrax smiled, stepping into the hallway without a second thought and walking to the right. “Follow me very closely! If you lose me, even for a second, it’ll take me a while to find you And by then you might already be dead.”

“This is disgusting.” Ralph murmured as the three tread along the worm infested hallway. “What even is this place? Never seen this room in your house before, Urn. Might wanna get someone to take care of this infestation.”

“This isn’t Urn’s house. This is Maze Temple, what used to be your grandfather’s fort. And now that it’s gone, it’s in this shape.” Abrax laughed, and Urn could see why it was called Maze Temple; in the span of a few minutes they had gone through ten forked hallways; it seemed to him like they weren’t getting anywhere.

“Maze Temple, huh? Does that mean my house is directly connected to this place? Then did we arrive here by some sort of teleportation magic?” Urn asked.

“Sure. Let’s say that.” Abrax said, much to Urn and Ralph’s annoyance. “All you need to know is that this place is WAY far from your place. Shorecity’s in the southern parts of the Northern Lands, but this place is in the northern parts of the Northern lands! Can’t walk all the way back, that’s for sure.”

Urn nodded, and noticed that Abrax’s speed was gradually increasing, as if he were trying to lose Ralph and Urn or something. “Hey, so you said you’d help guide me, right? Then could you teach me magic, or at least how to keep this thing from strangling me? You seem to know a thing or two.”

Abrax turned around, his hands in his pockets. His pace was much quicker now, to the point that Ralph and Urn had to speed walk to keep up. “That depends on you, Urn Creshun!”

“HEY! WHat’s the big deal? I thought you said we had to-” Before Ralph could finish, Abrax shot foward, planting his foot into Ralph’s stomach and sending him flying backwards. As Ralph flew down the hallway, a tear in space opened behind him, sucking him up before vanishing.

“!” Urn watched as Ralph flew off, and whipped around towards Abrax; but he was already long gone. “Shit! That bastard!” Looking around the hallway desperately, he was too slow to notice the rift which was opening up behind him, sucking him up like a vaccum, and then fading.

~~~~

A door to a completely different room opened up, Urn’s body shooting through and then landing face first in the hills of sand which coated the floor of the dark room. Before him, an enormous mouse the size of an elephant sat, staring him down coldly.

Urn yanked his head out of the sand, shaking his hair furiously and then staring up at the enormous mouse, and froze. “....”

“Game, game! Let’s play a game!” The mouse said in a surprisingly child-like voice. “Let’s play Race! If I win, I get revenge, and if you win, I’ll give you anything you want! I promise.”

Urn stared blankly at the mouse and then whipped around; there was no door, just like the first room. He was stuck with this lunatic, child-like mouse, with nothing but his messer, and a self-strangling locket. I’m loving these odds. He thought, smiling slightly at his own sarcasm.

“You get to pick from my wide variety of racing mice! You pick one, I pick one, and they race to the end of the room; best out of three! But you can’t mess with the mice, and neither can I! Okay?” The mouse asked Urn, who was still staring at the back of the room.

From the way he was speaking earlier, he probably threw me in here to test me. He’s willing to help me; but only if I fit his criteria, hm? A grin spread across Urn’s lips. This’ll be fun.

“You ignoring me?” The mouse asked, and then it’s tail rose into the air. “Not wise, Locket-bearer.”

“Wh-” Urn turned around, but he was too late- the mouse’s tail came shooting forward like a scorpion’s tail, the hairless appendage piercing right through Urn’s neck.