Dreamwalker in the Snow

For a writing contest, I was challenged to create a flash fiction piece in under 1000 words. I have a really hard time fitting beginning-middle-end into that space, so instead I ended up with a bunch of snippets like this.

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Dreamer walk and children sleep,

Nightmare watch and starlight keep.

Bring the visions bright and new

For futures yet unknown to you.

The song was an old one and familiar, one of the Teaching Ballads they used to have the children memorize on long winter nights, when the world slumbered about them and the Others seemed so much closer than in the bright light of day. There was something about the icy stars on a night when one's breath clouded the air that seemed as close as the nearest rooftop. 

Jhett shivered a little and rubbed his arms, lowering his gaze from the stars overhead to look around at the rest of the little gathering. There wasn't a soul here over 12 winters, other than their instructor, the old bard Mathius. Each of the children, boys and girls alike, were staring upward, held by the spell of Mathius' deep, authoritative voice. 

Seeing into sleeping minds,

You never know what you may find.

Feeler, Fighter, Walker too,

Bring to Dreamers what is true.

Jhett watched the clouds of steam hand in front of the mouths of those around him, and turned his attention to the houses of the village, half-buried in snow. The world was a thing of silver and white, too vast to hold in one small place. But for this instant, all that truly mattered were the Dreamers Jhett could sense behind each dark window, each locked door. 

It is your duty, you who Dream

To choose and take the path you glean

From stars that keep and songs that stay

In mind from day to night to day.

He would help the Dreamers. He would study the stars as the master instructed. Mathius was a good bard, and taught all the children what he thought they needed to know. And it was enough. 

Mathius looked over the heads of the children and met Jhett's gaze. He smiled slightly, and started a new chant. It would be the last for the night. Jhett could feel a Nightmare moving at the very limit of his senses.

Deep in the night-time, stars spinning overhead,

Rain on the night breeze, children in their beds,

​Shadows keeping watch over little human hearts,

Eyes always guarding the pieces and the parts.

There's nothing in the slumber that to the danger calls.

Nothing in the sleeping that causes pits and falls.

But something in the night-time, in the darkness creeps;

Over hearts and minds, into dreams it leaps.

We call this thing the Jester, for he needn't do you harm.

You are just susceptible to his songs and wily charm.

He tricks you into seeing things you never saw before;

Opening dark windows, unlocking hidden doors.

Let the Walker guard the door, Feeler choose the way,

Fighter come do battle when the Nightmares choose their prey.

Make the Dreamers safe at night, learn to work as one

To show the Dreamer what we see the stars have said will come.

When the Dreamer's sleep you guard and paths illuminate

Be careful not to take the place of Destiny or Fate.

The Jester will make sweet the plans of Nightmare or of youth,

Whose gifts are often tainted with that twisted, Shadowed truth;

Control is sweet as nectar when its reins are in your hand,

But nectar turns to bile when control is in command.

Choose wisely then, young Walker, Feeler, Fighter, all,

And think of what will catch you when at last you fall.

There​ was a moment of silence after the old bard had finished his chant, while all of the children digested the lesson it contained. Jhett glanced around at their faces, and saw most of them staring contemplatively at their own toes. 

"Will you remember this lesson, when I see you again tomorrow night?" challenged Mathius, and the whole class jumped at the sound of his voice, too wrapped up in their own thoughts to realize he was still watching them. 

"Yes, sir." Jhett was the first to speak, and he lifted his chin stolidly to show he meant it. Mathius smiled. 

"Good. What is your duty?" His keen gaze swept over the group, and they answered together;

"To protect the Sleepers." 

"Excellent." The flash of Mathius' white teeth in the twilight assured them that they had answered well. "Now, your homework." The class groaned as one, which only prompted the old bard to laugh. Jhett listened with half an ear, but turned his head a little to look at the houses about them, buried to their window sills in snow. They looked at him like dark eyes in the night, and he could sense the Sleepers inside their walls, safe and secure. 

"Now, get out of here, you underfed hatchlings," chuckled Mathius as his class grumbled about their assignment. "The dawn will come early, whether you're ready for it or not." Jhett stuffed his chilled hands into his pockets and started to follow the others toward their shared bunk house. It would be warm, at least. 

"If we protect the Sleepers, who protects us?" One of the younger girls was asking the bard plaintively, and Jhett paused to listed to the answer. 

"I do, little one. Now off to bed with you, and I'll keep the Jester away." 

Jhett smiled. Yes. Protecting the Sleepers was worth it. He would make Mathius proud. 

Carol's Story; Epilogue

And this is the end! The epilogue, actually, but close enough! Thank you for sticking with me through this adventure!
This also marks the very first time I've stayed on a single story (on this blog, at least) for more than a month! This is Week #10 - that's 2.5 months! o.o I'm so persistent, and I never even knew it.

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"And that's all there is to it." Carol finished her story with a shrug, smiling in spite of the spreading bruise on her face. She could feel Jake's hand around her own and it was such a comfort to know that if there was a monster over the next dune, he would be at her side. It was better like this, in so many ways. 

The man shook his dark head slightly, looking impressed. It was very satisfying to know she'd given him something to admire about her very own self, though she wondered if this was really the way it would have worked out the best. Were there other ways she could have accomplished this? Maybe. Did it matter? Not really. 

"You're amazing, did you know that? I mean, I must have told you that at least once." He gave her hand a squeeze, and Carol felt her face grow warm, but before she could reply properly, she heard something to their collective left, a rustling in the dune grass. Thoughts of human-faced spiders and giant lion monsters made her heart beat faster. The grass waved wildly for a moment - more than long enough for her imagination to invent a hundred new beasts coming to eat her - and then a smallish creature tumbled out of the tall stalks onto the sand near their feet. It looked like a cat, except its fur was all gleaming gold, and it teeth were silver like polished steel. Despite how cute it was, Carol didn't feel at all relieved. 

"That's... not a natural creature." The cat thing was shaking its head, looking dazed and upset. When it saw them, it mewled hungrily and staggered to its too-big paws, stumbling toward Jake to sniff at his pant leg. 

"It looks like a lion cub." Jake sounded awed, but he wasn't entirely sure what to do with the thing as it reared up on its hind legs, pawing at his leg plaintively. It was scrawny and in bad need of a bath. "Where's your mama, little one?" As he started to crouch, intending to touch the cub, Carol's hand tightened convulsively around his. 

"I think we should go. That thing's mom might be around here somewhere, and that would be bad news for us." 

"I think it's alone, Carol." He gave her an encouraging smile, then released her hand. Just losing contact with him in that small way shot a spike of fear through her. 

"But you know what this means, don't you?" Hastily, she stepped behind Jake as he crouched to fondle the cub's ears, checking it over for ticks or whatever it was that he did when he found strays. "This means we're not home. We're still somewhere monsters live and things want to eat us instead of just steal all our income." 

Jake was still for a moment, but she could feel that his back was still relaxed under her hand. He wasn't tense or afraid, though she thought he should be. Maybe he hadn't had to face down as many monsters in the past 24 hours as she had. 

Starting with the cheesecake devil, she reflected, and smiled a little at the thought. "We should go, Jake. Maybe we can find somewhere safe to-"

"No." Jake straightened, and now he had the cub in his arms. It hooked its paws over one of Jake's shoulders and tried to climb him like a tree, wanting to perch on his shoulder like a pirate's parrot. The man winced, but held on until the cub settled. "If there's one thing I've learned from this, it's that it's never worthwhile to leave an innocent behind. We'll find somewhere safe to sleep and see if we can catch something to feed to this little guy." He studied her with eyes so steady they were like an anchor to Carol's quaking heart. He stabilized her. 

"You're... probably right. If this place is anything like what the Sphinx had mocked up, then it's going to be like one of those stories, where if you're nice to the bees, they help you find the princess later on." 

From the strange look Jake gave her, it was clear he had no idea what she was referring to. With a shake of his head and a crooked smile, he gave her a nudge and nodded toward the hills further inland. 

"We'll be better off finding shelter away from the beach. We'll take things as they come, and no matter what, we'll face it together. Right?" He looked so confident, so self-assured, that she couldn't help but believe him. Carol grasped his hand with a watery smile. 

"Right." 

They walked silently for a while, weaving their way between the dunes and staying out of the dune grass as much as possible to spare Jake's bare feet. The cub, though squirmy at first, eventually calmed down and even went to sleep in Jake's arms. Carol watched it for a while. Jake had been right. It was an innocent, no matter how dangerous it (potentially) was. 

By the time they reached the inland hills beyond the dunes and the dune grass, it felt like they had walked several miles. Considering all they'd been doing over the past 24 hours, maybe they had. At the first relatively sheltered copse of trees, Carol threw herself down on the heaped pine needles with an exaggerated sigh of relief. Jake sat down beside her, and the cub woke from its nap, springing out of Jake's arms to chase what looked like an ordinary squirrel. 

"Maybe he'll catch it, and then we won't have to feel him." Carol grinned tiredly up at her... what was he now? She propped herself up on her elbows. They would need to talk about this one way or another. "What are we, now? I mean... 'friends' doesn't cover it. Not anymore." 

There was an expression of surprise on Jake's face as he glanced at her, then he smiled. "No, it doesn't." For a moment, the silence settled between them, comforting and warm like a blanket. Accepting. Words weren't necessary. Good, but not needed right this very instant. It was nice. 

Finally, Jake spoke again. "We both could have died today. It would be stupid not to say it." 

"Say what? That we might have died?" 

"No. That I love you." 

Carol stared at him. She felt like the world was tipping on its side, like an enormous plate. Not that she hadn't suspected - even hoped! But to actually hear him say it was a horse of an entirely different color. 

"I... love you, too." It was surprisingly easy to say. All the stories made it sound like it was this huge struggle to say for the first time, especially when one was caught by surprise. But this felt... like a release. Carol smiled. "Thank you. I mean... for... everything." When he smiled back, she felt warm inside. Then she decided it was time to lie down, because her head was spinning. Right. Still hadn't found water. 

"I don't know about you, but I'm really thirsty. And hungry. Survival is a blast. Love it." 

Jake laughed quietly. "We'll survive. Give me a couple minutes, and I'll see if I can find something."

Carol's Story; Part 3

Things were... better now. Carol took a deep breath, one hand tracing the wall, and followed the turn to the left. There was a pattern, the Minotaur had told her. A pattern to the turns that would take her into the center of the Labyrinth, where the exit was. There was also a pattern to where the monsters tended to hide, though they could move, and often did. 

The Minotaur, once he'd put his ax away, had actually been a very decent fellow, and while he couldn't actually tell her how to get out of this place, he had been able to give her some solid pointers. 

Pick a wall and stick with it. Don't second-guess yourself, just go for it. No matter which wall you pick, you'll eventually reach a place that will help you. If you last that long, then you'll do just fine.

For a bull-man, he had a nice smile. Carol shook her left hand a little, then returned to trailing her fingers lightly along the stone. It made her hand tingle, after a while, but it was good to have some idea of what she was doing in here. Her main priorities would be food, water, and weapons. Anything else was more or less extra. 

She had asked him if he wasn't supposed to be the scary thing in the center of the Labyrinth, like in the old stories, but the Minotaur had laughed. 

Maybe back in the old days that's what it was like, but the Guardian position is managed by the Sphinx, and he's more interested in keeping you lot alive than in feeding you to the monsters.

That was comforting, in a lot of ways. 

​Something moved in the shadows ahead, and Carol paused a moment, trying to figure out what it was. There were gaps between the torches on the walls, wherein shadows collected like discarded laundry in the corners of her bedroom. Ahead of her, near the next corner (not all of them were right angles, which was a relief, but a large proportion of them were). The person or monster in the corridor ahead wasn't as big as the Manticore or even as large as the Minotaur. More human-shaped, but somehow too... long. 

While she stood there, trying to figure out whether or not the figure ahead was a threat, it started to move toward her, and she realized immediately that there was something off about the way that the thing moved. Well, by "off," she meant "not human." Rather than walking, like the Minotaur had, or like she did, it - there was no other word for it - glided. She heard the dry rasp of scales against stone, and felt the memory as though it were a physical thing, pushing at the back of her mind in an urgent plea for attention. Standing in the sun with her father, leaning over the pile of rocks, listening to the snakes nesting inside, hiding from them because they were big and loud. It was the same sound. 

Hear that, Carrie? That means there are snakes in there. They might be rattlers, and that could be bad for you and me, right love?

Carol felt herself react, even though she hadn't actually thought through what that meant. If there was a snake that big in here, then it could eat her whole, and could probably move faster than her in any case. Already she was turning, starting to flee -

"Wait!" The voice brought her to a standstill. It was sweet and young and not at all what she expected from a man-eating monster. Carol half turned, looking over her shoulder at the approaching monster and wondering to herself if this was smart at all. Was anything in here safe? The Minotaur had been alright....

"Please, do you know where I can find water?" The figure was moving into the light now, and she saw that the monster was a young woman from the waist up, clean and well-dressed. Her face was heart-shaped, but the large, dark eyes were concerned, the pale brow furrowed with concern. From the waist down, though, or at least what Carol could see below the hem of the girl's long brown tunic (belted tastefully just under her bust - she would need to remember that style if she ever got out of here) there were large, overlapping scales and a single sinuous tail, weaving to and fro on the smooth stones as she slithered nearer. Some kind of a snake monster, but not a monster in the way that Carol had ever used the word before now. The woman stayed where she was, torn by indecision. How was she supposed to deal with this? 

"Um... no. I haven't found any water yet." Carol was surprised to note that her voice didn't shake at all, which was a nice change from the squeaking and unintentional screaming that she'd subjected her listeners to earlier. The snake-girl stopped, looking disappointed. 

"I was hoping someone would know where the water was," she admitted, and her tone was so downcast that Carol found herself taking a step toward her, wanting to comfort the poor girl. She didn't sound much older then fourteen or fifteen, though she looked older than that. Maybe she was an "early bloomer," as her mother would have said. Younger than she looked. 

"The ones that know where the water is won't tell you, that's for sure," she pointed out with a faint smile. "But maybe we can help each other. You came from that direction and didn't see any water, right?" Carol pointed unnecessarily back the way the snake-girl had come. The girl nodded uncertainly. "Which turns were you taking?" 

At this, the snake-girl recoiled a little, looking more than a little nervous. "What do you mean?" 

"I mean, did you always turn left, or did you always turn right?" Carol was beginning to think that the girl was in the same position that she herself had been in until a few minutes ago, running blindly through the maze, looking for a safe place. 

Before the girl could answer, there was a low hiss from the way she had come. In a moment, something low and scuttly, with too many legs, rounded the corner and started toward them, hissing excitedly. 

"Run!" Carol didn't hang around to see if her new companion had taken her advice. Pivoting toward the way she'd come, a decision passed briefly through her mind to just skip this turning for now. If necessary, she could backtrack later. She'd almost made it to the second corner when she heard the scream. She knew that sound. It was the sound of a girl in pain. She'd been making that sound not very long ago, when she was face to face with a Manticore. Carol skidded to a halt and looked back. The snake-girl, face contorted with pain, was straining to get away from the thing with too many legs - a thing which was holding her tail between its pincers. 

There was a moment of agonizing indecision, where she wasn't sure what to do. But she knew what Jake would do, if he were here in her place. With a groan and a feeling of imminent pain, Carol turned back and started running toward the monster. She had clearly just lost whatever marbles she'd had. But at least she was losing them for a good cause. As she passed the girl's upper half, still leaning forward and straining against the weight holding her back, Carol saw the look of stunned surprise on her face, her mouth partially open and showing several sharp teeth. Then Carol was past her, pelting along beside the length of her huge, scaly tail. The monster that was holding her looked something like a crab, with wicked claws and a weirdly leonine face. What was it with Greek monsters and having faces that didn't belong to them? 

A second after that somewhat disturbing thought went through her mind, she collided with the beast, which was apparently just as surprised as the girl it was holding, because it didn't immediately move to attack her. Instead, as she collided with it, it released the snake tail it had been holding, and flipped over backwards, landing with a weird, unpleasant crunch on its back. 

Unfortunately, Carol's forward momentum threw her forward with the monster, and she landed on its belly, between the flailing, claws legs. The monster shrieked, making her ears ring and her head ache, and the many-jointed legs curled in on her, its claws catching at her clothes and hair and slicing into the first layers of her skin. When it realized that she was there (which took about as long as it took Carol to realize this had been an absolutely terrible idea) the monster started to claw at her more intentionally, digging the razor points deeper into her flesh. And just as Carol started to fill her lungs for a proper scream, hoping to stun the creature long enough to wriggle free, a pair of hands grabbed her legs, and she felt herself yanked free. 

Carol slid off the monster's belly with a very undignified noise that wasn't really a scream and definitely wasn't a squeak (but it sounded a lot like a squeak). Then she was looking up into the face of the snake girl, who was pale and scared-looking. 

"Run," wheezed Carol, whose eyes were starting to water with pain. She felt like she'd done a swan-dive into a blackberry thicket, and none of this was at all helpful to getting on her feet and moving. The snake girl, though, was surprisingly helpful, pulling her upright and starting them moving away from the monster. When Carol glanced over her shoulder, the thing's legs were still waving frantically in the air, and it was squealing like a wounded rabbit. 

When they were far enough away from it that they couldn't hear the horrendous noise it was making, Carol stumbled to a stop and leaned against the wall. "Okay. Okay. I need time to breathe. And figure out what we're doing, other than wandering aimlessly through a giant maze, looking for food and water." 

"I don't think trying to avoid getting eaten is completely aimless," muttered the snake-girl, looking a little defensive. 

Carol might have replied, but they were interrupted by something she hadn't at all expected to hear in this place. Music. She glanced at her companion, half checking to see if she heard it too, and half warning her to be silent. It seemed the second was completely superfluous, but it was better to make extra sure than to not and regret it later. 

Drifting on the still air, the sound of strings being plucked in what might have been an African sort of rhythm reached them faintly from afar. Honestly, Carol couldn't identify it, but it sounded like something she might hear in a restaurant, playing in the background under other peoples' conversations. She glanced at the snake-girl again and raised her eyebrows. 

"Think we should check it out?" she asked in a hushed whisper. Rather than answering yes or no, the snake girl just looked uncertain. 

"Are you sure it would be safe?" Her rebuttal was completely legitimate. 

"No more unsafe than staying here, I think," Carol decided, and nodded a little. "Come on, then. We'll just... stay quiet." 

"Like we would do anything else." 

They traded a quick smile. Carol was somewhat surprised to find that she already regarded this half-snake person as a friend. Trauma bonded people in unusual ways. As silently as they could manage, the two girls moved along the corridor, following the sound of the music. Rounding another corner cautiously, they heard some sort of breathy reed instrument (a wooden flute, maybe?) join the tune, underscoring a melody that seemed more and more like a lullaby. When the woman noticed that she was beginning to have trouble keeping her eyes open, she started to suspect the music was bad. 

"You feeling tired?" she asked, and muffled a huge yawn. It had been a long day, and it wasn't even sundown yet. At least, she didn't think it was. It didn't feel like it. Then again, that was a ridiculous thought - who knew if this crazy place even had a sun? They were underground. "This music is... funny...." Carol trailed off into silence and found that she was standing still. When had that happened? The snake-girl (she really needed a name, but they hadn't really had time for introductions) was ahead of her now, and turned back to look at her with a frown. Then, in growing alarm, she slithered back, her eyes wide in her pale face, one hand outstretched. 

"Don't go to sleep! This place isn't safe for sleeping!" 

Wasn't safe for anything. Silly girl. Carol swayed a little, disoriented by how sleepy she felt. The girl's hand on her arm steadied her a little, but didn't rouse her tired mind at all. 

"It's the music. It's making you tired. Come on - we need to get away." 

As the girl pulled her away from the music, half supporting her weight and half propelling her along on her own legs, Carol wondered to herself if the trap had been laid for humans alone, or if this was simply a fluke that snake-people weren't affected. 

"You will find another ally." The voice was familiar​, and Carol searched her mind for the memory. Something about cheesecake? She staggered and fell as the girl released her suddenly, and the stone floor slammed painfully against the side of her face, momentarily waking her again. With a yelp of pain, she rolled up into a sitting position and cradled the side of her scraped face, wincing. 

"Sorry." The snake girl bent down to help her up again. "I didn't mean to- I mean... that voice startled me and I-" 

"Do not worry, little one. You will find a new ally." The voice spoke again, nearer this time. The music swelled, and Carol was swamped with sudden drowsiness. Vaguely, she thought she saw a figure approaching from down the hall. The snake girl's long tail coiled around Carol's waist, and for some reason this didn't make her at all nervous. She knew, in the way a dreamer knows, that she was only trying to protect her. 

"What are you going to do with her?" 

"I am here to take her out of the Labyrinth. Her freedom has been won for her by one dear to her." 

"And... what about me?" 

Maybe it was Carol's imagination. The girl's tone was almost painfully wistful. She felt bad for her. She didn't want to leave her behind. 

"Your cunning will serve you well. Water is near. Do not lose hope." Something heavy and soft came to rest on her shoulder. A paw. A really big paw. Carol blinked sleepily up at the figure. The Sphinx. With the collar. She blinked again, and this time things wouldn't come into focus. It would be so much easier not to fight it anymore. Carol let her eyes close again and didn't bother trying to open them again. He was taking her out of here. Someone had rescued her. Jake? She hoped so. 

The paws lifted her, and she was so close to sleep, she didn't even think that lions couldn't carry things like that. 

Carol's Story; Part 2

The continuation of Carol's Story. Because I could. :) 
Feedback is always appreciated. Let me know what you think.

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 The Labyrinth

At first, she couldn't move. Or maybe she wasn't brave enough to. When at last her lungs started to work again and her head stopped spinning, she realized that nothing, absolutely nothing, was as it should be. The light playing over her face was orange and flickering - torchlight. She could smell the burning wood and oil, and wondered where in the world she could be. The last few minutes were a blur, and all she could think about was the cheesecake lady and how mad she would be at the delay in getting a supervisor that didn't exist.

The floor under her back was stone, cold and mostly flat, though she could feel the joints between the tiles. And the air smelled like dust and sand and stone. Nothing like the stale bread smell of the back room at the mall. And she didn't hear Greg, either. Shouldn't he be worried about her? But... the mall didn't have torches.

Carol slowly sat up, putting a hand to her temple. She felt like she'd been put through one of those old-fashioned wringer dryers, squeezed from all sides until there was nothing left inside but apple sauce. Her head was still muddled, but at least the spinning had stopped. She was sitting in a passage built entire of blocks of stone, square and unyielding. The floor, the walls, even the ceiling was made of the same stuff, though the upper third of the walls had been carved with a skillful hand, like the walls in the Egyptian tombs she'd seen on TV. There were figures of people, and of animals, and lines of script that were completely foreign to her. Not runic, like the Norse letters she knew some of, and not any of the Slavik characters her grandmother had tried to teach her. The weirdest thing was that the letters seemed to glow, somehow.

Shaking her head the woman decided this, like some of the other things she was seeing, must be a hallucination, or maybe a trick of the light. Nothing was making sense just now, but she had a mounting suspicion that the "Labyrinth" the Sphinx had talked about was, unlike his riddles, very literal. What about Jake? Would he end up here, too, after he failed to answer the riddles? Had she doomed him to share her fate? No. He was better with those out of the box riddles than she was. He would be fine.

But where does that leave me?

From her right, there came a rumbling noise. Not like thunder or like the rolling of stones (she was reminded powerfully of those archeologist-turned-adventurer movies that Jake liked so much) but like someone with a really deep voice talking. There was no reply to the deep voice, and it seemed consistent, so she wasn't sure what it could be if it wasn't that. Carol turned her head and cautiously moved to the right, toward the sound. There were right-angle corners in both directions, about twelve feet either way, and no door or anything to indicate a way out. She peeked around the corner to the right, careful to keep most of her body out of sight, in case this was the sort of place she wasn't supposed to be.

Almost as soon as she'd looked, she wished she hadn't. There was a Minotaur walking toward her, apparently humming to himself. He was a huge figure, at least ten feet tall, broad-shouldered and muscular under the thick pelt of coarse brown hair that covered him from crown to heel. There was a battle axe strapped to his back, winking with the light of polished steel over his shoulder, and his only clothing appeared to be a black leather loincloth about his waist. His hands were big, with horny, black-nailed fingers (only three of them, apparently) and his feet were the hooves of a bull, cloven, black, and sharp.

The Minotaur's moist black nose wrinkled, nostrils flaring, then the humming stopped.

"I smell a human," he rumbled, and even at the distance of several yards, Carol could see the beast's eyes light up, as though with excitement. That didn't seem like a good sign. When he started to lumber forward at a swifter pace, Carol turned on her heel and ran. She sprinted, as fast as she could, to the opposite corner of the stretch where she'd woken up, dazzled by the torches flashing past her.

Skidding around the corner, already panting and wishing she'd taken Jake up on his offer of a workout buddy system thing, Carol found herself looking down another long, empty stone corridor. She ran, taking the first turn she found, then another, and a third. She only realized after the fourth turn that this was a maze, and she was getting herself lost. She paused, gasping, and looked over her shoulder, trying to listen over the pounding of her heart. What she heard was not at all reassuring.

The click of heavy, cloven hooves.

With a thrill of fear, Carol took off again. Lost was better than trampled, or chopped into little bits like kindling for the winter fire. She didn't want to die! She needed to stay alive and get good at this so that she could help Jake when he showed up - assuming he showed up at all.

The woman was still lost in thought about whether or not Jake was going to come as she rounded another corner and ran smack into something very big and very... muscly. Carol fell over, the wind knocked clean out of her by the impact with the big, solid thing. When she could gulp a lungful of air, Carol lifted her head and looked at the thing, and immediately wished she hadn't, as if by not looking she could have made it not exist. The thing she'd run into was the hindquarters of a large beast, crouching in the corridor. It turned, lumbering about in a circle to turn on her. The back half was covered in tawny fur, making her think at first of the Sphinx, but then she saw the tail, which was a segmented scorpion's tail, barbed point curled tightly off to the side. The forequarters were those of a lion, and on closer inspection the hind legs, though tawny, were shaped like those of a cow or maybe a goat, sort of boxy and bony.

Manticore.

With a growl, it swiped at her with one huge paw, and she felt the claws catch on her skin as they tore through the side of her shirt. Letting out a shriek of fear and pain, Carol rolled to her feet, staggered, and took off at a run, nearly smacking face-first into the Minotaur as she tried to backtrack. The bull-man grunted in surprise and lumbered to a halt, looking back at her as she slid past him and bolted.

Then the Manticore roared and the Minotaur bellowed back, and Carol heard the clatter of claws against steel, and she assumed the two beasts were fighting. What more could she do, but run? Trying to take different turns than she had before, the woman sprinted until she was light-headed and gasping, then finally staggered to a halt. Warm blood tickled her side as it trickled across her sweaty skin, and when she touched the bleeding area she found they were scratches only. Deep scratches, but at least they weren't gashes, or anything worse. Clutching the stitch in her side, the woman sank down to crouch against the wall, breathing hard, wishing there was something else she could do that would make more sense than just running.

"Lost, are we?" The voice was soft, almost pleasant, but too dry to be human. Much too dry.
Carol straightened a little, still breathing hard, squinting around at the seemingly empty corridor for the source of the voice. "Who's there?" Her own voice sounded sort of raspy, probably because of all that running. Somewhere nearby, she heard a dry chuckle.

"A shame, I think. A waste of effort, leaving a poor human here all on her own. Don't you agree? Some sort of hint or direction would be fair, since you were dragged across the Border."

The voice was definitely close, but she couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Then, with a thrill of terror, Carol remembered all those movies where she groaned and rolled her eyes and said "they never think to look up!" It only took a moment to brace herself, then she looked up at the ceiling.

There it was. It looked like a spider with a fat, shiny black body and a human face. It clung to the ceiling, looking down at her with a smile that showed protruding fangs, glistening with what she could only assume was venom.

It was all she could do not to scream. The spider thing reached down to her with one long, shiny leg, and she scrambled away, out of reach.

"Oh, come now. It would be an awful shame to put all that lovely flesh to waste," said the spider, still smiling, as though that was the only expression it could make. "Come here, human. I'll be sure it's quick." The spider thing was creeping down from the ceiling. It didn't seem to be very fast. Adrenaline pounding through her veins, Carol leapt to her feet and ran for her life. Again. This time, she stopped when she found an empty place far enough away from the spider thing to be relatively safe.

"I'm gonna die," she murmured to herself, covering her face with both hands, but keeping her ears alert for the sound of anything approaching. At least so far, things had been decent enough to warn her before attacking. What would happen when she found one that wasn't? What would happen if she fell down a hole and got stuck, or got eaten, or... or anything else horrible that might happen in here?

"You know, for a human, you're pretty fast." The voice was so deep it made her bones rattle. Carol tried to get to her feet again so she could run away, but her legs refused to obey. They were shaking so hard that she couldn't even brace herself against the wall, let alone stand. Fear made her throat tight and hot as she looked up and saw the Minotaur standing over her, his bloody ax gripped between both big hands.

"I don't want to die," she whimpered, wishing she could look away, but not daring to.

"No one does," the Minotaur agreed. "But I'm not here to kill you. I'm here to give you directions. And you should be grateful it's been so slow around here, otherwise I might not have bothered chasing you this far."

Carol's Story

By popular demand, Carol's Story! :) 

--- 

Taken

There was a sort of buzzing at the back of her mind as she hung up the phone. Carol took a deep breath and decided to ignore it, running a hand through her short hair. Jake hadn't liked it when she cut it short, but that was his business. If he liked it long, maybe he should have said something. Then again, he was taking care of the sphinx problem for her... Carol shook her head, pocketed her phone, and made her way toward the counter up front. 

"Thanks for covering for me, Greg." She flashed the man a smile and took her place behind the register. "Nothing caught fire while I was away?" 

Greg, a lanky youth that was more leg than anything else, gave her a sheepish smile. Since the time he'd burned popcorn in the break room microwave, no one could resist the temptation to tease him about setting things on fire. Not that he had ever actually made flames behind the snack counter, but that was just the way things went. Escalation, and all that. 

"No, nothing caught fire. Didn't have any customers, either." 

"Good. Otherwise, someone might have noticed that you're not me." She gave him a wink and scanned the food court. The mall was pretty dead today, but that was to be expected. It was a weekday, and school wasn't out yet. 

But there was more than the lack of people that was bothering her. The buzzing at the back of her skull refused to be ignored. It was starting to hurt, even, like a sinus headache, only in the wrong place. She didn't like it at all. But she knew how to fix it. She had to answer the riddle. Even thinking about it made her tense and anxious. 

How am I supposed to answer a question that doesn't make any sense? How can it be a riddle if-
 
"Miss?" 

Carol jolted back to the present, ​startled to see that there was a customer looking at her impatiently over the cash register. An older woman, with freshly-painted nails and a face like a tortoise that had just eaten a lemon.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. How can I help you?" 

"Well, to start, you can pay attention," snapped the woman unpleasantly. "I want the February special - the Cheesecake Blast shake." 

Carol was temporarily thrown for a loop, and took a full handful of heart beats to make sense of the woman's request. "But... it's August, ma'am. This month's special is the Double Double with Bacon." Carol gestured helpfully at the banner to her left, as if anyone could miss a five-foot cheeseburger. The woman scowled. 

"I didn't order a Double Double. I ordered a Cheesecake Blast shake." 

"Ma'am, that's a seasonal item. It's not on our menu right now." 

She was having none of that. After a five-minute argument about what qualified as a "seasonal item" and a demand to see Carol's supervisor, Carol fled into the back room, wishing there was some way she could escape this. Except she was effectively the shift manager, being the senior clerk on duty. Greg, who was working on unpacking a box of ready-bake buns, looked at her curiously. 

"You okay? You look terrible." 

"Thanks." 

"No, I mean it. You look really pale. Why don't  you sit down for a while? I can man the front."

"Don't go out there," she groaned. "The devil's got a craving for cheesecake." 

"Your time is nearly expired. Without the correct answers, the human Carol will be taken to the Labyrinth. You have 2 minutes remaining."

Carol could feel the blood draining from her face. She knew that voice. It was the Sphinx. Ignoring Greg's baffled, almost frightened expression, she scrambled for her phone, heart pounding, the cheesecake lady forgotten. Fumbling, she managed to punch the button that would call Jake. He was in the #1 speed-dial slot on her phone. Who else would be?

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, C'MON! Please, Jake, just pick up!" 

"I'm here. Carol, what's going on?" Jake sounded nervous, but not near nervous enough to her way of thinking.

"JAKE! Thank God, you're still alive. Please, Jake, you gotta help me solve the riddle. I thought if you were there then he'd just ask you instead and then the time would reset. I don't know the answer, and it doesn't make sense - you're so much better at this than I am-" 

"Carol, slow down. What are you talking about? What riddle?" Jake cut her off, and she could tell he was making that "sit down and breathe" gesture he used when she was upset. She tried to breathe, but there were too many words spilling out of her mouth to allow any such thing. 

"The riddle the sphinx gave me. Something about endless gold and horns. Look, you gotta ask him to get the whole thing. I couldn't figure out the answer." It wasn't even a real riddle! If Jake had been the one making the riddle, at least it would have made sense!

"Carol, I still have no idea what's going on. Can you just... breathe for a minute, and start at the beginning?" 

"We don't have time!" Carol nearly shouted into the phone, feeling the time winding down on her clock. Not fast enough. 

"Time expired. Carol is being taken to the Labyrinth. Thank you for participating."

"You have to answer the riddle, Jake! It's the only way. You gotta help me! Please-" Carol felt a jerk from somewhere in the region of her stomach, like someone had thrown a lasso over her and was yanking her backwards through the wall. She dropped her phone with a yelp of terror, fell backwards, almost through the floor... and landed flat on her back on cold, hard stone.