The Ranch

Fairytale Maze (4)

They walk through the 'pied piper' doorway. Just like a regular maze, they have to walk in a straight line. Occasionally they're given two choices. Turn left or keep straight, turn right or left, turn right or keep straight, or some other combination.

Tih and Lucien silently follow the two in front as they pick their path. Lucien suddenly calls out," There's something jamming my signal." He's clicking on his watch's holographic screen with rapid-fire speed. The others look through their devices and realize they're practically useless. They can't even contact each other with them at this point.

"Work on disrupting whatever's jamming our devices." Sherlock says as they continue moving forward.

Eventually, they come upon a doorway that opens up into a rectangular space the size of a dorm room. Inside, a C-shaped banquet table is filled to the brim with small glass bottles labeled "drink me" and sugar cookies with the words "eat me" frosted on.

In front of the doorway stands a podium with a plaque that reads "Some are poison, others are medicine. The items consumed will equal the amount of people that have walked into the room."

Once they walk in, the doorway behind them quickly closes up with metal shrubbery. It's obvious that they won't be able to leave unless they finish the puzzle.

"Poison?" Lucien glances at the colorful display of food. He picks up one of the finger sized bottles and shakes it. The light blue liquid splashes around, contained with a cork.

Kai picks up a heart shaped cookie with yellow frosting and sniffs it. It's odorless. "The 'drink me' 'eat me' part should be from Alice in Wonderland."

Sherlock inspects a lavender colored bottle to inspect," I think medicine means antidote. It also does specify if each of us needs to eat one."

"Meaning one person could eat all four. What do you thinks the ratio of poison to medicine?" Kai puts down the cookie to pick up a green bottle.

Sherlock shakes his head, "There's not enough information. I can't determ- Wha- TIH!"

The other two turn to face in the direction Sherlock is shouting in to see Tih stuffing his face with colorfully frosted cookies. He's already shoved about six in and is now quite parched. He reaches for a pretty looking pink drink but tackled by Kai. Thrown to the ground, he swallows the dry cookies all at once. He tries to cough the dryness out, but the body laying on top of him doesn't help.

Kai, who was desperately trying to stop Tih from grabbing anything else, was too late to take the food already in his mouth. He pries Tih's jaw open to see nothing but his tongue.

He looks back at Sherlock with worried exasperation," Uhh, what do we do with this?" He points to the stupid idiot lying under him.

Sherlock's mind races about," Um, we could try to make him throw it up. Stick your fingers into the back of his throat."

*Rumble rumble*

As the group is panicking, a passageway opens up on opposite side of the room.

"We passed?" Lucien mumbles, confused about the actions that quickly led to this moment. The entered this room less than two minutes ago and were still discussing loopholes and trying to figure out a way to solve this puzzle.

"Tih? Buddy? You feeling okay?" Kai holds Tih's shoulders as he helps him up.

Tih nods, confused by Kai's behavior.

Kai can't help but not believe him," Are you sure? You're not nauseous? Feeling sick?" Those that are sick are often unaware of the fact.

Tih shakes his head. There's nothing wrong with him.

"Then...I guess we should move along." Kai plans to keep close to Tih and pay more attention to him, in case his condition worsens. He hooks Tih's arm and they continue moving forward. Kai will glance and Tih every ten seconds to make sure Tih isn't pretending to be fine.

Kai finally calms down about two hours after the incident, with Tih showing no signs of poisoning. During this time, he was too busy paying attention to Tih to care about which way they went, letting Sherlock take the lead. That's not to say he forgot to memorize the path they took and the time it took to get here.

One of the functions that was disabled on their devices was the time. The only reason Kai knows how long it's been is because he's been counting the seconds ever since they walked in here. It's more of a habit he does occasionally.

After the two hours had passed, the game across six different paths, each had a flag above them. They were the flags of Japan, the UK, Botswana, the EU, Israel, and Jamaica.

After looking at them for less than half a minute, Sherlock and Kai simultaneously answer," Its EU." They both came to the conclusion that they're looking for the odd one out.

They pause, glancing at each other. Sherlock parts his lips," Its because the EU flag is the only flag won't be symmetric if flipped 180 degrees."

"What? No, that's too simple. It's because all the other flags are for singular counties."

"Either way, it EU, right?" Seeing where this was heading, Lucien cuts in, heading into that direction.

Not wanting to lose anyone over carelessly moving ahead, the others quickly catch up to Lucien, forgetting about the argument they were about to start.