The Ranch

Fairytale Maze (11)

"He's over here!" Sherlock shouts from the other corridor. Both groups only now take a look at who they're with.

In the left corridor Kai, Lucien, Victor, Abel, and Pierre are together. In the right Tih, Sherlock, Basile, and Theodore are together.

They were too disorganized during the chase and don't know how they got split up, to the gratefulness of Theodore who was sixth in line and the cause of their separation.

Kai is immediately filled with frustration, but forces it back, knowing it's not the time for that.

"There's nothing we can do about it now. Let's continue on our separate paths and meet up at the center." Victor calls out so the other side can hear.

"Sounds good! Meet you there!" Theodore responds.

Like this, the two groups split up.

Following Tih's group, the four spend the next couple hours working on mini puzzles.

They arrive at five split path, with each door having a vowel written above it. The plaque reads:

["Using" is E

"Desist" is I

"Visits" is E

"Design" is ?]

This one stumps the group for a while. Their resident sleuth, Sherlock, take over half an hour to come up with the solution. "It's U."

He's about to explain the reason, but Theodore immediately accepts his answers and steps through the door. Basile and Tih follow. Sherlock is left hanging, it seems he doesn't need to explain to these guys, they trust his answers.

Sherlock has noticed that the further they go into the maze, the harder the question become. It's no wonder that whoever made it gave three days to get to the center. Sherlock isn't sure if the exact time, but the day should be over. The walls don't allow you to see if it's dark outside or not to come to a conclusion.

After walking for a minute, they enter a new scenario. Unlike the previous ones, this room is twice as large and three times as tall.

If there's really three level to the colosseum maze, the tall tower in the middle should be able to reach the top floor.

The group walk on grassy land and look around. Another thing that's different is all the other soldiers. It seems this scenario has become somewhat of a campground. People can be seen grouped together sleeping on the grass. Even without darkness, people's internal clocks are telling them its time to sleep.

"Let's find a spot as well." Sherlock suggests.

They find a relatively tall grassy area to rest. They sit down as a group as they discuss. Sherlock looks towards the tower, "The top should reach the third level, but the center would be on the second. We might have to go up to the third level before finding a way to go down to the second."

"How do we get up?" Basile has been observing the other participants. Some have surrounded the tower to look for a way up, discussing and testing out ideas. Everyone has noticed the open window at the top of the tower.

A few have been trying to climb up the vines covering the stone tower, but they're too thin to support any weight. Others have been trying to climb using the rocks the tower is made of, but the moss on the stone makes it too slippery to latch on to. Luckily, those that fall land on the berry bushes surrounding the perimeter of the tower.

"Rapunzel." Theodore comments.

They turn to look at him.

"This scenario. I think it's based off Rapunzel."

"How did you know?" Sherlock wonders. Although the story contains a tower, there are many stories that have towers.

Theodore points towards a man standing in front of the window with his hands cupped around his mouth, yelling upwards," Rapunzel Rapunzel let down your hair!"

"...If that's the case, there should be a way to trigger an event. A way for us to climb up. It'll probably be Rapunzel's hair."

"There should be clues hidden around the scenario. Let's sleep first and look around tomorrow," says Theodore.

The others agree and they lay down to rest.

Theodore is the type to sleep hugging his pillow. When morning arrived, Theodore woke up with Tih in his arms. He quickly let go of the boss and pretended nothing happened. Luckily, no one else had woken up yet.

They get around six hours of sleep before starting their search. Sherlock and Basile wander around the room, looking at the walls and ground. Basile is snacking on some gingerbread he kept from the last scenario.

Theodore and Tih are near the base of the tower, along with some other participants. Tih's eyes gleam as he looks at the berries. He pick off a shiny unfamiliar berry and brings it to his mouth.

A kind stranger sees his movements and tries to warn Tih," Hey kid, those are poison-"

Theodore hears this and turns to see Tih put the berry in his mouth, chew, and swallow. He continues to pick berries as a replacement for breakfast and Theodore quickly pulls him away from the bushes, aghast.

The surrounding soldiers who were watching the exchange look on with horrified expressions.

At a loss, Theodore asks," Umm, how do you know these are poisonous." He's hoping for it to be a mistake.

"He had heavy vomiting and diarrhea...but he only ate one berry. He said they were too bitter to eat and could only swallow one..." The soldier glances at the straight-faces child munching on, what should be, incredibly bitter berries, not to mention he's already informed him they're poisonous.

Unbeknownst to them, Tih has been eating wild berries for years and has gained an immunity to weak poisons found in most inedible berries.

But Theodore doesn't know this. He picks up the child and looks for Sherlock. After finding him, he explains the situation.

Sherlock's eyes become a little lifeless as he recounts,"Ahhh..yeah remember the first scenario I talked about? The ones with poison? Tih carries us through that puzzle by eating six random items. They're were no drawbacks or noticeable effects, so I assume he's immune to at least some poisons. I wouldn't worry about it too much." Sherlock has already seen to many amazing feats, especially in the maze. Tih solutions to puzzles in the maze have numbed his brain.

Theodore questioningly turns Tih to face himself, "Is that true? You're fine?"

Tih nods. He feels fine.

With that problem solved, the two head back to the tower. Tih continues eating his full as the onlookers watch. Theodore keeps the child next to him as he investigates the tower wall.

After half an hour, Tih reaches out for another berry, but notices something. He pushes the berry bush back to reveal etching in the stone. The stone itself also looks different from the others, looking to be of a different material.

Tih touches the inscriptions, but outs too much force into it, the stone slide in. There's a rumbling as a passageway opens up. Theodore quickly block the doorway as he looks at the stone Tih touched. It reads [falle].

Theodore relaxes his body and announces," Nice Tih! We found a way up!"

Someone overhears and he tries to covertly tell his friends, but many people were near them, waiting to see how many berries Tih could eat.

"They found a way up!" Someone suddenly shouts. Soon enough, everyone is shoving their way into the secret passage to be the first up like its a race. Theodore and Tih are shoved to the side as people file in.