The Rise of Merlin

Chapter 4: Mazes Suck

Stepping through the doorway and into the tree, Izuku immediately comes to a spiral staircase that leads down, down, down, as far as he can see, until it becomes too dark and the stairs fade into the darkness of the tunnel.

"So no lights. That's gonna be a problem," Izuku says to himself, just in time for the door to *conveniently* slide shut behind him, leaving him in complete darkness. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me!"

Though, he wasn't in the dark for long. After a few seconds, a soft glow sprouts from the wall beside him and grows bigger until a blue, glowing rose blooms, the flower emitting a glow bright enough for him to see down the tunnel again.

Izuku saves gushing about how cool the glowing flower is for later, instead, he carefully picks it off the wall and carries it like a torch as he begins his descent down the stairs.

The staircase is longer than he thought it would be. It seemed to spiral on forever and Izuku briefly wondered if he should turn back, but decided to keep going. The little blue creatures brought him here for a reason and he was going to find out why.

So he kept walking. At some point, he began to count the steps, something he would rather do than be alone with his thoughts. And finally after what seemed like years of walking down steps, which he logically knew was only minutes, Izuku found himself at the bottom.

He stood in a long hallway, the walls made of rough and cracked stone, and the floor, also stone, covered in dust, moss, and cobwebs. Scattered across the hallway were little... statues? They looked like statues. Stone statues of little creatures that looked like they came from fairy tales.

A creature that looked like a fox, but appeared to have multiple eyes, a bird that looked furry instead of feathery and had little horns like a rhino, and right next to him was what looked like a cat-sized dragon laying on the floor next to a nest that held an egg, also made of stone. And that was just to name a few.

Looking down at the little dragon statue beside him, Izuku can't help but grin. "If I get to meet a dragon, I will die happy." Was it a little dramatic? Yes. Was it the truth? Kind of.

Izuku starts to walk down the hallway, trying his best to not get distracted by the little creature statues he passed, he didn't want to trigger some kind of trap, if there were any.

He was doing well until something on the wall caught his attention. At first, he thought the stone walls were old and cracked, but upon further inspection, the cracks were actually carvings of different symbols and runes. He only recognized a few from the books he had read earlier, though he couldn't remember what they meant, he really needed to study more. But the walls were covered with all sorts of different symbols, it was so interesting! He's only just got here and he's already excited to start learning again.

Izuku gets to the end of the hallway and has to say goodbye to the carvings and the little statues as he walks through a doorway into another dark tunnel.

"This way," He hears to his left. He whirls around to see where the whisper came from, only to see one of the little blue things that lead him here in the first place.

He quickly glances down the tunnel to his right before turning left to follow the little blue creature.

As he walks, he notices many branching paths on either side of him and Izuku soon realizes that he's found himself in a maze.

Another little thing appears to his right and beckons him to follow again. He really needs to learn the name of this creature.

Izuku turns down the tunnel to his right and continues walking.