The old wooden door closed behind Ganainm and the Knight. The two absolutely expected the creaking sound to be followed by a loud slam, but it was the gentle click of the lock that sent shivers up their spines. They looked away from the sound's source and stared forward.
Before them there was a library. Thousands upon thousands of books, tomes, registers, dictionaries, novels, anthologies, memoirs, and diaries. All were stacked perfectly in their respective places. Stored neatly — without the faintest shadow of dust anywhere to be found — their spines presented as a shield-wall, a barricade, of knowledge. As Ganainm's gaze climbed the bookshelves, it was suddenly pulled upward by a distinctly fleshy construct.
Amidst the shelves, betwixt the books, there stood a 'shroom of o'er ten foots.
When she took in the sight, another one appeared. And another one. And one more thereafter. Eight in total, tall, spiring mushrooms protruded from between the shelves. Their large caps overshadowed some areas with an umbrella of jet, the upborne light nearly gone at their bases.
Katsugi then thought of something incredibly clever.
"Climb on me," he said.
"?"
"Climb on me," he repeated, gesturing with his hands. "The Queen said this is a maze, right? Well, if you climb onto my shoulders, you should be able to see what is above."
"But above the shelves are..." she started, "you know. The umm...roofs of the shelves...?"
This wasn't her brightest day. After he told the girl she'd be able to see the path in front of them, something finally clicked.
Ganainm gracefully balanced on the Knight's shoulder-pads. The polished metal was slippery, and her boots weren't exactly made for walking on mirrors. Just when the man was about to grab her ankles to hold her in place, the girl very gracefully fell. Face-first, into a bookshelf. But, no matter, it wouldn't have worked anyway, for they were both too short.
When she got up and scrambled whatever was left of her to a state approaching decency but still managing to miss it — in spite of the idea walking straight on — the girl noticed something.
The shelf she had so gracefully smashed into had fallen. Thankfully, the shelves were enough distance apart from one another, that the accident didn't provoke a badly-paced sequence of dominoing slabs of wood. Instead, small mushrooms grew out of the shelf.
They were shaped like tiny cannons. Ganainm didn't know what a cannon was, but she was about to find out. From their tiny, little barrels, each of them shot out a minuscule, very human-looking hand. A ferocious pop was heard whenever a hand had been fired. When one of the hands landed on the girl's head, it pulled her locks so hard it nearly squeezed out a tear.
More and more hands flew towards the pair — and after Katsugi's realising they could pinch him through the armour — they bolted. They ran like that, knocking over a few more shelves, with more cannons sprouting from there, until they reached one of the big mushrooms. The moment the two ran into its cap's shadow, the hands dropped dead on the floor, and the new ones, crawling towards them, could not cross the barrier.
Ganainm wiped sweat off her brow. She hadn't known what to expect, but certainly not this. With a moment to think, the two tried formulating a plan.
"What exactly is it that we are supposed to do?" asked the Knight?
"I think we have to reach the centre of this thing. There, we should find 'the thing with which a human pays their debt'. And the, I think, we should umm...give it to the human that already is here?" she stumbled out of the answer with more uncertainty than when she'd entered it.
"So there is another person here." Ganainm shrugged.
"There will be riddles and monsters, that's for sure. Hold on," she paused. "Let's recount what we've gotten so far."
"We had the 'host' 'greet us' and also things 'throw hands'." The Knight replied.
"So we're yet to come across the persons and the monsters," she concluded. At the last remark, Katsugi rolled his eyes in disagreement. He then had an epiphany.
"Hold this," he told Ganainm while handing her his greatsabre. She grasped the weapon and a look of concern came upon her face.
The Knight then pulled a small knife out of nowhere. Its handle had the same design as his main weapon, in fact, it very much looked like the thing itself, only miniaturised. He then spun it and grabbed it with the blade pointing downwards. And started climbing.
At first, it was very awkward. He couldn't find enough space to support himself on. After a few more tries though, he began gaining some height. And so, he scaled the mushroom, the knife jabbing at the fleshy tissue. With every stab he made a space for his other hand, and then for his feet too. Soon, he reached the summit.
From there, the view would make him cry, had he been a bookworm. Miles upon miles of vast plains of bookshelves. He shouted down, towards Ganainm, all that he saw:
"There is a lot of shelves! Nod if you hear me!"
She nodded.
"There are more structures like this one! They all form a pattern, the distance between them appears to be similar at worst."
"What's in the middle?" Ganainm shouted from below. Katsugi's eyes narrowed, spying, seeking, looking.
"I cannot see! It does not appear as anything special!"
"How far is it?"
He checked again.
"It does not seem far, I think we would make it before the hands getting too annoying!"
Ganainm nodded in understanding and signalled for the Knight to come down. He then strapped his sword back in place, sheathed the knife, and turned to her. She nodded. He nodded. And they bolted into the fray.
