My Friend Loki: Strange Magic

Chapter 9

There were lots of people at the farm, the majority being families with young children. Hearing the various sounds of excitement coming from this gathering of people, especially the kids, it was contagious - making us even more excited to be here.

We made our way inside a building, a sign on the exterior that read 'Welcome Center and Gift Shop.' Working behind the counter stood an older and gregarious woman. When it was our turn in line, she explained to us what the farm offered and the activity packages available.

For now, we only wanted to do the corn maze. Purchasing our tickets, she directed us to a designated gate that would open by a certain time.

Before heading over there, Loki and I took a moment to look around and see what wares the gift shop offered.

We found an assortment of natural products, like honey and jam. There were fruits and vegetables available - hand-picked from the farm itself. There were also beeswax candles and one of my favourite types of candy one would find in such a shop - Gilliam Old Fashioned Sticks. Asides from the backpack, we didn't want to carry anything else while going through the maze, so we decided afterward we'd return.

Finding the designated gate, we waited with the other 'mazers' for our 'Farm Educator' to arrive. The woman at the 'Welcome Centre and Gift Shop' told us that before we could enter, the adventure begins with a 'Stalk Talk' that prepares you for the challenge of finding clues, solving puzzles, and making your way out of the maze.

It wasn't a long wait. Our designated 'Farm Educator' was a young woman who walked up to the gate, opened it, then began ushering us inside the area. Once our group was all in, she closed the gate, then stood before us and began, in an enthusiastic tone, her 'Stalk Talk':

"My name is Cassidy and I'm your trainer for today, and you are all jockeys with the skill set and determination to get through our amazing maize maze! Alright! We have over three acres of one mile of corny goodness and if you make the first nineteen decisions correctly, you'll get out in about ten minutes... if not we close today at 5:30 pm."

Some of the group laughed at that last part. I suspected with us being new to this, we definitely were going to take longer than ten minutes...

Cassidy continued, "we have colour coordinated the maze, to give you an overall picture of where you are within the maze," she held up a large laminated sheet displaying the maze's configuration - a blue border framing a horse in orange with a rider in green, "if you will notice this blue ribbon that's outlining the maze, we have that throughout, so if you're in the blue, you are in the outer area of the maze, if you are in the orange then you are in the horse and if you are in the green, then you are in the jockey. If you see a gold ribbon then you are on your way to victory circle where you can cross the bridge and start celebrating!"

She informed us there were nine checkpoints, each one giving a clue on what direction to go next. The talk concluded with safety procedures and how to alert the staff in case of an emergency.

"You may now enter the maze... at your own risk. Good luck!" Cassidy said, waving us on to proceed.

"Beverlee," Loki said in a hushed tone, putting his hands on my shoulders, "we can make short work of this if you like."

"How so?" I asked.

"I have the power to create duplicates of myself and send them ahead to scout the area, so as we get to a crossroad, we'll know where to turn."

"You mean cheat?" I smiled at him, amused by his suggestion.

"Well... yes," Loki confirmed, unabashed.

While some would scold Loki for such an idea, one had to understand that since he was the God of Mischief, it was simply one of his methods on how he got things done - you couldn't fault him for that.