Alfheim

XX. The crystal labyrinth

The next morning we packed our stuff and continued our journey. Even though we had lost Emilia and Hugo we still had a quest to complete and a competition to win. Not that I cared about that. My main concern was how I was going to protect everyone. I can't let anyone die again. Fictional characters or not, I must protect them. That's why I suggested Timothy and I walked at the front. Timothy was holding the map. We were walking two by two.
"How is that possible?!" Kira asked surprised.
I turned around. "What's wrong?"
We stopped walking and looked at the sphere Grant had been holding this whole time.
"Look", he said and clicked his tongue. "I managed to get a trackerfly on one of the champions of Aestas. This is where they are right now."
"They are too far ahead of us.That's impossible!" Timothy said. "I get the feeling they know more than we do."
"Still, we have to keep going," I say. "We shouldn't let Emilia and Hugo's deaths be in vain."

Everyone nods and we continue to walk. We were walking through a desert. Not gonna lie, I'm missed having Gideon around. Jerk or not, around him I felt like everything was okay or was going to be okay. We all had brought and scarf and had put it on to cover our mouths from the blowing sand. We stopped in front of a large cave. It was dark inside.

"Grant, did you bring the fireflies?" Timothy asks.
Timothy had prepared two empty lanterns and Grant had a glass pot with fireflies in it. They both carefully filled the lanterns and suggested to go in pairs. Without much of a discussion Timothy and I paired up and Kira paired up with Grant. Timothy and I entered the cave first.
"Do you guys see anything?" I heard Kira ask from behind us.
"Yes, we see two tunnels," I respond.
We all stop in front of the tunnels and discuss which one we should take.
"Left or right?" Timothy asks us.
"Don't ask us, you're the one holding the map," Kira says.
Timothy sighs. "Sadly the map isn't that detailed."
Grant grabbed his sphere again he had out away earlier.
"We can't use magic in here," Grant says irritated.
"Let's split up then," Kira suggests. "I'll go with T-.."
"Let's do that. You'll go through the right tunnel and we will go through the left tunnel. When sensing danger immediately run back here," Timothy interrupted Kira.

We all nodded and went in the tunnels. I didn't take us long to find out that the tunnels were connected to a large space of the cave with a lot of crystals in it. The colorful crystals formed some kind of labyrinth. The crystals had reflections like mirrors. We saw each other, but we were separated by some crystals.

As Kira was about to touch a crystal Timothy shouted: "Don't touch it!"
But it was already too late. She froze and crystalized.  "Kira!" I shouted and I wanted to burst through the crystals to get to her, but Timothy held me back. "Let...me...go!!" I shouted while I tried to get out of Timothy's grip.
"Calm down Ivy!" Grant said. "Everything is going to be okay. Look!"
A flying crystal creature had appeared in the shape of Medusa. Her eyes were lit up as well just like the little girl's. "Greetings. I am Credusa. I am the guardian of this cave. I should've warned you before, but I wasn't expecting you to be that curious," the creature said while looking at the frozen Kira. Therefore, I will release her and give her a second chance. She waved her hand over Kira and she defroze. "What happened?" she asked.
"Kira!" I shouted with happy tears in my eyes.
"It's good to have you back," Grant said.
"The rules are simple. You have to make your way through my labyrinth without touching them. You touch them, you freeze and the labyrinth will change. If one of your teammates manages to get out of the labyrinth the other teammates will automatically win the challenge. Then they will be freed. If you lose, you and your teammates stay frozen forever and eventually die. Start now!" Credusa said.

We began with caution. Timothy and I looked around. Which way should we take? All the crystals were like mirrors and it was so confusing, cause in every crystal we could see our own reflection. Somehow we managed to almost get out when we hear a scream. It was a girl, but it wasn't someone from our team. May be from the other team? Then the labyrinth changed. Timothy and I got separated.
"Timothy!" I shouted. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, I am fine," he responded from far away.
Even though the labyrinth had changed I kept going into the same direction Timothy and I were going to. Then I suddenly saw him. It was Gideon...
"Hi," he said.
"Hi," I responded while looking if there was another direction I could take. Dang it. That's the only direction I can take to the exit.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine," I responded.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"Why should you be sorry. If my team dies, Aestas will win," I said.
"That's not how I want to win this game. I want to win it fair and square," he then responded.
"So this is all a game to you?" I ask with disgust.
I burst towards him and quickly pass him.
"No, that's not what I meant!" I heard him say behind me.
Then I heard another scream. This time it was coming from a male.
"Jonathan," I heard Gideon whisper under his breath.
"Watch out!" he then said.
As I saw the crystal wall coming up right in front of my eyes, Gideon had pulled me away from it just in time so I wouldn't touch it. He tightly held onto me while the walls around us were changing.