Matilda, Child of Fire

MMV: Puzzle Land & Parisian Planning

6 MMV: Puzzle Land & Parisian Planning

"Here's a toast to being alive/I won't be your sad story girl.../No glory being the good girl now/I make mistakes so I can learn.../Don't worry mama I'll always do right" –Gin Wigmore, Hangover Halo

7 am, Week 3, Stuart Landsborough's Puzzling World, 188 Wanaka Luggate Hwy 84, Wanaka 9382, New Zealand

Matilda realized that she was lucky to be alive and (more or less) free, in the beautiful country of New Zealand, rather than rotting away in a damp prison cell. Truth be told, if she'd gone to said prison, woe betide the guards, who probably would have been conflagrated within an inch of their lives the moment they told her to remove all metal jewelry for the standard-level metal detector.

As it were, she found herself in a six-foot-high faux wood outdoor labyrinth, much like the corn mazes she'd heard about online whenever Halloween rolled around. She had never experienced said corn mazes in person, because her parents were smart enough to realize that a small child with uncontrolled fire power around dried, flammable crops was an undeniable death wish. To her parents' credit though, they didn't take Henry or Maya to the corn mazes; if one couldn't go, neither could the rest of them, fair and square.

Fair and square, indeed, she thought to herself, her stomach grumbling as she hadn't had enough time to eat breakfast before arriving, stashing a trail mix packet in her knapsack as she ran out her cottage door to meet Wyatt at the lakefront gazebo.

"You're late," she recalled him saying.

"Only by a minute—" she had protested, but he ignored her as he unwrapped a pamphlet map of their next destination to show her, then stowed it away in his own knapsack before he clasped her arm and they orbed out to their next adventure.

7:20 am, Stuart Landsborough's Puzzling World, 188 Wanaka Luggate Hwy 84, Wanaka 9382, New Zealand

It was eerily quiet as Matilda rounded each corner with bated breath, hoping Wyatt knew what he was doing. For the sake of time, they agreed to split up and take different paths once they orbed into the center of the maze directly.

"What do you know about this location?" Matilda remembered asking him just after they orbed out.

"Oh, it's a mystery funhouse that began as a single-story wooden maze in 1973," he had replied, peering this way and that; they were surrounded by high brown fences, completely obscuring the next lanes over, save for six inches of space between the fence and the crumbled grey gravel on the floor below.

"Sounds kid-friendly enough," she responded hesitantly. "Is there anything weird about the place?"

Wyatt laughed aloud. "Val, in the work we do, is there anything that isn't?"

"Ok, point taken—" she began.

"Like I've reminded you before, you have all the tools. And if there's anything odd, you'll know it when you see it," and off he went, leaving her standing in his wake.

"Uh...thanks?" she said uncertainly.

7:30 am, Stuart Landsborough's Puzzling World, 188 Wanaka Luggate Hwy 84, Wanaka 9382, New Zealand

They had agreed to meet at the top of one of the maze's bridges once they completed inspection of their various areas. Matilda had kept to her area of the labyrinthine path, scouring for remnants of magic or illegal portals or traces of illicit magical substances, but had no idea what she was after.

She couldn't believe she was thinking this, but she almost preferred getting her hair chomped on by the Taniwha. At least then she knew what she was in for. But here, the hushed stillness was thoroughly unnerving—there were no chirping birds to be heard, as the somewhat urban locale was completely devoid of trees.