Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Nope, still own nothing


Previously: "Such a pity." He said fading from view. "Such a pity."

The trio blinked, he really was gone; and that meant their challenge had begun. Carefully picking their way down the hill they came upon the outside wall of the Labyrinth, but there was no door that they could see and they really couldn't waste their time looking for it.

Movement out the corner of their left eyes caught their attention. Closer inspection revealed a squat little man er, for lack of a better word, relieving himself in a small pond whose water had long since stagnated. He seemed not to notice them and the men stood stock-still; awkwardly clearing their throats and looking anywhere but at him directly.

Masako rolled her eyes; they weren't seeing anything indecent; the man's stance and their position protected whatever modesty he might have had. She decided to take this into her own hands.

"Um, excuse me?" she called.

The little man startled a little and quickly made himself presentable.

"Oh! Excuse me!" he said turning around to reveal an ancient looking and gnarled face. His expression soured when he saw who he was talking to. "Oh," he said with a hint of disgust. "it's you three." Turning away he pulled some sort of spraying contraption from under his shirt and started limping away from them.

"What are you doing?" John asked.

"My job." The man grumbled. "Gotta kill off these pests. Only problem is they breed as fast as I can spray." He explained spraying some sort of concoction on a swarm of sparkly creatures.

"Those are fairies." Masako said picking up a fallen one and cradling it in her hands. "You shouldn't be hurting this poor little- Ow!" she cried as the fairy giggled and flew off. "It bit me!" she cried in disbelief.

"'Course they do." The dwarf replied limping away. "What'd you expects fairies to do?"

"I thought they did nice things like grant wishes." Masako offered as an explanation.

"That's what they do in every story I've heard about them." John added.

The dwarf grunted in response, still limping ahead of them.

"I don't suppose you would know the way in would you?" Naru causally asked.

The dwarf turned around and gave them a cold look. "Course I do!" he snorted indignantly before turning around and continuing along the wall.

"Could you tell us?" John asked.

"Tell ya what?" the dwarf asked.

"How to get in." Masako pointed at the wall they were standing next to.

"Oh that, I could." The dwarf replied. They waited a moment, but he didn't say a word.

"Well?" Masako asked impatiently.

"Well what?" the dwarf asked in reply.

"Aren't you going to tell us how to get in?" Masako finished.

"Oh. Nope." The dwarf answered.

The medium huffed. "You're really rude." She insulted.

The dwarf turned and gave them another sour look. "No I ain't, I'm Hoggle." He said introducing himself; pointing a weathered thumb at his chest.

"You said you'd tell us the way in." John told him.

"I didn't says nothin' o' the sorts." Hoggle replied. "I said I could tells ya. Never saids I would."

"And why not?" Masako was now on the verge of throwing a tantrum.

"Cause you ain't askin' the rights question!" Hoggle accused pointing a twiggy finger at them. He huffed and turned around, intent on finishing his task.

The trio stood there for a moment watching him limp away, wondering what he meant. It was Naru who figured it out first.

"I see. Will you tell us how to get into the Labyrinth then?"

"Well, why didn't ya say so befores?" Hoggle asked exasperatedly, throwing his little arms into the air. "The entrance's right behinds ya." He pointed and the three turned to face a large set of doors standing beside them, which hadn't been there a few seconds before.

"But… but…" Masako sputtered, desperately trying to make sense of the situation they somehow found themselves in.

"Well, ya got yer answers. Best get goin' then." Hoggle said, gesturing for them to leave.

"Right," John agreed. "thanks mate." He called over his shoulder to Hoggle as the three entered the gate.

"Damn fools." Hoggle muttered under his breath as he resumed his work. "Goin' up against that rat like that. Be lucky if they makes it past the first wall."


Inside, all the trio could see was a long path around the outer wall of the maze.

"How are we supposed to get through solid rock?" Masako asked.

"This challenge is supposed to be difficult, not impossible." Naru replied. "There has to be an opening somewhere; we'll just have to look until we find it. Split up, but don't wander too far away." He ordered.

So they walked and walked and walked, each a little ways distance from the other with Masako bringing up the rear. However, no matter how far they walked, even with three sets of eyes scanning the area; there was nothing to be seen. Dejected already, Masako stopped to lean against a wall and slid down to rest on her haunches.

"Allo!" called a voice. Masako looked around to find a blue worm with a peach colored underside, a bright orange scarf on its neck, and large brown eyes staring up at her.

"Did you say hello?" she asked hesitantly, aware of how crazy it would look if she were talking to a worm back home.

"No I said 'allo', but that's close enough." The worm replied.

"You're a worm, aren't you?" Masako persisted.

"Yea, s'right." It said.

"You don't by any chance know the way through this Labyrinth do you?" the young medium chanced.

"Who me? Nah, I'm just a worm." It replied.

"Oh,"

"Come inside and meet the missus." The worm offered.

"No thank you but," Masako sighed. "my friends and I have to solve this Labyrinth. But there aren't any turns or any openings or anything! It just goes on and on and-"

"Well you ain't lookin' right." The worm interrupted on the breath of a laugh. "It's full of op'nings it's just you ain't seein' 'em."

Masako looked towards the bug from where she had tossed her head back and forth in frustration during her little rant. "Where are they?" she asked.

"There's one just across there. It's right in front of ya." The little worm replied inclining his head to the opposite wall.

Masako looked at it for a moment. "No there isn't." she said.

"Come inside and have a nice cup of tea." The worm said once more.

"But," Masako looked back to the worm. "there isn't an opening." She said.

The worm laughed. "Of course there is, you try walkin' through it. You'll see what I mean." It said as Masako got up and walked across the narrow path.

She turned back to it. "What?" she asked.

"Go on." The worm urged. "Go on then."

Masako turned back to the wall before her. "That's, just, wall. There's no way through." She said looking back yet gesturing toward the bricks.

"Things are not always what they seen in this place." The worm offered for explanation, shrugging its little body as one might shrug their shoulders. "So you can't take anything for granted."

Masako herself shrugged a little and held both hands up to keep her from walking face first into a wall. Much to her surprise there was an opening, just like the worm had said. It was just well concealed, and like it had said; Masako and the others weren't looking right as their perception of a labyrinth was that it would have clearly defined turns and openings. This particular Labyrinth, however, was in great disrepair and meant to be a challenge; how challenging would it be if everything was marked out for you?

"Hey!" she said in surprise. She walked back out to where the worm was. "John! Naru! Come here!" she called.

The two men came running back.

"What is it Ms. Hara?" John asked her.

"There's an opening right here." She said demonstrating. "That little worm showed me." She explained. "We can finish the Labyrinth and save Mai now. Come on!" she said. The two men followed her in and they started to make a left turn when the worm called out.

"Hey, hang on!" it cried.

The trio backtracked to see it.

"Thank you, that was incredibly helpful." Masako told it, starting to go left with the others again.

"But don't go that way!" the worm warned.

"What was that?" Naru asked.

"I said, 'don't go that way'." The worm said tilting his head left in reply. The trio looked around and the worm added. "Never go that way."

"Oh," Masako said, starting for the right. "thanks." She said as she and the boys walked out of sight.

The worm shook his head as he watched them go. "Gough. If they'd a kept goin' on that way. They'd a gone straight to that castle." The worm shook his head once more.


The opening led them into a more maze like part of the Labyrinth. It seemed to go from one extreme to the other in this place because now there were so many openings and turns they didn't know which one to pick.

"How are we supposed to solve this part?" John asked. "There are too many openings and we don't have enough time to see where each one leads."

We need a way to mark which ways we've already gone if we end up returning here." Naru rationalized.

"But how? We don't have anything to mark with." John replied.

Masako looked around and seeing nothing began to smooth her hands on her jeans. She felt a bump in the right pocket. Reaching inside she pulled out a tube of lipstick, weird; she hadn't remembered putting any makeup on this morning or even taking it with her, much less putting it in her pocket.

"Will this do?" she asked them, holding out the piece of face paint.

They shot her a quizzical glance and she shrugged in response. Naru took the tube and uncapped it; harlot red, easily visible against the grungy stones.

"This will do, let's start." He said.

"Which way?" John asked.

"Hmm, let's try left; since we went right last time." Naru reasoned. They walked to the opening farthest left and right before the entered Naru knelt down and marked it with an arrow. The three runners continued on their way.

As their backs were turned, a little creature popped out from under the stone they had written on and took a look at it. It raised its little fist; shaking it and yelling garbled nonsense at them as it turned the stone a rotation and went back under the ground.

This happened as the three made their way; they'd make a mark, a little creature would pop up and change the arrow's direction. Eventually they came to a dead end. They backtracked to the last arrow they'd made and saw that it had been flipped to another direction; one that led right to a wall.

"What's this?" Naru asked; not really unaware of what happened but things in this place were just so confounding to a logical mind like his that the reaction was completely human and it just slipped out.

"Seems like someone's been changing our marks." John observed.

"What a horrible place this is." Masako was really getting fed up with the Labyrinth. "It's not fair!"

Behind them another voice spoke. "That's right," it spoke with a distinctly Scottish accent. "It's not fair." Three other voices laughed and the trio turned to see two guards, red and blue respectively, standing at two passages. Only, they had four heads? "But that's only half of it!" the lower voice of the red guard spoke and the other three laughed again as the trio made their way to the guards.

"This was a dead end a minute ago." Masako said.

The lower head of the blue guard popped out under the shield. "No, that's the dead end behind ya!" he exclaimed. The other three heads laughed and they all ducked behind the shields again.

The group of runners looked behind them to see that the walls they had passed through were closed and it was indeed a dead end now.

"It keeps changing." John observed.

"What are we supposed to do?" Masako asked looking back at the guards.

The lower head of the Red Guard popped out. "Well the only way out is to try one of these doors." He told them.

The lower head of the blue guard added. "One of these doors leads to the castle at the center of the Labyrinth. And the other one leads to," here the top heads popped out. "Certain death!" the lower head finished while the top head made sound effects for emphasis.

"Ooohhh!" the other heads said.

"Which one is which?" Naru asked them.

"Eh, we can't tell you." The lower red replied.

"Why not?" John asked.

Here the heads looked slightly uncomfortable and started murmuring with each other; usual filler words like "ah, um, and uh" making their way past each head's lips.

"We don't know." The lower red finally admitted.

"But they do." The lower blue added as both lower heads looked up at the top ones.

"Oh, we should ask them then." Masako said.

"Um, no, you can't ask us." The top red replied, the top blue shaking his head in agreement. "You can only ask one of us." he continued.

"It's in the rules." The top blue added. "And I should warn you that one of us always tells the truth. And one of us always lies. That's a little clue; he always lies." The blue said nodding to the red.

"I do not, I tell the truth!" the red one argued.

"Oh, what a lie!" the blue exclaimed.

"He's the liar!" the red one accused.

The lower two heads found the banter extremely funny for some reason.

Naru watched as they laughed. "Alright," he said walking over to the red guard. "Answer yes or no. Would he," he asked pointing to the blue guard. "Tell us that this door leads to the castle?"

"Uh…" the guards looked at each other. The red one deliberated with his lower head for a moment before popping back up.

"Yes?" he said; his answer sounding more like a question than anything.

"Then, the other door leads to the castle and this door leads to certain death." Naru reasoned.

"How do you know? He could be tellin' the truth!" the red guard said.

"But then you wouldn't be, so if you told us the answer is yes, then the answer is no."

"Well, I could be tellin' the truth." The red guard tried again.

"Then you would be lying. So if you told me that he said yes, I know the answer would still be no."

"Wait a minute…" The red guard said. "Is that right?" he asked the blue guard.

"I don't know. I've never understood it." the blue guard replied.

They started chuckling.

"No, I know it's right. I figured it out." Naru told them. "Come on." He said inclining his head at the way past the blue guard.

"I don't think he's ever been able to do that before." John whispered to Masako.

"I think we're getting smarter." She replied as they walked past the blue guard. "This place is a piece of cake!" she said they all fell into a hole in the ground they hadn't seen before.

They fell down a shaft with a bunch of weird scaly hands sticking out. They tried to grab onto some of them as they fell until they were caught.

"Stop it. Help!" Masako cried as the hands held her, Naru, and John still.

A few hands made a face. "What do you mean 'help'? We are helping." It said.

"We're helping hands." Another face made out of hands added.

"You're hurting." Masako whined.

A third face formed. "Would you like us to let go?" it asked in a raspy voice as it started cackling and the hands holding them let go.

"No!" she cried as she fell a few feet. The hands caught them once more.

"Well then, come on!" a fourth face urged. "Which way?"

"Which way?" Masako repeated in confusion.

"Up? Or down?" a fifth hand face clarified.

"Oh,"

"Come on, come on!"

"We haven't got all day." So many faces were forming out of the hands it was hard to keep track of them all.

"Well it's a big decision."

"Which way do you want to go hmm?"

"Yes, which way?"

Masako looked down the shaft. "Well, since we're pointed that way I guess we'll go down."

"She chose down!" said another face in a singsong voice.

"She chose down? Heh, heh, heh, heh…" said one more as they hands started guiding them down.

"Was that wrong?" John's voice echoed as the hands carried out the medium's decision.

"Too late now." Called a last as they continued their descent.

Eventually the three fell into a dark space while the hands cackled and laughed above them. As soon as Masako fell in on top of both John and Naru, a hatch shut above them; blocking out most of the light.

"Uh!" they groaned.

"What happened?" John asked.

"We were dropped." Naru replied. "Where though, I'm not quite sure."

"What is this place?" Masako asked.

A sudden brightness in the room caught their attention. Turning to the source they saw the little dwarf from the gate holding a lantern and searching around on the ground for something.

"It's the little man from before. Hoghead!" John said in relief.

"It's Hoggle." He replied, still not looking up from the floor.

"Do you know where we are?" Naru asked.

"Yer in an Oubliette." Hoggle answered. "Ah, where is it?"

"What's an oubliette?" John asked.

"'S a place the King puts ya when he wants ta fergets about ya. Heres it is!" the little dwarf said triumphantly, holding something up in his hand.

"What's that?" Masako asked him.

"The way out." Hoggle replied. He went over and stuck the object into the wall and turned it, letting go it was revealed to be a doorknob that turned the wall into a door. A mop and broom fell out. "Damn brooms closet!" Hoggle cursed, closing it and taking the door knob out and searching around on the wall again.

"What are you doing here?" Naru asked, a little suspicious of how the creature turned up at just the right moment.

"'M here ta gets ya outta here."

"But don't you know the way through the Labyrinth?" Masako asked.

"Yea," Hoggle responded, not bothering to stray his vision from his search.

"Could you take us to the center?" John asked hopefully.

"No!" the dwarf cried. "The king'd have me 'ead suspended over the bog if'I did that!"

"What if we paid you?" Masako offered.

"What've ya gots?" Hoggle demanded turning to face them.

"Well, I've got this." Masako reached under her jeans and took off a small woven anklet she wore, holding it out.

"And what've the other twos?"

"I've got this." John offered a little wooden cross necklace; one of the many the children from the orphanage had given him.

"And you?"

"…" Naru thought for a moment, recalling he didn't really carry trinkets and baubles around with him. He reached in to turn over his pockets when he felt something small in the corner. He pulled out a cheap plastic ring; a faux amethyst gem surrounded by plastic scallops.

"What're they mades of?" the dwarf demanded, holding his hand out none the less.

"String."

"Wood."

"Plastic." They all answered. The dwarf's eyes lit up at the mention of the ring and happily took all three as payment.

"I'll take ya as far as I can and that's all." He informed them turning to where he'd placed the doorknob and turned it. The door opened out into a series of tunnels, and Hoggle took the lantern and led them out. The tunnels were well-lit and so they could see easily.

All around them, large faces cut out of the rock cried out. "Go back! Go back! This is not the way!"

"What the..?" the teenagers said.

"False alarms." Hoggle replied as explanation. Now they were near a particularly talkative false alarm.

"Beware!" it said. "For the-"

"Oh, forget it!" Hoggle snapped.

"Please?" the face pleaded. "I haven't said it for such a long time."

"Oh, alright. But don't expect a big reaction." Hoggle replied.

"No, no, no; of course not. Ahem," The face cleared its, um, 'throat'. "The path you take will lead to certain destruction!" it said in a slightly more ominous voice.

A crystal rolled in from out of nowhere and kept going past them. They ignored the face's thanks to follow it.

"Uh, oh." Masako said quietly.

"Oh, no." Hoggle agreed as they followed it out into a far more spacious tunnel. The crystal somehow defied gravity and landed into the cup of a beggar with a cloth over his eyes. He was blind.

"Ah, what've we here?" the beggar asked.

"Uh, nothin'!" Hoggle said quickly and nervously. It seemed there was something about this character which was unbeknownst to the runners.

"Nothing?" the beggar asked. "Nothing?" he repeated in a voice more familiar than not as he stood and threw off the guise. It was the Goblin King dressed in a white shirt, tight gray breeches, his black boots, and a brown leather jacket with a piece of armor on the shoulder. "Nothing? Nothing tra la la?" he asked shaking the disguise and throwing it off to the side.


REVIEW!