Disclaimer: I don't own Hunter X Hunter

The boat rocked gently against the smooth glassy surface of Avalon Lake. Killua peered suspiciously over its edge, and stuck a tongue out at his reflection in the water. Then he caught sight of Gon doing the same thing, and quickly accused the other of being a copycat.

Biscuit sighed, watching them two bicker with unfocused eyes. She felt sick from the motion of the boat, and wished that the two would just shut up. But they would probably ignore her anyway. The thought did nothing to quell her boat sickness.

"We're here," the fisherman pulled his straw hat down uneasily. He was a young slip of a thing, having taken up this job to replace his father, who had also died in the pirate's raid of Soufrabi. Despite being only a few years into his teens, his arms were strong enough to speed them quite quickly through the lake toward a mini island in the center of the lake. "It will be dark soon. We best be moving back."

Biscuit ignored him, knowing that he was just an ordinary game character, created to provide transportation to the middle of the Avalon Lake. But then he unexpectedly caught the hem of her skirt as she stepped out onto the wooden planks. "Beware of the mermaids, little miss."

Annoyed, she punched him out of the boat and into the water. Turning, Biscuit scowled angrily at the reproachful faces of Gon and Killua. "What?"

"You shouldn't have done that," Gon told her frankly, his eyes large and concerned for the drowning fisherman. "He's our way back."

"We still have the cursed boat." Biscuit kicked the dratted thing. It wobbled, nearly broke. She was a woman with a delicate constitution, dammit! She had no patience for the sob stories of created characters if their terrible rowing skills made her boat sick.

Killua turned away from the water, "Mermaids, he said? How would there be mermaids here?"

The place before them was a silent island of stone and overgrown vines. The ruins must have been the topmost section of some large cathedral of palace. The stones were crumbling, and the vines darkened the surfaces like veins. There was no sign of water.

Biscuit hesitated, wondering if they were walking into a trap. Killua eyed the ruins as well, having learned his lesson from the One Yard of Secret Forest. All except for Gon, who bounded ahead, yelling: "Well, come on!"

.

Minutes later, they were lost.

"Not AGAIN?" Killua kicked the walls with frustration, creating a hole through the crumbling walls. "We only took the left turns! I'm sure of it!"

"Biscuit is gone too." Gon said with an unhappy expression. The maze seemed to shrink in on them a little. Biscuit had a tendency to leave them to their own devices, and go complete the quest herself. To tell the truth, Killua was more than fine with that.

"It doesn't matter," he spun around and walked off. "Let's just keep on going." No point in worrying over things they couldn't control.

The silence in the maze was not unlike the heavy muffled atmosphere of the forest. Killua edged closer to Gon. "Also, don't run off again like you did in One Yard of Secret Woods. I don't want to see my dad grin like that ever again."

Gon nodded, and the two of them kept close as they moved onward.

.

The first trap came sixty three seconds afterwards.

Gon had climbed the ivy walls in an attempt to find Biscuit, and to see if he could find any clues as to where they should go. The ivy was tricky to climb, shifting and unreliable. The stone crumbled easily beneath Gon's fingers.

In the instant that he poked his head above the walls, large brown ropes shot out from nowhere. They wrapped around his neck, arms, and shoulders, and began to drag him away.

"Take this!" Killua quickly pulled out a Dagger card and threw it to Gon. In midair, it materialized into a normal black knife with a heavy hilt and a curved blade. Gon flailed to catch it, unfamiliar with that sort of weaponry. Killua winced as Gon barely grasped the hilt with two fingers.

But then he wrapped his fingers around the black hilt more firmly, and slashed through the vines.

Gon landed with a sprawling slide, coughing and unwrapping the vines from his body.

"Did you see anything?" Killua helped him up.

Gon nodded, rubbing his throat. "There was a large pillar, made out of stone or something. It was that way." He pointed through the wall.

"We should have made a map," Killua muttered. "But I didn't buy the Paper and Pen Card like that old salesman told me to."

.

The second trap came thirty two seconds after that.

The maze had grown a little stranger, wider. The walls were still that of ruins, covered in ivy and wear. But on the ground, dark squares started to appear, like checkerboards.

Gon put his foot in a suspiciously dark square on the ground, just to see what happened. One day, Killua swore to himself later, whenever Gon did something stupid, he would just sit back and let Gon deal with it.

The dark square compressed into the ground with a screech, and a series of darts flew from one side of the wall to the other, trailing bits of string. No, not string. Wires. Killua leapt for cover, dragging Gon along with him. They had to run past several meters of hostile walls, dodging and ducking.

Gon avoided any dark squares after that.

.

The third trap came sixteen seconds afterwards. Monsters, drawn by the sound of the large screech, poured in through the walls. Killua had felt the sudden change in the air, as if a banjo string had just been drawn taut. The silence became one of charged anticipation, and then broke into the loud roars and snarls of the maze creatures.

.

When there was a space of twenty minutes in between traps, Killua got worried.

They had escaped from the monsters, taking a chance and going above the walls. Thankfully, there were no ropes this time ready to hang them. They were approaching a more open area, and the maze slowly grew lighter. Killua and Gon emerged from the maze into a wide courtyard, tiled with cobblestones.

In the center of the courtyard, there was a pool.

In the middle of the pool, there was a stake.

On top of the stake, tied with the same ropes that had nearly dragged Gon away, was Biscuit.

"Biscuit!" Gon ran forward, but the water exploded upwards before he could dive into the pool. Before them was a large mermaid, her green eyes glittering with malice. Her long auburn hair was slick against her head, but her expression was wild. A series of bead necklaces hung from her neck, the only jewelry that she wore.

"Don't come any closer, child of man." She snarled, slapping her fish tail against the surface of the water for emphasis. As if that were the signal, four other mermaids appeared. "We're in the middle of something right now."

"They're trying to turn me into a fish!" Biscuit screeched with rage. "The mermaids are each a card! You have to -"

A mermaid splashed her in the face, silencing her.

Killua rushed forward, intent on defeating one of the mermaids. He had spent too long in that maze, being on the defensive. The auburn-haired mermaid spun toward him angrily, eyes flashing. He swung his hand, intent on scratching her face or something worse. Her tail flew up to block his blow. The water that came up behind it stung his eyes.

He stumbled back, only to see the mermaid lunge for Gon instead. "Give them back!" She cried, sounding desperate. Gon only backed away, holding a handful of her necklaces in his fist and shaking his head.

Biscuit yelled encouragingly, and was met with another wave of water. Killua was distracted, and then suddenly felt ropes wrap around him. He was jerked backward, into the water. The cobblestones banged against his knees, and the sudden submergence into the icy liquid shocked him senseless.

The next thing he knew, a dark-skinned mermaid held a pretty knife to his throat. "Give our sister back!" She screeched, right into his ear. Killua flinched, and then saw that Gon held a card in his hand, looking stunned.

"But I didn't defeat her," somehow, Gon had the audacity to sound slightly disappointed. "She just lunged completely out of the water and – oh."

Killua realized it before Gon did. Reaching as far back as he could, he yanked at whatever he could grasp, and tugged as hard as he could. .With a loud jangling sound, he ripped the necklaces away from the mermaid that held him captive. "Catch this, Gon!"

He threw it, and the next thing he knew, he was submerged underwater. No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't get back up. The mermaid's grip was tenacious and strong. The seconds grew longer, and eventually he pretended to be still, conserving what air there was left in his lungs. Then his vision began to grow dark, and his pulse started to hammer uncomfortably in his ears. Hurry, Gon. He thought, and the thought exhausted him. Hurry.

.

When he woke up, Gon was holding two cards, grinning confidently. The mermaids were gone, leaving a still pool devoid of any ripples.

"Look here!" Gon scooped up a handful of the water, and flicked it at Killua. Killua was soaking wet, but he found the gesture irritating anyway. "We got it! Two of them!"

"You're a self-sacrificing type of person, aren't you?" Biscuit suddenly appeared behind Gon, holding a card in her hand. She raised an eyebrow at them both. "Killua, what if the mermaid hadn't lost to Gon? What would you have done?"

Killua shrugged. "Something would have worked out."

Biscuit saw the look on his face and dropped the subject.

Gon handed Killua the card. He beamed. "It's the Vase of Flowing Water…We did it!"

.

Once back to the shore, they stood in a silent line, staring despondently at the empty water where their boat had once been. "Now how do we get back to the mainland…?"

How indeed?

Well, a hint is that there's a certain card that allows you to move around freely, but it's not a spell card. ^^

Thanks for reading! Please review~