When she stepped through, she kept her eyes closed for a moment longer, then, slowly, opened them. Before her was a magnificent maze that seemed to stretch on forever. There seemed to be no entrance.
"I want to get to the center… But how, if there is no way into it in the first place?" Crystal muttered. Then she noticed that the ground was getting closer… and closer… and closer… Until she was barely a foot from the ground. "How?..." she muttered again. But instead came a soft "Who?"
She inspected her arms. They weren't arms, they were wings, and judging by the "who" they were owl's wings. They were like the ones on the barn owl by the well, so she guessed she had transformed into a barn owl.
And barn owls could fly. That's how she would get to the center: she would fly!
She spread the magnificent wings that she now had and flapped. She was airborne in an instant. How magnificent it was, flying! She guided her self toward the castle at the center, performing complicated tricks and flips along the way. She found a bedroom that looked unoccupied and flew in.
Crystal wondered how she would become herself again and realized that the floor was getting farther and farther away. Before she knew it she was human again.
Her dress felt a little tight. She looked in the closet and found a dress that matched the rest of her outfit. It looked like her mother's favorite, except the back was left bare and had no sleeves.
When she took off her first dress, she realized that she had to take the mask off too. She hesitated, she never took her mask off except at night. But now her dress was really tight. So she cautiously removed her mask, then quickly continued changing.
Something smacked her legs. She whirled around in her new dress, expecting to see someone. She saw nothing. Something caught her eye in the mirror that was in the room. She walked over to it and saw a magnificent princess in a beautiful dress with blond hair, green eyes, pale skin, and wings. Crystal reached behind her to touch them, disbelieving. They were there, tall, shimmering, dragonfly wings in a beautiful shade of purple and blue.
Something golden was hanging off one of them. She bent her wing and took it. The thing was a crown, which she placed on her head. A red ruby sparkled in the middle. The mirror seemed to shine with all the sparkling and shimmering. To top it off, her mask was lined with diamonds, and she put that on too.
She walked out onto the balcony and was greeted by what sounded like an explosion (it was, sort of). In the city below, the creatures from her dreams were cheering "Queeny!" as if she were their Queen.
Then the doors under them burst open. Crystal stood, frozen with fear. The man from her dreams was standing and angrily surveying the now-silent crowd. He was yelling in a way that she found strange. "Why are you yelling 'Queeny?' She has been dead for 12 years! Sarah is never coming back! Imbeciles!"
"We see new Queeny! Big wings! Owl mask! Kingy hair!" yelled one of the creatures.
"What?!" yelled the man. He was seething, almost growling.
"Up there! Above Kingy!" It took a moment for Crystal to understand the garbled language the things spoke in. She ducked off the balcony and covered by the bed. Her breathing was shallow, she did not want to be discovered.
The doors under her slammed shut. She held her breath tightly. Ever so slowly the door to the bedroom opened. "Who's there? You can't hide." demanded the man, who was now in the doorway. His voice softened. "You have no reason to fear me." he added, not so frightening now.
Slower than the door had opening, she rose from behind the bed. She made sure that her mask was covering her face, her wings were full length, and her tiara was on straight.
"I-I-I am-" she thought for a different name- "I am Keomi, Your Majesty. I was just in need of a place to stay until I can get home- I am a servant of another king-and found a strange thing- and now I am here- wherever HERE is- and-and-" She struggled for breath.
"Please don't be mad at me." Crystal-Keomi pleaded.
"No, Keomi. On the contrary. Not I, the Goblins, or any other Labyrinth inhabitant will harm you." To her great surprise, he bowed before her. "In your kingdom, you may be a servant, but here, you are a princess. Hail, Keomi, Princess of the Goblin City."