Following Hazel furthur into the marsh, Adrian's breath came in sharp gasps. What if they couldn't get to Hildy in time? What if she was already-

She shook her head. No, she couldn't bear to think of that. She just had to run, and hope whatever Hildy had wasn't fatal.

"Here, this way!" Hazel shouted, turning swiftly. "Not much farther now!"

Adrian was sure her hearing was getting worse, because it almost sounded like Hazel was laughing as she said this.

"You sure? We've been running for a long time!" Adrian panted, her paws starting to hurt.

"I'm positive!"

Then, Hazel stopped suddenly. Adrian drew to a halt behind her.

"Wha-Hazel, I don't see Hildy anywhere. Why are we stopping?" Adrian asked, looking around. Hazel turned her head away and didn't answer.

"Hazel?"

No reply.

Adrian growled. "Hazel! What in the Great Saber's name is wrong with you? We need to get to Hildy, remember? She's dying, remember?"

Hazel flicked her head quickly, as if shooing away a fly.

"Come ON!"

Adrian reached out to grab Hazel. But shocking, her paw passed right through Hazel's shoulder. As if it wasn't there at all...

Now, Hazel turned around. Her eyes were transparent, and Adrian could see the marshlands through them.

"Y-Y-you're not...you're..."

The Mirage-Hazel laughed. "You think you're such the survivor." it said. "You think you're so smart. Well, get a reality check, flintface. You don't know nothin' here." She laughed again evilly. "I mean, I've fooled people back in the days, but man, you were just too easy. You're too trusting, too naiive. That's the problem."

Adrian was still trying to comprehend all this. "You're...who are you?" she asked.

The mirage rolled its eyes. "Whatever I want to be, dunderhead. Whoever I want to be, so long as there's empty, frightened minds to torture. This is my kingdom, my home."

"You're a spirit of the Marsh?"

"That's what I just said, ice-for-brains."

"But-but...where am I now? Why did you do this?"

"'Cause I can. Duh."

Adrian shook her head. This went against all she knew. "What about my herd? What about my sisters? What have you done to them?"

Mirage-Hazel growled. "Your sisters? They made it out okay, unfortunatly. I did manage to plague one of them-Harriet I think-with images of her mother. I would've had her in my trap like you, but that stupid Phineas had to go and save her."

"What-you mean Phineas the beaver? The only one that made it through the Labyrinth alive?"

"That's right." it spat. "And now he's helping your sisters get through."

Even in the peril she was in, Adrian was able to breathe a sigh of relief. Even if their was danger in the Blizzard Country, Hazel and the others, at least, had made it that far.

"And for your herd-well, I haven't done anything bad to them. Yet. They're just seeing things, nothing that'll get 'em lost." it continued. "But they've got a lot of fear in their minds. It'll be easy to trap them now."

Adrian narrowed her eyes at the marsh-spirit, her claws digging into the muck. "You're a monster." she snarled.

"I wouldn't be insulting anybody if I were you. Didn't you notice, wetwipe, that you and your pals can't get out of here?"

"Watch me." Adrian ran off into the mist, away from the spirit. She felt a gust of air from behind her.

"You can run, but you can't hide!" yelled the spirit, its voice echoing all around. "As long as you're in my land, you're my prisoner. Try to escape all you want-"

The ground shifted under Adrian's feet, making her skid to a stop in the mud.

"-but it's all in vain." it finished.

Adrian picked herself back up. "I'm not giving up!" she challenged.

"Oh, I can see that. You're lucky I'm not the killing sort. I'll just sit back and watch you struggle." It gave a loud laugh.

"Well, Phineas and my sisters made it out, didn't they? There's got to be some trick to this, I'll figure it out soon enough." Adrian muttered, squinting. Maybe if she really concentrated on the mist or something...

"There is a way out, but I'm not-gonna-tell-you." it mocked in a sing-songy voice. "Besides, fifty more minutes in this place and your mind will be all but gone, sister."

"Not if I can help it!" But part of Adrian knew it was hopeless. No matter what she tried, she was still stuck.

"Face it," the spirit boomed. "You're a puppet. And I'm holding the strings. There's no way you'll get out of here alive. And neither will your friends, if I can help it."

"Guys, maybe we should've gone the other way." Eddie piped up. The herd had stopped now, seeing as it didn't matter. They weren't really moving anywhere.

"Any way we go, it's not going to make much of a difference. We're stuck." Manny grumbled.

"Come on, it's not so bad." Crash argued.

"Not so bad?" Manny and Diego repeated unbelievably.

"Well, yeah. I mean there's the spooky laughing and screaming, and the fact that we can't get out." Crash agreed. "But the hallucinations...I mean, all of mine were of this blonde possum girl." He elbowed Eddie. "She was hot, too..."

"Crash!" Ellie reproached. "Focus! We need to think of how to get out."

"What? A guy can't dream?"

Ellie sighed exasperatedly. "Guys, we know walking hasn't been getting us anywhere. There is some sort of trick to getting out, we just need to find it."

"Like what?" Sid demanded.

"Um..." Ellie tapped her forehead with her trunk, trying to think. "Well, there's...um..."

"Us!" Peaches cried out, coming out from under Ellie.

"'Us?' What do you mean, sweetie?" Ellie asked.

"Evy-thing all spooky an scary, but we no in dinjer yet, cause we stay together. We wuv each other, an that why we safe." Peaches speculated. "So...we think of something we wuv, an maybe den we get out."

"Peaches, you're a little genius." Ellie said happily, rubbing her daughter's head. "All right, let's give it a shot."

A/N: In order to save space, the Maze of Confusion thing is probably going to take up three chapters (counting this and the one before it) Don't worry, this isn't going to be a bjillion chapters long like The Arabian Nights. I'll get it over and done with soon. Sorry for making you wait!