A/N: This was the very first piece of fanfiction I ever wrote for this fandom. I thought it was terrible, but looking back on it I think it's quite good, considering I had only read the first two books at the time. I stopped work on it in early June, and have edited it only slightly from the last draft, if only for an excuse to preserve this note I left at the top:
TODO: Never publish. Use as reference for rewrite. If you've published this, something has gone terribly wrong; my advice would be suicide. God forgive you.
So, without further ado, enjoy the magic labyrinth of I. M. Meen.
Six years prior, the Dragonets of Destiny were hatched. Their whole lives they have spent in a cave, which has many unusual features. Not the least of these is a peculiar man who lives in its shadows, pilfering food and water, and scheming something all the while.
The plans of this man, who is named Ignatius Mortimer Meen, seemed to have finally come to fruition, as he grinned looking through a spyhole at the study room.
He sung to himself, "Oh, look, what clever children! See them study, watch them learn. How I hate those goodie-goodies! How they make my stomach turn..."
He continued, "I've got a little secret, that'll really make 'em cry. It's a nasty kind of magic, from a special kind of guy..."
I.M Meen took a moment to dance to music that was only in his head, before continuing to sing, "This book is made to order, but it isn't to be read. When they open up this book, they're sucked inside instead! To the most unpleasant place they've ever seen, the magic labyrinth of I.M Meen!"
I.M Meen chuckled subduedly as he kept watching through the spyhole. "Very scary and confusing, destination of my choosing, magic labyrinth of I.M Meen!"
He gave a hearty cackle, and ran off into the shadows.
Clay sighed as he entered the room. He knew exactly what was ahead of him; he had read these scrolls one thousand times over. He knew all of their general contents, even if the details he had forgotten. It struck him that this was why he had to study them again, but he dismissed the idea. Come on, he thought, is the fate of the world really predicated on knowing exactly when Queen Such-and-such was born?
"Alright, no use beating about the bush," Starflight said, fishing out a scroll from a pile in the corner of the room, "Causes of the Third Emerald War, starting from the beginning."
Starflight opened up the scroll, and began rambling about commercial competiton and the breaking of treaties, but something else caught Tsunami's eye. In a shadowed corner all alone was a strange object. It looked like it had paper in the middle, and the top of it was an unnatural dark blue colour. Tsunami went over to take a closer look.
She tapped at it, and whatever material it was made of was rather hard. It felt kind of like scales. "Hey!" she called to the other dragonets, "What's this weird thing?"
The rest of them, bar Starflight, walked over to the scaly thing, though after a few moments Starflight realised that he wouldn't be able to re-capture their attention, and walked over to it himself.
"What is it?" Clay asked, arriving in the corner.
"I don't know," Tsunami replied in earnest, "It's scaly, and has paper in the middle."
Clay poked at the paper, and it separated in response. "Weird," he said curiously. "Starflight, do you have any idea?" he asked, trusting Starflight as all-knowing.
"No," Starflight said, dashing that idea. He also poked at the paper, noticing it separating from itself. "Hold on," he said, "let me try something."
He stuck two claws in the paper, at the same point, and pulled in opposite directions. The object began to open, but the wonder of this discovery was cut short. All of a sudden, the whole five dragonets were pulled into it!
When the world stopped spinning, the first thing Clay noticed was where he was. All around him lay his fellow destiny-bearers, as dazed as he was, in a weird room made of... well, it looked like stone, but it was a lot neater than any of the stones Clay'd ever seen. In front of him was a series of four poles, also much neater than any Clay had seen, and made of a material he had never seen before.
It seemed that Clay was the only one awake, at the moment. He looked around the room, searching for a way out, when a voice sent him looking back at the poles. He saw a very strange sight standing beyond them. It was some kind of creature, shorter than Clay and standing on two legs, with a large nose and cheeks. Its skin was multicoloured, comprising purple on its torso and the top of its head, green on some strange flaps of skin coming down from its neck, a brownish colour in its lower body, red stripes along some of the purple, and a lighter, almost pinkish brown on its face. It looked kind of like how Clay envisioned monkeys, although monkeys were always described as far more monocoloured (and a lot smaller).
The creature made another vocalisation, and though Clay knew he shouldn't be able to understand it, by some terrible force he did anyway. "Hello," the creature spoke, somehow directly into Clay's mind, "My name is Gnorris. I'm Mr. Meen's personal assistant."
Clay felt dizzy, almost like he was going to pass out again, but was able to eke out a few words. "Where am I..?" he asked shakily.
"I'm afraid you've been captured by the boss. He really hates smart-" Gnorris uttered a word of pure gibberish, "-so he locks them away here in his magic labyrinth." Gnorris looked from side to side. "The boss is going to be really mad," he said, "but I'm going to let you out."
The creature did... something, with the poles, and all of a sudden they turned, as one, to the side, leaving the doorway open. "Don't mention this to anyone," Gnorris whispered, "especially the boss!"
Gnorris snuck away, leaving Clay no less confused. He thought hazily to himself for a little while. "...Dragonets!" he said out loud, "The boss really hates smart dragonets! That's what that word was!"
Clay, after having made his revelation, collapsed unconscious.
When Clay woke up, the poles had returned to blocking the doorway. More notable was the fact that he was looking at them from in front.
"Wake up!"
A sharp feeling quickly descended upon Clay's face. "Agh!" he shouted, springing to his feet. "What the... huh?"
"Sorry," Glory laughed.
"What... what was that for?" Clay tried to sound angry, but it came across more as confusion.
"You weren't waking up, so we dragged you out of the little room," Tsunami made no effort to hide her amusement, "Then you still didn't wake up, so Glory hit you."
"Wha... I... You- I..." Clay stammered, the shock only now hitting him fully, "I... Okay." Clay took a moment to get his bearings. "E-earlier, uh," he stuttered, "something... spoke to me. It said, it said that we were imprisoned here by 'the boss,' who..." Clay realised how strange he sounded, and paused for a moment before continuing, "...who really hates smart dragonets."
A silence fell upon the room, which lasted quite a long time. "Alright, then," Glory said simply, "interesting to know."
The four dragonets took a look at their surroundings. Wait, four?
"Where's Starflight?" Clay asked.
"No idea," Tsunami responded. "It's k-"
"It's kind of..." Sunny interjected, "Oh, sorry."
"Uh, it's kind of creepy, his absence, to be honest," Tsunami finished.
The four dragonets took a look at their surroundings. They poked around the room they were in, and found most of the exits led to dead ends. Sunny traversed one end, seeing in its corner another one of the strange objects that had transported them here.
"Hey! Hey!" she called, "I found the way out!"
The others rushed to where she had found the thing. "Really?" Glory asked excitedly, "So soon?"
"Yeah!" Sunny responded, beginning to split the paper like Starflight had.
"Wait!" Clay shouted, stopping Sunny, "We don't have Starflight with us! What if he doesn't find this thing, and he gets trapped... wherever this is?"
"Oh, he's a NightWing," Tsunami argued back, "Surely he can find the way."
"I'm sure he'll be glad to know you staked his life on 'surely,'" Clay said. He took the thing from Sunny, and looked at its scaly top. Upon the dark blue was a golden coloured... well, "squiggle" is the best way to really describe it. It looked like it was made unintentionally. Clay, though, somehow recognised the squiggle as writing. He said out loud, almost unconsciously, "Writewell's Book of Better Grammar..."
"What?" Sunny asked. She took the thing back from Clay, who stayed staring at where it was.
Clay suddenly snapped out of it. "I... don't know," he answered fearfully. "Open it."
"Oh, now you don't care about Starflight, huh? Just gonna leave him to die in here?" Tsunami teased.
"I... I don't know. We'll come back for him. Open the book!" Clay shouted. He abruptly lurched towards Sunny, who jumped back in response.
"Book?" Glory wondered, backing away slightly.
"I... Open the thing, then!" Clay was becoming frenzied. He tried to forcefully take the thing from Sunny, but she pulled it away from him. "Please! I beg you!"
The air of humour had long died out, and the other three dragonets wore an expression of serious concern. Tsunami took the thing from Sunny, and carefully set it down. She slowly parted the paper, but was surprised when she was not sucked in again.
"Huh-" she vocalised, being cut off by Clay snatching the thing. He stared intently at it, and whispered something strange. "Use a question mark at the end of a sentence that asks a question..." he muttered.
Clay's head twitched a couple times. When it stopped, he immediately closed the thing. He looked at Sunny, the fear in her eyes quite evident. "I..." he began. He did his best to appear non-threatening as he walked back towards her, hunching his back and drooping his tail. "I am... so, incredibly sorry," he choked.
"It's... alright," Sunny reassured him, though Glory and Tsunami stayed silent.
After an awkward rest, Glory spoke up, "Why didn't that thing send us anywhere like the last one did?"
"I don't know," Tsunami replied, "Clay muttered something about questions when he looked at it..."
The other three dragonets continued talking, but Clay was too far inside his own head to be able to listen. His whole life, he had been told about some kind of inner monster. It was his destiny, they said, that it would at some point come out. Well, at least Kestrel said. The other two didn't seem to care.
What had he done, when he saw that... well, he called it a "book"? It was like it took control of him, made him do things he would never otherwise. Was arriving in this strange cavern, made of impossibly smooth stone, part of destiny? Was Kestrel right about that monster? Had it just now, by the force of that "book", come out of hiding, as (she, at least,) prophesied? Clay thought long and hard about these three questions. If what I did to Sunny was preordained, he at last concluded, then I should curse God.
"...then it's likely, I don't know, defective." Tsunami ended her sentence. "What do you think, Clay?"
"What..?" Clay mumbled.
"Have you not been listening? We're talking about why the thing didn't take us anywhere." Tsunami had a little caution in her voice, which Clay felt slightly offended by.
"I think..." Clay looked at the book. Something whispered into his mind, commanding him. "I think we should take it with us."
"What? Why?" Glory asked incredulously. Clay saw Sunny back up a little, which hit him especially deeply.
Take it back, Clay urged himself, Don't let the monster take control again!
What came out of his mouth was "I think I can read what's on the paper. It'll be useful."
Clay was horrified at himself. There's nothing I can do, he despaired internally, I'll just... Try my best. Or something. Oh, God, please don't make me hurt Sunny again...
"...If you think so," Glory said. They exited the dead end they were in, and went down one of the usable paths.
As he traversed the winding halls, Clay tried time and again to rid himself of the horrible book. He did everything he could to keep it out of his own hands, but every time he did he would black out for a moment, and wake up with it back with him. It's like it was cursed. Maybe it was.
All of a sudden, a flash of light consumed the path ahead of the dragonets. In its wake was a tall and slender creature, probably the same kind as Gnorris. It was similarly multicoloured; its face and lower body were the same shades of brown as Gnorris, but its torso and skin flaps were a deep purple, similar to the colour of the book. It seemed to have a bushy grey mane of fur around its neck and head, though avoiding its chin. It was less colourful on its torso than Gnorris, with the same shade of red but in different, smaller places, namely at the bottom in a double spike shape and in the middle with a straight downwards spike.
It made a vocalisation that again Clay could understand, despite having no feasible way to. "You won't get far, you studious little brat," it shouted in a voice that Clay somehow recognised as male, "My pets will see to that!"
In another flash, it disappeared. "...Did everyone else just see that?" Tsunami asked, half-jokingly, half-fearfully.
Clay was silent. "What..." he croaked, "...is a pet?"
"...What!?" Tsunami shouted, baffled by the non-sequiter.
"That creature talked to me. He talked about his pets. What's a pet?" Clay's voice became more frenzied and urgent again.
"Oh, no," Glory exclaimed. She quickly moved further down the hall, away from Clay, but stopped in her tracks when she saw what was in front of her. She froze up for a second before it, then let out a terrible scream.
The others looked in her direction, and before her was a massive spider, larger than all of the dragonets. It had evil eyes, the kind with nothing else behind them, beating down upon Glory as it slowly moved closer to her. "What in damned hell?!" Tsunami shouted, followed by similar yells from Sunny and Clay.
Clay was exhilarated and terrified all at once. This was the first time in his whole existence he had come into true, life-threatening danger. He felt a strange need to show off.
Glory ran back faster than she ever had before. This caused a bit of a commotion, as she knocked into Clay, who was trying to squeeze through the cramped corridor to get to the spider. The both of them fell over, awkwardly laying on top of each other, their limbs contorted to fit within the narrow hall.
They quickly got back up, but by that time Tsunami had managed to step over them and face the spider herself. Clay, seeing this, tried to squeeze past her to help her, but the walls were simply too tight. His heart pounded quite severely as he looked at the massive beast, slowly inching its way towards Tsunami.
Tsunami stood her ground well as it approached. The spider seemed more fearful than her, in all honesty. Once it came too close, Tsunami gave it a swift blow with her claws, which knocked it to the ground. Tsunami did not move, expecting it to get back up, but it didn't.
She carefully moved closer to inspect its wound. It was only skin-deep; it could not have killed something of so massive a size. Tsunami stepped back, waiting for it to jump back up and surprise her. It continued laying on the ground. Tsunami was puzzled. "Is it dead..?" she questioned.
"Well, lemme see." Clay tried again to squeeze past her, but still couldn't. Tsunami carefully walked towards the spider, which threw Clay off his balance trying to squeeze past her, very nearly making him fall over again. She uncovered its neck, and quickly slit its throat.
"Well, now it's definitely dead," she said, filling the dead air. "Let's move on."
The hours were going by, and no sign of an exit was in sight. Until, would you believe it, Glory sighted a sign of an exit. In a side-corridor, she saw a series of blocks, like those making up the walls, arranged in an upwards pattern. To climb them, she assumed, would lead one out.
After telling the others about her discovery, another argument about Starflight kicked off. Eventually, they agreed that Clay should try to leave, just to see if it really was an exit, and if it was the others would find Starflight before leaving. He ascended the blocks, and reached a large thing, blocking the doorway. It was brown and hard.
He was about to turn around and tell the others, when a voice appeared in his head. "You must save the-" it spoke, followed by the same incomprehensible word Gnorris had said, "-and then you can open this exit!"
Clay felt dizzy, but managed to keep himself together. Previously, he had identified that word as "dragonets," but this time he felt, no doubt told in some manner by the book, that it carried some other semantic meaning. Perhaps it didn't mean "dragonets" after all?
Clay went back down the blocks. "The thing we found... spoke to me. I think," he said. He was perfectly conscious of how insane he sounded, but he could find no other words to describe what had happened. He looked at the others, and their concerned faces really told him all he needed to know. He wanted to bring up how he sounded, to demonstrate self-awareness, but some force inside him put that to rest. He could not tell if it was his ego or whatever was controlling him. "It said we need to... save the dragonets, or something, and then we can leave," he finished, partially against his will.
Silence came from the other three. There was a reason Clay was the one they chose to leave, and this exemplified that reason very clearly. And I thought Sunny would be the one to break, Tsunami thought.
"...So we can't go up there?" Sunny asked, more confused than scared.
"Oh, no, there's this... big, weird thing up there, blocking the exit," Clay responded, this time of his own volition. He again tried to say that he knew he sounded mad, but something held his tongue.
Glory went up the blocks to check for herself. After a moment, she descended, visibly disappointed. "Well... let's move on."
"No, we're not gonna be able to find this place again," Tsunami asserted, "If Clay's telling the truth, then this really is an exit. We shouldn't waste the chance to-"
"Clay's a headcase!" Glory snapped, plunging the group into a deep tension. Horrible silence followed. "...Sorry, Clay," she added, but it did nothing to alleviate the mood of the room. Clay was taken aback, but he did not speak. "...Sorry to you as well, Tsunami," Glory said, half-mutteringly.
"No, you're right," Tsunami said, "I don't think that thing's telling the truth."
You know it's not the thing's fault, Glory wanted to say, but she didn't want to have to apologise to Clay twice in a row.
The four dragonets left the exit behind, a silence having descended on all of them.
The maze was beginning to take its toll on all of the dragonets. All the halls looked the same, and it felt like the walls shifted whenever they weren't looking. Sunny started picking at her scales, occasionally drawing blood if she picked at the same area for too long. What else was there to do to break up the monotony of the maze?
The group came across a corridor in which one wall had a segment made of an entirely different material. It was reflective, kind of like water, but was of a dull, brownish colour. Upon it was engraved an image of an opened scroll.
Clay felt the book begin to command him again. He took a slow step towards the engraving, and another. Looking closer, on the scroll were many squiggles, like that on the cover of the book. Clay set the book down and, to his own chagrin, opened it.
"...Clay?" Tsunami asked, confused by his stopping.
"I... I-I... I..." was all Clay had to offer in response before shutting up. He looked back and forth at the engraving and the book. Again, he could understand the scribbles; he'd given up on being surprised at this point. What he read on the engraving was as follows:
A note from Gnick the Gnome to I.M Meen:
Yo, Big M! I've got something to tell you
Mr Hardwick over at Sinister Structure Supplies says that if we don't pay our bill, he's going to send a few ogres over to have a little chat.
What should I do, boss?
Gnick
Clay continued looking back and forth, before muttering some strange things. "There should be a period after 'tell you'... and one after 'Mr'... and another one after 'Gnick'..."
Upon these words being spoken, the engraved section of the wall suddenly slid upwards into a hidden compartment. Beyond it was another of Gnorris' kind. This one was as short as he was, but it seemed immature. Clay recognised the creature as a child of its species, and said aloud "Children! Not dragonets! The boss really hates smart children in general!"
Confused words came from the other dragonets, but Clay was too dazed to hear them. The child disappeared into a puff of smoke, which did not help Clay's dazedness. He stumbled back, falling over once he reached the wall. He muttered in pain as he struggled to get back up.
Sunny moved over to him and outstretched an arm to help him up. Clay took it and slowly arose, but nearly fell back down as he struggled to gain his footing. This happened about five times before Clay was conscious enough to stand on his own. "The children," he said under his breath, "we need them. I'm the only one who can s-s-s-" Clay's head twitched to the side, "-save us."
Clay started to lose his footing again. Tsunami went around Sunny to try and stabilise him, putting a claw on his shoulder. "Are you alright-"
"The damned book!" Clay yelled, "The damned book! We need the d-d-d-damned book! And you hate the book!"
Clay took off down the hall, to Tsunami's surprise. She chased after him, navigating the twists and turns of the maze. Every corner she took, she just barely saw Clay go around the next.
"Why the hell are you running!?" she yelled after Clay, hoping he was conscious enough to hear her. She caught up to him in another hall with a reflective segment, where he was crouched down in front of the strange thing he insisted he bring with him.
"One period after Mrs, another after Fume..." Clay murmured. The reflective segment slid upwards, and smoke appeared from somewhere Tsunami could not see. Clay snapped his head towards Tsunami. "I did it. The exit is open. We can leave."
"You did what?" Tsunami asked, moving closer towards him.
Clay's head twitched a couple times. "I... don't know," he said nervously, "It's the book. I have to appease it, or something. But the exit is open; that's not madness."
"How do you know?" Tsunami asked, keeping him on his feet again by placing a claw on his shoulder.
"Well, the book told me... Maybe it is madness. But we have to check."
Clay and Tsunami renavigated the path they had taken. The book having lost control of Clay for the time being, and thus no longer navigating for him, the trial-and-error of checking dead ends and loops took far longer than the beeline they had made before.
Eventually, they met up with Glory and Sunny, who were content with resting and trusting Tsunami to find Clay. "We have to find that weird block-thing again," Tsunami urged, "Clay says it'll let us leave now."
"Oh, come on!" Glory denied her, "He's gibbering! Do you believe that whatever he was saying about saving dragonets was true as well?"
"It's children," Clay interjected, muting the conversation. "We have to save children in general."
"...like, calves?" Sunny asked.
"Oh, don't humour him!" Glory continued, "We're not backtracking however long it takes to get there just to be greeted with Clay being wrong!"
"Maybe you aren't," Tsunami scoffed.
"Why are you, like, loyal to him?" Glory moved closer to Tsunami in specific as her voice became more livid, "Are you in love, or something? I won't judge you if you are."
"Don't make me pick a side-"
"I'm not asking you to pick a side, I'm asking you to stop picking a side!" Glory did well at hiding her anger behind concern, and though now seemed like the perfect time for such a skill to reveal itself her veneer was most shattered with this sentence in specific. It was spoken with such a vitriol, such pure contempt for both Tsunami and Clay that it was almost comical in how revealing it was.
"This is what- this is what I.M Meen wants!" Clay interjected, stepping into the argument.
"Who the hell is I.M Meen!?" Glory shouted, briefly distracted from arguing with Tsunami to question Clay's nonsensical statement.
"That engraving said something about him! He's the boss, he's the one who trapped us in this labyrinth! He wants us divided!" Clay answered her question with a strange glee at having figured that out, "The labyrinth is doing something to us. I'm not crazy, and you're a great friend to both me and Tsunami. This place is making us worse, somehow."
Glory felt a moment of clarity, though only in the present. Her memory of the argument, even seconds after it ended, was incredibly foggy, as if that thing had taken control of her. "I'm... sorry," she said meekly to Tsunami.
"I forgive you," Tsunami replied without a moment's hesitation. She and Glory took a moment to nuzzle each other, silently reconciling. "That thing; the 'damned book', as Clay referred to it. We should burn it."
"I'd agree with you, but I don't think we can," Clay said, "Every time I've tried to get rid of it, it came back."
"Can't stop us from trying now," Tsunami replied, "Besides, maybe it's just you. Sunny, do you want to try?"
"If it stops whatever just happened from happening again," Sunny agreed. Clay laid the book down on the hard stone ground. He stepped back, and Sunny unleashed a torrent of fire upon it. It did not burn; it did not even catch fire. It was as if the fire bent around it.
"Oh, well," Clay resigned, "We'll find some other way."
The four dragonets sat down to rest, their energy drained by the day's events. "What do you suppose Starflight's doing right now?" Glory asked.
"Maybe he's dead," Clay chuckled.
"Not a great thought in relation to us," Tsunami responded, "I think he's probably resting right now."
"I don't know," Glory added, "Without all this fighting, we'd certainly be less tired by now."
"He's totally out by now," Sunny said, "He walked through the wall and out of here five minutes before we woke up."
"Walking through walls?" Glory prompted, "Is that an established NightWing ability?"
"If it is, then I'm furious at him for not getting us out of that damn cave," Clay said.
The group shared a laugh, before falling into a tired silence. "It wasn't the book that made me concerned about going back to that exit, by the way," Glory said, "I still don't think that's a good idea."
"Oh, look around you," Tsunami replied, "Can you think of a better one?"
Glory did indeed look around her at the various twisting paths of the maze. It would take as long to try any plan to navigate them as it would Clay's plan to return to the strange slope of blocks. "No, I suppose not..." she admitted.
"Then let's go," Tsunami said, loud enough to catch the attention of Clay and Sunny, "Everybody ready?"
Clay and Sunny responded positively. "Alright," Tsunami announced, "To that weird block-thing that went upwards!"
After a long walk, the dragonets, now half-asleep, at last arrived at the slope of blocks. "Well, this is it," Clay stated, "We're playing dice, here. Hopefully it works out."
Clay ascended the blocks, and reached the doorway the brown thing had blocked before. "YES!" he cried in joy as he saw that it was no longer there. "WE'RE FREE!"
The other three rushed up the blocks to see for themselves. An unblocked doorway layed there in earnest, leading to a dark area that, assumedly, led out.
They all walked through into the shadows, which consumed their vision entirely. "Is everyone still here?" Sunny shouted after a few moments, breaking the deafening silence the room seemed to emanate.
"Yeah!" Clay answered. A few more seconds of silence followed. Eventually his vision cleared up, the shadows retreated and... he was back in the labyrinth. All of them were. It was a different part of the labyrinth, as evidenced by the different layout, but it was still the damn labyrinth. Clay fell to the ground and started wailing like never he had before.
Several months later...
Three of the four dragonets sat down to rest, their energy drained by the day's events. Compounding this was the fact that it had been months since they had any food or drink; it was still a mystery as to how they had not died. "What do you suppose Starflight's doing right now?" Glory asked in a sort of monotone.
"He's dead. He probably got skewered by one of those skeleton things," Clay replied simply.
A great while was then passed, where no-one spoke nor moved. This was broken by the arrival of Tsunami, who was completely covered in blood and viscera.
"Alright then," Glory said tiredly, despite having rested for quite a long while, "Clay's off."
Clay began walking out of the corridor, taking the book with him. "See you later."
Clay left, and Glory closed her eyes to rest even longer. There wasn't much else to do in the labyrinth, really, at least for her. Sometimes she wished she had Sunny's will to claw herself, but she was too afraid of the pain. She was kept awake by the annoying sound of Sunny picking at her scar tissue. Glory rolled onto the ground, attempting to block out the noise. This was put to an abrupt stop by a single, subdued growl from Tsunami. SeaWings become very erratic when they don't touch water for an extended period of time, you see, and this combined with the madness of the labyrinth had only made things worse on Tsunami.
"Oh, no," Glory said, backing away. She dragged Sunny along with her. "There weren't enough guardians on this level. We need to get out of here."
With these words, she and Sunny took off in a sprint away from Tsunami. A few corners and corridors later, they stopped again to rest. A terrible sound resonated through the halls, a yell of sorrow and fury at once. Its companion, the sounds of stone being scratched up, were very loud, and Glory could not but cower as they approached her.
Sunny watched Tsunami turn the corner of the hall, and Tsunami's howl of rage as she saw her was matched by her own scream of fear. Glory took off down the thin hallway, stringing Sunny along by the arm. Loud footsteps and incoherent cries were made by both parties, as Glory took every corner she saw, hoping they did not lead to a dead end. She looked behind her, and saw Tsunami still very much hot on their heels.
She continued running, becoming quite tired at this point, and silently making her peace with death. The individual patters on the hard stone floor below started to blend together into a stream of noise, indistinguishable from every other. She took one more corner, leading to a dead end. She regretted having brought Sunny with her; perhaps it was mercy to die, when to live was to be trapped in this labyrinth, but she did not believe Sunny could make her peace quite so effectively.
She stared down Tsunami, taking a deep breath in and a deep breath out. To her surprise, and perhaps disappointment, Tsunami did not end her life then. No, she was spared, saved by some event or another that occured while Tsunami was killing the guardians of this level that drained Tsunami of her energy. Tsunami collapsed in exhaustion, and the two dragonets silently creeped far away from her.
A few hours of navigation later, Glory and Sunny at last met back up with Clay. "Good timing," he said tiredly, "I've just finished appeasing the book." He looked Glory up and down. "There's a problem," he guessed.
"Weren't enough guardians," Glory revealed nervously. She coughed before continuing. "Tsunami's angry. I was barely able to escape because she fell asleep back there."
"Oh, what a shame," Clay said, somewhat as if it didn't affect him. "Well, we'll do what we always do. Lure 'er into the exit, let her have free reign over the guardians in the next level."
"Mhm," Glory replied subduedly, "Speaking of, do you know where the exit is?"
"Oh, no." Clay looked to the side while speaking, avoiding eye contact.
"Well, uh," Glory stammered, "That's... not good."
"Oh, well," Clay resumed, "We'll scout around this section of the labyrinth and if the exit's not there, we'll try our luck at getting past Tsunami."
"Well, there's a caveat there," Glory added, "I think she's awake and looking for us now."
"That... puts a twist on things," Clay began breathing more shallowly, "Well, we'll try regardless..."
In a sudden burst of light, I.M Meen appeared again. He had been taunting the dragonets for their entire journey, and he had come back to do so now. "Lost? Frightened? Confused?" he mocked, "Good!" He laughed maniacally, and disappeared in another flash.
They set out to find the exit. Multiple times did they have to turn around for cause of hearing the sounds of laboured breathing or stone being scratched, but overall they did well not to run into Tsunami. Well, for a while.
Clay hid behind the corner of a dead-end; he hoped he was doing so effectively. He heard sorrowful wailing approach him, and inwardly despaired. He hoped she would turn the corner just before him, and it struck him that that was probably where Sunny was hiding. He initially dismissed the hope, but a sort of coalition in his mind, of the "my hopes do nothing" faction and the "every dragon for themself" faction, brought it back.
Tsunami approached the corner before, and after a moment's wait did indeed go around it. Clay rushed away, the "every dragon for themself" faction having taken complete control, and stopped at the cross-section just beyond the corridor Tsunami had entered. Thinking quickly, he ran leftwards, and before him, miraculously, was the exit.
Clay's internal debate now had entered a true urgency, causing him to breathe quite quickly. On one hand, Sunny was probably right. Clay was the one who the book had chosen; he likely could take care of things all on his lonesome. On the other hand, that's what the damn book wants, isn't it? For him to leave his friends behind, and be slave to the labyrinth? Clay would liked to have said he reached the consensus of "I'm going to save my friends," but truth be told nothing of the sort occured. He turned around, but froze before he could take a single step. Hearing Tsunami's horrible wailing even sent him back one.
As he was chastising himself for not being able to save Sunny, it seems his rapid breathing caught Tsunami's attention. She ignored Sunny, navigating to the cross-section and turning left towards Clay, and as he saw her beautifully blue form he felt a fear he had not felt in all his life. He ran up the exit without a second thought. Barreling through into the darkness, he rejoiced that, while accidentally, he managed to save Sunny. Immediately after he despaired that he now could no longer tell the other two where the exit was.
When the darkness faded, Clay's vision was dim; he certainly needed to rest for a long time. The good news, though, was the sight of Tsunami immediately rushing to slaughter something or another. He'd done it; he'd at least saved his own skin. Clay promptly fell unconscious.
"You bastard!"
Clay felt a sharp sensation, followed by the unmistakable sense of blood running down his face. His eyes shot open, and he sprang to his feet.
"You just left us to die in there, didn't you?" shouted a voice he recognised as Glory's.
"Wha-I..." Clay got his bearings, and with them his will to argue. He saw Glory before him, looking mighty angry. "Well, I had to lead Tsunami out!"
"You could have told us where the exit was, even in a passing shout! It took three damned hours to find it!" Glory swiped her claw again at Clay, who was able to move his head out of the way in time.
"Holy- I had no time!" he shouted urgently.
"Like hell you did!"
Clay looked around quickly. They had progressed out of the strange catacombs they were in before; now they seemed to be in a maze outside. "Wait!" he said, dodging another blow, "We're outside! We can just fly away, can't we?!"
Glory stopped to look around the same way Clay had. "Oh, we are," she stated, all of the anger gone from her voice, "Let's go, then."
Glory started ascending, but quickly stopped. She hit her head on nothing. It looked like nothing, at least. She felt around, and saw that it stretched across the whole maze, even comprising the walls on its outer end. It seemed that flying was no way to escape. She flew back to the entrance. "Damn!" she shouted down to Clay and Sunny, "There's some kind of... invisible ceiling on the top."
"Well, you were able to fly high enough up to reach it," Clay said, "It'll make navigating the maze easier, being able to fly over the walls."
Clay flew up to check for himself that it existed. It did, as a matter of fact, which disappointed Clay; he lost both an opportunity to escape and an opportunity to prove Glory wrong. While up there, though, he sighted something truly peculiar. It was a strange, dark shape; too small to see from so high up, in the middle of a large clearing. He got closer to it, and could make out some cursory features. It seemed to have some kind of curled tail, and two vague extremities on its top. Yet closer he did fly, and saw it then in perfect detail. "...Starflight?" he asked.
The creature, who was definitely and unmistakably indeed Starflight, did not respond. It did not even move, in fact. Clay landed, and he shouted aloud "Come over here! I found Starflight!"
Glory appeared almost in an instant. "He's alive?" she asked incredulously. She landed next to Clay, and went slack-jawed in surprise. "He is!" she shouted.
Sunny was the last to arrive. She gasped in wonder as she saw him; even that was an excess of expression for her. The three of them sat in a shoddy line before Starflight, who still did not move.
"I think he's asleep..." Clay said, "I'll... I'll wake him."
Clay slowly walked up to Starflight, and tapped him on the head. Starflight's eyes shot open, and he immediately tackled Clay to the ground. Clay kicked with all his might, but he couldn't get out. Glory rushed over to help, raking her claws against Starflight's back, which caused him enough pain to roll over and off of Clay. Clay stepped over to where Starflight lay and quickly slashed his throat open.
Starflight was not defeated then. He slowly got up, swaying as he did, before being knocked down again by Sunny. She plunged her claw into his chest, which put him to sleep for good.
A pondering silence was then shared by the three dragonets present. Sunny, while usually scratching at her scales, did so much more quickly, like she was trying to distract from something. After grappling with himself for a moment, Clay spoke up. "We just killed Starflight," he remorsed, "Our old friend, Starflight. Without stopping to think we ended his life."
Clay walked over to the body and crouched next to it. "What have we done!?" he cried, "Months ago, we swore that we wouldn't let the labyrinth corrupt us again. Now, we've just killed our old friend! One fifth of the damned prophecy!"
Clay sobbed into Starflight's corpse. Sunny accompanied him, driven to despair from his loaded words. Glory only stared at the body. She tried to put on a look of analysing, but regret was obviously creeping through. She tried to look away from it, but kept moving her head back.
"We need to stay loyal to one another, if we're ever going to leave this place!" Clay exhorted through his sobs, "This happened because we thought it was okay to fight in general! This damned labyrinth..." Clay quieted as he calmed down slightly, "This damned labyrinth!"
Glory's veneer finally broke, and she crouched down beside the body of Starflight. "Oh, God..." she whispered.
Another silence came upon the dragonets. This one was of despairing reflection. It lasted a very, very long time, as remorse slowly crept through them, inhabiting each thought.
"We have to move on," Clay said finally, "We have to move on, and we have to... cherish one another."
"How can we?" Glory asked, "Look at this! We're murderers!"
"We just have to," Clay responded, "It's part of life." He chuckled. "Besides, moving on is punishment enough in this place."
Glory chuckled as well, before sighing. "Real rousing speaker you are," she said. Clay, for the first time in months, felt any kind of connection to one of his fellows. "Sappy, too. 'Cherishing one another.'" Glory put a claw on Clay's back, and the both of them stared back at Starflight.
"We should- we should bury him out of the labyrinth," Clay said quickly, "He doesn't deserve to be left here in the place that killed him."
"It was our fault, not the labyrinth's," Glory said. Her voice had slid back to remorse from its previous contentedness. "Besides, we can't drag him with us. God knows how many more levels there are to this place."
Clay stayed silent. A few more tears rolled down his cheeks as he looked at the wounds he himself had given Starflight. "Can we bury him here?" he suggested, "I think we can dig up the ground." He walked over to Starflight's body in the middle of the clearing, and poked at the sand surrounding it.
"It's the least we can do," Glory sighed. She joined Clay in inspecting the yellowish loam that made up the ground. She started unearthing the soil a few feet away from Starflight. Clay joined her, and they silently acknowledged that they were digging Starflight's grave. Sunny continued picking at her scars, watching the excavation from behind Starflight's body. A few minutes passed by, and the hole still was not deep enough to fit Starflight.
"You need to help, too," Clay shouted to Sunny. He was about to say that she had to because she delivered the final blow, but the combination of half-forgotten memories of a dragon who would have burst out in hysterical tears at the very thought as well as his knowledge that they were all equally culpable in Starflight's demise held his tongue back.
Sunny wordlessly agreed, and began helping to dig the hole. They all were depressedly hunched over the pit, their minds each clouded by the thought of having killed Starflight. Despite this, it was the closest they had been in months; the first time they had truly shared an activity, apart from going mad trying to navigate the maze.
Clay thought about this as he dug, and he slowed his digging once he realised how severely the labyrinth had corrupted them. They who had known each other and no others since the beginning of their lives now were united only by digging a grave. Clay could find no easy solution to this problem of barely knowing the dragons he had spent his whole life with, and resigned to simply try to get more useful things on his mind by finishing Starflight's grave.
After a long ordeal, torturous both mentally and physically, Starflight's grave was dug. The three dragonets rolled his body into it, and slowly covered it back up with soil. Clay kneeled by it, about to eulogise, but he was cut off by Sunny bursting into tears, unprompted by anything other than Starflight's death. This was the first time Sunny had really independently reacted to something in a long time; usually, she followed the leader, reacting as they did. Clay wondered if Starflight's death was perhaps a good thing. Of course, on its face it isn't; an innocent dragonet murdered by his friends without a thought. But it seemed to heal his murderers, in some way; Clay, at least, had not felt this truly alive since he entered the labyrinth, and Sunny was attached to reality enough to feel sad over Starflight's death. Not enough to speak, though. Maybe another death was necessary for that.
Clay decided to forgo a eulogy. He returned to the edge of the clearing. Glory walked over to Starflight's grave, and Clay thought perhaps that she would eulogise, but she did not.
"I'm sorry," she said instead.
Without any more words, the three dragonets left Starflight behind.
At last, they reached the exit of this section of the labyrinth. Clay began ascending the blocks, but Glory stopped him. "We've not found Tsunami," she said.
"We're leaving her behind," Clay replied.
"So much for loyalty-" Glory began, but she cut herself off, "I mean, why?"
"It's too dangerous to have her around," Clay replied, "I feel extremely guilty at having to say that, but it's true. The exit stays open until everyone's left. If she wants to follow us, she can."
Clay and Sunny continued up the blocks. Glory started up them, but stopped halfway. She turned back to look at the maze. "I hope you're well, wherever you are..." she whispered.
Two months later exactly...
This is it, thought Glory, Clay's book has told him a thousand times that this is the final level. She breathed in and out, but it seemed to do little to calm herself. The soft floors and hard walls were filled with anxiety. If this was I.M Meen's last line of defense, then it would be grueling to traverse, especially without Tsunami.
But it seemed, paradoxically, no guardians existed on this level. Everywhere they looked, they found nothing but dust. At last, Clay found the reason. He poked his head into a large room. In the middle of the floor, he sighted the dead body of I.M Meen, torn apart with much vigour. This was the first thing in a while that really made him sick; he was desensitised to everything else by this point. "Oh..." he said.
The other two entered the room after him, and mirrored his murmur of shock. "Tsunami got here first..." Glory said quietly.
Clay coughed. "What an anticlimax," he mused, "I was ready to kick the hell out of him. He's been taunting us since we got here."
"Taunting you," Glory corrected, "To be honest, I found it kind of entertaining."
They all simply stared at I.M Meen's brutalised body for a little while. "Well," Clay said, "let's get out of here."
The three dragonets found the exit very quickly; this level was not like a maze at all. Unlike the others, this exit did not lead into darkness. Well, it did at first. But this darkness was merely a shadowy hallway, leading to a boundary marked with a yellow line across the floor. They all knew this lead out.
Glory and Sunny crossed the line without any issue. Clay found himself unable, however, to cross the boundary. He began breathing heavily, trying desparately to do so, but he did not move even a muscle. "I think," he said, terrified but somewhat resigned. He choked back tears. "I think I.M Meen wants me to stay."
"What do you mean?" Glory asked, not quite as fearful as Clay, but still very much so, "Tsunami killed him, right?"
"I can still feel him. Watching me. Whatever this... spirit is, I don't think it can die. At least, not in the way we know." Clay began twitching nervously, his head briefly snapping to one side before returning. "I don't think I've had a choice so far. I think every decision I've made, I.M Meen has been making for me. You continue with your destiny. Please. Mine is to stay here and... wander this maze. Forever."
Glory moved closer to Clay, putting a claw on his shoulder. "That's ridicu-"
Clay brushed her claw off. "I've made my peace. I think I have, at least. I.M Meen wants me here, and I can't deny him. Please, just forget about me. Move on. Never think of me again."
"No! I..." Glory trailed off.
Clay stared into Glory's eyes for a long time, knowing this would be the last he'd see of them. "Please," he pleaded.
A deep silence settled into the area. The other two dragonets exited the hall without another word. After a moment more, Glory did as well, though not before looking back at Clay one more time. "I'm sorry," she said. Clay shed a single tear. He would've cried more, but the magic labyrinth had already drained him of everything he could give.
I.M Meen appeared from behind Clay, coming out of the darkness without spectacle. Clay turned around, facing the tall man with resignation. They both nodded, and Clay put his head down, following I.M Meen back into the eternal labyrinth. A stone slid over, blocking the exit to the outside world, and the candle illuminating the hall snuffed out.
THE END