Blake and Yang walked leisurely along the grassy track, their surroundings unchanging, unending; red cliffs to the left, green forest to the right. Nothing interesting had happened for nearly ten hours, so they were used to the tedium. On the horizon, however, a speck of black on the rock side was getting larger and larger.

"Is that what I think it is?" asked Yang.

"If you think it's the entrance, then yes," said Blake.

Yang let out a whoop of joy. "I'll race you there," she yelled, already at a sprint.

Blake gave a competitive smirk and dashed after her. Within half a minute, she'd caught up to her partner, who quickly stepped up her pace as she realized her victory was in danger. They remained neck-and-neck for the entire stretch, neither taking a lead of more than a few paces for the whole run. With the entryway coming closer and closer, Yang put full effort into her run. She leapt into the air and rolled upon landing, coming up right in front of the entrance in a victorious pose. Blake stood in front of her, smiling.

"Nuh-uh," denied Yang. "There's no way you got here first. I totally won that."

"Sure you did," Blake said sweetly, with a hint of smug satisfaction.

Yang huffed, and looked away. "Nobody saw. You can't prove anything."

"Prove what?"

"Damn, you're infuriating. I think I'm rubbing off on you."

Blake rolled her eyes and smiled. "Please, like you're ever this witty."

Yang threw her hands up in surrender. "You win."

Their conversation done, the duo remembered what they had been racing toward, and looked through the doorway into the rocky structure. The entrance itself was square, about 15 feet a side. In contrast to the rugged outer wall, the edges of the entrance were cut perfectly straight, and adorned with decorative engravings. Looking in, it appeared as if the inside were divided into cubes of similar dimensions - about 15 feet a side. The light level quickly dropped the deeper Yang peered, but she could see more than one pathway branching off from the main hall.

"You said it was a maze, right?" she asked. Blake nodded in confirmation. "How are we going to avoid getting lost?"

"We can gather some leaves," Blake responded, gesturing at the forest behind them. "Leave one of them at the center of every square we pass through, so we'll know if we've been walking in circles."

"That's a sound plan," Yang agreed. "Let's get us some leaves!"

Blake eyed her partner skeptically. "Look, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but…" She gestured at the enormous pile of plant matter that Yang carried. "How do you expect to carry all that?"

"What do you think this is for?" Yang asked, twisting her hips so that the pouch on her belt pointed towards the other girl.

"There is absolutely no way you can fit all of that into such a small container."

"Watch me," Yang said, sticking her tongue out. She proceeded to shove handfuls of leaves into the pouch, slowly transferring the entire pile inside. At times, it seemed as though her arm went further down into the pouch than should have been possible, but Blake was sure that was only her imagination. When Yang was done, the full pouch only bulged slightly, and no stray leaves poked out.

"I've never been more impressed with you than I am right now," Blake said, not understanding what she had just seen.

"And now we're even," Yang smiled. "You want me to carry yours, too?"

"No… no, I'll keep mine," she replied. Her collection seemed pitiful, now, in comparison to her partner's, but it was still hers.

Yang shrugged. "Suit yourself. Let's get back to the awesome maze - I can hardly wait to beat up whatever nasties are lying in wait!"

Blake laughed silently at her friend's shadowboxing as they returned to the entrance of the maze.

"Alright, let's do this!" Yang exclaimed as she took the first step into the labyrinth. The stone beneath her feet was smooth, but not polished. It held a sort of grainy texture that one would expect from stone exposed to open air, but it was almost perfectly flat.

Blake followed her partner, half-smiling. Yang strutted along in the lead, dropping a leaf in the center of every 15-foot tile, and completely ignoring every branching route. However, their path became darker with every step, and while she had no problems seeing, that was not the case for Yang. Slowly but surely, her partner began to turn to her left as she walked, inching closer to the wall with every step. Blake became somewhat distressed when she showed no signs of slowing, despite her obvious lack of vision. She grabbed Yang by both shoulders from behind, stopping her.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"You nearly ran yourself into a wall," Blake explained, slightly irritated. Yang put her hand up in front of her and took a couple of steps forward, coming into contact with stone.

"Oh."

"I should probably take the lead from here on out," Blake suggested.

"But how am I supposed to follow you if I can't see?" asked the blonde girl.

Blake extended her arm. "Take my hand."

After a few seconds of Yang floundering about in the dark in an attempt to grasp her partner's hand, Blake lost her patience and gripped the other girl's wrist. "Here."

"Okay, thanks. Which way do we go now, Miss I-can-see-in-the-dark?"

"Up," responded Blake.

"Up? Aren't most mazes… y'know… flat?"

"Why else would this place be so tall? High ceilings?"

Yang sighed. "Let's just go."

"It's a high jump," warned Blake, "as far up as the tiles are wide. I'm going to move you right in front of the wall, and you jump straight up and grab the ledge. You might have to use your gauntlets."

"Are you kidding?" Yang asked as her partner pushed her into position. "I'm going to need this ammo for when we start running into big beasties!" When Blake let go of her shoulders, Yang crouched low, then sprang up into the air. She grabbed hold of the ledge at the peak of her jump, having almost perfectly gauged it. As she climbed, up she was quickly joined by her partner, for whom the jump had posed little difficulty. Not wasting any time, the dark-haired girl quickly took Yang's hand and began to walk. When Blake ran out of hers, Yang took a handful of leaves from her pouch and handed it to the other girl, who would have a much easier time of telling when to drop one.

The duo delved deeper and deeper into the labyrinth, with only one goal: to reach the other side. With this in mind, they continued straight for as long as possible until a turn was necessitated, only then going left or right. They kept these detours as short as possible, too, reverting to their original direction as soon as the option was available.

They were making good progress, to be sure, but Blake just couldn't shake the feeling that they weren't the only things in the maze; something did not want them there.