Woah twice in one day! I couldn't help myself :) Hope you all enjoy this. The next chapter is already written and finishes the first official underwater game!
The lighting was much different inside the maze, Emma and Regina stood there a moment letting their eyes adjust to the darkness that emanated from the mirky water. The deafening noise from outside was silenced by the massive walls surrounding them, and there was a certain energy to the water and life around them that would make anyone uneasy. Regina quickly surveyed the area, and gestured toward the only direction they could go in, finding themselves completely alone once again. Emma nodded towards her partner, eyes scanning the seaweed around them for any sign of life and moved to push past Regina to take the lead, but as she swam shakily by the mayor, a strong hand halted her and she was met with focused brown eyes. "Let me go first, I have magic I can use against what we run into," Emma was about to argue, but was too distracted by the strong hand still on her shoulder and the pleading brown eyes of the queen. With a silent nod, Emma let Regina swim in front of her, and made a silent promise to herself that she wouldn't let the woman out of her sight.
They swam through a few corridors of seaweed with no incident, although they thought they heard great movement around them, a shifting noise of sorts that always gave them pause. Emma was lost in thought when she felt herself drifting to the left once again as her eyes searched the waters above for any type of clue that would help them in finding out which direction they should go in. The familiar sliminess of seaweed grazed her arm and she immediately frowned at the icky sensation. Pulling her arm back and ready to catch up to Regina, Emma felt a hard tug on her arm pulling her violently into the wall of green. The seaweed was wrapping itself up her arm pulling her in toward itself, other pieces of the wall now reaching to slither out and grab the rest of her. Panic flooded her veins and she lashed out hard at the offending tendrils. "REGINA!" she screamed. "REGINA!" She pulled and clawed only finding herself getting buried deeper within the wall, seaweed now wrapping it's way around her legs making it impossible for her to swim away. Just as she felt it squeezing harder and constricting her movements she saw purple smoke seep between the tendrils holding her, almost instantly loosening their hold. More flashes of purple surrounded her and she felt her legs become free as she tried to frantically swim away. Her heart was beating in her chest and bubbles constantly surrounded her as she tried to catch her breath and break her hands free. A warm orange glow burst in front of her and she was blown back through the water, landing on a cloud of sand.
For a brief moment she was engulfed in the brown flurry in front of her eyes, and the deafening beat of her heart in her ears. A familiar figure broke through the hazy cloud, "Emma!" the mayor came into focus offering a hand to help her up. "Are you okay? What happened?"
Taking a moment to gather her bearings, the blonde held onto the mayor's arm, looking around to figure out what happened. Aside from a few spots of scorched looking seaweed lining the corridor everything looked normal. Emma shook her head in an attempt to focus. She looked up into the warm brown eyes of the mayor, finding a twinge of purple outlining them. At least I'm not the only one freaked out here. Concern was written all over the mayor's face as she started to look the woman over for any injuries. "I don't know what happened," Emma started, "I bumped into the seaweed and all of a sudden it started to pull me into it."
Regina eyed the corridor with a glare, purple now starting to slowly swirl in her eyes. Emma reached up and touched her cheek out of instinct, immediately drawing the brunette's eyes to hers. "Woah" Emma breathed, commenting on the mayor's eyes.
"Magic." Regina shrugged. She looked once more into green eyes seeing she was okay and tried to focus on the task at hand, pulling away from the blonde. Emma noticed the mayoral mask back up and frowned. "Thank you for helping me." the sheriff said softly.
The brunette continued down the corridor slowly, "You're welcome sheriff, now no more touching the sides of the corridor." and with that she disappeared around another huffed out a cloud of bubbles and swam to catch up.'
The charming's walked close to one another staying vigilant and almost enjoying the excitement of the adventure at hand. "The maze is bigger than I imagined." Snow announced as they rounded yet another corner met with three different corridors to choose from.
"Yeah, Ursula really isn't playing around with this underwater game business," David said while gesturing towards the middle choice shrugging his shoulders at snow for agreement. The pixie hair woman nodded and proceeded ahead cautiously.
"It's kind of exciting though, being on an adventure with you again. It reminds me of old times back in fairy tale land. I like storybrooke but I miss the thrill of an unpredictable world." She said stopping to look at another dead end.
"I know what you mean but I really could do without this whole Ursula mess, " he stared at the dead end wall of seaweed and stopped, "Do you think Emma is okay? I saw her walk into the maze with Regina. She really hasn't experienced anything like this."
"David she's our daughter and she slayed a dragon, I think she can handle a maze," Snow smiled at him bumping his shoulder. The charming's sighed as they resigned to having turn around once again. As they made their way back a loud rustling sound turned their attention back to the dead end and a flutter of movement caused the seaweed to wave frantically. A burst of bubbles from all the rustling lifted up into the water and dissipated above them in silence. "Charming?" Snow asked tentatively.
The wall came to life, shaking and writhing rapidly, tendril after tendril seemed to slither across the dead end and down the corridor, multiplying and affectively making the walls thicker. "It's closing in!" Charming yelled while grabbing snow's wrist swimming forward to get ahead of the collapsing seaweed. The walls around them were closing in and the water seemed to only get darker as they neared the corner to head back the way they came. All of the bubbles and seaweed blended together in a chaotic blur around the couple as they swam through the tendrils that were now walling off this particular part of the maze and shifting several of the corridors around them. The slick seaweed grazed their arms and legs as they maneuvered around the vines and corners towards an open space they saw up ahead. Just as the seaweed got a little too thick to swim through it stopped abruptly creating a new wall. The charming's pulled themselves out of the new growth, breathing heavily from the close encounter. Holding hands they slowly backed away from the new structure and into the open space, looking wildly around them. The seaweed now swayed peacefully, only letting a few bubbles escaped from it's hold as other parts of the maze could be heard and felt shifting in the distance.
Taking a moment to catch their breath and bearings they lingered in the opening silently debating on which direction to take. "It keeps shifting, which way should we go?" Snow asked aloud.
"It kind of looks like we are in the center of the maze, as he slowly turned in a circle taking in the full surroundings, "but I'm not sure which way we came from, it all looks the same." David held onto his wife as he looked up into the mirky water above for any kind of marker. "It looks like there is more light over there in the distance, that's probably the end of the maze, we shou-"
The ground beneath them gave in, as they grabbed onto each other in panic sinking into the sand. Everything moved so fast they barely had any time to react. The sand beneath them now swirled around them, drawing them down into it's depths as they struggled to reach the outer edge of this sand vortex. The more the couple struggled the stronger the pull of the sand came around them. "Snow don't fight it! It just becomes stronger if you do!" Charming yelled over the roar of the sand. "You're closer to the edge! Just go!" David was looking at Snow as the sand now reached above his shoulders.
"I'm not letting you go!" Snow demanded reaching to hold onto any part of Charming.
His eyes pleaded with hers and she reached out towards him. The sand was now too strong to fight against and was quickly consuming them as Charming's hand reached for Snows. In a blur of sand and the roar of the vortex, the couple disappeared beneath the chaos united as one as they were lost to the maze. As quickly as it had started, the sand came to an abrupt halt, a small sand cloud settling back onto the ocean floor returning it to it's normal state. No sign of the couple or what had happened was evident in the vast open space once again.
Hook dragged his feet as he stared at the back of Rumple's head. "Isn't there some sort of spell you can cast that can get us out of this maze? We've been walking in circles for at least an hour" Hook whined. Rumple stopped as they turned another corner and rolled his eyes. "Don't you think I would've used one already if I could dearie?" He replied flatly. Taking a deep breath they looked at the corridors ahead, silently debating which direction to take.
Hook stepped ahead of Rumple eyeing the corridor on the right, "At this pace we'll never get anywhere, we need to get to the middle at least, perhaps we can figure something else out there. This maze is a complete bore so far."
"Ah, ah, ah, dearie, slow and steady wins the race." Rumple brought up his finger to make his point, "And I highly doubt Cora and Ursula had boredom in mind when designing this maze. There is a lot of darkness in here."
The captain waved his hook dramatically around the water, "There's darkness everywhere in this nasty water!" he exclaimed, "Nothing's here! Listen I know you and Cora were uh…close, what'd you think she'd put in here? Killer seaweed?"
"Watch where you wave your hook Killian, you wouldn't want anything to happen to it" Rumple said glaring at the arrogant captain.
"I'll wave my hook wherever I want!" He yelled practically stamping his feet.
Rumple placed both of his hands on top of his cane and eyed the young captain. "Hook might I remind you that we are I don't know how many leagues under the sea, competing in Ursula's under water maze, and currently with a ship that is trapped in an air bubble. Now is not the time to 'wave your hook around.' Now if you'll excuse me, I would like it to make it out of this ever so boring maze as you put it and get back above water. I'm sure you will find your hook excellent company as usual." And with that Rumple stepped with his cane choosing the corridor on the left.
Hook only slightly regretting what he said watched the older man limp off and out of sight before rolling his eyes and looking up into the corridor on the right. Holding his hook up in front of himself and turning it over to inspect it, he let out a resigned sigh and headed down the path on the right. Picking up the pace and choosing to quickly swim down a few corridors instead of walking, he noticed the eerie silence that surrounded him, becoming more aware of the still seaweed. His heart rate quickened, as he paused to listen for any sign of life. Hearing nothing but feeling extremely uneasy in this particular part of the maze, he chose to slowly continue ahead half hoping to run back into the limping man.
Turning around the only corner he could, he noticed crabs littering the path way, lazily crossing up and down the corridor. Motioning his hook in a nonchalant way he made sure to go around each crab not to disturb them. About half way through his trek, all at once, all the crabs quickly scuttled into the seaweed wall, almost as if to take cover. The sudden movement, and quick disappearance of the crabs halted Hook in his place. The seaweed now still again, suddenly looked as if a wave rolled through it, causing it to sway in unison and bend wildly next to the young captain. Hook strained his ears to listen for what was disturbing the seaweed, and heard a faint swishing sound as if someone was swimming through the water around him, circling him. Turning frantically to find the culprit, a cloud of black ink suddenly started to seep down all around him, completely obstructing his view of anything. Slashing his hook wildly at the ink to clear it, Hook was left in the middle of the corridor blinded and lost in the sea of ink. His hook lurched in front of him as he felt a slimy tentacle wrap around his midsection and carry him off into the abyss above. Aside from the high pitch scream that escaped the young captain as he was dragged through the water, Hook was left with no other choice but to concede defeat of the maze by Ursula herself.
A loud screech drew Rumple's attention to the sea above as he caught a glimpse of Ursula swimming over the maze, with a wild waving hook wrapped in a tentacle. Shaking his head in partial amusement and partial fear he stilled as to not draw any attention to himself. Just as he was about to continue forward a single jelly fish floated down in front of him, hovering in front of his face. Slowly stepping aside the still jelly fish Rumple made to continue forward when a few more jellyfish sunk down in front of him, sufficiently halting him in his tracks. One by one, jellyfish after jellyfish sank down into his corridor surrounding him with long stingers and a dim green glow. With nowhere to move or go his mind raced in panic on what to do. Raising his cane slowly, he gently attempted to nudge one of the jellyfish out of the way, succeeding in removing it from the spot in front of him. Lowering his cane he turned his head to admire his work but saw that the surrounding jellyfish had moved closer to him in response. Frowning he raised his cane again looking for any movement. Seeing the green glow grow brighter, he noticed movement behind the jellyfish as two eels slithered their way through the sea of stingers towards him. Before he could react the eels picked up speed weaving in and around the stingers reaching him with purposeful intent. As they brushed by him on either side, they let their long bodies glide against him with a sickening electric sound, sending sharp paralyzing pain coursing through his body. Unable to move, the eels wrapped themselves around the older man, the water around them charged with electric energy causing the jellyfish to grow bright. As his body went limp against the eels, the jellyfish surged forward lifting his body up and out of the maze, with nothing but the crackle of electricity and an eerie glow.
Hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think :)