I opened my eyes. I was in a dimly lit tunnel, half-leaning against one of the walls. Behind me was a de­ad end, and I had no recollection whatsoever how things ended up like this. I saw some movement in the distance. I stared... I couldn't make out much in the dim light, but the hulking silhouette of a bear was a bit hard to miss. Emotions welled up inside of me, and I was almost unable to hold back an exclamation of astonishment. Almost. For some reason, I felt like my emotions were being dampened unnaturally. Something was wrong, but not only about my surroundings.

I retreated until my back faced a rock wall, the exit being blocked by the beast, ready to eliminate the intruder of its den. I prepared myself for a desperate dash.

"Hello there," a familiar voice suddenly spoke out.

Massive paws, thick brown fur. I couldn't make out all of the bear's features, but it was definitely a bear. Maybe the claws didn't stand out as much as I expected. They were kind of... almost painted onto cylindrical paws, weird.

"You alright?" The voice reverberated through the tunnel again. The peaceful, serene voice was too familiar. I had heard it a lot. It belonged to a classmate of mine who sat at the same desk as me for years.

"Richard?.."

I felt so confused, not knowing whether to try dashing past the bear right now, or to look closer at this beast that had politely stopped at an arm's-length away from me.

"Yes. It's me," Richard's voice piped up again, so at odds with the fading terror I felt at having a bear in front of me.

Somewhat relieved just by hearing the voice of this taciturn classmate, I squinted my eyes to take a better look at this "bear".

It helped that the giant leaned forward a bit too, also seemingly peering at me through those black button eyes. This was indeed a bear, but not just any bear... standing in front of me was a walking, talking teddy bear.

"Do you want to follow me?" His voice interrupted my concentration. Even though Richard asked a question, he didn't wait for me to respond. It was just his way of saying to follow him, I guess. I already saw him plodding off down the cave, his figure obscured in shadow yet again as it distanced itself.

"Wait!" I shouted, not letting him to be swallowed by the darkness, as I couldn’t see too far away.

Richard didn't speak much, even when we sat beside each other in class. He was the type to always hang his head a little and would never quite meet your eyes when he talked. He wasn't exactly like Leo, the loner of the class, but he would usually follow me in silence, keeping his thoughts to himself.

Questions swam in my mind as this teddy bear with Richard's voice turned around one corner and then another.

Seriously, what’s going on and how can my current plight be explained? I gave up thinking along those lines as the situation was just so bizarre. I would bear my questions in my mind without expressing them, until I saw something that could help me make sense of all this.

"Hey, Richard," or rather, it looked like Richard might know something. "What is going on? Where are we?"

I walked up closer behind him, still a bit hesitant whether this hulking teddy bear would turn into an enemy. Richard? What Richard? Did I really think of Richard as a teddy bear?

Despite my doubts, Richard's voice responded after a moment. "We're almost there, we can talk once we get out of here. I need to remember which turns to take."

"Oh, alright..." I said. Better not distract him then. I hope he was taking me out of this place, wherever it was.

Wherever we were going, 'almost there' was not how I'd describe it... it felt like five minutes later, we were still taking random turns through dimly lit maze corridors.

I found myself fascinated with the zipper that went up Richard's back, ending in a gigantic pull tab right at the base of his neck.

Was Richard a real teddy bear now? Did he actually have a pocket inside of him, instead of, you know, a stomach and lungs, and heart?

That was kind of messed up. Still, I was curious what he'd put in there. Did he put something in there?

I kept my question to myself though. It would be rude to ask what a teddy bear put inside him, right?

It was also dawning on me that the light I could see was coming from the shiny stones which were hidden among their ordinary-looking brethren. My eyes had adjusted quite a bit by now, and I could see the shifting shadow of the teddy bear on the ground. It was the same with the zipper. Sometimes, when Richard leaned over, the pull tab sank into shadow, making it hard to study.

Instead, I turned my attention to the floor. It looked like cobblestones in one of those old cities.

"Oh, you found him! Hey, it's Henry, right?" I flinched as a long horn almost rammed into my face.

I looked the unicorn up and down. Yes, a unicorn.

I was about to smirk but some sort of force stopped me. Strange. What was happening to me? I put these thoughts off for later and concentrated on the voice. It wasn’t unfamiliar to me. I think I could recognize its owner. It should be Vlad Ortega.

"Nope. I'm not Henry, guess again," I said, still looking at his pure white coat, translucent silver mane and sky blue eyes.

Sky blue eyes that immediately squinted and lost their excitement as they heard my voice.

"Oh, it's just you."

I threw another glance at him. Vlad was never the type to filter what he says. He wasn’t very thoughtful, his hotheadedness getting the best of him again and again. You would think that would make him rethink his ways, but no. After just escaping a plight, he would immediately look for another one as if he couldn’t live without those. Usually, there would be Henry to stop him from doing something especially stupid, but from the looks of it, Henry wasn’t here. I didn’t even bother answering. I was engaged with sensing the changes within me. Something was very wrong.

With a final push, I felt that something in me changed entirely even though I couldn’t quite understand what. Gears locked into their places. I think… I felt better now?

We continued towards our destination, the three of us. Now, however, we didn’t move in silence: Vlad’s low grunting could be heard disrupting the atmosphere of mysteriousness.

We finally left those tunnels. But it wasn’t the time for me to feel relieved. What I faced next was more awe-inspiring than anything else I had seen before. I thought that this majestic sight will remain in my memory till the end of my days. Will it? Inexplicable doubt rose from the depths of my heart.

An enormous rounded cave, and at the side of it was lying the biggest living being I have ever seen. Four paws, each one ending with sharp claws, a tail, which the creature slowly dragged across the large opening of the cave, a pair of immense wings which were resting on the creature’s back and jet black scales covering its entire body. The creature lying in front of me was undoubtedly a dragon, and a pretty big one at that.

“What is it?” I asked Richard, unable to look away from the majestic reptile.

“Do you remember our vice-president, Isabella Nevermind?” he responded with a question of his own. An image of a bright, vigorous girl appeared in my mind. Not a single part of her reminded me of a dragon though. I looked at Richard and then at unicorn Vlad. No, this couldn’t be what I am thinking about, right?

“Hey, by your question… By any means, you didn’t want to imply that the giant lying over there is?..”

“Yup. That’s our vice-president Isabella,” Richard nonchalantly confirmed my guess as if his classmate becoming a dragon was just another Tuesday. He didn’t seem to mind her baffling appearance, evidently still deep in thoughts, whatever was growing on his mind.

Suddenly, a bizarre conjecture entered my brain. It was ridiculous to think as such, but I couldn’t let this thought go without a confirmation.

“Say, is there anyone else that I know… around this weird place?”

“Yeah. Do you see that book, which is about to crash into you?” confirmed Richard. Without waiting for my answer, he grabbed me by my shoulder and pulled me aside.

I felt something brushing by my side, almost forcing me to lose my ground.

“Thanks,” I gave Richard a curt nod of appreciation, locking my attention on the disturber of my contemplation. It was a book. Like one of those you can find in a library. There was a certain distinction though. I have seen a lot of books before, but not even a single one of them could hover in the air flipping its pages every now and then. And then, the book talked. ‘How did it do it?’ I wondered. A plush brute, an equine, and now a bundle of recycled wood were capable of human speech. It’s not just the matter of them knowing it, their bodies were supposed to be incapable of producing such sounds. I left the matter for later though, making a mental note to learn the answers when I would have the time. For now, I concentrated on what it was saying.

“I think, I’ll need to apologize for this one. I was rather confident that I got a grasp on how to fly properly. And for some reason, my trajectory suddenly shifted a bit…”

With the last sentence I felt like it eyed each one of us, as if reaching a conclusion that one of us was the culprit responsible for its error in judgment. Yup, ‘eyed us’. A book which is essentially a bunch of paper stuck together. Pretty weird, I must say. The book didn’t have eyes. That was something I was sure about as I took a good look at it. No, not it. It was a ‘him’.

The guy who was elected as a president of our class year after year. Gradually, most of my classmates stopped calling him by his name and referred to him as ‘President’ instead.

He was confident and he had his smarts to back him up. If he decided on something it was very hard to convince him otherwise. He wasn’t the one to change his opinion often.

I guess the whole situation I found myself in was a bit, just a bit too ridiculous for me to muster a response in time. That was when Vlad, who was standing near us, interrupted President’s monologue, trying to interrogate the ‘book’, no, President, “Why are you not sending anyone in anymore? Henry is still inside! I am sure of it. No, more than just sure. Especially now that we have found one of the two missing students! I feel it, Henry needs our help!”

Not sure why, but Vlad thought that it was a good idea to use his hooves and horn to properly relay to President how important his opinion was. Alas, he instead of reaching the desired outcome met with a potent explosion and was sent flying backwards.

“I’m in no mood to waste my time arguing with you. If you want to state your opinion – do it in the right way at the appropriate time. We have already discussed it a few hours ago. We are not to change our plan without something serious enough happening. You will abide by rules, Vlad, whether you want it or not,” I never really enjoyed President’s company as his presence made everything fun seem more ‘President’ and less ‘me’. He was too inflexible for my liking. But until now I had only seen him solve everything with words. It was my first time seeing President use force to make others submit.

President continued on in a pensive voice this time referring to me, “Most of us came here immediately after waking up in the labyrinth, approximately at the same time, as if being pulled by magnetic force. You on the other hand emerged only now. What’s your excuse for being late?”

You can know a person for a while. Greet them each morning and proceed to mind your own business. You can make an opinion of them. Maybe slightly better, maybe slightly worse. The catch is your opinion might not be worth anything – at least something akin to this idea raced through my mind, as I watched him trying to interrogate me. Yes, this wasn’t simply asking, this wasn’t him being concerned with my well-being. Instead, by his tone, by his manners I could see that he already was treating me as a culprit. That me being late, something I just heard of and was equally surprised and clueless about, was a crime I was guilty of.

I’m sure I have never had a beef with him before. Maybe a little dispute or two when we were deciding on our responsibilities with the whole class, but nothing on a large scale. He was a bit strict, maybe. Both on himself and others. But otherwise he was rather polite, reasonable enough. But this? Badgering people with inane assumptions of his? Did he grow mad in my absence? I saw Vlad getting up unsteadily in the corner of my field of view. I didn’t want to learn it. ‘I didn’t? How far could President go though?’ my curiosity woke up. I had to force it silent. Maybe my emotions didn’t stabilize after all.

“Silent. I just explained to you that we are pressured by time and still I have yet to hear an explanation? Do you think it’s all a joke?” President said, his pages rustling menacingly. This time I clearly picked up some threatening notes in his voice.

Richard stood between me and President, “Don’t. He’s still out of it. He’s less resilient to changes than most of us. It won’t do us any good tormenting him with questions he doesn’t even understand. It’s not like you to spend time searching for faults when there’s none.”

The violent atmosphere cooled down a notch, “Maybe you are right. I still can’t accept everything that happened. I guess, it really isn’t like me,” his pages turned somberly as the book slowly flew in the direction of dragon Isabella.

“Soon after I regained consciousness Richard found me and showed me the way,” I piped in, seeing that President is about to leave. The latter stopped mid-flight for a moment, his pages rustling something inane, and then he continued on towards his prior destination, this time somewhat faster.

At this time, Vlad already went into the maze once again. Richard went towards the center of the cave. I tagged closely behind. Usually he was the one to follow me; this time, it seems, our situation reversed.

“What is the matter with Henry?” I asked my guide.

“He’s the only one who’s still missing. Everyone else has already left the maze. Me and Vlad were responsible for checking the labyrinth in case the two of you changed into something that can’t move on its own. Vlad probably thought he would be able to find Henry quickly. But from the looks of it, he hasn’t had much luck. I found you in the last bunch of tunnels meaning we have already looked through all the tunnels. Henry isn’t there. There’s no meaning in gathering others to search for Henry,” was the answer. Henry, huh. He wasn’t very talkative nor were we close, but I approved of him. Sturdy body, discerning eyes. He was Vlad’s only friend and his influence was the reason Vlad didn’t try anything outrageous. And now, he’s gone. Maybe, it would be a good idea to lock Vlad up before things go south. Well, locking up President might also be good. I really hope others won’t make me feel like locking all of them up.

Not far away from the center of the cave, I could pick up a cluster of huts. I couldn’t see them clearly though. Lighting in the cave was far from enough to see things clearly. My focus changed as I noticed something moving in an otherwise motionless part of the cave. It was a hooded figure walking in our general direction. No, not walking… I think it would be more correct to say it was shifting toward us. It was dangerous. We should run away from it. That’s the natural response to its appearance I had. I glanced at Richard, as I wanted to warn him. He didn’t seem to mind the newcomer though. Could that thing possibly be another person I once knew? This one was stranger than everyone I met before. Be it a book or a dragon, I could clearly define them, understand what they were. But not in this case. This thing repelled me from the bottom of my heart. Even the atmosphere around it was freezing and eerie. In its hand the creature was holding a pumpkin which was sporting a broad smile. “Hello, Richard!” the pumpkin said loudly, its grin becoming even wider. Despite it being jolly, its voice wasn’t very positive. As if its joy was but a pretense. Behind pumpkin’s peculiar appearance was a classmate of mine, Jack Miller. There was a quiet girl with fair hair who was always hanging around with him, when she wasn’t on sick leave. And if you think about it, she often was. Jill Campbell. Could it be that now she was the one holding him?

We greeted each other and parted. It didn’t seem like Richard wanted to talk with them either. My friend reaffirmed my speculation. The hooded figure was indeed Jill. He didn’t know, however, what in the world she became.

“A talking pumpkin, huh? So he got found and carried here,” I said in passing.

“No, he seems to be the first one to make it out from the maze,” answered Richard. “I don’t know how though. And I won’t pry into

others’ matters without necessity.”

“Come to think of it: did everyone find themselves inside of the maze? Then how come dragon Isabella even got inside those small tunnels?” I wondered.

“No, she was the only one to wake up outside of the tunnels. But it seems like she won’t be able to get out of here – the tunnels are too small for her. Territory we searched through consists of the maze you came from and the rounded cave we’re currently in. At the opposite end, there are a few houses made of wood, numbering the same as we do, including Isabella and Henry. There are also two passages. One of them was closed with wooden planks. The other one leads underground via a stone stairway, forming a helix.”

Richard went silent for a bit before continuing, “Say… Do you perchance remember anything that took place before our meeting?”

“No, I saw you soon after finding myself in this place,” was it an indicator that even Richard had some doubts? I always liked to sleep. If I didn’t wake up when my classmates did, how is it my fault? Maybe I had a nice sweet dream? I tried to remember. No memories of what happened before I awakened seemed to resurface. Well, another weird point in an already weird situation. Too many things have happened just in the span of how much it was?.. Less than an hour? I think I have had enough of ‘firsts’ for today to stop counting them.

“I see,” Richard mused.

We got close to the wooden houses. They were more refined than I expected them to be. Each of them was adorned with beautiful ornaments giving off a vibe of exquisiteness. Suddenly, one of the doors opened and a giant greenish glowing jellyfish with a pink bow on her head floated out with a laugh, “I dunno. This is hilarious! A rabbit! I can’t unsee this! Can’t wait to return. I gotta tell this to all my buddies. Actually, y’know what? You are coming with me. They won’t believe me unless I push you in their mugs.”

“They might have believed you if you had ever stayed true to your word. And it’s not as if you know the way home,” another voice, seething with cold rage rang out.

Then the jellyfish saw me, “Oh, so in the end you got found. That’s a relief. If I were to guess… you’re Henry, aren’t you?”

“Seems like your ability to guess is just as rotten as your personality is,” I heard Richard's disgruntled voice. It was rare to hear Richard being so dissatisfied with something.

“But isn’t my personality just fine?!” Dezire Everett instantly changed the focus of her attention. She was a talkative, bubbly girl. I didn’t know her really well, but enough to be quizzed about Richard’s sudden outburst. How come I get a feeling that everyone knows something I’m not privy to?

“I thought you were just a stuffed bear, but it seems like I underestimated you. You have a zipper! That makes you… A mysterious stuffed bear?.. I wanna see your insides. Lemme, lemme~” she tried to get her tentacles onto his zipper but he didn’t let her, blocking the zipper with his massive paw.

Only now did I notice that in the doorway there was a little white rabbit looking at the spectacle jellyfish Dezire was orchestrating.

“Hello,” I crouched and greeted it.

“Well, it seems like you are alive, at the very least. When you and Henry didn’t come out I was ready to assume the worst. That’s if death really is the worst thing that can happen here. So what happened to you? Why didn’t you come out earlier? You look fine to me. It’s not like you are incapable of movement. You have both legs, you are lucky you didn’t end up like some of us. Honestly, I think you look kinda cool. From your appearance alone I’d guess you are rather slow. But seeing how agilely you move your body, it isn’t the case… Huh? Are you alright?” she started in a voice that was almost devoid of the rage she had just a minute ago. In the end she looked startled, panicked even.

…

My thoughts were going in a very unnerving direction. I shuddered. Everyone around me had some changes about them. It would be strange for me to be the only one left aside. I looked at my hands. They were green.