Jun still was upset the next morning. She ate with us, but would not speak. I hoped it was some teenage thing that I didn’t understand, though I was just barely out of my teens. This was something I didn’t know how to handle, so I stayed quiet.

Clint treated things as if nothing bad had happened. He spoke to both of us the same, made comments about how the weather had been the same every day, and even cracked a joke or two. He didn’t offer up his death story or apologize for yesterday, which I was glad of. There was nothing to apologize over. The person who did something wrong was Jun and she was the only one left with hurt feelings. As we packed a lunch in preparation for the day’s work, I loosened up about it all and tried to focus.

The walk to the lake had been really nice. Clint and I noticed more birds in the area. We pointed out ones we knew and ones that were completely new to us. It was relaxing and soon Jun was joining in and going back into a sulking mood. When we reached the lake, Jun seemed to have forgotten all about her attempts at not speaking to us.

“I can’t walk in that. I only have one pair of shoes.” She crossed her arms and then pointed at us. “I never thought I would be jealous of hooves.”

I awkwardly picked up my legs and frowned. “I would trade you in a heartbeat. The ground is soft, though. Maybe you can just put your shoes in a bag so they don’t get wet.”

“What if I step on glass?” She said, sitting down to take off her shoes.

“I don’t think the Blight’d be tossin’ bottles out here but if yer foot gets cut, I’ll carry you back to camp.” Clint offered, stepping into the water.

He sank a bit into the water as I had not when I went wading into this lake. I took cautious steps but did not sink this time either. He must just be a different weight class than I. Jun put her shoes in her bag and joined us. She didn’t sink either, which made me feel better.

“The water is kinda cool. It feels good.” She said, kicking about.

“Don’t splash me, that is holy water and I might melt.” I said with a laugh, leading the way on.

Jun kicked water and drenched my back. I froze and turned around slowly, causing her to screech in terror. “Noo! Sorry! I didn’t mean it!”

Swiftly, I caught her and tackled her into the shin deep water. We were both soaked and laughing. “At least we know you aren’t a demon or wicked witch either.”

I helped her back up. We wrang out our clothes the best we could, laughing. The mood was lighter, but our clothes were not. I lead us on towards the blockage and our task for the day.

There was still no sign of Blight, thanks to the blessed water lake. The mess of vines, however, was still in place. Clint whistled at the sight of it.

“I thought kudzu was bad. Whole mess o’ vines here. It’s gonna take me a while.” He drew his sword from his bag.

For a few minutes, Jun and I watched as Clint hacked at the vines. It was slow going as it took him three to five swings to get through one of the thick vines and then he had to try to pull it out of the way. There wasn’t much we could do to help him, getting close to someone swinging a deadly weapon around wasn’t the brightest thing to do. Jun and I decided to check out the statue and hedge maze again.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as we walked through the canyon. It felt like something was going to jump out at get us at any moment. I walked quickly, Jun following behind in her miraculously dry shoes. I paused at the bend that came right before the pit that held the statue. I peeked around the corner and found that my caution was pointless. The pit was still in the same state, there were no Blight in sight.

“That’s so cool.” Jun said, looking at the statue before us. “There has to be something cool in the center of the maze. Like some badass weapon or spellbook.”

“I don’t want to go in it until the water is back.” I said as Jun started walking towards the maze.

“Why not? What if the water covers the maze and this is our only chance to get whatever it is.”

“What if we get cursed and that is all there is at the center of the maze?” I countered. We reached the maze and it was taller than it had appeared when we were farther away. The statue seemed far larger.

“We are still soaking wet with magic water, we can’t be cursed.” She said and stepped into the maze.

“Shit.”

I darted after her, hissing out her name and cursing more. Our tank was busy battling weeds and she runs into danger. I caught a glimpse of her as she darted around the corner. I followed and found myself always just out of reach. I called out her name only to hear her replying behind me. On and on, I chased after the glimpses of my golden scaled friend. I lost track of time as I wound around and around.

The maze was not this large and Jun was not this fast. I had been running as fast as I could to try and catch her, but she was always just turning the corner as I come along. I gave up and sat down, panting. I looked up at the sky to find it had changed. It was no longer the bright blue with small little clouds peacefully dancing by. It was kind of green, sickly looking.

“That’s it, Jun, I’m leaving the maze! You better come with.” I yelled.

There was no answer. Not a good sign.

I stood and, instead of turning around and going back the way I came, I decided to push through the bushes in the way that seemed like out of the maze. I forced my way through wall after wall until I came upon the feet of the statue.

It was standing on a short, storage looking building that had a golden door. Between the feet of the statue, on the roof of this shed, was a golden chest. I managed to pull myself up onto the roof and looked around. I couldn’t see past the hedges. I called out for Jun and received no answer.

With a sigh, I turned to the chest. Jun would have loved to be the one to open this, I knew, but I was curious and I did get here first. My loot goblin desires kicked in and I dug into this found cash. The chest popped open at my touch and in the bottom was a sizable amount of coin that I quickly shoved into my pouch and several items.

There was a rope made from some kind of red, smooth thread. It was somewhere between twenty and twenty five feet at my best estimate. I wrapped it around my waste to leave myself room in my little drawstring bag for the rest of the loot.

There was a stein that was ornately decorated with little dancing bears on top of colorful balls. It went into my bag without too much scrutiny. There was a wand carved and polished from some light colored wood. It looked much better than the twig Jun was using. That was an upgrade we would all be happy about. There was a ring, a pair of boots, and a bottle with a cork in it that held some green and bubbling liquid that had to be a potion of some kind. I stashed those items away. I left a handful of arrows, as they wouldn’t fit, and picked up a sword that had a crescent moon shaped crossguard made from some milky stone. It was heavy, but I was not going to leave it behind.

I hopped down from the building with ease and the chest disappeared. I now knew what way was out, which was every way from this point, but I didn’t know what was behind that door. I called out Jun’s name one more time and heard no response. It was time to go. I couldn’t stand being in the maze any longer, but first the door was calling to me.

My hand opened the door, trembling a little in both excitement and fear. The door creaked open and there were only stairs leading down. It took me a moment to realize what it was that I had just found. It was the way out! The way to the second floor. This was not what I expected and I couldn’t be happier. Now I just had to get back to my party mates.

Or did I? I could go to the next floor and then out the black tower to safety. They could manage on their own, after all. I was the weakest link. Did they really need me?

Those thoughts were a moment of weakness and self doubt, I knew. I contemplated them for longer than I should have, but decided that my party would not keep me on if I abandoned them. I closed the door and turned around to push through the bushes again.