“Brother!” Wünder warned, looking at the dog. Its height seemed to be about four feet. It looked gruesome, with dark eyes, dark-brown fur, and a menacing pair of jaws.

Brown turned back from his scurrying around, and noticed the dog. He brandished the rusty spade he had picked up earlier, and lifted the single buckler in the room. The dog growled at his action, before its tremor intensified, and it raced forward and pounced on Brown.

Brown held off, as the dog snapped its jaws against the shield. The beast snapped its jaws a few more times, before it swerved around the buckler, its eyes flashing with bloodthirst. Looking at the ferocity the animal displayed, Wünder understood that it would bite into his brother’s flesh if nothing was done. Surveying the room, he found a previously ignored knife lying on the table, and swiftly took it up, before rushing to assail the dog.

His strike never made it.

Right in front of him, the beast had morphed into a shaggy human.

“What the?” let out Brown.

“...” the person looked at him mutely. He was hunched over at the moment. Appearance-wise, the person was the same height as Brown. His hair was dark-brown, his face was heavily bearded and his eyes looked sharp and brown - a murky combination of green and brown, all dark.

“Fascinating! I was under the illusion that I was fighting a beast just now. What are you?”

The man looked at Brown suspiciously. He straightened his back, and gripped the edge of the shield; Brown tried to pull it away, but not before the man had crushed off the edge he was holding, such that a chunk was missing from the wooden buckler.

“You are not very talkative, are you?” Brown remarked, taking up a wooden sword from the corner of the room, and tried slashing the empty air with it, while keeping his distance from the shaggy person. “I asked you what you are.”

The man threw a punch at Brown, which Brown blocked with the shield. The shield cracked, splinters of it flying about the air. “Begone!”

Brown raised an eyebrow, still holding up his shield. “Begone? We came here to-” Brown caught another attack with the buckler, “-talk! A ghost sent us! A girl!”

This checked the person into place; he lowered his arms. “Well, first things first, I’m no illusion,” he held forward his right hand, which rippled alive with thick fur, “I’m a werewolf.”

Brown sighed. “I take it you are the inhabitant of this house.”

“Inhabitant?” The man laughed. “I guess you could say that. I’m Alexias Grandivor, another creature sealed in this Icarutian Maze, in the depths of Taitanus!”

“Icarutian Maze?” uttered Wünder. Brown looked at his brother with a puzzled face; he couldn’t help but catch the wonderment in Wünder’s eyes.

“Anything coming to mind, Wünder?”

Wünder shook his head.

“What business do you have with me, anyway? You say a ghost sent you?”

“Indeed, her name is Mideia,” Brown acceded, “we want to find a way to turn the statues of the people trapped in gold back to humans.”

“Whatever statues you mean?” asked Alexias bluntly.

“The statues which Oregon made. Mideia apprised me on that.”

“I dunno. I haven’t the faintest idea about what you are on about,” returned the werewolf, taking up the only chair in the house and sitting down.

“Well, I don’t know who I’m talking about either. I’ve been a miner here for five years, and I haven’t so much as seen the shadow of even someone like you.”

“That’s a given. I don’t get to be away from this place anyway.”

“The other miners never mentioned any rumors about this place either,” Brown had to look at him incredulously. “Alexias… how long have you been here?”

“I don’t remember.”

“I see. No wonder you know nothing,” Brown noted.

[“He doesn’t remember. Don’t tell me he’s an immortal?” pondered Wünder in astonishment.]

“Well? What are these statues you speak about?” asked Alexias in a gruff voice. He was quite perplexed by Brown, who hadn’t even batted an eye when considering his answer.

“They are statues made by a certain individual called Oregon. Apparently he was brought here some two hundred years ago or sometime thereabout. Moving on, on my way here, I found a statue which was the spitting image of a friend I know. A part was broken off from it, revealing flesh and bones,” Brown explained. “Also, Wünder, this person can’t be immortal just because he cannot remember how long he’s been here.”

“I guess,” Wünder mouthed.

“Perhaps this man called Oregon used a petrification spell,” Alexias offered, “that aside, tell me your name.”

“Oh, me? I’m Broward Loxias. I turn twenty-three years old next year.”

“I see, Broward. I didn’t ask for your age.”

“I just kinda mentioned it. By the way, it’s pronounced ‘Bravard’,” Brown continued nonetheless.

“I see where your nerve comes from now,” Alexias conferred, “you are talkative.”

“Perhaps by a bit too much. I got tricked grandly by that Reynolds back then, right Wünder?”

Wünder nodded while smiling wryly. “That was quite unfortunate, brother.”

Alexias slammed his hand on the table. “And then? What was it about the ghost? Is she somewhere close by?”

Brown and Wünder looked at each other in confusion.

“Well, of course, she’s not here. She can only move for a certain distance… probably,” Wünder said.

“Well, as luck would have it, I don’t believe in ghosts.”

“What a coincidence! I didn’t too,” Brown commented curtly.

“What? Are you angry?” Alexias directed towards Brown.

“Why, ain’t I allowed to be chirpy?”

Alexias sighed. “Well, that’s not a tone which I would exactly qualify as being chirpy, but yeah, fine.”

“Mideia is a ghost, and she needs our help. And we need your help too. We have our friends’ lives, and that of my little brother’s childhood friend to save. By answering to our query, you will be doing us a huge favor.”

The werewolf raised his bushy eyebrow. “Excuse me, but I’m not used to doing favors. I have something to protect here-”

“What? You won’t help us? Selfish bastard.”

“-But, at any rate, I’ll help- Wait, why did you insult me?”

“At any rate, there’s something that this Mr. Alexias wants to protect here, Wünder. What’s it about, Alexias? Besides, if you were going to help, why didn’t you say that first?”

“Well, I just kinda went along the flow.”

Brown crossed his arms, and smirked. “I’m sorry for having insulted you. It is in fact I, Bravard Loxias, who am a bastard.”

“You forgot the ‘selfish’ part.”

Brown looked aghast for a second. “Oh, that’s for certain.”

Alexias grabbed one of the two wooden mugs lying on the table, and headed for the leftmost cupboard facing his right. “So, you want my help for a petrification spell, huh?”

“Well, that’s about right. Though… Mideia also asked us to find people to help stop Oregon’s projects as well.”

Alexias opened the cupboard, and took out a water skin from it, pouring the substance it contained into his mug. “I’m sorry, but I won’t help beyond helping create the potion to revert to the pretrification spell. If you are fine with this, then let me list off the items you need to procure to allow me to make the potion.”

“Please do,” urged Wünder, his eyes shining brightly.

“Let’s see… What I want are water from the fountain of a certain fairy, blood from the person who’s caused the petrification spell, and red-blue berries from around this labyrinth. Let me add that I will not assist you with procurement of any of the given ingredients. Especially not for the fairy.” He took a swig at his mug, murmuring softly that it tasted good.

“I see you are on really bad terms with that fairy.”

“You said red-blues berries? You mean the ones growing from the vines with pine-shaped leaves?” asked Wünder.

“That’s quite a few things I don’t know any details about. Where’s the fountain, and should I be wary of the fairy? I presume Midas’s blood will do, unless we end up targeting this Oregon. I don’t know where to find either of them too,” mused Brown, giving Wünder a perplexed look.

Alexias pondered over his words for a while, before grinning, almost like a wolf would if it could and said. “I sincerely pity you for your hardships. Oregon and Midas aside, you’ll find the fairy if you head up north past this house, and turn to the right at the third fork of the path, and then climb a certain hillock. It’s pretty steep though, so be careful.”

“Your pity has certainly been received with sincere intents,” smiled Brown, all sardonic. “I trust we should be able to catch either one of Midas or Oregon and drain him of his blood.”

Alexias laughed. “You speak like a vampire.”

“A vampire? What’s that?” asked Brown, a soft curve in his mouth indicating good humor, though his eyes were dark and serious.

“Creatures who suck your blood,” said Alexias, studying Brown’s face attentively.

Without betraying any fear on his face, Brown said. “Oh, creatures of your kind? I have a feeling that I will hit it off well if I meet one.”

“Not of my kind-”

“Basically something like huge mosquitoes?” quipped in Wünder, stifling a yawn.

Remarking not a trace of reaction from the boy either, Alexias frowned. “Coming back on topic, what you said about the red-blue berries, what you said about them growing from vines with pine-shaped leaves - that is indeed true.”

“Convoluted.”

“Long.”

Wünder and Brown commented on Alexias’s speech and then Wünder said. “I want to go to fetch those purple berries. Is that alright with you, brother?”

“Yeah, that’s perfectly fine by me.”

“I give you my blessings. You will definitely need them,” said Alexias.

Brown looked at him sharply. “Why?”

“Oh, for no particular reason,” said Alexias. Wünder got out of the house, closed the door, and his fading, hastening steps followed. “Well now, the climb up that particular hillock is gonna be arduous and… dangerous. In fact, it was a good joke I think, but what you’ll be climbing is in fact a cliff.”

“Bring it on, little pup, I have plenty of experience under my belt.”

Alexias’s eyes seethed and burned. “You are pretty insolent, human.”

***

Duff felt enraged by the scene unfolding in front of him.

Elysia was being pushed towards a furnace, and a bullying giant was trifling her emotions. His head ached with his anger, and his body trembled as did his eyes sear and glare without budging from the figure of Oregon.

He knew he had to do something; he knew that his courage was being tested. If he did nothing right now he would certainly regret it. And out of the corner of his eyes, Duff spied a golden statue - it spurred him to action.

Sticking his arms out of the gaps between the stone bars, he tried moving the golden statue. It would not budge at first, so he stuck his left foot into the stone bars, and lifted the other one from the ground, hanging upon the statue with his arms. The statue moved and took its place again. Duff started oscillating his body, feeling the statue move with rising frequency, until it came to a tangent where it could not sustain a straight position.

Duff brought his arms back in, using his other foot as a support to remove his left one, and rolled back towards the inside of the cave. It was a miraculous stunt, for the statue came crashing upon the stone bars, swerving to the side and destroying quite a few of the bars.

Looking at the jagged exit he had made, Duff moved his limbs and came creeping out of his cell. He was holding part of one of the stone bars in his left hand. Elysia looked at him with a mixture of relief and worry. Duff huffed and puffed and looked at Oregon with animosity and a victorious gleam in his eyes.

“I’m so famished I could eat you whole, you vile piece of murdering flesh,” Duff exhorted, his voice growing raucous. And he walked towards the giant defiantly.

Oregon seemed to find it amusing, for he raised a hand to prevent the statues under his control from acting, and Duff gave a solid hit to Bot’s jaw when the latter tried to approach him.

“Well, well, what are you going to do, little maggot?”

“Mr. Giant, there’s a black maggot on your shoulder. It’s disgusting. Let’s get away Elysia,” said Duff fastidiously and almost as a matter of fact.

Elysia looked at Duff with perplexed eyes, but the latter had already reached Elysia, and grabbed her hand. He ran behind Oregon, as the latter started towards them, but then had to turn his humongous body. Duff used the pointed side of his stone slab to make a gash on the Achilles’ heel of Oregon.

“Such a petty trick, you miserable fools!” thundered Oregon. “After them!” he ordered, limping with his foot for a while, waiting for the injury to heal - which it did without dozens of seconds.

The statues did as ordered, and Duff retracted his path, going back when the statues were in the middle of the room. “Let’s split up and meet back at the exit. We are definitely getting out of here!” conferred Duff, releasing Elysia’s hand.

Duff winced a bit while he kept running, feeling the pain when his head had hit the surface from when he had rolled to the ground after destabilizing the golden statue. He had to adjust his own balance, coming close to getting caught by one of the statues, but he swerved his body away in time, and reached the exit, moving a few steps out, before turning upon himself and waving at Elysia.

The latter looked at his frantic face and gave him a tiny smile, but Duff, hardly smiled, only waving at her, and once she had joined him, he took her hand anew, and they were racing through the cave.

Duff noticed tears falling from Elysia’s face, but paid no mind to it, only gripping her palm harder, and running on and on, hearing the statues close behind them. They went across the shrieking lizardmen as these set up a cacophony in their prisons, and eventually, they reached the entrance leading to the ‘sphere’.

Elysia pointed out the way from there, and they kept running. They came across miners, but went by too quickly to take note of the latter’s reactions.At times they were greeted by complete darkness, at times one of them stumbled, but they kept on running.

And they did so for close to ten minutes, until they came upon a group of people covered in armor.