~Chapter 3- The Maze~

As the children jogged, the stone forming the gulch's walls seemed to scrape and grind against each other, forming terrified faces which would disappear as quickly as they appeared. Through gnashing stone, voices seemed to come from the walls.

"Leave."

"Get out."

"Go back."

The walls whispered. Jirro and the others did their best to ignore them, but this only served to terrify Nout even more. The voices intensified as they traveled.

Temp must've noticed Nout's deteriorating mental state as he said, "It's just trying to scare us. There's nothing to be afraid of."

As if to defy Temp, a single stone torpedoed out of the gulch's wall and struck Temp in the side of the head. He winced and yelped, and Corri actually chuckled a little bit.

"What're you laughing at?" Temp addressed Corri.

Corri simply smirked and said, "Nothin'."

Aero stopped in place and stared at the gulch's walls. He said with a smile, "Why don't you try that again!?"

"Aero! Don't do that!" Nout pleaded.

Another stone shot out of the gulch's walls, but Aero caught it in his hand and crushed it. He smiled, "Nothing to worry about."

The entire gulch rumbled again, and a flurry of stones torpedoed out of the walls at the kids. They jogged ever faster, doing their best to avoid the projectiles. Aero and Jirro were able to dodge each one, but the others weren't so lucky.

Though the stones certainly hurt when they struck, they didn't do any serious damage to the powerful youths. Soon, the flurry of rocks ended, and the kids slowed their steps.

Nout shouted at Aero, "Why did you have to do that!?"

"I just wanted to see what it was capable of," Aero replied, "If that's the best it can do, we'll be fine."

At Aero's remark, the gulch rumbled again. Suddenly, rock walls shot out of the ground. One appeared between Jirro and Nout, separating the two.

The ground beneath him seemed to shift, and Jirro moved involuntarily along the ground, further away from the others. More stone walls shot up around Jirro until he couldn't see any of the others. He looked up and saw a thick fog filling the air above him.

The gulch became quiet, and Jirro was surrounded by rock walls that created perfectly straight passageways. The walls were about 3 meters in height, high enough that Jirro couldn't see over them.

"Nout? Aero? Corri?" Jirro called out. There was no response. He walked down the straight passageway, "Ruben? Temp?"

Again, no response. Jirro walked through the passage before coming to a four-way intersection. Still no sign of anyone. Rather than walk further, Jirro jumped, grabbed onto the top of one of the walls with ease, and pulled himself on top of it. From there, he saw a stone maze had formed around him, with a thick mist making it impossible to see very far ahead of him. There was no sign of Corri's bird Rojo either.

Jirro traipsed atop of the walls, hoping one of the others might see him. He shouted, "Anyone!?"

At first, there was no response. Then he heard a low growl from nearby. Jirro jumped from atop the walls until he found the source. Temp's hyena Kelvin.

"Hey, big guy. How're you doing?" Jirro hopped down near the canine, and it began to bark fiercely. The beast stood at shoulder height. Jirro put his hands up in mock surrender, "I'm a friend! I'm a friend!"

Kelvin's barks turned to a growl which slowly lessened. Jirro carefully approached the hyena with his hand forward. Kelvin sniffed him and licked his hand. Jirro grimaced a little bit at the lick and rubbed his hand on his pants leg.

"See, we're friends," Jirro said, "Let's find the others."

Nout walked through the stone maze alone, terrified. He cursed himself for listening to the others.

The others aren't afraid of anything. Of course I shouldn't have listened to them!

Nout walked cautiously through the maze, ready for anything that might come. Whenever he came to a fork in the path, he aimlessly chose one to walk down, praying that if he kept going long enough, he would escape.

He turned a corner and saw a boulder-like figure with arms and legs down the path, partially obscured in fog with its back turned to him.

"Ruben!" Nout exclaimed, "Am I glad to find you!"

Ruben said nothing. Nout approached but grew nervous at his friend's silence.

"Ruben?"

Nout took another step, and suddenly, Ruben sunk into the earth. Nout scurried to the ground where the boulder child stood, but there was no trace of them.

The earth rumbled, and a giant stone figure erupted from the ground in front of Nout. Its body was merged with the ground, and its hulking arms reached out for Nout. When he backed away, the figure seemed to slide along the earth. Nout fell back paralyzed by fear.

"Nout!" A voice called from behind him. It was Ruben's voice. The young Densius launched itself into the air like a cannonball and smashed its boulder-like body against the giant. Upon impact, the stone giant crumbled into pieces of rubble.

Ruben stood and extended its stone hand to Nout, "Are you okay?"

Nout hesitantly took Ruben's hand, still shaken by the encounter. "Whatever made this maze made a statue that looked like you. Like it was trying to impersonate you."

"I knew we should've turned back!" Ruben said.

"Jirro and the others are too brave for their own good..." Nout added.

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Jirro and Kelvin meandered through the stone maze. Jirro wanted to head east, back the way they came, but he could no longer tell which way that was. There was no way of knowing if they were nearing a way out with the fog plaguing his sight.

At the very least, he hoped to find one of the others. If they all grouped up, he was sure they could find a way to escape. He continuously called out through the maze, hoping someone might hear him and reply.

"Jirro...." A voice sounded throughout the maze, making both he and Kelvin flinch. It sounded like a woman's voice. But it couldn't have been Corri; it sounded far too mature.

Jirro followed the voice through the maze until it came again.

"Jirro..."

This time, Jirro couldn't help but find the voice familiar. Kelvin growled. "Easy dog." Jirro said in a hushed tone.

Jirro continued through the maze, turned a corner, and saw a figure obscured in fog standing a short distance away. It looked like a woman in a dress with curly hair, one hand behind her and the other extended gently outwards.

It was a stone statue, another trick of the gulch. Jirro circled the statue... then his heart skipped a beat.

"Mom?" Jirro muttered. The stone figure appeared to be a perfect representation of his mother. It even perfectly showed her blonde curly hair. Only one detail was missing. The eyes. Where they should've been, there were only shallow holes.

While Kelvin was too anxious to get closer, Jirro couldn't help but take a closer look. As he did, the resemblance to his mother was even more uncanny. Was that her voice that called his name?

One of the statue's hands was extended outwards as if asking for him to take it. Jirro reached out for the statue.

"Don't touch it!" A voice behind him called out. Nout? A green burst of light came from behind him. Nout's Focus Burst struck the statue, destroying it in a single blow. It crumbled to dust near Jirro's feet.

Jirro felt himself seize up, and he fell to his knees, simply staring at the shattered visage of his mother. He ran his hands through the dust, and he felt his throat dry up. It was like he lost her all over again.

Nout, Ruben, and Kelvin approached Jirro from behind.

"That was close!" Nout said unevenly, "The statue almost got you. One of them almost got the jump on me earlier by pretending to look like Ruben."

Jirro said nothing. He couldn't even look at Nout.

Ruben placed a hand on his shoulder, "Jirro? Are you okay?"

Jirro swallowed hard and stood, "I'm fine. Let's find a way out of here."

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~Chapter 4- The Maze's onslaught~

Temp cautiously walked through the maze on his own for what felt like an eternity. He'd been counting on the strength of Aero and Jirro to get them through the gulch, and with them gone, he no longer felt safe. Temp was certainly strong, but he didn't possess the same raw power that those boys had.

He grew impatient and began to jog through the maze. He didn't care how - he just wanted out.

He turned a corner at a three-way intersection, and two individuals stood in front. Both he and the individuals let out a shriek. Temp suddenly felt a thud to his nose and staggered back.

"Ow!" Temp looked up and saw Aero and Corri. The red-haired girl had her hands balled up into fists but was stepping away after the strike she delivered. A guilty look crossed her face.

"Why did you punch me, Corri!?" Temp shouted.

"Why were you running around all suspicious like that, Temp!?" Corri snapped back at him.

Temp glanced at Aero and nodded to himself. He was glad he found the strongest of the kids.

Temp tried to ignore the pain of the punch Corri gave him and asked, "Any luck finding a way out of this place?"

"No, but we did find something out..." Aero replied.

"What?"

"The maze is changing." Corri said, "We backtracked at one point, and Aero even broke down a wall to see if that helped, but when we went back, it had been repaired, and the path was different."

Temp grimaced, "What about your bird? Have you tried calling him?"

Corri looked to the sky and nodded, "Yeah, but Rojo won't come for some reason."

"Have you been attacked at all?" Aero asked.

"Attacked?"

"We keep getting attacked by more of those rock statues." Corri explained.

Temp stepped back slightly and said, "Nothin like that has happened to me."

Temp looked down the path that none of them had gone down. "We should just find the others.

As he walked, he felt the ground beneath him disappear. He looked down and saw a trench filled with jagged rocks beneath, and he began to fall. But before he could fall into them, Aero grabbed him from behind and pulled him to safety.

Temp let out a sigh of relief, "That was close!"

A trench had appeared in front of them, about three meters deep and seven meters long, with cascading and sharpened rocks at the bottom.

Aero looked down into it and said, "They don't want us to go that way for some reason..."

"I don't think I do either, Aero."

Aero smiled, stepped back, and sprinted towards the spike filled trench before jumping into the air. In a single bound, he cleared it and landed on the other side. He smiled and looked back, "Can you two make it?"

Temp shook his head frantically, "Of course not! I'm not chancing that!"

Corri was quiet, however. She nodded to herself before pointing to the walls to the sides of the trench. She jumped, grabbed onto the walls, and pulled herself up.

"Come on!"

Temp shrugged and followed, and the two avoided the trench altogether while keeping their balance so they wouldn't fall.

They continued down the path beyond the trench until they came to a dead end. Aero tilted his head, "I could just break through it."

A stone wall emerged from the ground behind them, blocking their path back. The wall in front of them began to slide across the ground towards them. Aero held his hands up and stopped one of the walls while Temp and Corri held the other.

Corri gritted her teeth, "It's trying to crush us!"

Corri and Temp began to skid across the ground as the stone wall pushed them back, but Aero managed to hold his ground. With a roar, the black-haired boy pushed the wall back and beat both fists against it, shattering the wall. Behind it was a long path leading to an apparent exit to the maze.

Aero turned and launched himself into the wall knee first, shattering it as well. "Let's go!"

The three sprinted down the path towards the exit. The walls on each side began to torpedo out jagged stones at the youths. One of them struck Aero in the side but crumbled at the impact. He barely noticed it struck him. When they struck Temp and Corri, they winced in pain, but it only pushed them to move faster.

They sped down the corridor until they left the maze, coming out in a fog-filled open area. Temp looked around; he couldn't see beyond the fog around them. Corri looked to the sky and whistled loudly. She waited, but her bird did not come.

Small stone slabs were visible on the ground around them. Temp approached them and noticed names carved out onto each one. He looked ahead and saw there were dozens of them.

There were three tombstones with deep holes in front of them. Names were etched onto each of them.

Temp. Corey. Arrow.

Temp had been growing more anxious, and this sight startled Corri as well. Aero looked at the tombstones with a dismissive look. "They spelled my name wrong. They spelled your name wrong too, Corri."

"Is this a graveyard?" Temp asked.

A voice boomed through the area and spoke to them. An unidentifiable one without gender.

"I gave you all a chance."

Temp, Aero, and Corri backed up against each other, searching for the source of the voice.

"You could've run."

The voice changed to perfectly resemble Temp's voice, "Don't let that story spook you. That innkeeper was just trying to scare us. We'll be fine."

Aero's voice echoed from the mountains next, "Nothing to be afraid of."

The voice changed back to its unidentifiable state and said, "You could've left me be."

"But now, you'll die."

Towers of stone spiraled out of the ground around them. They burst apart into splinters of stone towards the kids. Temp felt a few lodge into his shoulder. He and Corri ran to avoid the attack.

Aero charged at one of the stone towers. His hand glowed red and he chopped through the base of it. It fell onto the many graves scattered around them.

More winding stone pillars erupted from the earth, circling through the air around Temp and Corri to ensnare them. Corri was able to jump out of it, but the winding stone managed to grab Temp like a snake. It began to tighten around him. Before it could crush him, Aero bounded through the air and shattered the stone so he could escape.

More pillars of stone erupted from the ground, some bursting apart into shards of rock, others being launched at the three youths. Corri and Temp did everything they could to simply stay alive, but Aero tried to fight the ever-changing landscape. But even he had his limits.