Without her realizing it, her feet is already on its way towards that beautiful maze.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Ania's footsteps stopped . The figure behind her walked towards her. The heavy trod of the two feet created a loud crisp caused by the dry leaves being stepped upon.
"Things may be nice to look at and may trigger you to move towards it because of its enchanting nature, but it doesn't mean that you are allowed to. Sometimes, you just have to be contented."
It was an old man with a simple, loose-fitting, dirty old clothes made from woollen cloth. He is holding a small bag in his left arm. He patted the left shoulder of Ania with his right hand and sat comfortably in a grassy area of the ground.
"Hmm, first time to see you here lass. You're new here?"
The man looked at her as he plucked a dried grass and put it in his mouth.
Ania gave him a nod despite of his appearance.
"No wonder... never saw you here."
The man leaned on the tree and closed his eyes leaving Ania to look at him. Ania looked at this man as if he was crazy. He was lying there for a very long time while the sun shined into his eyes . The sun passes through the open part of the leaves that serves as the shade and went into his brown skin.
"Grandpa, what do you mean about that?"
"Shhh!"
The old man put his index finger into his lips, indicating for Ania to shut her mouth.
"Listen..."
The sound of the winds in the tree and the birds chirp is the only thing this she can hear. But not long after, a terrible shrieking sound followed. Even in great distance, she can still hear the high-pitched piercing cry of an Arabis. Arabis is an bird demon whose hands are of a bird.
Unlike the Geraki whose whole body is of a bird, Arabis can be identified by the wings of a bird hands. It has a well toned dark body and a sharp fangs in its mouth.
The Arabis tried to fly away from the maze but the thick vines of thorns wrapped around its body, scratching its skin. The flesh of it is now visible as the vines wrapped itself tightly around the Arabis as it tried to flew. The vines keep on pulling it back to the maze.
Out of desperation, the Arabis showed its hidden sharp nails inside its wings. This wings may look like a wings of a bird but the structure of bones inside it is similar to a bat. The moment it feels like it doesn't have any choice and its life is in grave danger, the bones of the Arabis will reform and break its bones to become a nails. This nails is very lethal. One scratch of it and can cause you to die in a minute.
Together with its shriek, the Arabis tried to cut the vine of thorns with its poisonous and sharp nails. But of its brassy movement, the vines become more disturbed and wilder. The vines become more thicker that even the entrance of the maze is filled with the thick vines.
This vines contain poison and because of the poison in the Arabis's nails, it becomes more toxic. With the thorns scratching its skin, the poison penetrate into its flesh to the inside of the body. And with the last shriek of it, the vines pulled it and swallowed inside the maze. The vines then slowly disappear as if that scene didn't happened, returning to its beauty and enchanting maze.
The surrounding turned silence as Ania's vision still in the area where the Arabis was swallowed.
"Good! See that you have more experience that the thought I had. You scared not."
Ania looked at the man who is still sitting there calmly is as if that scenario is normal.
"Grandpa, who are you."
Ania looked at the old man. The man who has a narrowed eyes, looked back at her.
"This old man is not simple," Ania thought as she looked at the man in the eyes.
This place where that scene happened a lot means that this old man knows something about this place. If you are just new here and will encounter that scene , you will immediately fled out from this place. But not only this old man didn't run, but decided to stay and sat here calmly as if that scene didn't affect him.
"Bahaha! Sharp lass you are. I am a keeper here, cleaning this place is my job."
Soon, a bone of the Arabis was spitted out from the maze. The old man stood up and opened his bag to pick up the cleaning materials and started cleaning.
"A lot of demon always tries to enter that maze, but always failed to make it out. Some also tried to enter through that entrance but never return. So lass, I would not go there if I were you."
Ania once again looked at the maze. A lot of demons wanted to enter that place despite of the consequence, but why? Is it because of the enchanting beauty of that? What did they saw?
Ania already saw what happened to the demon that entered the maze and she knew that entering that place is not a good idea, but something inside her is telling her to enter it. It was like a pull that's pushing her to enter.
"Grandpa, I will enter..."
Ania suddenly said while her eyes still locked into the entrance. Her eyes show no hesitation and the words she said show no pause.
The old man looked at her carefully and then smiled. Ania was right, this old man is not simple. Despite of him being a human, he has a power. He can see death around you. The moment he saw this girl, for the first time, he didn't see death. It was a big and pure light that's in her. That light symbolizes her life.
But what made him curious is amidst that pure light is a small black dot. As if in that hundred percent rate of her life, a millimeter chance of her dying. Like a thread snaps in a piece of clothes...