They venture deeper into the ancient labyrinth. The more time they sent here, somehow their head becomes lighter. Perhaps because of the strange smell that shrouded the entire Labirynt?
It smelled strange and soothed the nerve.
Lanert always checked on Alice. Her nose was back to normal. But he didn't know for sure. "How's your flu, Alice?"
"Your pill works wonderfully, thanks." She sounded normal. Cheery cold, like always. "What time is it?"
"I am not sure."
They lost time here. Darkness claimed them. It felt like an eternity. Yet, they kept moving and never gave up hope.
The wall moved and gave a new path to venture. Lanert and Alice drifted on every new way they came across without guidance.
It was not good. The wall movements were too random. They must miss something. A key, perhaps? Or something that would guide them, but what?
For every thousand steps they made, Lanert stopped for a while. He used Magi and mapped his surrounding area. Every time he did that, the path changed dramatically.
How, how could they get out of here?
"This is absurd." Lanert shrieked and returned to his feet. "This wall was absurd."
"Has the path already changed? It seemed random."
"It is. It is!" Lanert punched the wall many times. His skin peeled off. It was scratched and bloodied. He never felt frustrated before.
"Lanert, stop it. We can't afford to be injured." Alice pulled him back. "Come, be a reason!"
While Lanert snapped, she would help him. When she was the one who lost her mind, Lanert always gave her a hand. They must work together and keep their sanity.
"Yes, yes, you're right." Lanert regained control of his rapid breath. "Thank you. Sorry, I—I almost snapped."
"It's okay. It's okay. Take a rest." Alice gave a water skin that dangled on her slender waist to Lanert. "Take a gulp. Here, refresh yourself."
The waterskin became feather-light. The dew inside was almost gone. He took a single sip. It was refreshing, but Alice needed it more than him.
Lanert gave the rest to Alice. "How many hours have we been here?"
"I don't know. A day, perhaps." She licked the water skin hole as the last drop of water touched her tongue.
Water terrorizes Lanert mind more than anything. Humans can survive without food for more than a week, but without water, they would die from dehydration in two or three days.
As a man, a leader, he must keep his spirits up for Alice's sake and himself. He must find water before they dehydrate.
He studied his surroundings. The mushroom glowed green in the darkness. The vines shrouded the ancient wall. There must be water somewhere. It must be. This place would be a lifeless drought without a splash of water. But where?
Lanert raised and clapped hard while blaring, "Scrutinize!" He slammed both palms against the ground.
The wave of gusts blew. It explored five kilometers of an area of effect. Lanert closed his eyes. His vision awakened, flying, hawking the gust.
He aimed for water. Long as he ventured into hawk eyes, he found nothing. Everything was the same wall, with vines, roots, and stupid green mushrooms.
Lanert slammed the floor again and again. Then, he noticed something.
In the dark, Lanert saw petals on the floor that glowed and soothed with blue. Perhaps that was a sign of something? He mapped it in his mind.
Lanert puffed. His vision returned from hawkened eyes.
"Any news?" Alice's enthusiast asked. "Found any water?"
"No, but rest assured, there must be water here. Come, Alice. Follow me."
He brought Alice to the palace of a blue petal. There was nothing. Instead, the wall behind them shut, and another wall gave a new path.
"Come, Alice." Lanert turned to the new path.
"What if we are trapped here for eternity?" Maybe she asked out of boredom. But, Lanert wants to avoid the word 'dead.'
"As long as I'm with you, Eternity sounds not bad," he answered. "How about you?"
"Hmm, when I first met you, I was already bound to you. So, eternity was… well, a must for me."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Nothing." Her stomach rumbled. "I regret not having dinner while I could."
Lanert chalked. "Someone wanted to keep her shape slim. Dinner was the enemy."
Alice blushed. "Haha. Perhaps if I was hungry, I could eat you, Lanert."
"Nah, I will eat you first."
"Eat each other's bodies, huh?" She joked. "Hmm. Imagine if we said that on different occasions. Gurken would say, Oh, Dawg! What do you and Damsel do?"
You two have sex?! That's what Gueken definitely would have said with a guffaw. No, no, no, Lanert stirring his head, hushed that mind away. "Perhaps he thinks we want to eat each other out for real."
Lanert anchored while the wall blocked his path. "Oh great. Alice, let's find another way." When he turned his head, Alice was gone. "Alice? Alice! Where—oh? What are you doing?"
She squatted and chopped something. Alice made a chewing noise. It becomes louder with every step Lanert makes.
"Alice? What are you doing?" He tapped her on the back.
Her red eyes glimmered joyfully, and her mouth bubbled like a hamster cheek filled with sunflower seeds. She innocently glances back.
"Hey, what are you doing? Spit it out, spit it out!" Lanert was deadly frightened. What if something terrible happened to Alice?
He shook the girl. The girl's body shook like a volcano would erupt. "Spit it out! Spit it out!"
"Stop it, Dummy, you chucked me. Lanert, stop." She started hissing like a snake, scaring Lanert off.
"What are you doing? What are you eating?!"
"A mushroom. Sroom, you want some." With an innocent look, she showed a glowing green mushroom that grew everywhere. "Come, try it."
"No! What if the mushroom is poisonous? What happens if something happens to you? Spit it out!"
"Chicken."
"I am not chickened out. Just—"
"It is tasty, sweet, and moise. It watered like dew and honey combined."
"Honey?"
"Yeah."
When Alice licks her slim finger, somehow, it hypnotizes Lanert. A dew flowed from the tip of her sweet lips.
Honey. It must be tastier.
"Lanert, try it." Her voice snapped him from a spell. "It's worth a try. If it was poisonous, then you die. You will die anyway from dehydration. You have nothing to lose, right."
"Make sense." He crossed his legs and sat beside Alice, against the wall, with a mushroom on his palm. This sroom glowed green and had a white dot on the head.
He had never seen this mushroom, even in the academy Library book. It must be an ancient mushroom or something.
"Come on, Lanert, eat like this." So casually, she bites the mushroom and fills her mouth. "Or, I will eat everything and let you with nothing."
Lanert ate it, and well, Alice was right. It was squishy, tasty, and sweet. It felt like eating a jelly honeycomb. It was watery, but strangely it filled his thirst and hunger.
"So, what is it? You love it, hmm?" Alice asked.
"Kind of. Give me more."
"Don't overeat. Watch your belly."
Lanert fills his belly with shroom. At the minute, he was full and hardly moved. Even for back-to-feet was almost impossible. But, he said, after resting for an hour, he would return to normal.
But not with Alice. She consumed enough mushrooms to make her alive for another day.
"Hmmm, see your belly. It inflated like a balloon." Her finger touched Lanert's abdomen while giggling.
"It tastes good." Now, Lanert would be at ease. He didn't worry about being hungry and thirsty anymore. He even blurbed. "Ah, sorry."
Lanert emptied his small box and made a hole in it with Acerose. He squished the mushroom for water that filled the animal skin he had. "Now, we have water. So, we didn't need to consume mushrooms when thirsty."
"Nice, Lanert. We can make sure not to overeat and make this belly again." She patted Lanert's belly.
Lanert gazed at another mushroom far from where he sat. He noticed a blue petal glowed blue.
Those petals would disappear if Lanert moved too close to them. The petals must have something to do with this maze.
After an hour, Lanert decides to come for petals with Alice. Sure enough, as soon they came, the petals disappeared.
"Weird."
"Hmm? What's wrong, Lanert? Your belly is still full?"
"Nah, it about that—"
The wall kept moving, but slowly Lanert noticed something. It randomly moves but with a timer. If he could count precisely, then he would predict the movement of an ancient wall.
"Lanert, watch out!"
He almost squished to death by moving the wall. Lucky for him, Alice pulled him back. Unfortunately, the orb had been crushed by the wall. Sure, they would easily create another orb, but for a sec, they were speechless.
It was supposed to be pitch dark, without an orb, but no. The mushroom brightened the way.
"Oh no! I left my box on the side of the wall!"
"Lanert, look. There is a petal on here."
Strange, the petal that glowed blue showed up again. It looked like the petal only shone if it was dark.