rip, and she with care she unpeeled it. "So it is just paper," she thought.
"What're you doin' there?" Brendon asked.
"Hopefully figuring a way out of here," she said as she smoothed out the paper. "Um, could you step back a second?" she asked.
He looked confused but walked back to the doors and examined them more closely.
She had no ink to write with, so she stuck her finger in her mouth and used her own saliva to write out some kanji for a guidance spell. She wasn't sure it would even work with using the materials of the world she was trapped in, but she figured it wouldn't hurt to try. She put the paper in her pocket and then looked more closely at the doors. The door to the right now glowed slightly, but the one on the left looked darker. She guessed there was something she needed to do with the door on the left. She opened it and saw nothing but a stone passage like the rest of the maze.
"I told you that will just lead back here," he said.
"I'm not going that way," she said, and opened the door on the right. It also opened to a stone passage. The left door was no longer dark, so she headed down the passage on the right.
"It won't work," he said, but followed her anyway. They walked along the featureless passage for ten minutes or so when Brendon spoke up and said, "What did you do? I'm sure I ended right back in front of those doors by now."
"I just left the other door open. It must have broken the spell or been the key to the puzzle or whatever is going on," she answered.
"Oh."
"How long have you been in here anyway?" she asked.
"I, um, really don't know. I'm tryin' not to think about it. I think I might start to get real worried if I did, you know?"
She sort of nodded. "How did you get here?"
"Um, it's stupid."
"I got here through a magical book," she volunteered, watching for his reaction.
He stopped walking. "So, yeah, alright, that's what happened to me too."
She wasn't sure he was telling the truth, but he quickly caught up to her. "I hear something," she said quietly.
They slowed down to a careful and silent walk to find the passage had again opened up into a larger space. They saw a rocky human-shaped creature that was about nine-feet tall struggling with a pile of rocks. Isabella categorized it as a troll in her mind, and the most extraordinary feature of it was the longsword sticking into its chest and out the other side. The troll moved some rocks around and tried to lay on the pile, but it was clear the sword was interfering with it getting comfortable. There were a few doors out of the open space, but no way to reach them without attracting the attention of the troll.
"What the hell is that thing?" Brendon said. Then he blushed. "Um, sorry. I don't talk like that around ladies."
The troll didn't look any different to her than the rest of the maze. "A troll, I think. And I think we'll have to talk to it."
"Are you crazy?"
"Maybe. Do you want out?"
"Well, yeah, sure, but it's a monster or somethin'!"
She deliberately stepped into the open.
"Whut do you want?" the troll demanded immediately in a gruff voice.
"Just to get past you."
"You don't get past until you pay the toll."
"I don't have any money."
"Oh, too bad," it said. It started to shift the rocks for what was apparently its bed again.
"Why do you have a sword in your chest?" she asked.
"'Cause I got stabbed, stupid human."
"Okay, why haven't you pulled it out?"
"Can't. Stuck. Cursed maybe."
The sword didn't seem cursed as far as she could tell with spirit sight, but she wasn't going to argue with the troll.
"Um, can I look around?"
"Sure, and the other one whose hidin' can too, but don't you lay a paw on the doorknobs or I'll get mad," the troll said.
"I'm not hidin'," Brendon said disdainfully.
Besides the large rocks that made up the troll's bed, there were several smaller rocks and oddly two more longswords, although there was no sign of their wielder, not even bones. A close examination of the rocks confirmed they were probably made of paper, but she wasn't going to get close enough to the troll to find out. She considered the situation and noticed the troll seemed to want to lay on its back and that it was having trouble moving the largest rocks that made up its bed. She looked at the two swords and a thought came to her.
"How about we help you get more comfortable and take that instead of a toll?"
It laughed, which sounded like an avalanche. "Sure, sure, do yer best."
"Brendon, grab a sword," she ordered.
"I can't use one of these," he said, alarmed.
"Not as a weapon, as a lever."
"Oh. I'm, um, confused," he said, but picked up the sword. He suddenly looked very familiar to her, but then the moment passed.
She took the swords and jammed them as best she could between the two largest rocks. "Okay, now push," she said, and leaned with all her weight on one. Brendon leaned with all his weight on the other. "If we can just separate them, you'll be able to lay down with that stuck sword between the rocks," she said, groaning with effort.
"Oh, I see," the troll said, and waved both of them away. It used the swords as levers and pushed the rocks apart by a few inches. It then laid down on the bed, carefully slotting the sword in the space. "Oh, that's much better. You get out of here and I'll get some sleep," it said.
Isabella activated the guidance spell again and led Brendon through a door that was glowing to her. After several twists and turns she opened a door that abruptly opened into a room.
A creature that looked approximately like a human man, but with four arms and slightly taller than usual, wearing leather clothes, was sitting in the middle of the room with his head on his knees. He jerked up as soon as he heard the door open and grabbed a sword in each of his hands.
"Whoa, whoa," Isabella said, putting her hands up. "We just want to get by. That's all."
His skin was dark green as was his hair. Again, he wasn't obviously paper, but neither was the maze, and again she wasn't going to get close enough to find out. He also didn't look any different her spirit sight, which only made her more suspicious of Brendon. The strange man lowered the swords. "I apologize. I have fought a battle and I was resting." He sheathed all the swords. "I am well enough to continue."
Isabella looked around and saw that the area had dirt and small rocks which might have been signs of a battle but no bodies. However, in this strange world, she merely made a mental note. She consulted the guidance spell and headed towards a passage.
"Ah, that is the direction I am going," the four-armed man said.
Brendon gave him a suspicious look and stuck close to Isabella.
"Do you know the way out?" she asked.
He shook his head. "I never get too far before I find myself in battle again," he sighed. "Any direction is as good as any other, or as bad as any other."
"Um, okay, well, we should go," she said.
"I'll go first," the four-armed man said.
He led them down the passage. As far as Isabella could tell, he was exhausted. Brendon looked torn between staying close to Isabella and keeping away from the strange man. The passage eventually opened up into another, larger area.
"You!" the four-armed man shouted.
He was shouting at a person all dressed in black and holding a longsword with its tip just sitting on the ground. At the shout, the mysterious person raised the sword. The four-armed man ran forward with his swords and they engaged in combat.
"Um, do we do anything?" Brendon asked. "I don't know what."
Isabella consulted her spell. "We have no way to stop them from fighting, so let's just get past them without getting killed. This way," she said, and darted into the space and through a door.
"Hey!" Brendon shouted, and darted after her.
They co
uld hear the swords clanking behind them.
"What do you think that was about?" he asked.
"I don't know. I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in getting out."
"You're not curious at all about this strange place?"
"Curiosity is a luxury of safety," she replied.
He seemed quite taken aback, which she noticed, but wasn't sure why. The passage abruptly opened up to reveal a wide, straight channel of water. There were doors in the wall on the other side, but as far as she could see in the mist the water extended to her left and right. The channel was far too wide to jump across and there was no boat or bridge. She took a few steps forward to look behind her at the wall and saw six longswords hung up on the wall with their tips facing down.
"Huh," Brendon said. "Do you think we went the wrong way?"
"I don't think so. I mean, there could be another way around. But I don't know. I can't see with the mist but I get the impression this water may cut all the way across," she said, frowning at the swords.
"Great. So what do we do?"
Isabella sat down on the ground and started to unfold some small rocks into paper as she had done at the beginning of the maze.
"This, um, won't get us anywhere," Brendon said, but he sat down near here. "I think I should be hungry, but I'm not."
"How did you get here?" she asked, seemingly intent on her task.
"I found a banged-up old book and opened it. I ended up standing on a hill and looking at the maze. I think I stood there a long time. But there didn't seem to be anywhere else to go, so I went inside. I've met some of those green-skinned people, but they acted like I wasn't even there. I ran away from some monsters, and then I ended up at the doors over and over and over