บท 52: Quick Thinking
"Why don't we just burn the place down?" Earl said in an urgent whisper, for fear of the beasts hearing him.
"We'd be trapped in here with the smoke," Morne said back in a hushed tone, shooting the idea down. "We might as well just toss ourselves at the feet of whatever those things are."
"He's right," Geleb whispered. "Look, the temple has already sealed us in here. We'd turn this place into more of a death trap than it already is."
Earl cursed when he saw that Geleb's words were true. The way they had come in was now a solid wall of stone, just as had happened to them in the Trial of Dirt.
"If we hadn't lost our rope, we could've used that to mark our path," Geleb lamented. "And if my pen was still in one piece, I could've used my journal."
"Could we cut our way through?" Morne asked him. He hadn't brought a knife, but maybe Geleb had one in one of his many pouches.
"It's worth a try," Geleb shrugged, pulling a knife out and grabbing a handful of the grassy wall.
It didn't feel like grass at all. It was as stiff and rigid as a tree, and each stalk was as thick as a sapling. This detail was harder to notice until now, as the hundreds of plants bunched together in each spot of the wall made it all kind of blend together in their vision.
He pressed the blade of his knife against it horizontally and jerked it sideways, trying again after the first attempt yielded no results.
Four more tries later, he released the wall with a sigh. "It's too strong."
A roar shook the walls, so close as to be right on top of them, and down one of the several paths, they saw the grassy walls of the maze start to rustle.
"We should go," Morne said lowly.
The three took off in the opposite direction of the roar's origin, following Geleb's lead as he took paths at random, which only served to make them lost.
"Do you even know where we're going?" Earl asked in a huff when they slowed to a brisk walking pace. By now they were safe, he reasoned, so he could afford to speak at his normal volume.
"Does it matter?" Morne replied quietly. Unlike Earl, he didn't think they were out of the woods just yet. "Right now, we need to create as much distance between ourselves and that thing as possible."
"Well, excuse me for being wary about getting lost in a literal labyrinth."
"Both of you, be quiet," Geleb hissed. "That thing found us through all this foliage. It's too early to say if it did that with its hearing or its sense of smell, or something else entirely, so we need to prepare for what we can.
"That means shut up, and try not to stink. Especially you, Earl."
Earl's rebuttal died in his mouth, and he pursed his lips, sending a glare at Morne, who was too busy listening for the beasts to notice.
Geleb took out a vial filled with a bluish-green poultice and pulled the cork off slowly so as to prevent it from making a sound.
The vial released a strong, earthly smell reminiscent of medicinal herbs once the cork came free, and Geleb flicked the vial, sending the contents spraying against a startled Earl.
Morne was surprised to recognize the concoction as Gent, something he had often seen back in his village.
Gent was made of easy-to-grow herbs and was often used in villages and small towns as a hemostatic agent. Such locations often lacked Mages capable of doing better, so Gent was as useful as it was cheap.
His surprise stemmed not from the fact that he had seen it, but rather who was in possession of it.
Gent was effective at stopping someone from bleeding out, but it didn't do anything to stitch the wound back together or replenish what was lost. As such, it was almost exclusively seen in the hands of the poorer denizens of Xryn, as the nobility had access to more powerful solutions.
"Don't wipe it off," Geleb chided when Earl tried to remove the poultice from his tunic and face. "Rub it onto your skin and clothes. With any luck, it'll help mask our scent."
"This is almost as bad as the mud," groaned Earl, but he did as he was told.
Morne was soon given the same treatment, and he started rubbing the poultice in without a word.
Geleb covered himself last, dropping the three empty vials onto the ground. The lush grass underfoot cushioned their fall and prevented them from shattering, as the noble had expected. Their footsteps were muffled for this same reason.
Geleb's quick thinking was impressive.
His reasoning was simple. If the beasts were searching for a trio of humans, wouldn't they disregard three beings that smelled like any other plant? With any luck, the monsters would think them another part of the maze.
With this, their smell should be covered, and all they would have to worry about is not making a sound.
Earl's mouth opened, ready with a snarky comment, but he was silenced by a finger to Geleb's lips.
The noble gestured to one of the paths, and they headed down it, quieter than a mouse. They didn't run, partly to save stamina, partly so they could keep their breathing even and quiet, and partly so they could focus on their surroundings.
Geleb tried his best to remember their route, though the lack of landmarks meant he had to rely solely on memorizing every turn they took and the length of each wall, which was easier said than done.
But so focused on what was ahead was he that wasn't paying attention to the floor below, something that would prove to be a dangerous mistake.
With no warning, one of the unassuming blades of grass along the ground shot up and wrapped around his ankle. He released a shout of surprise as the grass blade rocketed upwards, taking him with it. Soon, he was hanging upside-down by his ankle from a stalk of grass as thick as those in the walls.
.......
A sound filled the ears of the Trial's guardians, and even spread out as they were, their heads snapped in that direction in unison. Three tongues made of pink flower petals snaked out and licked three upper lips, and brown saliva-sap dribbled down their mouths.
As one, they exploded into motion, releasing jubilant roars as they zeroed in on their quarry.
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