The Ranch

Fairytale Maze (9)

As twenty minutes pass, the food piles up, and drawers and cabinets are opened, tension only increase. The most dreadful fear is fear of the unknown. They weren't given a known time limit, but they know one is there.

By now, over half of the doors have been opened. The cage still remains locked. Pierre, Abel, Victor, Theodore, Sherlock, Kai, and Lucien are all hard at work, stretching their brainpower and puzzle-solving abilities to its limits.

Tih and Basile help occasionally by unintentionally finding a hidden clue behind a piece of candy or by using the candy itself. For one door, the color code to the puzzle was eaten by Tih. After struggling for a minute, Kai decided to move on as he hadn't known about the clue. As Tih passed by, he picked out the colors in the right order and opened the door before walking away to find more food. The door was later scavenged by someone else who notices it was still filled.

As Tih's sugary intake increases during this short period of time, Tih slowly gets more jittery and hyper. Natural sugars in the woods can't compare to manufactured sweets chalked full of cane and brown sugars.

With the surplus of energy, he hops from one place to another in a rapid-fire manner, only to grab more sweets off the gingerbread house. He also looks at some of the unsolved puzzles and presses things randomly.

Tih spots an interesting looking, orange colored candy. After trying it, he finds its one of the most delicious he's tried in this house. He looks for another. After finding an exact replica, he hands it to Basile.

Tih has noticed that Basile also likes the food in this house. Since the orange one is so good, it would be a shame if Basile didn't try it. He offers the candy, essentially holding the mindset of 'if I like it, you'll like it too'. Tih doesn't know such a thing called preferences exist.

Chipmunk-cheeked Basile stares straight-faced at the hyper Tih. He looks at the offering, wondering what his Boss means by giving it to him. Looking at the prison opposite of him with a similar but different expressionless face, Basile takes the candy. He decides not to put any deep meaning towards the candy, as the boss doesn't seem like the type to care about relationships. If he did, boss would have tried to make Kai more responsive to his group. You'd have to be blind to notice Kai's perfunctorily attitude when it came to his group.

After swallowing the orange candy, Tih looks for others he hasn't yet tried. He notices a round, speckled treat near Theodore.

Theo is squatting to look through a lower door. Tih leans over Theodore's shoulder to reach for a delicious looking cookie. To reach the candy, Tih leans on Theodore's curved back.

Startled by the sudden push, Theodore tries to maintain his balance, bumping head on the top of the shelf.

He fiercely rubs the spot as quick as he can, trying to rid it of pain. Meanwhile, he turns to ask, "Boss? You need something?" His expression shows no aggravation.

Tih points behind him.

"Hmm? The Pfeffernüsse?" He detaches the spiced cookie from the other candies decorations and sticks it in Tih mouth without warning. "Good?" He feigns an innocent smile. He might not seem like it, but this golden retriever is the type to hold grudges. Of course, he knows the boss didn't mean to startle him so he won't go overboard.

With a good tasting cookie in his mouth, Tih moves on to his next victim. Using some of his sugared energy, he jumps up Kai's shoulders as he's absorbed in puzzle. Kai struggles to maintain his balance.

Tih isn't that heavy, but Kai is more on the thin side, so suddenly having this extra weight makes it hard for his legs. The only reason he can regain his balance is because parkour trained his calves, giving him enough muscle to hold up Tih on his back.

"Tih?" He says in a slight grouchy tone. It can't be helped, his concentration was disrupted and he lost his train of thought. He looks at the puzzle again and tries to remember.

Kai has to hold on Tih's legs and lean forward to keep balance, allowing Tih to also see the puzzle. Feeling Tih's stare, Kai explains for him," This is a tangram. It's a type of dissection puzzle, but it can also be called a transformation or Richter Puzzle. It's a puzzle where a set of pieces can be assembled in different ways to produce more distinct geometric shapes. This is the most basic type of tangram, consisting of seven flat polygons which need to be put together to fit into this square." He refers to the square shaped indent on the door.

After letting out a tsunami of words at once, some of Kai's irritation seems to have dissipated. Feeling more rational, he easily solves the puzzle, arranging each shape to make a perfect square. Something clicks and the door opens.

Kai opens the door do see some food and a key. He gives the key to Tih," Can you go see if this key fits the cage? If it doesn't, you can just put it in the pile." He points to the counter. Right now, they need all the manpower they can get.

Tih goes over to cage and observes the two lifeless dolls. They have no breath and no heartbeat. Instead, there's another sound, a ticking sound.

Tih has been focused of the edible house this entire time and isn't sure of the purpose of the dolls. At this time, Victor comes over to test a key he just found.

The key can't enter the keyhole. Victor remains neutral, if not for the slight wrinkle in his brow. He glances at Tih and notices the jay in his hand. He opens his palm and Tih sets the key inside.

Victor attempts to use the key while letting out some of his worries," Even if we can get enough food, if we can't get them out of the cage, it'll all be for nothing." Victor wonders if the key is not behind one of the door, but in a different hidden place like clues under the floorboard or behind the wallpaper.

After listening to Victor, Tih understands that they need the dolls out of the cage. He wonders why they need a key to do that. Just to make sure, he points to the dolls and then point outside the cage.

"Yes, we need them out of the cage."

Knowing their goal, Tih finds the others a little weird for using such a roundabout way to open the cage. Tih grabs two bars and pulls them. The metal grunts unwillingly and snaps as it's detached from the rest of the cage.

Victor stares at Tih slack-jawed. The idea of breaking the cage had never crossed his mind. Even if it did, they wouldn't have the strength to do it.

The others also look over, wide-eyed. The main puzzle was solved using one second of Tih's time. The rest being used to mess around and snack.