OH! My Lady |FAIRVERSE Book - 2|

Chapter • 41

LABYRINTH OF ARCADIA. (PART – I)

This was a death mission. Gilbert could not help but curse as he thought, ‘I should’ve known His Majesty would never just send me off into a vacation. To think that I was even dreaming of a safe return. Now this is no return...’

Who would’ve thought that the valley beyond the cliff of Arcadia was actually a never-ending labyrinth. No wonder it was known as ‘the valley of no return’. Gilbert grumbled begrudgingly.  

The steep cliff of arcadia was nothing compared to the cliff they had to climb down to, to come to this labyrinth. His subordinate knights kept climbing down for half a month to actually be able to set their feet on solid ground. 

“ROARRRR!!!” 

“Run!” Gilbert abruptly hollered as he fled embarrassedly towards an area which looked solid enough, for the entire labyrinth was a swamp-like landscape, cold mist enveloped the entire place, making one more unable to find one’s path.

The beast looked like a purple plant, which had the looks of a serpent head with venomous sharp teeth and with scales so hard that it made one unable to cut it down. It chased the group of people with a speed commendable enough to rival a cheetah. At a glance, it did not look like a plant at all, but more like a vicious snake with leaves growing over it’s head. It took them a while to figure this place out.

The land was swamp, the trees were mostly monsters, one tended to keep walking in circles due to the fog and haze of the place, and the cold was biting to the bones. This was not a place that warm blooded beings could survive at all.   

“Captain! Look! A seelie!” As Gilbert and his league of knights ran to save their skin, tired and injured due to the extreme environment in the labyrinth, Gilbert heard one of his men shout aloud in excitement.

He consequently so, whipped his head to the direction of his knight’s holler and really saw one. A seelie. And could not help but heave a sigh of relief.

This place was full of dangers, but there was only one respite. Fire Seelies. 

They looked like a small ball of flame elevating and drifting in mid air, disappearing in a blink of an eye and reappearing at a certain distance from it’s initial place of disappearance. If one was not consistent and sharp-eyed, they would definitely miss the seelie in this kind of drastic environment.

These seelies had a particular agenda in this timeless labyrinth, that is, to take a traveller to a relatively safe place to ensure their survival. Rather, that is what Gilbert deduced from his keen observation since the past few months in this place. 

Actually, the seelies took them to the places where they can survive in this biting cold, and Gilbert and his team just followed along to grab a piece of the safe heaven that they found for themselves. It was a blessing in disguise that the fire seelies did not have any fighting abilities. So, even if they were dissatisfied with Gilbert and Co. hogging a part of their home to save ourselves, they could do nothing but just grumble about in silence, and burn a little brighter perhaps. 

Following the fire seelie closely, they finally found a little clearing which looked like it was somewhat safer than the rest of the surrounding, and the fire seelie burned a little brighter as it flew in a hollow of a dry half-dead big tree, which looked rather cosy under it’s warm light.      

The plant monster that chased them to this clearing, suddenly halted its steps and took a step back. And Gilbert knew this was their chance to bring it down. 

In one swift motion, he grabbed a comparably dry branch from a tree near by and then, with a blinding move, he lit it up and threw it to the knight who was nearest to the plant monster, the knight in turn smashed the burning piece of wood at the plant monster who was whipping its fleshy arms in the periphery of the clearing. 

There was one fatal move that the monsters of this labyrinth could never tolerate, that was fire. They were too volatile to it, as if they were smeared with flammable oil, even a spark could burn them to a crisp. 

In the time Gilbert had spent surviving in this place, he discovered that the mud and soil of the swamp was like it had been mixed with some kind of volatile substance. Anything in contact with it, or any plant that grew on it were very vulnerable to fire, as if a spark could bring this whole place down. But thankfully so, this place was shrouded with mist, making it next to impossible to create a spark. Only the clearings where the fire seelies resided were places where they could get some fire going. Otherwise, one feared they would be doomed from the very beginning.     

The fierce terrorizing plant monster that had been after their blood for the past two hours was burnt down to mere ashes in just a few minutes. The lot of them, who witnessed the rise and fall of this plant monster were as quiet as a fiddle, each wound up with their own thoughts. Until one of them hollered once again, 

“Captain!”  

Gilbert turned around to look at the red excited face of one of his men. With a frown, he asked, “What is it? Why do you look... so red?”

“Captain, I... I found something.” With those words, he suddenly hit the ground with a ‘Thud’ and fell into an unconscious coma.

“Ronald!” One of his mates hurried to see if he was okay and Gilbert rushed to approach them as well to see if something went wrong with the red-faced knight.  

“What is it? Is he alright?” Gilbert asked, a but anxious, for this was not a place where they could get first aid treatment if he was sick or severely injured. 

The knight supporting the unconscious red-faced knight, checked him anxiously and then finally heaved a sigh of relief, “Yes, he seems alright, just.... unconscious.” 

Gilbert couldn’t help but frown, and slowly approached the thing that the red-faced knight pointed at before he lost consciousness, and saw, in the seelie hollow, that was surrounded by an array of strange light, was a blooming magnificent blood red flower. The red flower resembled a lily, but not quite the same. It was too magical and dazzling to be an ordinary lily flower. It was exuding magical vitality with each petal so very perfect, and the golden fire seelie sat on top of it, much like a butterfly sitting atop a pretty flower to suck its juicy nectar. 

TO BE CONTINUED...........