Blackout

~6~

"Yeah, I know."

"Keep your chin up, son. Legend also states there is a jewel inside the maze, the most beautiful oasis no one has ever seen before. Maybe we will be the first."

I smile and nod, "let's keep going."

"I really hope this dart will help Lindsey."

~

We walk for hours through the forest. I now understand how no one has ever found their way out.

Wait. How are we supposed to find our way out?

I guess we could backtrack through the path I cut down.

"This is going to take forever."

I cut through another huge bush and we find ourselves in a clearing.

There's a circle of trees and inside is filled with wild flowers, most I've never even seen before. And a beautiful waterfall in the middle.

"The jewel of the labyrinth."

"It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!" I say, wide eyed, taking the whole thing in.

"Yes. Beauty can be born even in darkness."

My dad and I start exploring the jewel and I find a little path behind the waterfall. I walk through discover a natural botanical garden with even more exotic flowers than the ones outside.

Vibrant colors and abnormally large, bigger than I've ever seen. Taller than me. And one of them was the bright orange one, the flower I saw painted on the scroll. It's wide more so than tall, it actually doesn't really have a stem to stand on, just lays across the cave floor. The petals are larger than my head and the middle hole is filled with tiny black needles.

"Dad, I found it!" I call out

My dad finds me behind the waterfall and sees the Rafflesia Arnoldii.

"Wonderful! Let's extract the darts."

We brought gloves to wear just in case. I gather a handful of needles... not that we're gonna need that many, but you never know. And put them into a bag we brought as well.

"Okay, Let's get back to Lindsey." I say

~

My dad and I climb down from the waterfall and are about to leave the jewel when the sound of a saw fills the air.

Trees around us start getting chopped down and then we see the machine doing it.

It's hovering above the ground and has enormous saws jutting out from all over it. And the one driving it is Uncle Wu!

The ninja were right, he's turned evil. And even like the black beard just like Jay said.

"They've found you! You must leave!" My dad instructs me, standing in between me and Wu.

But I don't move, instead I take a step closer to my dad.

"I said leave!" He shouts now