Life slides back into my body with a shaky breath. I wait for the ringing in my ears to subside before I push myself up with aching limbs. My clothes are in tatters, and I’m baffled why and how I got here. It’s pitch black, and I have to feel my way across whatever sort of hallway I’m in. I can touch both of the walls by spreading out my arms, and they feel like cold, jagged stone. I’m careful to not cut my hands, because I feel like I have already lost enough blood. My feet are bare, and I stub my toe on a small box. With one hand on the wall, I reach down and pick it up. Opening up, I feel 3 small little sticks brush up against my fingertips. Matches! I clutch it in my hands, saving the precious little light I have for a torch. I keep walking, letting my right hand gently slide across the wall. It feels like an eternity before I see a little wink of light in the void ahead. A little hope sparks inside of me, but I feel a sense of deja vu, like I’ve been in this place before, and I need to be cautious. I walk ahead slowly, feeling my way around. I get closer to the light, and I step into a dimly lit chamber. Unlit torched line the walls, and a gate covers the exit. A broken blade lies on the ground next to a rotting skeleton, another poor soul that tried to escape. I pick up the broken blade, and the jagged edge seems like it could still do some damage. Whatever killed that person probably could kill me too. I walk over to the gate. It looks too heavy for me to lift, but seems to be connected to a pulley mechanism that can. But this dim light won’t help. I grab a torch off of the ground, brushing the cobwebs off the handle. I pull the matchbox out of my pocket, and light one of the little matches. I touch the small flame to the tip of the torch, and the light burns bright, blinding me for a moment. I walk around the room, looking for a lever. After a few minutes, I realize that one of the many torches must be the lever. I reach for the torch close to me, pull it, and I only have a second to look up before a boulder crushes all the bones in my body.
I gasp. I sit up, realizing I’m in the same pitch black room I started in. I reach into my pockets, checking for the matches I found, turning my pockets inside out to find nothing. I scream out in anger. “Why can’t I escape!? Why am I here!?” I yell. Silence. I stand up. My best luck would be to find that room again. I stand up, walking in the same direction, only to run into a wall. The maze I’m in seems to be changing, to my frustration. I turn around, continuing in the opposite direction. After walking for a bit, I enter another cavern like the last. The unlit torches line the wall, but there is no rotting skeleton, and instead some barrels are stuffed in the corner. A gate is on the other side of the room, with the same pulley mechanism from before. I look at the gate, trying to find any hint on which lever it could be. Nothing. I decide to look in the two barrels in the corner, only to find them full to the brim with apples. Strange. I slowly walk up to the lever I pulled earlier, looking up to find the trapdoor to drop the boulder. At least I know the layout of this room is the same. On the ground below the lever to the right, a little slit in the ground is barely visible in the dim light. I lightly grab the lever, and pull it before quickly jumping out of the way. SWISH! An axe swings out, barely missing the tip of my toes. I catch my breath for a moment, and move on to investigating the next lever.
After looking around for about half an hour, I finally locate the lever without a trap. Some of these levers were a close call, like the one with the 5 poisonous darts that almost embedded in my back. I grasp the lever with anticipation, glad that this one will finally open the gate. I pull it, and instead of the gate opening, a rumbling as loud as an earthquake pierces my ears. The walls around me seem to move, and the torch moves aside to reveal a dusty stone tablet. I can barely understand it, but it reads:
“To escape the labyrinth, you must defeat the beast and lay it’s weapon on the altar.”
As soon as I finish reading, the roof of the chamber opens. I’m jerked up on a small platform being raised up. I’m blinded for a moment as me and the platform are raised into a brightly lit chamber. I rub my eyes, and see that I appear to be in some sort of arena. Half buried in the sand are weapons and armor, and a pile of skulls and bones lying in the corner. Directly across the room from me, a large metal door creaks. A roar and clanging comes from behind that door, and I assume that this is the beast that the tablet was talking about. I fumble around for any sort of weapon, and buried next to me is a long, rusty blade that looks like it's barely intact. I dig for it’s handle, only to find that it has no handle at all. The roaring gets louder and the door bursts open. It’s strangely quiet for a moment, the only sound is my panicked breathing and the fiery crackle of torches on the wall. Out from where the metal door once was walks a large humanoid figure. For a second I think it’s a man, but then his full features come into view. It’s body is covered in thick fur, plated over with crude armor. He has the head of a bull, and a hulking axe is clutched in his hand. Behind me is a large altar, made of cracked stone. I need to slay him and get that axe. The beast roars in rage, running towards me with intense speed, and I stumble. I get the sight of his looming form above me as he raises his axe. I bring up my arms as some sort of feeble protection, and he swings it down on me, crushing me to bits.
I open my eyes to a different sight. I appear to be in the room of levers, not the pitch-black void. I locate the switch that brings me to the arena, and stand up. I realize that I need to locate some sort of weakness in the Beast’s armor, because no weapon will break through the metal hide. This “Labyrinth” seems to bring me back whenever I die, observing and learning the Beast’s strategies and weaknesses. I don't know when, how or if I’m going to escape, but I have to persevere.
I gasp. I sit up, realizing I’m in the same pitch black room I started in. I reach into my pockets, checking for the matches I found, turning my pockets inside out to find nothing. I scream out in anger. “Why can’t I escape!? Why am I here!?” I yell. Silence. I stand up. My best luck would be to find that room again. I stand up, walking in the same direction, only to run into a wall. The maze I’m in seems to be changing, to my frustration. I turn around, continuing in the opposite direction. After walking for a bit, I enter another cavern like the last. The unlit torches line the wall, but there is no rotting skeleton, and instead some barrels are stuffed in the corner. A gate is on the other side of the room, with the same pulley mechanism from before. I look at the gate, trying to find any hint on which lever it could be. Nothing. I decide to look in the two barrels in the corner, only to find them full to the brim with apples. Strange. I slowly walk up to the lever I pulled earlier, looking up to find the trapdoor to drop the boulder. At least I know the layout of this room is the same. On the ground below the lever to the right, a little slit in the ground is barely visible in the dim light. I lightly grab the lever, and pull it before quickly jumping out of the way. SWISH! An axe swings out, barely missing the tip of my toes. I catch my breath for a moment, and move on to investigating the next lever.
After looking around for about half an hour, I finally locate the lever without a trap. Some of these levers were a close call, like the one with the 5 poisonous darts that almost embedded in my back. I grasp the lever with anticipation, glad that this one will finally open the gate. I pull it, and instead of the gate opening, a rumbling as loud as an earthquake pierces my ears. The walls around me seem to move, and the torch moves aside to reveal a dusty stone tablet. I can barely understand it, but it reads:
“To escape the labyrinth, you must defeat the beast and lay it’s weapon on the altar.”
As soon as I finish reading, the roof of the chamber opens. I’m jerked up on a small platform being raised up. I’m blinded for a moment as me and the platform are raised into a brightly lit chamber. I rub my eyes, and see that I appear to be in some sort of arena. Half buried in the sand are weapons and armor, and a pile of skulls and bones lying in the corner. Directly across the room from me, a large metal door creaks. A roar and clanging comes from behind that door, and I assume that this is the beast that the tablet was talking about. I fumble around for any sort of weapon, and buried next to me is a long, rusty blade that looks like it's barely intact. I dig for it’s handle, only to find that it has no handle at all. The roaring gets louder and the door bursts open. It’s strangely quiet for a moment, the only sound is my panicked breathing and the fiery crackle of torches on the wall. Out from where the metal door once was walks a large humanoid figure. For a second I think it’s a man, but then his full features come into view. It’s body is covered in thick fur, plated over with crude armor. He has the head of a bull, and a hulking axe is clutched in his hand. Behind me is a large altar, made of cracked stone. I need to slay him and get that axe. The beast roars in rage, running towards me with intense speed, and I stumble. I get the sight of his looming form above me as he raises his axe. I bring up my arms as some sort of feeble protection, and he swings it down on me, crushing me to bits.
I open my eyes to a different sight. I appear to be in the room of levers, not the pitch-black void. I locate the switch that brings me to the arena, and stand up. I realize that I need to locate some sort of weakness in the Beast’s armor, because no weapon will break through the metal hide. This “Labyrinth” seems to bring me back whenever I die, observing and learning the Beast’s strategies and weaknesses. I don't know when, how or if I’m going to escape, but I have to persevere.
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