cutting_edgex23 | Ain't no party like a Labyrinth party 'cause a Labyrinth party don't stop

Pffft, should probably know better. What's the fun in that? It's not as if self-preservation is really a relevant question here.

(One hopes.)

Anyway he hasn't actually been into the Labyrinth before. Clearly he's overdue. And X is excellent company for adventuring!

So. Into the Labyrinth, with its triangle-mark on the gate and its aura of power hanging around the doorway like a murky haze, invisible but brushing up against other senses. Into the Labyrinth, and into...

...a forest made of crystal?

Crystal, or glass, or something similar. Everything is glittering and transparent, and the leaves chime softly when the wind brushes them.

SURE WHY NOT.

X stiffens for a moment, looking up at the crystal trees and scenting the air as if to make sure this is not somewhere related to Ambergeldar.

It does not smell like it is, but she still does not relax.

"It will be good," she offers quietly, "If the animals here are not clockwork."

What about steam-powered?

That is the question a nearby red-hot deer with a furnace in its belly might be asking. As it catches sight of them and bounds away, of course.

Thor blinks at her.

"Is clockwork a difficulty?"

The deer doesn't look particularly ominous.

Aside from being, you know. Red hot metal. Minor details.

"There was an enchantment. In Ambergeldar. The clockwork tried to kill us."

She's just saying.

"But this does not sound the same."

No clicking, for one.

"And no one is dancing."

Ohhhh.

"We will be on our guard," Thor promises, cheerfully.

They were going to be anyway, after all.

In the meantime, since neither dancers nor clockwork animals nor anything else leaps out at them, Thor sets out down the path.

His footsteps chime melodically.

A sailor went to sea, sea, sea

If only one of them knew Earthly elementary school songs. Alas.

To see what he could see, see, see

A steam-powered squirrel skitters down a tree and crosses their path, chittering angrily -- and steamily -- all the while. This creature's footsteps, too, chime sweetly and tunefully as it runs.

I'm worst at what I do best and for this gift I feel --

X does not stop walking.

And all that he could see, see, see

The squirrel's ringing scamper echoes among the trees, thrown back in tinkling reduplication by hundreds of glass leaves.

Our little group has always been

Or maybe that's not only echoes, after all. Maybe it's a LOT of squirrels.

And always will until the end--

Thor cuts a glance at X.

There's steam coiling through the air, fogging the glass trees. The air is thick and swampy now.

The ground starts to shake.

They are probably about to wish it were a lot of squirrels.

ENTERTAIN US

A giant bird-reptile foot hits the path, followed by a second one in quick succession.

I FEEL STUPID

And a third. And a fourth.

AND CONTAGIOUS

Who knew T-Rexes made of metal and powered by steam ran in herds?

HERE WE ARE NOW. ENTERTAIN US

Well.

Outrunning them is going to be a pain in the ass, so.

snikt

Now THIS is the kind of thing you come to a Labyrinth to find!

Thor is grinning bright and fierce, as he twirls Mjölnir low and fast and launches himself into the air and straight for a toothy clockwork maw.

Turns out giant clockwork T-Rexes go down hard! With a shriek of metal and a giant crash and a hissing explosion of steam and then a gentle, tinkling rain of shards of shattered crystal trees.

(Thor thoughtfully aims for all this to happen well away from X. While he knows she'd heal, it's a jerk move to hit your friends with shrapnel or giant monsters if you can avoid it.)

X appreciates his consideration.

She is also moving, quickly scaling a crystal tree and using it as a jumping-off point to get herself onto one of the steaming T-Rexes. The soles of her boots go a little melty, and her gloves are not going to survive the climb, but she'll get to the head eventually.

And then that T-Rex will not have a head.

Or a boiler.

Maybe the boiler will go first.

For a short and busy while, this corner of the forest is dominated by extremely loud noises and lots of property damage.

One hopes crystal trees regrow fast.

Eventually, looking satisfied, Thor lands in a rush of crimson fabric in one of the very few clear spaces.

X, the soles of her shoes very, very melted now, drops down from the cooling remnants of a T-Rex and moves carefully in Thor's direction.

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head

"That was unexpected. Do you think someone built them? Or they -- grow. Here."

She's curious.

Huh. Good question!

"I haven't seen any creatures other than these constructs."

So... who knows!

"I would guess they grow, if I had to choose a guess."

X considers this, peering at all the carnage around them.

"That is probably good. But we should keep moving."

She looks back at Thor, head tilting very slightly.

"Their bodies falling were very loud."

And in the distance, is that --

More musical footsteps?

That was just a fun warm-up of a battle!

"I suppose," Thor agrees, "if we wish to explore further territory."

They don't have a mission with a clear objective, and he's not a man built by personality or culture for retreat from a fight. But they are here to explore, so he'll go along with X's suggestion for now.

"We could fight more," X allows, not moving just yet.

"But if they grow, it will take them time. To replenish their numbers."

Beat.

"And we do not have to be here."

She is just saying, Thor. Think of the ecology of this place! Maybe they are all vital to the ecosystem!

Thor studies her for a moment.

But this is X, and she's straightforward and genuine and full of valor; it's part of why they're friends.

And she speaks with the kind of wisdom his father and mother have struggled to teach him, often enough. That's another part of why they're friends.

So he smiles, faintly, and reaches to clasp her shoulder briefly. "You are wise, Lady X. Come, then. Let us see what other battles await further into this Labyrinth."

She gives him a quick sideways look, briefly leaning into the shoulderclasp.

Perhaps the light in here, refracted as it is off of the broken remnants of crystal trees, makes it look like she is smiling.

"Maybe they will involve things that are bigger. And less hot."

She is definitely up for less hot. If not, she's going to have to lose her boots.

When they walk far enough the crystal trees turn to salt, and the salt starts looking a lot less like trees.

Awkward.

The sky is very pale, and very bright, and entirely cloudless.

Oh wait.

The sky is a roof made of salt, instead. Ornate pillars support it; the floor is vast and smooth and hard. As far as the horizon, the only thing visible is more of this endless, sterile hall.

Thor pauses, after a while, to study a column. There are complex, twining designs around the base, in high relief.

X frowns a little, taking a few steps toward the column and popping claw. She appears to be comparing the faint sigils carved into her claws with those on the pillars.

If They are here, things are going to be exceedingly un-fun.

Thor glances at her at the snikt. What's up? Anything he should know about?

"This is a text," he contributes.

Kiiiiind of a weird one.

X looks over and up at him for a quick, flickering moment, then goes back to making sure zero of the symbols on her claws have any correlation to what's written on the pillar.

"You know what it says? And what it is written in."

Well, that was an ambiguous answer, but he's pretty sure he's parsed the general sentiment correctly as 'I don't see anything immediately to worry about, but I want to make sure that's correct.'

"I've never seen this script. But it's a crude description. It speaks of how tall and strong these pillars are, and how vast this hall. Very clumsily."

He's not reading it aloud, because even Thor knows when something has a strong chance of being a mysterious spell, and he's not bored enough (post-tyrannosaurs) to go ahead and risk it to liven things up.

But what it says, painstakingly carved in an ancient lost script, is variations upon MUCH TALL, SO PILLAR, VERY SALT. WOW.

"It is -- pretty," she says, only a little dubiously.

"The quiet is not terrible."

X stops, then, head rising as she tries to catch hold of a faint sound.

It is the sound of panting, faint and distant but getting closer all the time.

Out past the pillar, near to the limit of human vision, a cloud of salt is being stirred up by something.

Something about as tall as Thor at the shoulder, a four-footed white shape camouflaged quite well by the pallor of the salt that moves in its wake.

Company is the greatest thing, for a dog. Even an enormous dog made entirely of salt.

And with opposable thumbs.

...Uh.

Well, okay! It looks pretty friendly!

Thor will totally scratch its ears, if it's amenable. If it's not, that's fair enough. (If it's not and it tries to eat him, that's what the hammer in his other hand is for.)

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