The Thing That Makes Us Brave

     The voice boomed so loud that it almost felt like the ground was shaking after the words had been uttered. Jonah's knees shook as he knelt down and bowed before the Tree. “Good day, Sir.”

     “A bright Blue Shoyru, eh?” the Brain Tree said, the veins on his cranium bulging in a way that Jonah hated to see. Jonah had looked up pictures of the Brain Tree before he had flown here, but seeing the Tree right in front of him was a different story entirely.

     “Clearly, you're not from here,” the Tree continued.

     “Y-y-you're right, Sir, I'm not,” Jonah said, fighting for his teeth to stop clattering. “I've travelled a long way to ask you a question that only you could know.”

     Then, an idea popped into Jonah’s head.

     “Because, you know, I've heard so much talk about how intelligent and knowledgeable you are,” he added. “And even King Hagan couldn't answer this question, but I'm sure you can.”

     The Brain Tree grinned, and Jonah cheered for himself in his head. “An incredibly astute Shoyru we have here,” the Brain Tree said. “Tell me, then. What is this question you need answered?”

     Jonah got back up, took a deep breath, and stated his question. “Do you know where the Pant Devil keeps all his stolen items?”

     The Brain Tree nodded — or, at least, Jonah thought it was a nod, his trunk swaying back and forth the way a Neopian’s head would when gesturing yes. “I do,” the Brain Tree said. “You will find, Shoyru, that my records are unlike any other.”

     “Oh, I'm sure they are!” Jonah said. “I'm sure you record so well, you’ve even recorded how well you’ve recorded.” Jonah realised his buttering up the Brain Tree was edging close to nonsensical, so he rushed to change the topic. “So I'd be happy to do a quest —”

     “No.” The Brain Tree narrowed his eyes at Jonah. “You won't be doing a quest.”

     “Oh,” Jonah said. Then, he lit up at the realisation of what exactly the Brain Tree had said. “Oh, that's great! Here I thought I'd have to visit the Esophagor —”

     “You won't be doing a quest,” the Brain Tree said, “because you'll be doing a maze instead.”

     Jonah’s body stiffened. “W-w-what?”

     “You heard me,” the Tree said. “The information you ask for, only the worthy deserve that knowledge, and I reserve my maze only for those who wish to prove themselves worthy. If that is you, and if you can make it out of my maze, I'll tell you exactly how to find the Pant Devil.”

     Jonah gulped. “And if I can't?”

     The Brain Tree laughed. “You don’t want to find out.”

     The Brain Tree lowered one of its branches in front of Jonah, and an apple grew from its end, the branch drooping a little as it happened. The apple was as red and ripe as the ones that grew on the Meridell trees, and as Jonah took the fruit in his hands and inspected it, he knew exactly what he had to do: take a bite out of it.

     He hesitated. The Tree was grinning at him now, and thought of what could be in the maze kept him from doing anything.

     But he had to do it. In his head, he repeated what Tiffany said to him.

     The thing that makes us brave is a reason to be.

     Before he could back out, he closed his eyes and took a bite out of the apple.

     He chewed and swallowed.

     And when he opened his eyes, the Brain Tree was no longer in front of him.

     Nobody was in front of him, actually. Nothing, too, except for trees all around him, three roads in front of him, and one sign between the first and second road. The place he had opened his eyes to was extremely similar to where he and Tiffany had landed, except there was no faraway city in sight, and wherever the roads led, Jonah couldn’t see because the fog was too thick.

     Jonah tilted his head and walked closer to the sign. It read:

     The fog in the air

     May make you feel all alone

     But if you don’t follow forward

     You’ll be all sticks and bones

     Jonah read the poem a second time, then a third time. What was it supposed to mean? It had to mean more than just the threat of him dying. It had to be a clue for a way out of here…

     “Awoooo!”

     Jonah whipped his head around. He scanned his surroundings, eyes wider than ever, but found nothing more than trees and fog. Was that howling from a ghost? A ghoul? The Esophagor himself? Jonah breathed hard and snapped himself out of paranoia. There was no time for this — the quicker he could escape the maze, the less likely he was to encounter whatever had done that howl.

     Jonah turned back towards the sign and the three roads. One went left, another went right, and the third one went straight ahead. All three paths looked identical, but if the sign said to follow forward, then he should really choose the road in the middle that went straight ahead, right?

     Jonah went forward.

     The first step he took, he stepped on a stick and cracked it, which made him jump. “Deep breaths, Jonah,” he whispered to himself as he breathed in and out. “You can do this. Just move forward.”

     Jonah began walking forward again. Soon, he was further and further into the road, but there was still nothing else around him except for trees and fog. Even worse, the fog seemed to thicken as he moved forward, but not so much that he couldn’t see at all what was in front of him.

     The howling came again, except this time, it was more distant. That was a good sign, right?

     After what felt like forever, he arrived at part of the road that split into three parts. As the fog cleared up, he felt an eerie sense of deja vu as he realised that the three roads that all looked the same as the ones where he first started. Was this the same part of the forest as before, or a different part?

     ‘No, it’s a different one,’ Jonah thought. ‘The sign isn’t here.’ It looked like it was time to choose another road again, but again, all three roads looked the same.

     Jonah groaned. How was anyone supposed to solve this maze if they only had one extremely vague clue to work off of?

     He decided to stick with his gut again. He began walking down the road in the middle. Again, the experience was the same as last time — fog thickening, distant howling, and the sense of confusion and unsureness clouding his brain. This time, though, something happened that made him halt.

     A purple figure flew by him, and it was gone by the time Jonah had blinked.

     The Shoyru froze.

     Was that the Pant Devil?

     He was only unfrozen by the sound of howling coming again. Jonah shuddered, but he told himself that these were just distractions, ways for the Brain Tree to get under his fur. ‘Don’t let the distractions get to you,’ Jonah thought as he started walking again. ‘There is no Pant Devil here. It’s just the Brain Tree messing with you.’

     Jonah looked away and began walking faster, staring straight ahead the whole time. ‘Just gotta make it to the end, just gotta make it…’

     He was back at the beginning of the maze.

     This time, he knew for sure it was the same one that he started out with because there was the sign. It had the exact same poem as the sign he had first read, and Jonah grunted as he kicked a rock on the ground in anger. Was this maze actually solvable? Or did the Brain Tree just want him to go bananas?

     ‘Okay, focus.’ Jonah looked back at the poem, and this time, he read it out loud. “The fog in the air may make you feel all alone, but if you don’t follow forward, you’ll be all sticks and bones.”

     Fog in the air.

     Follow forward.

     Sticks and bones.

     Then, he remembered.

     “It’s pointing North!” Alex’s voice echoed in his mind. “Something about the Neopian air makes it do this.” As fast as he could, Jonah grabbed the rock he had kicked a few seconds ago and inspected it in his hands. Flat, just what he needed.

     Then, he flew to one of the trees and picked off a small enough stick from one of its branches, and as his feet landed back on the ground, he slowly placed the stick on top of the rock in his palm and watched as the stick rotated until it finally pointed in one direction.

     Jonah smiled. “As long as you have a stick and a flat enough rock,” he said to himself, “you can find your way out of anywhere.”

     And so, Jonah followed where the stick’s sharp end was pointing. Every now and then, it would spin and point to another direction, but Jonah kept following nonetheless. Soon, he made it to a brick wall. In front of this wall was a dried-up tree that had but a single fruit on it.

     A red apple.

     He had made it. This was the end of the maze; it had to be. He went up to the tree, took the apple in his hands, and took a bite out of it.

     He chewed and swallowed.

     He blinked.

     “Congratulations, Shoyru,” a voice said to him. “You have beaten my maze.”

     Jonah looked around, his vision getting less blurry as he adjusted to the world outside the maze. He was back in the Haunted Woods, the real one this time, and there, in front of him, was the Brain Tree, smiling at him, looking impressed. He could hear the distant sounds of the city, too, the footsteps and conversations of the citizens and the menacingly jovial music of the Deserted Fairground.

     “I… I did?” he said. Then, as the fact of his success started to sink in, he threw a fist in the air and jumped up and down. “I did it! I did it! I solved the maze! In your face, Brain Tree!”

     The Brain Tree gave him a look, and Jonah stopped jumping and smiled sheepishly. “I apologise, I was just swayed by the moment,” he said. “I still need to know where the Pant Devil lives, if you don’t mind.”

     “Listen carefully,” the Brain Tree said. “North of Darkness, West of Treasure…”

     ******

     “Hey, there he is!” Tiffany said as he watched Jonah flying back to where they first landed. She leaned an arm on the plane and pointed a finger gun at Jonah. “All back in one piece and even sporting a smile on his face!”

     “I know where the Pant Devil lives!” Jonah said as he flapped his wings and landed on the ground. He looked at Tiffany. “And I’d really appreciate it if you could take me there. I know King Hagan’s favour only extended to —”

     “Hey, don’t worry about it, Jonah,” Tiffany said with a shake of her head. She smiled. “Tell me where you need to go.”

To be continued…