The Impossible Maze: Tanners Maze Experiance

The rhythmic thump of hooves sounded the calm air as Tanner and his horse John trotted towards the nearest Castimarian town. A small cloud of dust was kicked up into the air as the two rode across the light brown dirt road. Flowers littered the grass fields all around them and as they passed the plains seemed to be one long blur of varying colors.

It was a bit past midday and Tanner had been travelling nonstop for the whole morning. He was eagerly riding towards the town, desperately wanting a break from the road. John must’ve had the same idea because he was slowing down to a more then sluggish walk. Though the horse’s opinion wasn’t quite noticeable, due to the fact he was a generally lazy animal. Realistically Tanner would probably cover a lot more road faster if he just walked.

As they entered the elaborately decorated town, Tanner selected a nearby inn. ‘The Comfy Ceebi’ was its name. After tethering John to a nearby post, Tanner sauntered into the building, bags in hand.

A warm burst of temperature from body heat and a whole plethora of colors were the first two things Tanner noticed. The inn was full of people dinning, hanging out, or paying for rooms. Flowers and greenery decorated the room, some in pots and some growing straight out of the wall. That might be a safety hazard-, Tanner thought to himself.

“Welcome!” A deep but friendly voice rang out from the sign-up desk.

Moving up to the wooden table, Tanner could now see who had spoken to him. A tall, centaur-like being, with a face almost made of giant butterfly wings, was standing at the counter with an inviting smile. A wooden engraved name tag on the creature said ‘Ghemala’. Because Tanner had never seen such a sight, this view was more shock instead of awe inducing.

“Uh, um, hi-” He stuttered looking up at the towering being. “C-could I get a room for, um, one person, one week?”

“Of course!” Came the reply “That’d be 14 B’s.”

Tanner fumbled through his bag, only now realizing how much stuff he’d put in there, and successfully extracted 14b. He placed it on the desk (that was noticeably too tall for someone his size), hurriedly scooped it off the desk and back into his own hand, then finally placed the coins directly into the hand of the centaur.

“Thank you.” They gave him a sweet smile before dropping the tokens in a box. After placing a small card and key in Tanner’s hand, the employee continued. “Your room is #6a, have a good stay!”

Tanner gave them a quick nod before heading down the hall to look for his room. When he finally found the room labeled 6a, he spent a solid five minutes trying to unlock the door. A soft click came from the lock and Tanner gave a small ‘yay’. After a sometime of setting down his baggage, cleaning up, and putting on some fresh clothes, Tanner grabbed his smaller bag and headed out of his room.

As Tanner walked down the hallway, he considered what he’d do for the week. He’d heard a flower festival was happening in this town and there was no way he would miss that. Maybe he’d be able to purchase some souvenirs or meet some new people. Tanner also planned to meet up with a friend, who helped tend to one of the best garden research facilities on the planet.

He began wandering around the streets, taking in the view. The people, buildings, and decorations were all painted with vibrant colors, more than one could think of. Looking up and to his left, Tanner noticed a hedge of various flower bushes. In less then a millisecond, Tanner was inspecting the nearest flower in the hedge. He silently mused at the soft pink and vibrant yellow bud.  Another flower, this one hanging low, colored blue, and almost soft looking, caught his eye. A small squeal of delight came from Tanner. One after another, almost every flower attracted the small man’s attention.

Some maroon and deep red lilys, almost pure white roses, and bright orange poppys adorned the hedges creating a dizzying collage of color. Even in some areas, plants hung from above, vines tangling above the path. For what seemed ages, Tanner wandered deeper and deeper into the foliage.

Finally, after a stretch that probably readjusted his spine back into its original, non-bent position, Tanner was ready to head back to the Inn. He stood up straight and begun walking one direction before abruptly stopping in his tracks. Wait a minute, Tanner felt the blood draining from his face as he realized his situation. Which way did I come from? Theres two paths over here, did I take the left or right? I don’t recognize that path, maybe I should avoid that one.

He'd lost his way.

“Okay, no. I am not lost.” Tanner blatantly lied to himself. “This is the way I came, so it will be the way back.”

Walking down the selected path, Tanner expected to immediately magically appear back at the entrance. He did not in fact teleport to the beginning of the garden. His pace slowly went from a casual walk to a desperate run.

No matter where he went, Tanner seemed to never make any progress in his goal of escape. Each wall of flowers either looked the same as another or so different and new he’d felt like it was never there earlier. Multiple times, Tanner came across the same pattern of flowers and patterns. By now the realization had set in, he was not going to be getting home any time soon.

Tanner then ran face first into a wall. A human wall. Actually, more of just a normal human who was standing. Now the person, and Tanner, were lying on the floor, both expressing themselves in varying versions of ‘ow’. It took Tanner a solid moment to realize what happened, but when he did, he jumped up and started apologizing.

“Sorry about that! I wasn’t paying attention! Are you okay!?” During his river of words, Tanner offered his hand to the girl who looked to be around his age.

“No worries, I’m fine! Thanks.” She took his hand and stood up. “Are you okay? You were running like your life depended on it!”

“Yeah, um, yeah I was- well - I am currently lost…” Tanner looked away from the girl with awkward embarrassment. “I was wandering around and I may or may not have forgotten which way I entered.”

“Oh, that’s convenient!” Her face brightened up with a smile. “-Not you getting lost, now we can find our way out together! I too am lost; I dropped my map.”

“Map?”

“Yeeeah? Map for the maze, it’s a teapot right now.”

“A teapot??”

“The shape of the maze is a teapot- Do you even know what this is?”

“…no...”

“It’s the Castimarian Flower Maze! It changes to different shapes and you can get maps to safely explore it. You’re new here?” The girl gave Tanner a look of exasperation.

“Y-yeah, I just arrived in town today.” He responded to her expression with a guilty half smile.

She raised and eyebrow, sighed, then continued. “Well, we need to find a way out. You don’t happen to be gifted with the Earth element.”

At this, Tanner perked up. “Mhm! I can control plants, whether it be moving, shrinking, or growing them, I can do a buncha things!”

The girl looked at him. He looked at her. They kind of just stared at each other. She nodded encouragingly.

“…OOOOOHHHH, I CAN MOVE THE PLANTS!!!!!” Tanner shouted after a burst of realization. “That’s a CRAZY great idea!!!! I didn’t think of that!!!”

He concentrated for a moment then placed his hand on one of the hedges. The following events replicated the time when Moses parted the red sea. The hedges split, revealing a simple, straight path to the exit of the maze.

“Wow! Thanks. Come on, we gotta go quick.” The girl took Tanners other hand and sprinted across the dirt walkway. Tanner stumbled and tripped inelegantly behind her. They reached the end and Tanner closed the gap in the maze he’d made.

“Thanks again!” The girl gave him a sweet smile and laughed softly. “I’m kind of surprised you didn’t come up with that earlier though.”

“Heh,” Tanner smiled back. “Y-yeah, Thanks for helping me come to my senses…”

“Well, it was good meeting you… what’s your name?”

“Oh! Sorry! I’m Tanner, you?”

“Avery. By the way, there is a Flower Festival soon, you should definitely go!”

“I’m planning on it!” Tanner grinned “Will you be there?”

“Mhm!”

“Nice- OH NO, so sorry, I just forgot, I have to head back to the Inn, I have to complete a journaling project by tomorrow, nice meeting ya Avery!” Tanner spoke in a rush.

“Alright, see you later then.” Avery waved as he went from a backward walk to forward run back to the Inn.

“Yup, byeee!” He called back to her.