"Somebody up there must really hate me," Stormlight muttered as she trudged wearily along the path. They’d been walking for hours, and still there was no end in sight. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad, if it wasn’t for the fact that two of her three traveling companions insisted on bickering the entire way. She gritted her teeth when Suboshi and Tamahome abruptly burst into a fresh round of quarreling, and clenched her fists against the urge to go back there and beat the hell out of both of them. If Deedlit was still around, the Listian would have had her turn them into crickets or something, but as the fairy was still pissed off over losing Hotohori’s company, and had flown further ahead to sulk, there wasn’t anything to be done about it.

It really wasn’t Tamahome’s fault though, Stormlight decided. Suboshi was the one picking all the fights and Tamahome, being a typical male, simply could not allow his ego to take that kind of abuse. So far the two of them hadn’t come to blows, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t anytime soon. Nakago, of course, was of little help. As usual. He trailed behind them all, alternating between looking extremely irritated and extremely bored, although it was really hard to tell the difference since his face barely changed expression. "You know, you could do something about this!" Stormlight called back to him, rather irritated herself. "Suboshi’s acting like a two year old, and since you’re his ‘leader’, you should put a stop to it." She frowned when he didn’t answer her; didn’t even acknowledge her presence. She probably would’ve had a better response addressing a brick wall. "You guys are so immature! Honestly! I have an easier time dealing with twenty-four first graders than you, only they have an excuse for acting like children!" she snapped, glaring at all three of them. "For once try acting your age instead of your shoe size!"

Suboshi and Tamahome stopped bickering long enough to fix her with equally blank stares. "Huh?" Suboshi asked intelligently.

Stormlight slapped a hand to her forehead and huffed an exasperated sigh. "Perfectly good sarcasm is simply wasted on you, isn’t it?" she grumbled.

After another hour or two (or an eternity, depending on one’s viewpoint), the four travelers found themselves coming to the edge of the forest. Just beyond that stretched a rocky and barren valley at the base of a towering cliff that cast shadows over the rough ground. It was a very gloomy landscape, and one could almost expect to see dried-out bones and maybe a vulture or two crouched on the jagged rocks. But there was no sign of life at all.

"Welcome to Death Valley," Stormlight muttered as she took in the scene. Her lips twitched in a smirk as she glanced back at Nakago and Suboshi. "You two must feel right at home here," she added snidely. Suboshi glared, and Nakago, of course, ignored her.

"The stone maze!" Tamahome suddenly cried, pointing ahead, and when they all looked ahead, there was indeed a familiar-looking wall rising in the distance. There also looked to be another forest on the other side of it. Or maybe it was the same one. It was impossible to tell the difference in this place.

"Finally we’re getting back on track again!" Stormlight exclaimed as she hurried forward, picking her way around sharp-pointed rocks poking up from the ground like knives, or the broken teeth of some huge beast, as the wall of the maze grew steadily closer. Deedlit zipped by, shouting something about humans and slugs, and Stormlight fought the urge to chuck a big rock at the irritating fairy. She did break into a run, though, eager to be out of the wasteland and back in the forest, which was at least somewhat familiar to her.

There was a particularly large rock in her way, standing well over seven feet tall and almost twice as wide. She barreled around it without even slowing down…and ended up running headlong into someone coming around from the other side.

"OOF!" they both cried at once as each went sprawling onto their backsides, blinking at each other and their perspective companions dazedly. Then, as the swirls cleared from their eyes, recognition dawned.

"Miaka!"

"Stormlight!"

"Yui! Chichiri!"

"Tamahome!"

"Miaka!"

"Hey, it’s the local booby convention!"

Stormlight did not refrain from chucking a rock at Suboshi for that comment.

Getting back into the maze was easy enough. There was an entrance there just waiting for them, with no doors to open or anything. Stormlight was highly suspicious of this, but since everyone else was so eager to leave the valley, including herself, she reluctantly decided to risk a trap and entered the maze, finding herself once again in the ancient forest. Deedlit immediately took over, taking them through the forest with annoying ease, nagging at them constantly to hurry up. Stormlight let her lead, quite ready to let someone else play the guide for once, even if it was a little fluff-ball of a fairy. She hung back with Miaka and Yui and, seeing how the two of them were talking so openly, she shot Chichiri a questioning glance. She couldn’t be sure, but she was almost certain he was smiling wider under his mask.

Nakago was, of course, less than thrilled about Yui’s apparent change of heart. He kept casting her dark glances, and Stormlight could almost see the wheels turning in his head as he planned on how to turn her away from Miaka again. Chichiri and Tamahome must have suspected the same thing, because they both kept a protective stance over Yui as they walked, carefully keeping themselves between the Miko and her Seishi, and Miaka made no secret that she suspected Nakago was up to something by the way she kept a tight, almost possessive grip on Yui’s arm. Yui didn’t appear to mind in the least.

The shadows were lengthening; the day was drawing to a close, and Stormlight was becoming more worried. They were still in the forest, and while they were coming closer to their ultimate goal—she could occasionally catch a vague glimpse of the castle through the boughs of the trees—she still had no idea what had become of the others. When she attempted to use the crystal to ascertain their whereabouts, she got nothing but fog…no doubt a crystal’s version of TV static. "Figures Jareth’d give me a faulty one," she muttered under her breath, tossing the worthless globe over her shoulder.

"Did anyone just hear that?" Tamahome suddenly asked, stopping in his tracks. Miaka, one arm linked through his and the other linked through Yui’s, stopped as well, which in turn forced Yui to stop.

"Hear what?" Miaka asked curiously, cocking her head.

A sudden crackling and snapping ahead of them, which grew steadily louder as the seconds passed, was the only reply she got as something—or rather, several somethings—abruptly came hurtling out of the thick undergrowth a few yards in front of them, making everyone yell in surprise and take a few good leaps backward.

The several somethings paused in their headlong flight, like startled deer, and Stormlight got a good look at them. "Hey!" she began in surprise, "It’s…"

"HOTOHORI!"

There was a whir of frantic wingbeats following that screech as Deedlit hurled past, immediately throwing herself at the befuddled emperor and burying herself into his hair. "I missed you so much!" the fairy squealed, wrapping the dark silver strands around her body like a cloak.

"Eh…" Hotohori began, sweatdropping a little. "Hello…Deedlit."

Nuriko, who had stumbled out of the bushes just behind the emperor—followed closely by Tomo and a very familiar figure riding an extremely hairy dog—glared briefly at the fairy muse. He was, naturally, ignored.

"Sir Didymus!" Stormlight exclaimed in surprise upon seeing the little fox. "What are you doing here?"

"My Lady Stormlight!" Didymus replied, doffing his cap at her and bowing from his perch in the saddle. "What an unexpected pleasure! I was merely guiding these noble sirs through the Bog, and came upon a most fearsome enemy! We barely escaped with our lives!"

"Is everyone okay?!" Miaka asked worriedly, taking in the quartet’s rather bedraggled appearance. To see Hotohori and Nuriko looking any less than their best was something of a shock to her, but she couldn’t help but smile at the sight of several twigs and leaves sticking haphazardly in their mussed-up hair, not to mention the wrinkles and stains in their normally-immaculate clothes and the sheen of sweat on their brows. "You guys must have run far!" she added impishly, giggling a little.

Hotohori grimaced as he picked a leaf from his hair, eyeing himself with apparent disgust. "I need a bath," he decided firmly.

"We all need a bath, no da," Chichiri replied, amusement apparent in his voice. "But right now I’m more interested in hearing about this fearsome enemy that had all of you running in such a frenzy, no da."

Large sweatdrops appeared on the three Seishi’s heads; none of them were quite certain how to explain their flight from a hopping warthog. At the time, it had certainly seemed terrifying enough, but now, in retrospect, the whole idea seemed just a little…absurd. "It’s…ah…kind of a long story," Nuriko stated nervously, scratching his head.

"Yes, and as we are all okay, there really is no use in dwelling on the subject," Hotohori added, shaking his head for emphasis.

Tomo just grunted.

Unfortunately, Didymus never was one to turn down a good story…especially one that involved himself. "It was the most terrifying of foes!" the little fox exclaimed dramatically, straightening up in his saddle and brandishing his stick. "There we were, completely unarmed—really, my brothers, to travel without weapons is quite foolhardy…"

"We know!" Nuriko bellowed, turning dangerously red.

"Yes, quite right," Didymus squeaked, deflating a little. "Anyway, there we were, standing unarmed before the most deadly of foes! Its eyes burned into me, daring me to make a move! Its tusks gleamed as it scraped its hoof on the ground, preparing to charge us! Its amphibious legs flexed as it prepared to spring! I held it off as long as I could, but to protect the lives of others is my first duty! So, for their sake, I gave up the fight and allowed them to…"

"What the @#&$ are you talking about?!" Nuriko bellowed, glaring at knight. "You and that dog were the first ones to hightail it out of there!"

Didymus blinked. "Eh…I am certain that you are mistaken," he replied. "Just because…"

"Okay! That’s enough!" Stormlight cut in, putting herself between the fox and the Seishi before another argument started. She was really going to have to look into a career as a referee or something after this… "As entertaining as this discussion is, we still have a castle to reach, and some of our companions are still missing! So might I suggest we set this aside and continue on our way?"

Everyone blinked at her, as though they hadn’t even realized she was there. Then, apparently agreeing that she was right, the discussion was dropped and they began to walk again. This time Didymus eagerly took the lead, as he knew just how to get to the castle. It was just as well. Deedlit was too busy swooning over Hotohori to be much more of a use, anyway.

They again reached the maze in just under an hour thanks to Didymus’s knowledge of the forest. The wall loomed ahead of them, along with another closed door that once again took Nuriko’s great strength to open…although he didn’t have quite so easy a time of it this time. He grunted and strained, but the door refused to budge. "It’s like someone’s holding it closed on the other side or something," he grunted, slamming against the door again. "I can feel it start to open, but then it closes again."

"It’s probably Jareth’s doing," Stormlight grumbled. "Everything else is his fault, so why should this be any different?"

"Do you always blame Jareth for every failure we face?" Hotohori asked teasingly, glancing over at her.

She grimaced. "Well, it isn’t the Tooth Fairy that’s giving us all this grief!" she replied.

He looked at her curiously and raised an eyebrow. "Tooth Fairy?"

She sweatdropped. "Eh…never mind…"

"AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!"

This sudden, bloodcurdling shriek—coming from the direction of the forest just behind them—was followed by several more just like it, along with enough trampling and stamping and smashing to herald the arrival of a large stampede of elephants, or any other large creature that might inhabit the Labyrinth. The entire group turned as one, practically leaping out of their own skins at the noise, as a single, rather wild-looking character came charging out of the forest like the devil himself was at its heels, yelling wildly.

"Tasuki!" Miaka cried in surprise, recognizing the figure as he came hurtling toward her.

"GET ‘EM AWAY FROM MEEEEEEE!" the bandit yelled as he barreled past, completely ignoring his Miko’s astonished exclamations.

And then the rest of the noisemakers arrived, leaping out of the trees with yells like rabid banshees, their flame-colored coats and wild red eyes a stark contrast to the dark green and brown foliage. "Where’d he go?!" one of the creatures yelled, landing in the middle of the startled Seishi and making them scatter like rabbits. "Where’d our brother go, man? He here somewhere!"

"AACK! What the @&#% are those things?!" Nuriko yelled.

"Fireys!" Stormlight yelped. "Oh, like that’s just what we needed right now!"

"Where’d our brother git to?" one of the Fireys exclaimed, throwing its head into the air. It landed in Suboshi’s arms, who yelped and tossed it away from him. The head grinned and chortled as it attached itself to its body again.

"Wassa matter, boy? Don’cha wanna play?" the creature screeched, hopping toward him. In reply, Suboshi scrambled back and placed Tomo between himself and the Fiery. Tomo did not look happy about that.

Tasuki yelled again as two of the Fireys spotted him and bounded over, and the Seishi immediately attempted to scramble up Tamahome’s body to escape. "HEY!" Tamahome yelped as his arms windmilled frantically, attempting to keep from falling over under the weight of the panicked bandit clinging to his head. "DO I LOOK LIKE A TREE TO YOU?!"

And then Sir Didymus, always the hero, came to everyone’s rescue. With a few sharp yips and a command to an extremely reluctant sheepdog, the fox rode into the midst of the Fireys, brandishing his stick and dropping a few well-placed smacks on the red-furred creatures’ bodies.

Various complaints of, "Hey!" and "Knock it off!" and "Ow! That hurt, man!" were heard as the pack of wild creatures began to break up. "Man, you ain’t no fun!" one of them complained, pouting as Didymus chased it back into the forest.

"Yeah!" its brother agreed as it scrambled into a nearby tree. "You all is not cool! We all gonna find someone else ta play wit’!"

Didymus yipped at it and tossed his stick in its general direction, and it squealed and vanished into the tree. "So there!" the fox called proudly, retrieving his weapon from the ground. He patted Ambrosius on the head. "Well done, my noble steed," he complimented.

Ambrosius merely groaned and let himself collapse in relief. He was getting way too old for this kind of trouble.

…

…

…

"Um…Tasuki?"

"Yeah?"

"You can let go of my head now…"