16 Chapter 16 - Trial 2 Finished

Bars began to pop up from the floor randomly and quickly. As he watched, he realized that if he was caught in the trap, those bars could easily break his feet, and then any part of his body that got hit when he fell. The trap extended for almost fifteen feet, so he wouldn't be able to just jump over it. Standing still, he began to study the bars to see if there was a pattern. It had to be mechanical, something he didn't understand well but should mean it couldn't be completely random.

Several minutes passed, but he continued to watch it until he finally figured it out. Taking a breath to get the timing down, he stepped forward into a blank spot, then quickly jumped to another. Anyone watching would think he was doing some weird dance as he made his way down the hall. As soon as he got within jumping distance of the end, he leaped for it instead of continuing the pattern.

However, by doing that, he tripped off another pit trap and started to fall. He had been so engrossed in the stupid pattern of the bars, he had missed looking for the irregular tiles that gave away the pit traps. He didn't hesitate though. When the floor began to give way, he twisted and lunged for the trapped floor behind him, and caught himself before he fell the ten feet to the bottom.

Breathing hard, he quickly moved his fingers away from any holes to prevent them from being broken when the bars popped up. Xun took a moment to calm himself down and get his rapidly beating heart to slow. That was a stupid mistake that almost got him hurt. Turning to look behind him, he guessed the distance to only be about four or five feet to the other side.

By pulling his feet up against the wall, he took a breath and let it out slow. He kicked off from the wall he was holding on to, twisted in the air, and reached for the other side. He caught it with one hand and dangled for a moment before grabbing it with his other hand as well. Pulling himself up, he could hear the bar trap behind him shut down and smiled. This was kind of fun.

This was so much easier knowing there weren't any monsters about to eat him.

Moving forward once again, he turned a corner and stopped. Before him he saw the exact same pattern on the floor as the hall he had just left. Taking a few steps back he glanced around the corner to confirm and then his eyes lit up. Watching for the inconsistency in the floor, he chuckled to himself. Glancing at his wood for a moment confirmed his suspicions. The reason it didn't matter which direction you went in when you started the maze was because the true path, when you take away all the confusing side passages and dead ends, mirrored itself. All he had to do now, was make his way back through the maze backwards.

There was no gap between the pit trap and the start of the bar trap, so he had to time his jump to coincide with the bar traps movements. Taking a couple steps to build up momentum, he jumped and landed exactly where he wanted to, then quickly began the jumping dance.

He hugged the wall quickly as the net flew by, weaved around the bars that threatened his head, knees, and middle, and broke out into a sprint. He cleared the last pit trap and whatever the trip wire was for with plenty of room to spare.

They were staring at him, but their expressions were completely different as he climbed the stairs panting hard. Trudy looked traumatized, while Max smiled hysterically.

"How long was that?" Max almost shrieked he was so excited.

Trudy looked down in a half daze, "An hour and twenty-three minutes."

Max gave a shout and jerked Xun up into a hug. He only fought for a moment, before realizing it was useless. Max was far too strong for him to escape from so he allowed him to hug him fiercely, then tried not to stumble when he set him back on his feet.

"Let's head to the last test!" he thundered, rushing from the room.

Trudy turned and went to say something, but he was gone. She turned back to Xun, but he turned to follow Max as well and didn't give her a chance to say anything. He wanted these tests to be done. He was tired, but not excessively so. He had always pushed himself to do as much as possible so that if he ever had to run from a monster he might have a prayer.

Max had paused outside the building, not because he was waiting on them, but because he was watching something at the gate. Just as Xun reached him, he headed towards the gate with a scowl. Curious, Xun followed, wondering what could have soured Max's mood so fast.

At the gates, a young boy, maybe fourteen, was holding two long poles with a deer lashed to it. Three larger boys were giving him a hard time, and the guards were just standing there watching the exchange.

"Alex! What's going on?" growled Max as he got closer.

"Dad! This jerk stole our deer! It's a good one, too!" Alex, a tall blonde, sneered at the boy, barely looking in his dad's direction.

The guard obviously looked confused, and both Max and Xun saw it.

"I killed this deer on my own! I didn't steal it!" argued the boy. His voice wavered and his eyes shone with unshed tears.

"Sir?" said the guard, stepping towards Max.

"Yes?"

"Your son and his two friends returned over three hours ago with another deer kill…"

Alex glared at the guard with murder in his eyes. "He chased it away from us so we couldn't kill it, then killed it after. It should be our kill!"

The boy didn't say anything but his lips quivered, and the shake was starting to spread to the rest of his body.

"If you didn't kill it, then it's not your deer." Max looked at the boy as a father would, then turned to his son.

"If I catch you causing trouble like this again, I'll whip you in public again. Now get home!"

Fear finally registered in his eyes and he turned away, but Xun couldn't help but see the seething anger under the fear.