"Ooh, a maze!" Milo jumped up. "Sorry, everyone, duty calls! We'll contact Gladys another time!"
Finding Rook proved more challenging. We eventually discovered him in the garden, looking deeply uncomfortable as three elderly witches fawned over him.
"Such strong arms," one witch was squeezing his bicep. "They don't make them like this anymore."
"And that scowl!" Another cackled. "Reminds me of my third husband. He was a werewolf too, you know. Terrible table manners but magnificent in other ways." She winked salaciously.
Rook's face was a mask of stoic suffering.
"Rook," I called, trying not to laugh, "we need you for a maintenance issue."
He extracted himself from the witches with visible relief, ignoring their disappointed protests.
"I owe you," he muttered as he joined us.
"What happened to perimeter watch?" Zane was trying not to laugh.
"They ambushed me," Rook growled. "The one in the purple hat can move faster than she looks."
With the team assembled, we made our way to the east wing of the property. The hedge maze loomed before us, its entrance an archway of intricately woven branches. Wadsworth sat perched on a stone pedestal beside it, looking smug.
"The rules are simple," the goose ruffled its wings. "Reach the center of the maze before sundown. No flying, teleporting, or phasing through the hedges. Oh, and I'll be making things more interesting."
"What does that mean?" Fenric was suspicious and for once, I agreed with him.
Wadsworth's cosmic eyes gleamed. "You'll see."
With that ominous statement, the goose flapped its wings and disappeared into the maze.
"Well," I took a deep breath, "let's do this."
We entered the maze together, the leafy walls closing in behind us. The hedges were at least twelve feet tall, blocking any view of what lay ahead. The path split immediately into three directions.
"We should split up," Zane suggested. "Cover more ground."
"Split up?" I stared at him. "Have you never seen a horror movie? That's like rule number two or three! Never split up!"
"He's right," Fenric consulted his tablet. "Statistically, we have a 67% better chance of finding the center if we take different paths."
"Fine," I sighed. "But if anyone hears screaming, come running."
We divided into pairs: Zane with me, Rook with Milo, and Fenric on his own (at his insistence that he worked moreefficiently solo). As Zane and I took the left path, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were being watched.
"So," I glanced at Zane as we walked, "on a scale of one to ten, how dangerous is this goose?"
"Depends on his mood," Zane shrugged. "He once turned an entire pantheon of lesser gods into houseplants because they forgot to invite him to a solstice party."
"Great," I muttered. "We're playing games with a petty cosmic entity."
We turned a corner and found ourselves facing a dead end. Except the dead end was, uh, moving. The hedge was slowly closing in on us, the branches reaching out like fingers.
"Um, Zane?" I backed up. "Is the plant wall supposed to do that?"
"Nope," he grabbed my hand. "Run!"
We sprinted back the way we came, the animated hedge pursuing us with surprising speed. Just as we reached the previous intersection, the ground beneath us shuddered and the paths rearranged themselves, creating an entirely new layout.
"He's changing the maze!" I gasped. "That fucking feather brained asshole!"
