"Sick, so what's our mini-prize this time?" Paula asked after hearing Ned's usual congratulatory message.
"THERE IS NO MINI-PRIZE FOR TODAY'S CHALLENGE."
"What? No fair how come?"
"WHEN DID I SAY THAT I WOULD BE GIVING OUT MINI-PRIZES AFTER EVERY ROUND?"
"Well it wasn't explicitly stated but like… I don't know. We've received one every round so far after completing the challenges, isn't it implied at this point?"
"WELL TOO BAD, YOU THOUGHT WRONG."
"Wait a minute," Melanie said, "that reminds me, how can we even be sure you are magical and will grant our wish at the end anyways?"
"YOU DON'T, BUT DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING BETTER TO DO?"
"That's fair."
"TO SILENCE YOUR SPECULATION HOWEVER, I WILL SHOW YOU MY POWERS BY GRANTING YOU A PET DRAGON."
Just as Ned finished his sentence, suddenly a podium popped up in front of us and indeed, a small dragon appeared. A small stuffed dragon that is.
"Lame… that's just a stuffed animal. That's not impressive at…"
"OMG a dragon!"
Paula pushed me out of the way to grab the plushie on the podium.
"Oww…what? That thing's going to impress you? I'm pretty sure you can buy those at the toy store for 20$"
"Shush dipshit, I'm going to call him Enes."
"SEE, I TOLD YOU, I KEEP MY PROMISES. HOWEVER, AS I SAID, YOU CANNOT RECEIVE YOUR WISHES UNTIL YOU COMPLETE ALL OF THE TRIALS."
A mechanical arm then suddenly popped up from the ground and quickly snatched the dragon plushie from Paula's grasp.
"Hey what hell, give that back."
Before she could resnatch it however, the mechanical arm along with the stuffed animal, disappeared back into the ground.
"Enes noooooo"
"5 TRIALS DOWN, 5 MORE TO GO. COME BACK IN 2 DAYS TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT."
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"WHAT THE HELL, WHY ARE YOU GUYS BACK ALREADY?"
2 days had gone by since the last trial and the 4 of us were gathered at our usual spot in the cave to greet Ned again.
"What do you mean? It's been 2 days already."
"WHAT HAPPENED IN THE DAY BETWEEN THE TRIALS?"
"Nothing much to be honest, we didn't get a mini prize so just the usual routine. Paula bullies me, Melanie caught another giant fish, and Fiona sits there blankly observing us."
"Maybe you should just let me keep the dragon next time..." Paula said disgruntled.
"Oh actually, something significant did happen!" Melanie announced.
"…"
"…"
"…"
About 1 minute of silence passed as we waited for Melanie to continue.
"WELL GO ON, WHAT SIGNFICANT THING HAPPENED?"
"I forgot."
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Oh wait, I remember now! I caught an even larger swordfish than before!"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"We live boring lives," Fiona said finally breaking the silence.
"YES, THAT IS CLEAR NOW."
"Yeah can we get, I don't know, a Frisbee or something for the next mini-prize?" Paula asked.
"OKAY FINE, I WILL PROVIDE A FRISBEE IF YOU COMPLETE THIS NEXT CHALLENGE."
"Sweet."
"THIS NEXT CHALLENGE HOWEVER WILL NOT BE AN EASY ONE. PLEASE PRESS THE BUTTON TO START."
"Pressssss," Melanie said pressing the button on the screen. As she did, the wall in front of us once again split open. Behind it ,we saw a single path through what appeared to be a bunch of mirrors that stretched all the way up to the ceiling.
"Ahhhhh a fashion show," Paula said standing in front of one of the mirrors and doing pose, "I do look pretty hot if I do say so myself, bet you'd do pretty well here too toots."
"You're ugly," Fiona responded back.
"NO YOU NIMRODS, HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY THINK THAT IS WHAT THIS IS."
"Is it a break the mirrors challenge then?" Melanie said going up to one of the mirrors and giving it a swift punch. The mirror however, was quite sturdy as only Melanie's knuckle was bruised in the impact.
"Owwww…."
"NO WHAT? WHY WOULD IT BE THAT?"
"I saw this in a movie."
"THERE'S NEVER BEEN A MOVIE WITH THE PREMISE OF BREAKING MIRRORS. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"
"You don't know me."
"ANYWAYS, LET ME EXPLAIN WHAT THE ACTUAL CHALLENGE IS. AS YOU CAN SEE, THERE IS A PATH BETWEEN THE MIRRORS. THIS IS BECAUSE THIS CHALLENGE IS AN OBSTACLE MAZE CHALLENGE. THE FIRST STRETCH OF THE MAZE IS INSIDE THE MIRRORS, BUT THAT'S NOT THE CASE FOR THE WHOLE CHALLENGE AS THERE ARE 3 STRETCHES. REACH THE END OF THE 3RD MAZE DOOR TO COMPLETE THE CHALLENGE."
"Oh that seems simple enough, wait did you say "obstacle" maze?"
"THAT IS RIGHT, WHILE YOU ARE TRAVERSING THE MAZES, A NUMBER OF ANNOYING OBSTACLES WILL BE IN YOUR WAY."
"What? What does that even mean?"
"STEP INSIDE TO FIND OUT."
As he told me that, I took a single step into the maze.
"Okay? Nothing really interesting happe… owwwww"
Suddenly above me, random plastic ping pong balls began to fall down and hit my head.
"THEY'RE NOT HUGE OBSTACLES, BUT THEY WILL BE MILDLY ANNOYING"
"Well that sucks…" I said stepping out of the maze again, "wait Melanie, you still have your backpack don't you? Let me use it for cover."
"What! Nooooooo," Melanie said taking her backpack off her back and holding it away from me.
"You can take cover in front of me as I hold it up."
"Mmm… okay. But my books better not get damaged you hear!" Melanie said glaring at me and slowly handing me the backpack.
"They're ping pong balls, how bad could it be?"
"Oh, and toots is an android so she doesn't feel pain. She can just hover her arms over my head to protect me," Paula said looking over at Fiona.
"Fine…"
"BY THE WAY, YOU HAVE A TIMER OF 10 MINUTES TO COMPLETE THIS CHALLENGE."
"When does that start?"
"WHEN SOMEONE FIRST ENTERS THE MAZE, THE TIMER WILL BEGIN. WHICH WAS ABOUT 30 SECONDS AGO WHEN XAVIER WENT IN. SO NOW YOU HAVE 9 MINUTES 30 SECONDS."
"What? How's that fai…"
"Hurry dipshit!" Paula said giving me a slap, "no time to waste."
"Sigh… whatever."
And with that, I grabbed Melanie's backpack and hovered it over both of our heads as the 4 of us entered the maze.
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