“Where there? I see nothing but…” When I looked at the horizon of dry hills, we saw a dark mahogany door with no doorknob set in the middle of the desert a few feet away.
A few seconds ago, there was nothing but dry land, now an oak door was planted there. We were all surprised. Cinamomo returned to vulture form and flew to the highest branch of the dry oak.
“I think you better hurry, Lola. Time is running out. Now is enough, I've been kind enough, find your way! Bye.”
The vulture flapped its great white-tipped wings, followed by its two goons, toward the empty horizon. At the foot of the bark they left an hourglass carved in the same wood as the door, where a purple sand showed that our time was counting down. We had to run. I even tried to reach for it, but the hourglass crumbled to dust. We heard a loud voice like he was still there, ‘Get going, girl !!’ It was still Cinamomo's voice, but he was already a mile away. Everyone looked curiously toward that door.
“You heard the vulture, let's go!” I decided to obey the disgusting warning.
We started running towards the door, after all, a few feet ahead weren’t that far. Along the way, Kenzo decided to explain his response to the vulture.
“Guys, I answered that because that's what the animal wanted to hear. Of course, I would do nothing!”
“For one who would not do anything, you had a pretty quick answer, didn't you?” poked Dakota.
Kenzo didn't answer. In my dimension, if someone answered that it would be the most normal thing in the world. Although in Lumen, it was as if Kenzo had slapped his mother in the face or said a curse word inside church.
We ran to the door, but it was as if we had not advanced a step. The harder we tried to reach that freaking door, the farther it got out of our reach. Apart from Kenzo and Koda, everyone was already asking to stop.
“But what the heck is that?” I complained as I tried to inhale that dusty air to my lungs.
“They're playing with us.” Zyba used words better than mine.
The only thing getting closer and closer was the storm, with lightning and thunder that seemed ready to break our heads in half, it was going to fall any moment. Koda trembled on my shoulder, hid under the cape once more. Every mile ran in vain remembered me that time was running out, taking my patience with it. I was starting to feel distressed and my nerves were breaking down. My eyes stung more and more because of the dust.
“We must look for shelter, these lightning bolts could catch us at any moment.”
“Oh really? And where are we going to take shelter? Dig a hole?!” I was rude to Zyba while covering my eyes from the dust. Why did I do this? I am an idiot.
As punishment, I pulled in too much air and sneezed hard, feeling a needle in my right knee. It soon passed, but it was the first time my leg hurt since I had come to Lumen, the left one was already ok. When I could open my eyes, the door was about few steps from us.
“There! But how?” I looked astonished, like the others.
“Let’s go!” Kenzo took a step towards the door followed by the three of us. To our general surprise, the door also ran toward us like a magnet. We stopped all together, huddling into each other, facing the door.
“Okay, now what? Do we knock? Do we speak any magic words?” asked Dakota.
We didn't know what to do. We tried to knock three times, kick it down, use my ax, try Kenzo's sword. Nothing moved a splinter from that freaking door. Kenzo lost patience and started arguing with Dakota, about the right thing to do when we heard a squeaking noise. The door opened on its own, a small crack, as if inviting us inside. The discussion was over.
“Gunnar's beards! It just opened,” Zyba said.
“That's weird. Life for me is like math, if it's easy, it's wrong. But we have no choice, we must take the risk it, let's go Koda!” I said. The other three looked at each other without understanding anything. Koda answered with a bark and stuck his little claws into my cape even tighter.
I made the sign of the cross and made my way, there was no choice, I had to rescue my father or die trying.
I was careful not to die there too soon, though, so I pushed the door carefully. Still, from the outside, our jaws dropped at what was ahead. The sky was not ready for a storm, it was orange like a sunset, there was no sign of rain. It was like we had entered a room with a different ceiling. The infinity of the desert beyond the horizon gave way to a gigantic maze of the same size, in the shape of a thumbprint.
We almost crumpled as thunder erupted behind our heads, the promise of rain since we had got there was beginning to come true. We had to go through that door, the wind blowing us into the maze direction was bringing the first icy drops that hurt like needles to the skin. As soon as the last of us went through the door, it slammed shut and disappeared into the dust, along with the wind and the storm.
We went down a small hill leading off dry branches, I think a long time ago there was a forest here. We didn’t have to walk more than a few minutes to bump into the maze wall. It was a wall of sharp thorns like the stalks of millions of dead, dried, flowerless rose bushes. It was about fifteen feet high, infinite to the left and right, no entrance. Our compass was useless in that place. We were lost, not even knowing from where to start.
“I have no idea how to get into this place,” I grumbled as I searched for some hidden entrance.
“Is there no other door out there?” asked Zyba.
“They probably don’t have a door factory here! There must be some...”
“SHUT UP, DAKOTA! I'm sick of the rudeness of you two!” Zyba shouted, leaving the three of us still. I had never seen prisms being rude to each other. Dakota looked away and began tapping the compass with her finger in a futile attempt to make it work or find a good escape from the awkward situation she was in.
“Forgive me, Zyba. I was rude and was nervous, forgive me.” That scream was also to me. I felt guilty discounting my sadness on Zyba, just like my mother did to me.
He nodded, but kept staring at the floor, he was still breathing hard from the heat of anger. We were silent for a few seconds, cooling our spirits and looking for a way in. Looking at the dry branches of the wall, I tried to think of something useful.
“Not a chance to see anything above these walls, if anyone could jump over, it would be perfect,” I thought out loud.
“Let’s try. Lola, lean on me, let's try to throw Koda high. Now he has wings, maybe can see something,” said Kenzo.
Koda let out a growl shrinking into my shoulder. He couldn't fly, just bark. But it was our only option at that time, we had to try. I pushed my cape back, rested my weight on Kenzo's strong arm. When I put my foot in his hand and urged him up, I tried to lean myself, but there was no gap where I could hold without being pierced, those thorns were of the size of my little finger. From the ground to the top, the branches that made the wall were covered by them. I was looking for a place to lean on when a scream erupted in my ear.
“BE CAREFUL, GIRL!”
Surprising heart test. My heart pounded almost out of my throat. In the startle I slumped backwards, knocked Kenzo down and threw Koda a few feet forward, crashing over Dakota.
“Lola! Did you get hurt?” asked Zyba.
We fell each for a side. After Koda returned to my shoulder, I was able to sketch what had happened.