" I don't think that's such a good idea ", I shouted faintly towards' him, trying to drew his attention back to us. Without turning, he continued to walk into the distance.

" Come on " , I said to Fledgling, " Lets' go ". We continued to follow Corcoran down the narrow alleyway. He was further ahead of us, so we had to run some distance before we caught up with him.

As we drew up next to him, we found ourselves at the end of the alleyway, faced with a junction, Corcoran turned to me," OK, Elena, what way is it then ? ", he said, frowning, still upset with me. " To the left is a dead end, I saw that clearly marked out. We need to turn right, however, I fear we might not make it through. There was some very strong markings' on the map, indicating somekind of danger ahead. ". I said, not knowing the kinds' of trouble we was about to face . I decided not to mention anything more and so, kept quiet as we moved forward together. Heading on further into, what I can only now descirbe as ' The curse of the maze '.

" We have to stop, now ", I said, standing still, Fledgling looked back at me, continuing to walk. " Why ? ", he said. " Don't move Fledgling, stand right where you are ". With a nervous half smile, he continued walking on , not listening to a word I had to say. Turning his body back around to face the path again.

As he walked forward, he hit a hidden mechanism in the ground, driving up from the foundations' of the stone cobbled floor. Releasing a ancient relic, a wielding sword, just missing his feet by inches', as he lent forward to escape the fierce blades' that drove out from inside the ground. Forcing him to move hastily without hesitation, both in and out, through the riddling relentless pursuit of the deadly trap that had be layed in wait for an unsuspecting victim. In panic and in fear of his life, he couldn't turn back as he started to open the way for us to follow on behind.

98.