Brigit was annoyed by the voice. How dare a disembodied voice call her a fool! She who once the Guardian of The Crystal Maze. As a Cheshire cat, she couldn't help but be intrigued by the proposal of a game. She rolled her eyes at the proposed challenge. She had spent years navigating a maze, and finding her way out of a forest would be a piece of cake. She tried to explain this fact to the voice but received no response. Once she realized the voice did not intend to speak further with her, she started looking for a way out.
As she walked, she looked around the forest she was in. She didn't recognize anything around her or remember entering a forest. Just how did she end up here, she wondered to herself. As she continued walking, she started to hear what sounded like running water. Was that a river?
Upon reaching the river, she stared in disbelief at all the debris floating along the water. There were lots of logs, and were those alligators? What kind of crazy place was she in. She liked it. It reminded her of home. Clearly, it wasn't safe to swim across the river, so she decided to see if a bridge was nearby. She doubted it, but maybe that's what the voice wanted her to think.
After walking up and down the river for a bit, looking for a bridge, she returned to where she first encountered the river. She could now say for sure that there was no bridge nearby. She'd have to figure out another way to get across. In times like this, she wouldn't mind having wings though she had a feeling that even those with wings would have found themselves unable to fly in this place.
Watching the logs float down the river, she started to get an idea. She could use the logs to stay afloat with her weight as stepping stones to get across. She would have to be quick as the river could have been faster-moving. Gathering herself, she jumped onto the closest log and breathed a sigh of relief when it stayed afloat. Now all he had to do was make it the rest of the way across.
After jumping along a couple more logs, she was in a pickle. She was about halfway across, but no logs were close enough to jump to. As she looked around, she noticed movement in the water before her. It was an alligator; it swam with just its head viable above the water and just within jumping distance with a log on its other side. An idea began to form in her mind. It was a bit crazy, but it was either using the alligator's head as a stepping stone or turning back, and she wasn't getting out of this forest if she went back. Taking a deep breath, she jumped onto the alligator's head and, while it was still stunned by the unexpected move, jumped onto the before-noticed log. Another jump to a log, then a jump to the bank, and she was finally across the river.
She took a moment to catch his breath at the river bank before continuing, leaving a rather angry alligator behind.
After walking for far longer than she thought possible without exiting the forest, she was confident there was no forest this big anywhere around where she had been before waking up here; she reached what appeared to be a dead end with steep unclimbable cliff faces all around. Now there was a mountain in the middle of the forest? She was both confused by and curious about this place.
As this was supposed to be a challenge, there was likely a way past the cliffs; she just had to find it. She started to feel around the stone walls with her hooves, looking for anything that felt out of place. As she slowly moved, she soon came across a small rock jutting out of one of the walls, utterly unnoticeable from just looking. She smirked; this was the same trick used in the maze. Putting all her weight behind it, she pushed the rock in. There was a grinding sound as a part of the wall moved, revealing a tunnel through the cliffs. Cautiously she made his way through the tunnel.
Stepping out of the other side of the tunnel, she could see what appeared to be the end of the woods. Slowly she made her way over, looking for any traps. Stopping in front of the exit, he looked behind her. This was a strange game, and she was happy to finish it. With one more look around, she stepped through the exit and out of the forest. (791)
