Easier Said Than Done [OPEN]

[TINO VÄINÄMÖIMEN]

"Calm down Finny, everything is going to be ok.." The Finnish teen told himself before following the path to yet another dead-end . "It's no use, I'll never be able to find my way out of this place!" He groaned loudly at the thought. "I KNEW I SHOULDN'T HAVE CAME HERE!!" He whines out loud before heading back to the main path.

Earlier it was such a peaceful day and Tino was thinking about going out for a nature walk somewhere either on or off campus. He was thinking of maybe the nearby forest or even down to the cute little village nearby. However, it was until he was overhearing some older students talking about the training maze.

It wasn't like he was trying to eavesdrop but they were just talking really loud and were walking really slow in front of him. One of the guys were complaining about it was really hard to navigate through due to all the trees and thick bushes all over the place. Yet, the other one was arguing that despite the dangerous obstacles it was really a great and quiet place to explore.

At that instant Tino was set on the training maze, even if he got lost he would just use his powers and ask the plants a way out. They're usually really helpful when Tino ask them. That was what he had thought the before he actually entered the maze.

At first, he took his time exploring the maze and enjoying all the plant-life's company. He didn't even mind walking into dead ends. However when noon struck, Tino was getting parched and hungry. He had completely lost track of time. However, when he tried to communicate with the nearby plants it was quiet. He didn't feel anything, usually he'd play hot and cold with his powers to find a way out.

Since the horrific discovery that his powers were weakened in the maze, Tino have been stuck in the maze for hours running into dead ends and mythical creatures that wanted to hurt him. "What if I'll be here forever: hungry, cold, and alone.." He said sadly before running into yet another dead end. The Finn suddenly sat down, hugged his knees, and buried his face in his knees in despair.

[GILBERT BEILSCHMIDT]

Gilbert liked to be up early, contrary to what one might assume based on first impressions. He'd acquired this quirk from his uncle; the man had always held a strictly regimented schedule that began at five in the morning and ended at ten every night. Of course, when he'd been in the old man's care, Gilbert had always been allowed to sleep in until seven as he was a growing boy. As he got older, however, he found himself falling into the old man's habits without necessarily intending to.

This morning had been no different. He had woken just two minutes before his alarm, lying awake in the dim room just barely lit by the faintest glimmer of the coming dawn.

The clock's bleating alarm broke the silence, though, and with it came the sense of grogginess that followed waking so early in the morning. Gilbert turned head head to read the time in glowing red numbers. 5:30. Just like every other day.

Slapping the clock to turn of the alarm, he stood slowly and stretched, grumbling and groaning as he fumbled into full consciousness. He groped around for his glasses so he could avoid breaking his toes on drawers or desks or whatever other furniture might spring out at him in the darkness. Matthew still dozed in his own bed across the room, curled gently on his side as his soft, rhythmic breathing colored the stillness.

Gilbert grabbed his work-out clothes: a pair of Adidas shorts and a matching shirt, some athletic socks, and good (if worn) pair of running shoes. Making his way to the bathroom, he dressed there quickly, put in his contacts, and brushed his teeth before heading out the door for his own morning training routine.

Outside the air was moist and dew-flavored. Jogging the long way around in the direction of the training maze, Gilbert stretched his arms and shoulders over his head to work out the kinks. He liked to come and practice at this sort of hour when no one else was around to see him stumble or struggle as he trained (n-not that he did that... much...). It was embarrassing to him to be seen tripping over a trap or unable to overcome an obstacle on his first attempt. It haunted him to think that his failure would linger with the onlookers and would color their perception of him forever. 

Training alone was definitely the best!

Having worked up a nice sweat jogging a nice 5 kilometers around the school campus, Gilbert finally approached the maze. He stopped at the entrance, stretching and doing a set of push ups and and sit ups before stretching and preparing to go in. His goal was to be in and out before lunch.

Drinking from the nearby drinking fountain, he decided there was no point to continuing to dawdle out here. 

The maze was at least fairly cool at this time of the morning, and the overgrowth of plant life gave it sort of a refreshing shade that smelled of nature and other pleasant, green things. As much as traversing here could be reminiscent of strolling in the woods, Gilbert knew better than to underestimate the set of traps and other challenges presented by this maze.

The sun was still climbing slowly into the sky and he was feeling good about his progression. Having dodged and rolled and climbed his way in, he felt as though the maze was unlikely to provide him with any real challenges today.

Gilbert was horribly incorrect.

Having just maneuvered around a pressure pad that would have triggered God only knows what sort of horrible trap, the albino let out a triumphant laugh and didn't notice as he put his foot down right on another pad. In fact, he didn't even notice until the tranquilizer dart struck the back of his neck.

"What the hell?" Groping for it, he managed to yank it out before a wave of dizziness struck him. "Scheiße..."

Going down like a ton of bricks, Gilbert collapsed there in the middle of the training maze without even knowing he'd been hit at all. He'd be alright...

... in about 12 hours when the drug wore off.

[TINO VÄINÄMÖIMEN]

"Ei, it won't end like this.." The Finnish boy got back up on his feet. So what if he ran into a million and one deadends. He couldn't give up, because there was still a chance to get out. He remembered getting lost in the woods all the time when he was younger. He didn't even know that he had powers back then, but he had found his way out just fine.

Tino stared at the dead end and started to climb over it. Once he reached the top, he could see the entire maze. "By the looks of it, I have a long way until I reach the end..." With his confidence back up and the strive for survival, Tino jumped onto the other side of the maze. "Let's see this path should lead me to the exit.". He thought out loud as he turned left.

Time flew by fast as he maneuvered his way around the maze. He had ran to bear traps, ten feet deep holes, and trip wires that sent arrows flying your way. Thankfully he hadn't gotten stuck in any of them, yet. However, all these boobie traps left him on edge and jittery. He had to be careful, who knows what might be lurking around the corner.

As if he had jinxed himself, Tino found himself face to face with a robot. It was about 6 feet tall, made completely out of metal, and was the scariest thing he had seen all day. The blond immediately froze and hoped that it wouldn't hurt him. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, the droid stared at him for a few moments before releasing flames from its mouth. "Mitä vittua?! This thing is trying to kill me!!" he quickly turned around and ran like hell.

Tino tried his best to get the fire-breathing demon off his trail by jumping over the previously mentioned traps, but to no avail the robot was closing in on him. The teen made a sudden turn and was immediately faced with another obstacle: an Olympic sized pool. Before he could make the decision of facing the robot or face the unknowns of the pool, he felt the heat on his back. Especially his jacket, the flames caught onto his hoodie and was about turn the Finn into barbecue.

Tino made a jump for it and was greeted by ice cold water. As he swam to the other side of the pool, he thanked God for his swimming abilities and the light clothing that he was wearing. Once he got out of the water, Tino just continued to run at full speed without looking to see if he was still being chased. He didn't even notice that he was heading straight towards an unconscious body and tripped over it.

After a few minutes of huffing and puffing, he looked over to see what he had tripped over. "Wait is that a dead body?" his reflexes made him kick it away and let out a terrified scream.

[GILBERT BEILSCHMIDT]

The screaming and kicking was enough to rouse Gilbert out of his drug-induced stupor, though when he woke, he wished he hadn't. Hours of lying unconscious in the sun had left him sunburned beyond all reason and completely hydrated. His tongue felt like sandpaper as he sat up, trying to get the hysterical newcomer's attention. 

"Hey! Calm down!" he managed to rasp, putting out his arms to catch the boy's attention. "Calm the hell down! This isn't the time to panic!"

The drug had left him with a headache, and even now he felt a little dizzy. Trying to shake away the worst of the haze, Gilbert unsteadily got to his feet. Every single inch of his exposed body was screaming in discomfort from the severe sunburn, and he felt nauseous. Ugh... This was awful.

"Which way'd you come from?" he asked, pointing around in a few different directions to refer to the maze. He didn't say it aloud, but Gilbert knew he had to get to the infirmary and fast. Between the drug, the sunburn, and the dehydration, he was in no shape at all to spend much time in this maze. Checking his watch, he found he had been lying in the maze unconscious for nearly 10 hours. The sun was already setting. "The exit's to the west, right? We just gotta head for the sun!"

[TINO VÄINÄMÖIMEN]

When the body started to move, Tino had a flash back of a scary movie he saw not too long ago. "Z-z-zombie?" he blurted out from fright when the other boy extended his arms. It didn't help that the other boy's words were barely understandable and his eyes were red. He silently watched as the boy, as if he was going to disappear at any given moment. If you were to ask the blond hours ago, how would he react if he found another person in the maze. The answer would be that he'd be ecstatic.

However, at this moment he was anything but happy. He was exhausted, wet, and most likely suffering from first degree burns on his back. Tino felt like he was gonna pass out at any second. And yet, he restraint himself and tried to keep it together. "Is he the living dead? He doesn't look so hot..." his face slowly had concern written all over.

He slightly regretted kicking him earlier. It wasn't like the other teen was trying to scare him, and he was most likely not taking a nap in the middle of the maze. Maybe if he cooperated, they could both get out safely and take a much needed trip to the nurse's office.

"H-H-hey you shouldn't be moving around like that..." Tino grabbed at the other's pants leg. He held onto the fabric tight out of two fears: 1) he was afraid that the other might collapse and faint again, 2) if he didn't hold on tight enough the other might run away and leave him by himself again.

The teen pointed in the direction of the freezing pool and death machine, in response of where he had came from. "We can't go that way though, you'd have to swim across a large body of water and then face a fire breathing robot..." he explained. "Do you really think we'd make it out before sunset..." the second half was muttered to himself.

[GILBERT BEILSCHMIDT]

The look on this poor kid's face was terrified as Gilbert sat up. Hell, he looked like he'd seen a ghost! Then again, he was looking pretty rough, to be honest - his clothes and hair were singed and his eyes looked ready to pop out of his skull. The younger boy was the perfect picture example of horrified. Then again, that was what happened when you went into the training maze alone.

The albino mentally smacked himself for being an idiot. What had he been thinking?

"We're not gonna get anywhere just screwin' around over here. C'mon, I wanna be outta here before dark." Beginning to stagger in the direction he was fairly certain was west, Gilbert was caught off guard by the boy who suddenly grabbed onto his leg in an act of pure desperation.

"H-H-hey you shouldn't be moving around like that..."

"Hey! Watch it!" Gilbert fell to his knee, bruising it rather badly on the ground. He had to be careful to avoid yet another damned pressure pad he'd only noticed in the process of falling, but in avoiding it he'd had to fall strangely. He cursed loudly, rolling onto his back and clutching his knee. Today was not his goddamned day at all!

"We can't go that way though, you'd have to swim across a large body of water and then face a fire breathing robot..." the boy explained as Gilbert sat up slowly.

"Fire breathing robot? Are you kiddin'?" The sunburned albino shook his head in disbelief. "I've heard they've got some crazy-ass traps in here, but seriously??"

Sighing, he glanced back the way he'd come. It had taken him some time to get in, but he had marked his path. After all, he wasn't a complete idiot.

"We're gonna have to go back out the way I came in. At least that way, I know the traps that're there."

[TINO VÄINÄMÖIMEN]

"Maybe I shouldn't have grabbed on so tightly…" Tino quietly second guessed his actions. His reflexes were either too slow to catch the older boy or simply was too tired to even try. So he just watched as the other fall rather oddly. It took him some time to notice that he was trying to avoid yet another trap. "AHH, snap out of it Finny!" he shook his head as if he was able to shake off his weariness and nervousness.

"Ahh, are you okay?" Tino started crawling over to him. He made sure that he didn't trigger any other trip wires or pressure pads. "Sorry…" he hadn't mean to make him fall. The Finn just didn't want the older boy to meet the same fate as him.

Despite his body screaming 'hell no', the blond got back up on his feet and offered his hand as a leverage. Normally Tino would have laughed at the remark and probably would have replied along the lines of "Yeah, isn't that crazy?" in his usual cheerful manner. However, he just nodded his head in confirmation that such thing exists.

"We're gonna have to go back out the way I came in. At least that way, I know the traps that're there."

That was probably the only thing the other boy has said that actually made Tino calm down. "Woah, he actually remembered his way back?" He kinda just stared at him like he was some sort of god or a super-human. Well of course he was the latter, but still. Tino tried countlessly for hours, to find his way back but it just made him feel even more lost.

He started to tear up a bit from pure joy that he had meet such a reliable guy. He doesn't even know his name and yet he was willing to help him out. At a loss for words of graditude, Tino just faced away from the boy and tried to wipe the tears off his face.  If they ever got out of the training maze alive, Tino would defiantly have to treat him out to food, drinks, sauna, or heck even all three.

[GILBERT BEILSCHMIDT]

Sensing Tino's wonderment at his ability to navigate the maze, Gilbert felt that it was the appropriate time for a life lesson taught by big brother.

"Look, when you're in a place like this, you've gotta either have a good memory, or you gotta mark your way so that you can at least find your way back to the start. Sometimes you might hit a dead end and have to turn around, and you'll need to know which direction you came from or you'll just go in circles forever. So make a marker or something so that you know where you're going." He stopped his explanation then. As much as he loved being able to teach younger students (ie, show off what he knew), his sunburn hurt just talking.

But when Tino seemed to be a little confused, he decided to continue anyway.

Gilbert fished around his shoe for a moment and withdrew a nickel. "I leave loose change behind. I mean, it's not the best method - hell, it prolly costs me a bit to come through - but I don't end up wandering aimlessly."

Putting the nickel back, he gestured back down the route he'd come. "We have to head this way first, though."

[TINO VÄINÄMÖIMEN]

Tino quickly cleaned himself up when the other started to talk. He listened attentively when the German explained himself.  So he wasn't a superhuman that could navigate his way through anything.  It was all pretty common sense actually.  

He really should be writing all this down somewhere but just took mental notes in his head. This will most likely save him from a similar situation in the near future. Tino had a decent memory nothing extraordinary so most likely next time he'd be leaving some sort of trail.

He nodded in response to the explanation of the coin trail. Although it seemed a bit strange, he was impressed. "Wow, you're really smart, uh…", he had forgotten that he didn't know the other's name, but it wasn't exactly the time or place for a proper introductions.  He didn't sense any sort of threat from the other person, but rather the opposite.  He was rather calm and comfortable around him.  Tino felt that he could be his usual chatter-box self, despite the predicament that they were currently in. 

'Sorry for being a stranger, my name is Tino and I'm in year 5." he quickly introduced himself as they made their way to the direction the boy pointed to earlier. The Finn followed behind the other while keeping his eyes out for the next coin.

The blond looked over to the older boy, now that he thinks about it; he was really lucky to run into someone here. Who knows what he would have been doing if he hadn't. "So, uh what brings you to a place like this… I mean, not like you can't come to this sort of place.  You can go wherever you want but like do you come here often?" Tino tried his best to make small talk to fill in the silence with his rambling.

[GILBERT BEILSCHMIDT]

Gilbert's memory was actually quite good, but -since he carried coins on his person at all times - it was easy for him to leave behind markers to make certain he was headed in the proper direction. After all, this was a maze designed to disorient and confuse. He usually used the sun's position to navigate, usually, but the sun had set and the maze was growing dark.

"Wow, you're really smart, uh…"

"Gilbert." He smirked at the praise, feeling better. He then winced at the pull on his face from the smirk. He was blistering and already he could feel his arms beginning to peel...


"Sorry for being a stranger, my name is Tino and I'm in year 5."

"It's a pleasure!" The older boy shook Tino's hand heartily, then began to lead him back the way he'd remembered.

"So, uh what brings you to a place like this… I mean, not like you can't come to this sort of place. You can go wherever you want but like do you come here often?"

"Well, I was trainin'," he admitted sheepishly. "I got hit in the back by a freakin' tranq dart, though. Knocked me out for hours, I guess - I came here at the ass crack of dawn."

Thinking about his answer for a few minutes, Gilbert added, "Yeah, I come here at least twice a week. I gotta stay on my toes, doncha think? Duck!"

He crouched as a swinging blade trap whistled over his head.

[TINO VÄINÄMÖIMEN]

"He was training? Wow, he must be really strong.." Tino thought. He had watched students train and sparred at the dojo all the time. He admired their dedication and passion but Tino was always too embarrassed to train with them. He listened to the explanation of how Gilbert had ended up on the ground. "Well that explains why you look like a lobster, haha" he laughed shyly.

They walked a few more steps until he heard the older kid yell, "Duck!"

Tino was caught off-guard but managed to fall back before the blade sliced the Finn in half. "Oo-ow" Tino groaned. He sat up and figured that he was in a safe distance away to stares at the swinging blade. If Gilbert hadn't said anything he would have been a Tino Kabob. These traps were really trying to kill them. He would have to send a complaint to the administration about these traps. Suddenly he felt the ground underneath his rear "clicked". It was another hidden pressure pad.

The teen looked around to see what kind of booby trap he had just set up. "U-uhh, Gilbert.." Unfortunately, he couldn't finish his sentence, because the ground started to violently rumble. "Earthquack?" the blond thought before he saw what was causing the shaking. A large boulder was rolling down the path which they came from. "G-Gilbert!" he yelled out for the other's attention as he pointed at the boulder.

If he wasn't so worried about becoming flattened pancakes, he would have pointed out the constructor's taste in movies. Too bad there was most defiantly not a hidden relic or prize at the end of the maze.

((Sorry for the late and short reply Gilly ono I've been super busy but I hope you like my Indiana Jones Reference xD))