Chapter 6 The Array Labyrinth

The array labyrinth is a tour puzzle made of wall-trees in the form of a complex branching passage through which the participants must find the right route. It is divided into several small mazes by tree walls of different heights.

The map showed that the labyrinth was circular; consisting of complex, changeable plants and movable partition walls. In fact, the linear distance from the entrance to the center point was  about ten meters. Nevertheless, the maze was usually simple to enter but difficult to exit. A careless move may well trigger a wrong step caused walking into a dead end. But if you get hang of the access into and out, there was always light at the end of the tunnel. It seemed to be a fascinating sort of play.

Both of them were gazing at the map while Baby and Happy were lying together near the wooden door. Joy fantasized that Sunshine's brain must be working like a supercomputer, so she dared not to disturb her. While she was letting her imagination run away with her, her memory about playing the labyrinth with her father had overwhelmed her.

Christ had always played the maze game with her during her childhood. Once she could not find the way out so that she had stayed in there circling around for a whole day, crying for her father’s help, but nobody was coming to rescue her. Finally she realized that self-reliance was the only way to get out of the awful place, she cheered herself up and started to make a mark for every turn. When she met a dead end, she had to start all over again. Although it was not an efficient way, it helped her to walk out. She was seeing that her father was waiting on the exit point with a seriously look.

Sunshine seemed to have finished reading and was meditating a broad view of the array Labyrinth with her eyes closed.

"Ok, we are good to go." she opened her eyes and shouted.

All of a sudden, the wall of trees on the map moved and the map disappeared.

"Did you see that? The trees are shifting."

"I was wondering why the map might vanish. Could you please ask Baby to touch the sign again?" Sunshine was nodding her head as spoke.

"Baby, darling, would you like to hit the sign again? Please?"

Baby was reluctant to scratch the sign, but the minute his paw touch it, the map reappeared.

"The tree-walls and paths did change."

Sunshine sat on the ground and began to study the map; her movements were easy and efficient. A moment later Happy raced to her barking, and drilling into her legs. Baby volunteered to stay near the door, Joy approached a little closer to him.

"Are you trying to impress Happy? You have never been obedient or subordinate." Joy was joking about Baby.

"Would you go away? You’re blocking my view."

About half an hour later, Sunshine stood up while Happy ran away. She patted the dust off her clothes, closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"I am ready."

"Excellent." Joy was clapping with joy.

Sunshine made no response; she waved out the light unexpectedly. Darkness spread and enfolded them; they tried to adjust their vision to the faint starlight until they spotted the beauty of the stars. The stars were keenly shining, sparkling like diamonds, dancing across the night sky. That it seemed as if they were in a fairyland.

Sunshine rushed into the labyrinth from the entrance with Happy followed her closely; Joy and Baby were also keeping her pace with them. The tree-walls were about two meters high, and the passageway was nearly one meter wide which she could walk side by side with Sunshine, and she could see the turning corner by standing at the gateway. Sunshine would pause linger in every turn to make sure the direction they were moving on was valid.

A clear division of them was clear-cut, Sunshine was leading the way, and Joy was monitoring the surroundings and keeping track of changes around them. The trees were all naturally grown, there were no gaps between them on account of they were linking very closely together. Tree-walls certainly lived up to its reputation.

There was a small matter bothered Joy that each corner stand by a unique dragon tree, which was not exposed on the map. As they approached to the seventh turn, Sunshine suddenly stopped and scooped up Happy.

"Why don’t we take a break? It's about time for the maze to transform to another formation. Be careful."

Joy rushed forward to grab Sunshine’s right arm, reaching out her other arm to embrace Baby. The trees initiated an action. It was slow vibration of the ground at the beginning; soon the earth was shaking with a massive thumping split under their feet. The two ladies held hands and stood still with their eyes closed. Sunshine was holding her hands so tight that she could feel her blood would not be able to transport oxygen around the fingers. Joy was also very scared since it was her first experience. After all, they were just kids.

The quaking did not last long, they slowly opened their eyes until there was dead silence reigned the trees.

Sunshine let go of her hand and apologized for the slight bruise at her back of the hand. Both of them were adjusting their breathing. Joy rubbed the back of her hand and checked around; it was completely different tree-walls from where she had just walked. Sunshine recovered from the shock, steered by the stars. But she manifested her uncertainty with a scowl; droplets of sweat were welling up on her forehead and cheeks.

"Are you ok?" Joy was wiping the sweat for her.

"Just give me a moment, please."

Joy stepped aside and stuffed the words she was planning to say back.

"I believe I encounter a personal crisis right now." Sunshine admitted to herself.

"I have something important to tell you, there's a dragon tree growing at each corner when we need to turn. At first I think it just weird, but maybe it is the key, what is your opinion? "Joy was chipping in.

"There is a Dragon Tree at every turn?"

With the piece of information, Sunshine skillfully drew together the clues of the maze, which led directly to its destination with the Dragon Tree as a linear guide.

"Wow, it is outstanding."

She was pointing at a direction, beginning to move forward, Happy was barking excitedly with growling and wagging tail.

"I want to see how her brain works."

"You're lucky to have her as your teammate."

"Ha ha, with a bit of luck, we can win the world."Joy was relaxing while she was teasing by Baby.

Sunshine walked quickly without hesitation, they made a few turns before seeing a pavilion standing in the middle of the forest. Built from stone and supported by wooden pillars, which was protected by powerful shield; there was a basket full of rice in it. They sat down to take a rest.

"I've been meaning to ask you something, but I didn't want to interrupt. What is the trick?" Joy was pointing at the labyrinth.

"I thought you never ask."Sunshine was in a humorous tone.

"Please? "Joy was turning the charm on her and shaking her left arm.

"The map is just a decoy, and the transformation of the tree-walls is also a disguise. The key is the Dragon trees, they scattered in the array as a point from the entrance to the final destination, if you join these points to one line which you would be able to reach the pavilion directly. And the location of the dragon trees remained the same as other trees were changing."

"You are amazing." Joy gave a thumbs-up.

"By the way, Thanks for telling me about the Dragon tree; I was a little panicked by then."

"You scratch my back, I scratch yours."

It was too early to celebrate the victory; they shared a glance to tell each other that they were ready for the coming challenge. Nevertheless, they could not image that the Rice was a port to another sanctuary where was cancelling a type of grains which they wished to seek.

In the habitat, Wu Xi was sitting in front of the waterfall, holding a dark green teacup with a black cat's image on it in her left hand.

"Mr. Black, what do you think?" She took a sip from her tea-cup and looked at the black cat sitting beside her.

"I still think it should be Sunshine Su." Mr. Black persisted.

"You just see part of it; you still cannot see the whole picture."

Then she stopped talking, leaving poor Black, full of doubts, and his attempt to figure it out was doomed to failure.