Not having navigated the maze in year(s) past, Aedan was determined to give it a go this year...particularly since he'd decided, last minute, that he was going to celebrate Halloween to the fullest this year...since he'd been largely withdrawn from most things, for the larger part of this year. Shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other as he stood outside, he tilted his head slightly, as he listened to a few...what sounded like genuine screams, from other students (he hoped). This might just be really truly terrifying.

Stepping through the maze entrance, he immediately turned left, deciding that decisiveness was the way to go. As he made his way down the path he'd selected, he swore he smelled...smoke? It was a familiar smell, and one that had him half worried that he'd unintentionally lit something on fire (but really, it had been months since he'd done so without realizing it, so surely that wasn't the case? Nonetheless, he looked around surreptitiously, and was rather relieved to see that no, he had not accidentally lit something (or someone) on fire).

It was, however, starting to burn his eyes...while fire was his element, smoke was not his favorite, so shifted his direction, moving away from the smoke until the air began to clear (he swore it even smelled worse than usual, although he wasn't prone to inhaling smoke on purpose in the usual course of things). The air had finally begun to feel semi clear, when he fell down, smacking his elbow on the way as he tumbled into what appeared to be a pit.

Getting to his feet with a muttered curse, Aedan brushed off his hands, sighing. Hopefully no one had been around to see his moment of extreme clumsiness...Rolling his eyes, he headed in the only direction open to him, ignoring a flower that lay in the middle of the path as he continued on his way. As he did so, a laugh echoed behind him, almost prompting a shudder. Nonetheless, he pressed onward, until he came across a sparring dummy. Stopping to stare at it for a moment, he blinked. What was that doing in the maze? Watching it suspiciously, as if half suspecting that it was not, in fact, an ordinary sparring dummy, he edged around it cautiously, ignoring it.

Eventually the path widened out, leading directly to a house. There was no sign of movement within it, and so he made his way around the building, starting with surprise as a new path suddenly opened out, and he would swear the temperature dropped dramatically. There were a number of signs, full of...really awful puns. One of them, however, was missing the punch line. Staring at a pen that lay next to it, as if demanding it be filled out, he debated for a moment, before rolling his eyes as he picked up the pen and filled in the punch line.

"What did the skeleton say to the doctor about how he broke his arm?
It was a pretty humerus story."

As he finished writing, a scream echoed through the maze, sending a chill down his spine. Looking up, he noticed that a bush had moved, opening up a new path. Directly in the center of it lay a snail. Stopping to encourage the snail on its way, Aedan then smiled as he got to his feet, ambling onwards (forever onward!) along the path. Eventually, he reached a clearing, where a gate that appeared to lead to the center of the maze sat. beside it lay two keys; one shaped like a flower, and one like a knife. Debating between the two, it took Aedan a few moments to spot a small group of snails, apparently encouraged by his kindness to one of their own, and who were pushing the flower key at him most insistenly (if slowly).

Shrugging, he picked up the proffered key, and was almost surprised when it opened the gate without major incident. He'd done it, he'd completed the maze! [END]