[CYOA] Navigate the Maize Maze (Kostya)

[its me debz]

His body was a small one, this time, and definitely a girl. It was, strangely enough, the least disruptive part of his golem: being incredibly short-- about 1.2 meters at the tallest-- was much more debilitating.

Kostya huffed, and remembered in alarming clarity:

Ah, yes. His voice is exactly the same.

But, the goal was to investigate Halloween and so, he went. Begrudgingly.  

[its me debz]

The maze is corn up above his head and then some, and even had he been in his normal body it would have been too tall to see past.

At a crossroads, he went left, and while the moan that comes from further ahead is sad, Kostya steels himself. He is not afraid of anything here.

He's seen much worse.  

[its me debz]

Kostya chose left, the ends of his skirts and cloak dragging across the ground, a rhythmic shh shhh following him wherever he went.

A horn wails in the distance, but he disregards it, moving on through the labyrinthine corridors of plant, an orange moon hanging bright in the sky above.

Something is waiting. But what?  

[its me debz]

The path continues, dragging on and on, and Kostya's legs-- now so short, so stubby-- are starting to ache, down in his strange, clawed feet.

(The body is alarming. The body is different. The body is not his own but it is, in the end, just a vessel and nothing more, like putting on a mask.

But hadn't he done that too long...?)

And then, out of the dark, appears... A moat. A moat that, despite his newfound short stature, is little more than two steps to cross. It demands a cost he cannot pay, rifling through pockets and turning up empty, his golem's clothes useless at providing anything but decency.

So, Kostya steps over it, easiest done exactly as said.  

[its me debz]

And there is no consequence, for that. There hardly seems to be consequences for anything, here, in this world of Halloween.

But, still, Kostya pressed on, if only for the sake of seeing what lays at the end. The corn turns darker, bending above him in some sort of mockery of shelter. The path yawns onward, turning this way and that, mushrooms dotting the sides of it, glowing dimly.

The strange little gnomes are fest felt rather than seen or heard, beady eyes glittering at him from the dark.

Kostya opts not to inquire about the correct path. At worst, he'll dissipate, fading back to clay and awakening in his pod.  

[its me debz]

They argue for what feels like hours, and Kostya takes their advice for one reason: to get them to shut up.

In the end, he steps around them to move on. Not over them, like he wishes, but simply around, due to the heaviness of the skirts that just get heavier now that they're damp from mud and dew in the night air.

He goes Weast, and approaches the stairs, thoughtful.

Which way to go?  

[its me debz]

Down. It's only ever been down.

But at the bottom, there is only another gnome, demanding to know who he is.

(Does Kostya even know the answer?)  

[its me debz]

Who is it going to tell? And to most, it sounds like a girl's name.

"Kostya," he says, head tilted in mock-curiosity, bright blue eyes glittering and luminous.

But he doesn't ask anything; he just waits.  

[its me debz]

The doll is huge, overstuffed and well-worn.

But it also wants him to play with him, and that he will not abide.

Kostya shakes his head, chimes in his long, black hair rattling. He pivots on one foot and tries to leave back the way he came, but the giggle of a child follows him like a ghost, chasing after him like a shadow.

Upon his arrival at the center, Kostya is given a golden ear, as in, an ear-shaped candy made of gold that he will not, under any circumstances, be eating.