"So we follow the path the seeds have marked out for us," announced the hockey player, feeling rather pleased with himself.
"We do," agreed the old dragon. "Only it's not quite as simple as all that!"
"Of course not," whispered Peter under his breath so that only he could hear, whilst at the same time slapping his forehead with the palm of his right hand, the 'thwump' sound echoing off down the tunnel in front of him.
"You see," continued the old dragon, "we do indeed need to follow the seed path, but at the same time we need to pay attention to two other things."
Listening eagerly, knowing that his life almost certainly depended upon it, Peter stood and took it all in.
"One, because of the gravity anomaly, we need to keep as low to the ground as we possibly can, while all the time staying on the grass path between the seeds. At times the gravity will try to push and pull you in the wrong direction. And two, as we move along, the seeds from those dandelion puffballs will be released into the air. On no account must you let any hit you. If even one does, there's nothing I, or anyone else on this earth can do to save you from a frighteningly painful death."
It was at this point he waited... waited for the DA NAAA, the smile, the little, "Gotcha!", or his preferred favourite... the wink from the master mantra maker, hoping to hell this was all one big wind-up. But it never came, with the old dragon being as serious as he'd ever known him to be. Feeling that he was once again in some other dragon's nightmare and that fate was confusing him with someone else, Peter couldn't help but think that it was the whole Manson thing all over again. All he wanted was a quiet, uneventful life and with that in mind he blinked his eyes furiously, hoping against hope to wake up. It wasn't to be.
Taking a step forward with one of his giant feet, the sharpened points on his talons piercing the ground beneath the finely trimmed blades of grass as he did so, Gee Tee simply stated,
"Follow me exactly. Try to step only in my footprints... and keep balanced. That's very important!"
So off they set, the old shopkeeper plodding off very tentatively, if that is at all possible, with the youngster following exactly in his footsteps (a relatively easy task given that he was in his human form, with his footprints being about a fifth the size of his friend's). It didn't take the young dragon long to figure out that the biggest problem he faced was going to be his stomach, and the urge to heave again. Coping with the odd bubble of gravity trying to either push or pull him off the path was no trouble at all... he was actually quite nimble when he chose to be, and that skill combined with just the tiniest hint of dragon strength meant that all this was really a piece of cake. Currently the seed path had nearly doubled over on itself and both dragons were effectively walking along the wall, nearly at the point it reached the ceiling again (although they felt they were the right way up) which was really freaking Peter out. Of course he understood how it all worked, but whenever he glanced up from the path... nothing was where it should be. The stream he knew to be running along the ceiling was now mere inches away from his feet, the walls were upside down, although it was impossible to tell, and just the fact that he knew made his stomach grumble and gurgle terribly. It didn't help that he continued to look back over his shoulder, he wasn't sure why, but when he did he could of course see the route they'd already taken and how, in fact, they'd traversed the tunnel's circumference once already.
Out of the blue, the master mantra maker stopped sharply. They hadn't been moving at much of a pace, but it was all Peter could do not to walk straight into him. It was then that he noticed why the old dragon had come to a halt. Just across the other side of the stream (the ceiling one), a dandelion puffball had just dispersed all its seeds into the air, which were now heading in their direction. Hairs on both Peter's arms all stood up as if a cold breeze had run along them, as all the time the tiny little seeds drifted ever closer, despite the lack of any discernible current of air. Instinctively, Peter zipped through every different type of vision he possessed, until he came to the one he thought of as bionic (he'd seen some re-runs of the Six Million Dollar Man) and very quickly zoomed in on the innocuous looking seeds of floating death that were rapidly heading their way. On close inspection he could see that despite appearing all fluffy and lovely, the way that normal dandelion seeds do, every part of those drifting menaces was in fact razor sharp, with some of the heads looking as though they were coated in a very ominous, thick, oozing liquid of some sort. Swallowing nervously, he switched back to his normal vision and tried carefully, without moving his feet, to lean round and see what his friend was up to, as it was only now that he'd realised the old dragon had been totally silent all the time they'd been standing still.
Eyes closed, Gee Tee concentrated, having of course played this game before, albeit long ago, knowing only too well that the seeds that were drifting ever closer were attracted to life of any kind and were, to some extent, almost sentient. They were using tiny funnels of flowing air to make their way every closer, intending to surround and then close in on their target. Outsmarting them long ago had been child's play looking back on it, but he knew from experience that they seemed to almost learn from one time to the next and remember how they'd been tricked previously. So far, he'd tried altering the currents of air, hoping to take the lethal seeds back down the passageway towards its entrance, but to no avail. Next he tried telepathically to alter their instructions, their target if you like. That had worked long ago, but not today. And only a few seconds ago, he'd cast a mantra that had produced a perfect replica of a sparrow, right smack bang in the middle of the seeds, something that in theory at least should have attracted all of them, in one big go. But they just ignored it and carried on floating over the shallow stream with the crystal clear running water, gliding ever closer. Up until now, he hadn't been concerned with this part of getting to the vault, but at this point he was starting to worry.
"Uhhhh... we seem to be in a bit of a sticky situation, youngster," announced the old shopkeeper.
"What do we do about the seeds?" enquired Peter, trying not to sound concerned.
"They're attracted to life, a living thing of any sort. As it stands I've tried everything I know to deflect them away from us, but nothing is having the desired effect. I'm struggling to come up with a solution."
'Blimey,' he thought to himself, 'it must be bad if Mister Know-It-All Shopkeeper doesn't have the answer.'
"Can't we just turn round and go back?" he asked gingerly.
"They'll just follow us."
"We could just run or fly as fast as we can. Surely that would work?"
"That would just pique their interest, and maybe just attract more of them. We wouldn't make it back to the alcove. Besides, to get out of here we have to make it to the vault proper, as that's the only place you can reset all the tricks, traps and deceptions and set up the way back out," whispered the old dragon, a concerned look on his face as he looked back over his shoulder.
Putting his head in his hands, shaking in despair, he wanted to say, "It's the first time I'm hearing all of this," but knew that being sarcastic to the old shopkeeper now would do more harm than good.