Gabriel found himself in front of a maze. He hadn't been planning on going through a maze today. Still, there he was, and he found no choice but to try the challenge and see what could be gained from it. So he entered, because they did promise riches, after all. That was enough to get him moving.

He entered the maze and took a left.

--

Upon taking the left, he found himself in a dark path, and the sad moan of a pitiful soal sent chills up his spine. Normally he approved of chills, but this was not one that brought him any cold pleasure. He decided to turn left again, in the hopes of getting away from whatever had been making that terrible noise.

--

Taking a second left had been the right choice, he thought to himself at once. He immediately felt cold, and growled with pleasure at the chill of it. The smell of peppermint was in the air, but he did not feel any aversion to that smell and simply continued to move forward. When a train horn announced it's presence nearby, he decided to investigate.

--

Upon investigating the sound, Gabriel found two train cars awaiting him. He read the signs upon them - town, and warts. A return to town would mean the end of the challenge, so he chose the warts train with some hesitation, in the hopes that he had not doomed himself to growing a crop of warts for his choice. He entered the car quickly and looked around.

--

He was alone in the Warts train car, and there was no sound save for an occasional croaking. He found no reason to care for what the sound was, so he ignored it and pressed on.

--

There, on the train itself, was an odd challenge. He found himself tasked with catching a snitch, which to him meant catching someone who had told a secret. This was not the case, and he was soon confronted with a gnome dressed in gold wings and screaming something about how his father would hear about this. Gabby couldn't blame him - someone had forced a gnome to dress up like a little gold flying item, just for the sake of a challenge, and it looked quite embarrassing. Nevertheless, Gabby soon discovered that the gnome was representing the snitch that he was meant to catch, so he dove for the gnome as it tried to scurry away. Embarrassing or not, Gabby knew he must win the challenge he was set with.

--


The fight did not come easy as Gabby assumed it should. He grabbed onto the small creatures leg and pulled it down to the floor, then quickly scrambled over to wrap his arms around it and keep it still. The gnome struggled for a moment, before finally conceding with a scream of how he always gets the sucky jobs. Gabby had to agree - this was without question one of the suckier things a gnome was forced to do. Either way, he handed Gabby a key to a nearby door. Gabby supposed this was a good sign, so he let the gnome go and moved to open the door to reach the center of the maze.

--

Reaching the center of the maze was a delight. At first, he awaited his riches with a proud, regal expression. Then Gabby was handed his prize - a golden ear - and his proud look vanished. Firstly, the prize was made of gold and not any kind of silver or crystal (which he always preferred) - but still, gold meant first, which was not such a bad thing. It was the fact that it was an ear was the worst part, and Gabby immediately began to complain about the state of this prize and it's disappointment. Even after he tried to eat it and tasted a tortilla chip instead of an ear - which was maddening - and even after he realized that the prize gave him extrasensory hearing for some time - which was helpful, for a bit - he still managed to complain about the prize.

He just wanted a jeweled silver crown.

Was that so hard?