ha ha, YES!

Betrayed by my own writing style... oh dear, what have things come to /jk Anyway, thank you all so much for your comments! Hope you enjoy this part (it kind of turned into plain fanfiction, but hopefully still fairly ski lodge-ish)~

Day 2, Part 1

The guests woke up to a bright morning of sunlight and blue sky. The white walls of the hotel were almost too bright to look at, and just beyond it the sea was sparkling, and the climbing vines of the island were jeweling everything with bougainvillea and orange trumpetlike blooms.

Hawkstar opened her window and sat there for a moment, just breathing in the flowers' fragrance with her eyes closed. She had decided that the maze she had seen was just a dream. And she was looking forward to the morning, in which she planned to visit the library.

Breakfast was eaten in the hotel courtyard, which was still cool from the nighttime. Wooden picnic tables had been laid with thick dainty tablecloths, snowy-white and soft, under the tall smooth-trunked trees that grew along one side of the courtyard. Another table was laden with food. Part of the ground was paved with gray squares of stone, but part was grass, and at one end was a pool. Its turqoise waters were quiet and yet ceaselessly moving, in the way of all outdoor pools in the early morning.

It was a buffet breakfast, with scrambled eggs, toast, tortillas and frijoles, waffles, and pain chocolates. There were also enormous bowls of fruit - green and orange melons, strawberry halves, flavorful red papaya with lemon juice, and, of course, tall glasses of milk and  fresh frothy orange juice to drink.

"I've never eaten such a good breakfast," said CelineBurningBright about an hour later.

"It was really good," agreed Moon Wolf. "Only I think I might be loaded down for the rest of the day."

"Me too," agreed Lyric.

"Well, let's be loaded down in the library," suggested WildWolf.

It took the guests a few tries to find the library, given that when they asked the janitor for directions, he gave them directions that led them to a spare restroom, but when they eventually found themselves outside a huge dark door of oak wood, they knew they were in the right place. Excitement was humming through the air.

"Ready?" asked parody dramatically - and pushed open the door.

Fae saw a large room, paneled with oak and cherry wood, Persian rugs covering its floor. A doorway led to a cozy den. The walls were lined with books. Books upon books upon books upon books. Old books, new books, red books, yellow books, illustrated books, classic books, new books. There were works by Shakespeare, plays by ancient Greek writers, a tiny book on "What to Do if You Encounter a Mosquito in Your Bathtub" and an enormous volume on the Life and Times of George Washington.

A slanting ray of sun fell through the window. The room was very quiet.

Darkvine descended on the mosquito-in-the-bathtub book. Celine picked up a novel with a picture of a colorful ship cresting through frothy waves. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, it said.

"Does this mean we'll get to see Reepicheep?" asked Lyric.

Celine's fingers were already flying over the pages, and in no time at all, a tall mouse appeared in the doorway of the den. By "tall," I mean that he was nearly two feet high, which, you will agree, is a considerable height for a mouse. He had a long, furry tail arching elegantly out behind him, a coat of fine silky dark fur, bright dark eyes, and, perhaps most endearing of all, a circlet of gold was around his head, in which a scarlet feather was stuck at a graceful curve. He also carried a miniature sword. Celine wanted to scoop him up right away.

He was standing on his hind legs, and he gave an elegant bow.

"I am Sir Reepicheep," he said, in a high but not squeaky voice, with an air of nobility. But it was hard to see hiim as so very noble when he had long, quivering whiskers.

"Ohmigosh he's so cute!!" exclaimed Silver Crystal under her breath.

But he was not the only figure in the doorway. Behind the mouse stood two boys; a sturdy man of about forty with a dark beard and twinkling eyes; a younger girl; and, of course, the inevitable Scrubb.

"I say, this is rotten," he grumbled. "Can't we go home?"

"I tell you getting pulled into magical worlds is worse than what Father says about being at the mercy of the telephone," said Edmund.

"Oh dear, are we inconveniencing you?" asked Tai, concerned.

"Not at all," said Lucy, at the same moment that Drinian muttered "Yes" and added something about having been in the middle of Steering the Ship. Soon she and Celine were deep in conversation. Meanwhile, the Keeper fans went to the Keeper of the Lost Cities shelf and began to read.

"Hey," said a voice at Hawkstar's elbow. She turned. There stood Keefe, his blond hair disarmingly messy, his eyes as keen and blue as she imagined them. Next to him was a silver-haired boy - Tam - and a silver-haired girl, Linh. "Are you summoning me? Or Fitz? Or Sophie?"

"Everyone from the series," said WiLdSoNg truthfully. "I've always wanted to meet a Keeper character."

"With good reason," said Keefe with a smirk. "Just out of curiosity, do you ship Sokeefe?"

"Absolutely," said Hawkstar.

"Interesting. You know, back before I met Sophie, I had no idea that I'd ever have people 'shipping' me. Of course, I was really little then. I just had a crush on  this other five-year-old and that was it."

"Who was she?!" gasped Moon Wolf, who had never heard of this before.

"Well, Shannon Messenger didn't actually know this, but there was my older cousin's friend's little sister..." He looked wistful. "But it petered out. As first romances do."

Meanwhile, the other guests were talking with a little girl of about twelve, with a mop of wild dark hair and night-black eyes, who somehow seemed like the most genuinely human person they had ever known. She was accompanied by a very handsome boy, who looked as if he must be Italian, who kept talking nineteen to the dozen.

"It's really nice to meet you all," he was saying. "Always great to see new people. Not many ever summon us on purpose, because we're not very famous. Not like Keefe, over there. Did you summon us on purpose? Well, anyway, I'm Girolamo, you can call me Guido, and I'm a tour guide and storyteller, and this is Momo, my dearest friend. And -"

"Guido, do let the others get a word in edgewise," suggested the girl. "I'm sure they would like to introduce themselves too." 

"Sorry, you know me, I'm a terrible chatterbox," said Guido, winking to the group at large. He was certainly very charming, they all decided.

They could have spent forever in the library, but as the hours passed and the afternoon drew nearer, they decided to leave for lunch. 

As Scuttles opened the door, and the guests spilled into the hall, they saw someone heading toward them. It was a young man, probably about twenty-five, with curly black hair, a straight nose, a firm mouth, and black eyes that were full of laughter but looked as if they could be commanding too. He walked with a slight swagger.

"Hi," he said, "do you know where I can find Ariadne?" He raised his eyebrows and lifted his chin a little at the same time as he asked his question, a particular gesture of his.

"Ariadne? Um... no," said WiLdSoNg. "By the way, who are you? I don't think I've seen you around before."

"Me?" He half-smiled as if he were pleased to be asked. "I'm Theseus, Prince of Thebes. And Ariadne's boyfriend. Which is why I want to find her."

"Ooh, Ariadne has a boyfriend?" exclaimed Poinsettia enthusiastically, always a hopeless fan of romance.

"Well, not unless you know something I don't," replied Theseus. "So you're the new guests?"

"Yeah, and we're enjoying it so much here!" Bushy Tail said, enthusiasm shining out of her face.

Theseus' eyes studied them. "Yeah, I can imagine you would. Just - be careful. Though I don't know if it'll do much good." He gave them a sad smile and was gone.

Ariadne was in the courtyard, setting the table for lunch and decorating it with flowers she picked from the overhanging vine. As she set out forks and glasses and plates, her mind was as busy as her fingers. The maze had appeared again last night - Mina had told her so - and given that Lord Entropy didn't seem to be anywhere on the island, she was worried that he had disappeared. If only she could figure out how to put a stop to the endless legions of disappearances. It had been almost ten years now since the first guests came to Lydarios and disappeared in that strange maze. Since then they just kept coming, and they just kept disappearing. This was the last group that would be summoned to Lydarios. If every one of them disappeared too, the island would be destroyed, and the forces of destruction would triumph. But if they managed to outwit the Maze and the Queen, then the Queen would be defeated, Lydarios would be saved, Ariadne and Theseus would be able to marry, the previous guests would be saved, and the island would forever be a place of joy and contentment.

"Hi," said a voice from the doorway. Theseus crossed the courtyard and stood at her side. "How are things?"

"Not good," said Ariadne shortly. "I mean, basically Lydarios is about to literally fall apart. Lord Entropy's disappeared now. I"m pretty sure everyone's going to go into that maze. And if they do, then Mina will have total control, the forces of destruction will take over, and Lydarios will disappear itself." She paused. "Why is this even happening? Who's responsible for this? Is it Mina, or some other Queen we don't know about? I wish we knew something - anything! I'm so tired of not knowing!"

"Ari, it's okay," Theseus tried to remind her. "We still have a chance. There's that whole mystique of the Chosen Guest, remember? The one who's supposed to give the right answer to the maze's riddle and escape from it and save everyone. Everything hinges on that."

"Well... yes," agreed Ariadne. "And I do remember that when that storm came up, somebody actually did manage to keep singing against the thunder. Maybe that was the sign. But who was the singer?"

"I don't know," said Theseus. "But we'll find out and we'll find a way out of this situation. Deal?"

"Deal," Ariadne said, smiling for the first time all morning.

"I hope..." she added.

Behind her, an orange blossom drifted slowly to the ground.

---

Disappeared: 1

Present: 13 (but for how long?)

So to be clear, this is kind of a reversal of the "murderer-is-chosen" scenes/theme - instead of a murderer being chosen, it's a possible savior, who was "chosen" by being able to continue singing even when the storm seemed to be trying to drown out the guests' voices earlier. The question is, which of the guests is it, and will that guest be successful in saving Lydarios?