Chapter 17: The Maze of Maple

Walking--or rather, climbing--was not easy. The Maple branches varying in size and sturdiness, sometimes swaying alarmingly beneath me. That, and every time I looked down I thought I might vomit.

At first I tried to follow what I assumed was the general direction of the branches, reasoning that they would all eventually reach an end too thin to stand on or would return to the trunk. Instead, I found myself walking in circles, returning to the same space again and again, no matter how hard I tried to pay attention to my direction. Impossibly, it seemed the tree grew in a loop. Or at a series of loops.

To make sure, I tried tying a shoelace around one of the branches. Minutes later, I found a different branch covered in at least a hundred identical shoelaces. I didn't dare carve an arrow into the wood.

All this to say, the Maple tree was messing with me.