keep knocking. He knocked fifteen more times.“Well, salutations! If it isn’t a suitor for my young Takako!”“Takako?” Lysander asked.“You haven’t even exchanged names yet, how in the blibity are you expecting to exchange vows!” The magician stepped forward. He appeared middle-aged, and had intense purple hair, messy and covering half of his face. His eyes were unseen. He wore a ridiculous hexagon-shaped hat and looked like a walking disaster with a ratty pink gown hanging down to the floor.“Sir, I have not met you before. You must be Takako’s father. I am Lysander, and upon completing your difficult maze challenge, I ask for your daughter’s hand in marriage,” Lysander spoke like the aristocrat he loved to imitate. “Blah, blah, monstrahfagah! It was not all that difficult, I just needed to put my daughter somewhere while I took a Bahamas vacation.”“Bahamah, sir?”“Oh, never mind. Yes, I am Dorsteinn and you completed my maze. In any case, you look like a dogwood’s root just pulled up out of the ground. You can’t have Takako.”“I spent all my energy on your ridiculous life-risking maze and you’re not going to let me take Takako away?”“Life risking? A few garden snakes and bramble overgrowth?”“But, sir, I…” Lysander looked down at his feet to try to think of the words to explain. He saw in his hand his “magical” moonshine. That was it! The moonshine. Ah, that blasted old man from the shack. The moonshine had changed Lysander’s entire perception of the maze.“…I was only jesting. Sir, I have this terrific bottle of whiskey… it’s absolutely marvelous. Do try a sip.”The curious magician reached out his hand and pulled the bottle to his lips, “Yowzer! You rotten boy!” his eyes grew wild with red fire. ...
