Conflict pt.1 Trials of Death

Trials of Death in an interesting book on the topic of conflict. There are at least five different things that I could and will go on about. There were the Trials of Death, (NOTE THE NAME) where Darren Shan, a mere half vampire is forced to go through trials in which many full vampires have failed. Larten Crepsley, his ‘teacher’ per say isn’t against it, but a man named Kurda Smahlt is. He actually goes and complains to the princes that the trials are not something that he can manage as a half vampire. Mr. Crepsley agreed to this along with the princes who narrowed down the amount of the trials he would be forced to endure.
The first trial was called the Aquatic Maze. And if you couldn’t guess already, it was a maze that was drowned from the inside out. Darren was told to learn how to map things with his mind and how not to panic when the water levels rose. Darren of course did survive but he came very close to death. He in fact was delusional right after he made it out, thinking that he was on a beach. He actually looked up and told Mr. Crepsley to get out of the sun before he burnt up.
The second trial was called something like the Cave of Needles. Hall of Needles, maybe? Either way Darren had to go through a cave by jumping from one stalagmite to another, trying desperately to make it to the other side. Sounds kind of easy right? Not at all. Darren accidentally made a little too much noise which caused the ceiling full of stalactites to start falling on him. There were many that nearly killed him and one that he was forced to catch with his bear hands. (Even a half vampire has more strength than we do.)
The third trial’s name is completely gone from my mind by now but it was by far my favorite and the most horrifying. In this trial Darren in shoved into a room that has many tunnels going through it and many openings to these tunnels. Each one of these tunnels leads to another room in which a group of vampires makes and sustains a very large fire. This fire if you couldn’t guess is shoved up through the tunnels and spouted out at or anround Darren. He has to spend like 15 minutes in this place and if he’s alive at the end he wins. Though badly burnt and in desperate need for a long break Darrren survives. Just barely.