Chapter 11: “The Griffin’s Goblet.”
In a few minutes, Daring emerged from the second room. “Aww… I got arrows in my hat.” Daring said annoyed. As she removed the arrows, she eyed her surroundings.
Daring walked carefully forward. “Where am I anyway?” She wondered aloud, surveying each side of the room, as she made her way forward. A beam of light shone from the ceiling and shifted position until finally it caught a brilliant gold object on the far side of the room.
Daring’s eyes lit up. “Ohh, that’s where I am.” She said proudly. Daring Do stood at the entrance to the central temple chamber. At last she was face to face with the legendary Griffin’s Goblet. And with it…the key to Kamara Mista. Daring’s eyes twinkled as she gazed at the treasure. “There it is, right out in the open.” Daring said proudly. Then she looked back and then around. “But you wouldn’t make it that easy would you?” Daring asked herself.
Daring Do knew that some cultures believed in guarding their artifacts with deathtraps. It was believed that only a person who could avoid the traps, was worthy of claiming the prize. Daring looked around. She spotted peculiar holes in the walls, and then she tossed a rock in front of her. The rock hit a tripwire, sending darts shooting from the holes.
“Great. More darts.” Daring said annoyed.
She turned her attention to the floor in front of her. It was a grid of panels, and each was marked with a picture of an animal. Daring studied the floor. “Hmm. Must be a pattern here. What do all these animals have in common?” Daring asked herself. She took note of all the animals pictured on the panels. Lions, Tigers, Wolves, Snakes, Leopards, Cheetahs, Panthers and…Sheep?
Then Daring got it. “Aha! These animals are all predators! Except…Sheep!” Carefully she stepped on the first Sheep panel. “So far, so good.” Daring said cautiously. She scanned the floor for the path of sheep panels to the other side, then carefully made her way across.
“Two paces left.”
“Forward One Pace.”
“Right five.”
Daring maneuvered herself to each sheep panel almost perfectly. Finally reaching the end, Daring stepped on the last sheep panel and onto solid ground. Daring looked back at the floor and smiled.
“Well that wasn’t too bad.” She said relieved. As she turned her muzzle suddenly collided with that of an old zebra in monks robes.
“Greetings, My pony friend.”
Daring jumped back in surprise, almost landing back on the trap floor. But she caught her balance just in time. She breathed a sigh of relief.
“Did I startle you?”
“A bit, yeah.”
The zebra monk bowed. “My deepest apologies. It’s just that it has been sometime since I’ve seen anyone. I suppose my social skills have deteriorated in the last 300 years.”
“No, it’s fine- wait. Did you just say 300 years?” Daring asked, startled.
“Indeed. For it was 300 years ago, that I pledged myself to guarding the sacred chalice that saved my life all those eons ago.”
“Wait…You’re the Shaman aren’t you! The one from the legend! It was you who found the goblet!”
The monk bowed again. “Indeed.”
Daring was amazed to say the least. She had come to retrieve the Griffin’s Goblet. But now here she was, face to face with the very shaman who had brought it back to this temple all those years ago. Her mind was racing with questions to ask the monk, but she settled on one.
“How are you still, well, alive?” she asked as politely as she could.
The shaman smiled. “Long ago, I cast a powerful spell that would allow me to live for as long I kept the chalice safe from those who would misuse its gift.” He explained. “As long as the chalice remains here, I shall remain here to guard it.”
“Wow, that’s some serious devotion. Guarding something for so long. Don’t you get lonely?” Daring asked.
“My faith gives me all the company I need.”
“Oh. We’ll I’m actually here for the Goblet-er, chalice. I need it so I can find the lost city of Kamara Mista and find my father.”
“You wish to take the sacred chalice?”
“Um…Yes? Please?”
The shaman suddenly stood up on his hind legs. He gripped his staff as he eyed Daring. “Then, you must prove yourself worthy.”
He lightly tapped his staff on the floor and Daring heard a great churning of stone wheels from somewhere in the room.
Lights suddenly beamed down from the ceiling, illuminating some hundred pedestals in the room, each with a different goblet of all manner of shapes ,sizes and precious metals. Daring now saw that there wasn’t just one goblet on a pedestal in this room. There were hundreds.
The shaman sat down in a meditative state and closed his eyes. “Choose.”
“Choose?”
“Only one chalice in this room is true, pick the right one and you may take it as you wish. Pick the wrong one, and you shall take my place in guarding the chalice. Forever.”
Daring was suddenly worried. She hadn’t really taken the time to actually study what the goblet looked like! She only knew that it was apparently gold, from the shaman’s legend.
She looked around. There were about 42 gold goblets in the room, which meant any one of them could be the Griffin’s Goblet.
And if she picked the wrong one, she would be stuck guarding the real one for all eternity. Great. So no pressure then right? She thought anxiously.
She took a moment to collect herself, before she began to examine the goblets. They were all beautifully crafted, and each one stood out on its own amongst the others. But as far as she could tell, every one of them could be the griffin’s goblet. There was no way to tell for sure!
She began to panic again. She looked to the shaman for help. ”Um, can you give me a hint?”
The shaman shook his head, still mediating. “Look within yourself. Use your instincts, and you will be successful.”
“Great. Thank you!”
He hadn’t helped at all. Daring was at a loss. She kept double checking for the slightest clue that could help her, but she saw none. She had come all this way, and now that she was so close she couldn’t even identify it. She was going to be stuck in here forever.
Then, out of her frantic mind a memory surfaced. It was of her and her father. They had been playing chess, and she was losing horribly. She had gotten so frustrated she had kicked away her chair and walked away. But then her dad called back to her.
“Heh! You can’t expect everything to be easy, Daring. Sometimes you need to look between the lines. Treasure just doesn’t let you find it. You have to look beyond what’s in front of you. You’ve got to use your head and think in a whole new way to earn your prize.”
Daring recalled her father’s words as if she had just heard them again. Look beyond what’s in front of you. Think in a whole new way.
Daring thought for a moment, and then like a bolt of lightning it hit her. She knew! She knew what she was supposed to do! Instead of looking for which goblet she thought was the right one, she should be taking note of those that aren’t!
“I’ve got it! I know which goblet it is!” She called proudly, bringing the shaman out of his meditation.
Oh?”
“I had only paid attention to the goblets that were gold ,because I remembered from the story that it was gold.”
Daring put on a sly face.
“But its been over a century since then. Gold tarnishes over time.”
She turned and looked at all the goblets in the room. “which means that none of these are the right goblet.” She added confidently.
The shaman raised an eyebrow. “Is that so? Then, pray tell, which goblet is the correct one, if not any of these?”
Daring turned and eyed the shaman, smiling softly.
“It’s around your neck.”
The shaman’s eyes twinkled kindly, as a warm smile crossed his old face. He stood up and carefully pulled up his beaded necklace to reveal a gnarled, rusted looking cup, no bigger than a coffee mug, hanging from the end of it by a small rope coil. It was bent and cracked from the impact it had taken when it fell to earth from Kamara Mista, and It’s gold finish had been tarnished over centuries of age. This was the Griffin’s Goblet.
She had found it at last.
The shaman bowed. “You are the first to make it this far in my temple. And the first to prove yourself worthy of the scared chalice.” He removed the rusted goblet from his necklace and held it out for Daring. “It is yours. You have earned it.”
Daring smiled as she gently took the rusty cup from the old zebra’s hoof. She looked it over. To the unwary eye, it looked like a beat up old cup. But now that she held it in her hooves, Daring felt that this goblet was indeed very special.
She looked up to the old zebra with tears forming at the corners of her eyes. “Thank you.” She said softly.
The shaman bowed again. “I wish you luck in your journey, young Pegasus. Return the chalice to its home. And find whom you seek.” He said kindly.
“Farewell.”
And with that he vanished, leaving Daring clutching the precious old goblet. Before Daring could react, a large door suddenly moved away from the wall and bright sunlight poured in. She blinked.
Then she smiled as she pocketed the goblet in her saddlebag. She looked towards the exit.
“There’s my way out.” She said cheerfully.
She made her way over to the door leading back out into the desert.
Before she walked through it, she turned back and looked back towards the place where the shaman had sat for centuries, guarding his beloved treasure. Daring tipped her helmet in respect. “Thanks Mr. Shaman. I’ll get this goblet home safe. I promise.”
With that, Daring exited the temple to rejoin Storm and Swift Wing.