//------------------------------//
// Fangs and Beaks 
// Story: Daring Do and the Trials of Zenith 
// by Fedora 
//------------------------------//

	Daring noticed that there was a small amount of some kind of a black powder near the base of the log. The pony leaned in closed to it, and inspected the material. There was no question about it, it was the precursor to the black powder that was commonly used in old-fashioned guns. While the more modern form of black powder was believed to have been invented in Prance, here was an example of an ancient equivalent. What a discovery!

Daring took the piece of flint and the piece of steel and separated them, one in each hoof. She held them over the powder, and began striking the flint with the piece of high-carbon steel. Chips of rock broke off and flew every which way, but after a few strikes it was sparks that began flying. As one landed in the powder, Daring backed away quickly. The powder ignited, and a burst of flame shot up.

To Daring's disappointment, the fire did not reach high up on the log at all, nor did it manage to actually ignite the wood. The pony looked around, figuring that there would be something else she could use for tinder or kindling. Her eyes fell on the gargantuan statue of the snake, a foreboding presence in the room that made her feel rather small and intimidated.

She did notice something odd about the statue, however. One of the fangs was broken off at the very tip. There was a hole in the tooth that revealed that it was hollow, and the affected tooth was on the left side of the snake's head, directly over where Daring had just been, trying to ignite the powder. Daring squinted, looking from the scorch mark in the stone where the black powder had erupted into flame, and the broken tooth. As she came to a realization, she struck the ground with a hoof.

"That's it!" Daring exclaimed, "The poison comes out through the fangs of a real snake, and that's where the black powder comes out, too! Now all I need to do is to break the tip off the other one."

She had the option of simply flying up and kicking with her hoof, but she doubted that it would break the stone tip off from the remaining fang. There was a spiraling staircase on either side of the statue, which went up to a section above in the chamber that served as a balcony, almost level with the head of the statue. Perhaps something up there held the answer?

Daring investigated. She went for the staircase to her right, the one that would be on the right of the statue, where the snake's intact fang still was. The stone steps spiraled upwards, and almost made one feel dizzy to walk up. Daring ran, and had to stop herself suddenly when the staircase abruptly ended several yards away from the balcony. The balcony itself was supported by pillars from below, yet did not connect to the staircase all the way. The reason was plain to see by the broken pieces of stone on the bottom level where the stairs should have been. The missing steps had broken off long ago.

Daring jumped the remaining distance, landing safely on the right wing of the balcony. Glancing around this previously unseen level to the chamber revealed a number of things. Firstly, there were carvings in the wall. There was a sizable hole in the ceiling about as wide around as a pony's body, with vines reaching down. It was likely a result of the decay of time rather than a part of the trial itself.

There was some kind of a stone platform sticking out of the wall, and from what Daring could see there was another on the other side, though it had been pressed in. Daring took a moment to look at the carvings, interpreting the meaning. They seemed to be some kind of instructions, showing a generic pony with his front hooves raised pressing against what looked like the platform protruding from the wall. Further on in the carving set a snake could be seen, with its head slightly lowered, as if it was biting down or spraying venom. Daring knew what this meant- if she could push the platform in it would activate some kind of system that makes the statue release it's venom, or the black powder.

Daring trotted over to the platform. It's base rested against the top of the balcony, and the section protruding was in the shape of a two-meter cube. Daring licked her lips, and tensed herself. She reared back, placing her front hooves against the stone, and pushed in.

The effort necessary to get the block to push in was great. Daring's eyes bulged, and one could have seen the vein pulsing in her temple. The pony grunted, groaned, and pressed with all her might, but the block only moved a portion of the way it needed to. Daring stopped, catching her breath for a moment. She took her canteen out and drank some of the water.

"Alright," Daring said to herself, "Let's work smarter, not harder." She turned around, having her strong back legs facing the block. She may not have been a farmer, but her hind legs could deliver a stronger blow than pushing with her front. Daring prepared herself again, this time moving her head from side to side and loosening her neck muscles, arching her back and preparing to kick.

Daring kicked back, and the block moved a few inches. She reared back and kicked again, and it slid in just a bit further. She kicked again, again, again, and little by little the stone block slid further into the wall, until the edges disappeared into the slot that had been behind them and Daring needed to kick no more.

Daring panted, wiping the sweat off from her face and lifting up the brim of her pith helmet to try to let some of the built-up heat escape. She had been doing a lot of strenuous activity over the course of the past day, and it was only the early afternoon. Nevertheless, it was starting to take it's toll, and Daring could feel the pangs from her sore legs.

She watched as the statue became animated, it's head dropping down. As it dropped down, the right fang cracked over the top of the log, covering it in black powder and causing a pile to start at the base. The snake statue did not recoil again, though Daring could see the chains that held it aloft from the back as they tried to lift it. The old chains were unready to lift the statue after so many years, and promptly snapped. The chains disappeared into the wall, while the snake statue remained halfway upright, kept from falling down by the top of the log. 

Daring descended the stairs once again, having to leap once to get onto them but making it down to the base of the log in no time. She took out her flint and her steel, and bent over the larger pile of black powder. As she prepared to strike, she heard a noise against the wall. It was a deep thumping sound, as some of the stones began to shift. On the other side was muffled yelling, and some screeches. Avian screeches.

"They're here?" Daring mouthed, grimacing. She was in deep trouble if the gryphons were coming. She had to move faster and get to the next chamber before they did, so that she could try to keep a death trap between herself and them, hopefully deterring the from coming after her.

Daring struck the steel to the piece of flint. As she did, a stone block fell in, opening a hole to the outside. She struck again, and as she did she heard some kind of yelling.

"There's that pony in there! Daring Do is inside the chamber! Grigory, prepare to fire the cannon!"

Daring struck the stone faster and faster, her heart racing. In her excited haste, she was not producing sparks. There was a mechanical sound from outside, and just as she managed to make a spark there was a thundering crash as part of the wall to her left exploded. A tank round had been fired through the opening.

The spark caught, and the black powder erupted in a column of fire and smoke. The gryphons probably were unable to tell if their tank had caused it or not. Daring looked at the hole the tank had blown in the wall, but there was noting but chains, ancient pulleys and mechanism that had made the trial function in the first place. 

There was a crashing sound as the wall on the other side gave way. The gryphon's battle tank had crashed through, and now sat in the same chamber as Daring and the buring log. The log was ashen now, its sides becoming charred and brittle. The powder-induced explosion had turned into a steady burn.

With no time left, Daring was desperate for a way out. She did the only thing she could. She reared back and kicked the burning log. Hard. The charred form snapped, and the snake's head began a free fall towards the ground, poised to land right where Daring was at the base. The bottom end of the log slipped through the hole, and for a brief moment there was an opening in the floor of the chamber, and an opportunity to leap through before the statue crashed down.

It was an opportunity Daring Do did not waste the archaeologist pony was through in a heartbeat, and the statue crushed where she had been just milliseconds earlier. The gryphons were storming into the chamber, some of their trucks entering and spraying the fires out with water from the river, but daring was nowhere to be seen.

Daring fell down for a few moments before she spread her wings, circling around the next area carefully. She was completely underground by now, where there had to have been some kind of wall facing out into the jungle with the previous trial. This new chamber was very wide, and there was some kind of big circular area in the center that was sunk down lower than the rest. It almost looked like a pool, but there was neither water nor signs that there had been water. There were discs embedded into the floor of the large embedded circle, and it rather looked like some kind of sports field. Daring came in for a landing on the side of the raised level, leaning against the wall for support. That had been too close, and she needed to find a way to get through this BEFORE the gryphons could move the statue and come after her.