//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 New job and a new life in one phone call // Story: Pass of the Sphinx // by J-90 //------------------------------// Chapter 1 New job and a new life in one phone call "Another morning, another day closer to being homeless." Those were my thought's on almost every morning for the last week and a half after getting fired from work. And my financial situation is not that good either, with no viable help coming from anyone from my remaining friends or family, due to them having moved away and having their own issues to deal with. Oh and my apartment rent is due the next day. So here I am, drinking my morning coffee, trying to find anything in the morning paper, since there's no available job openings at the trustworthy employment sites that would pay early to get the bills out of the way. So the wanted-adds were pretty much the last monetary hope for me. "No... No... No... Nope... Double nope... Sounds shady... Definitely a scam... How did that get printed here?" I was about to give up on the job hunt, when something caught my eye. Some tiny ad tucked in the corner of the page. 'Help needed for a simple watching over few items. Terms negotiable. Call 1800-DeezPlaced-919' Deciding to give it a try on a odd hunch, I dialed the number on my smartphone. There was a light buzzing sound before the familiar dialing tone began. "Hello, DeezPlaced Co secretary F. M. Erchant here. How can we be of service?" came a chipper sounding voice. "Hello, this is Hena. I'm calling about your ad on the paper to know is it legit?" I asked. "Why yes it is. Higher ups did not want to pay for a bigger ad due to some budget cuts. Now what would you like to know?" "Well is it possible to get a little advanced pay? I have some rent issues at the moment. And I will do the job of course, provided it is reasonable and legal work." "Well I have to run that with my superiors, but I think it can be arranged. And the job is basically just keeping watch of two items for a period of time with some pretty good benefits. And we even provide a transportation to the location. And I think we can fit in a dwelling for the works duration too." Ok, this gig was starting to sound a bit too good, but lets try asking a little more info. "Is there anything else I should be aware of?" "Well I'm required to ask have you played any kind of game lately?" "What?" "I'm sorry, I don't make the rules and my superiors are rather... Eccentric folk." "Ok... Well, the latest game thing I remember was a homebrew of D&D with my friends a good while ago. We played as monsters to spice things up, which led me play the game as a gynosphinx. Not much else, due to me not really being into video games. Friends always thought it was a little weird but never questioned it." "Aand were... Good. The job is yours if you're still interested. The pay can be talked about later due to some scheduling issues." "Alright then, I guess I'll agree to work with you then, since I don't have much choice at the moment." I said nonchalantly. "I guess that is true... Especially since you have now verbally agreed... Your transport will arrive soon, I hope you enjoy your stay. Byeeee. *click*" Okay now that was either an error in the speaker or a red flag. And what did she mean by that transport is arriving soon? I did not tell where I lived and they did not say where to meet... Maybe I got tracked? My thoughts were cut short by an orange glow outside my window. Looking out, there was something coming down from the sky... RIGHT AT M-... A loud boom echoed out as a small satellite, with the text "DeezPlaced" on it, crashed into the small corner apartment, oddly leaving the rest of the apartment complex intact. No one knew what happened to the body of the resident or who even owned the satellite. And like so many things in social media and the news, it had its limelight and then was just forgotten by larger public. -Ee!!? That was my thought when I regained consciousness. Only now my surrounding was a lush forest instead of my absolutely wrecked apartment, myself leaning up against a tree next to a clear pond. Other thing I noticed was that my body felt different, like I had extra pair of limbs, and maybe even a different skeletal build. "Okay... What the heck just happened?" I muttered while trying to get up, trying to get my limbs to wake up properly. After the initial numbness began to fade from my legs, which there were four now apparently, I stretched a little bit in a rather feline way. That made me have a better look at my new body. Now I had a body of a lion, or rather a lioness after checking downstairs, with wings on its back that looked like they could indeed enable viable flight, along with a mane reaching almost halfway down my back. Front legs looked mostly lion-like at a first glance, but seemed to be some kind of fusion of lion and human, making it possible to delicately hold things or maul things with... Yep, with some wicked looking claws. Wanting to see my face, I walked carefully closer to the pond to have a look, and maybe a drink too. I had ordinary flat human face, even though I think I looked prettier now for some reason, with my hair turning into a majestic lion mane in my back, while being mostly humanlike hair in front, with few locks of hair covering my front, that did have a vague shape of a nice and firm bosom but did not really have nothing else on it. Fat deposit maybe? "Okay then... So I got screwed over the phone call, got crushed by something crashing on top of my place and me, and now I'm a gynosphinx. And not panicking???" I thought aloud in a confused tone, only to notice a rolled up parchment next to me. With nothing else to do at the moment, I carefully picked up and opened it. 'Dear Hena. You have just been transported to other world in a new body and skills by our service, with the bonus of your instinct and capability to panic, etc, temporarily suppressed to make the transfer a little easier and smoother experience. Length of this suppression may vary. With your new ageless body (,you can't die of old age but can be killed or hurt,) you have been given few abilities to go with it. Enhanced strength: comparable to ten lions or so. Can be boosted with magic or physical training. Flight : obvious right? High intelligence; you are extra smart and have encyclopedic knowledge of riddles. You can also understand, speak, read and write local languages. Studying can boost it up Magic: you can wield magic, but you have to practice and earn its power. Divine spark; Enables you to bless or curse individuals or locations IF you keep doing your work and be loyal to said work. Power over Time: You can control the time itself of individuals or items BUT ONLY in your home or with boost from outside source. WARNING!: This power WILL leave you extremely tired if used too much, with a potentially painfully lethal consequence from frequent overuse. Do not use too much in order to avoid legal for safety reasons. Taxation free Lair: You have a pre-made lair that remains hidden from anyone else until you find it. (You should will feel a pull towards it.) Comes with a built in library. Other stuff and skill have to be done, gained or trained on your own time if desired. More info might will be given once you find your set lair. Enjoy your new life! <3 Best regards; DeezPlaced.Co secretary F. M. Erchant, extraplanar dimension 35B94672CDF DeezPlaced.Co If you're disappointed, just suck it up or we WILL alter our deals. Not responsible for any deaths or injuries caused by displacement of our customers. ' After I finished reading it, the parchment simply poofed out of existence. Not even with a pop-sound. I wanted to panic, but something was indeed blocking it from happening, and the same something was also stopping me from fainting. "Well... I guess I just have to learn to live in this place... Maybe starting with flying and getting food." I thought aloud, and proceeded to take a careful drink from the pond, followed by instinctual cat-like grooming of some wet fur. Already getting scared of the potential hairballs... Later on the same day... 'By Ra that furball was a pain to catch...' I was still licking my lips from my last meal, which had ended up being a beaver that had gone too far from water. It was most likely my new body, but it tasted pretty good, despite it being completely raw. What was left, mainly bones and and some entrails were being picked by some scavengers when i left. And flight attempt went pretty well... After four fails before I got how to do it properly. Not that it helped all that much in catching that beaver in a rather dense wood. Missed it maybe six or seven times while chasing the bugger, but the chase kinda made it more rewarding I guess. Now I only need to locate that lair the scroll mentioned. While thinking that, I finally got out of the forest to a dirt road with a stone bridge a little walk away. There were also some large rocks near it, that almost seemed to call to me. And soon I was laying down on one, which was pleasantly warm. Bonus. Before I knew, I was nodding off to sleep, lightly curled up like a cat. Some time later, my ear twitched at the noise nearby. Sounded like a heavy wagon. And after opening my eyes, there indeed was a wagon full of boxes, full of whatever items, coming over the bridge, with two oddly colorful horses, or maybe ponies due to their size, pulling it. One brown stallion with a bushy beard and a lighter grey mare, who had a spiraling horn on its forehead. And the way they seemed to converse told me they were both sentient sort. 'This place has unicorns? Well I am a sphinx now, so can't be that surprising' I thought, while getting an odd itch to leap in front of them. which I did, greatly surprising the two of them. "Halt travelers. I'm afraid that as a sphinx I cannot let you go past me..." I called out to them while spreading my wings, wondering where those words came from. Must have been some manner of an instinctual auto-pilot or something like that. "...Unless you answer a riddle for me." This seemed to calm the duo down, even if it was only a little, since they still looked very scared. Who wouldn't be after being stopped by something maybe three or four times your size. I also noticed that they had a small grey unicorn with blue eyes riding among the pile of boxes. I think the little one seemed to have a tiny goatee coming up early. The little fellow seemed like a smart one too, iI thought for some reason. "And what h-happens if we fail that?" the stallion carefully asked. "Well, then I might have to kill you... Or maybe give you chance to pay a toll of sorts." I answered. I just stood there while they whispered feverishly between each other, before looking back at me. "Alright... Ask your riddle, miss...?" the mare asked. "Hena. And so, here is the riddle..." I answered politely, before giving them a riddle, still kinda going on by the 'auto-pilot'. I bet they would definitely not know the classical riddle of the sphinx, so I chose another one to give them a fair chance. "As I was going to St. Ives, I met a stallion with seven wives, Each wife had seven sacks, Each sack had seven cats, Each cat had seven kits: Kits, cats, sacks, and wives, How many were there going to St. Ives?" All three ponies looked initially confused, before starting to think the riddle over. I waited patiently for their answer, eventually sitting down after maybe five minutes. Maybe ten more minutes later they finally looked like they got the answer. "We say 2,802... Is that correct?" Mare said confidently, then turning worried. With the answer given, I felt a sudden rise in bloodthirstiness coming over me. I still decided to fight it, hoping that maybe they either get it right or think of something else. "Oh dear, oh dear. I'm afraid you got it wrong..." I said while standing up and began stalking closer to them at a very slow pace. Both stallion and mare began to visibly panic but could not run, due to still being attached to the full wagon. Soon I was only maybe two to three steps away from them, feeling urge to raise my clawed paw-hand to strike... "WAIT!!" came a young shout from the wagon, making me look up there. The colt from the wagon was stumbling out from wagon with something, finally stopping between me and his parents, all of them visibly shaking. "Y-you said we can also pay a toll, yes?" the little one asked. "Why yes, yes I did say that. Something in mind, little one?" I said, while bowing down to have a closer look, my thirst for blood being pushed aside by curiosity. "W-well... We have plenty of items with us, b-but I thought that m-maybe t-this would be nice to you?" he said while offering a small box to me, opening it with a glow of his little horn to reveal... A pair of glasses? "T-these glasses c-can make you read really, really fast, without missing anything between the lines. T-the speed depends on wearer though..." colt explained, still a little nervous. I said nothing yet, but did carefully pick up the glasses. which even changed size to fit me. Carefully I put o them on, being wary of maybe somekind of jinx or nasty hidden spell... There was nothing. I only saw a bit clearer. "Would you perhaps have something readable to test this, so you are not trying to fool me?" I asked. This time it was the mare who did something, pulling out a book out from one of the boxes, with the title "Maps of Equus; Vol. XII" on it, and offered it to me. I took it on one hand-paw, opened it and began to read. The pages seemed to just fly by with an invisible breeze moving them rapidly, yet I still could read and see what was on in each page and basically just absorbed the current geographical knowledge of every page in my head. These glasses made maybe few hours worth of reading happen in less than a few minutes or even less. Needless to say, I was pleased with the toll. After finishing the sped up read I gave the book back to the now hopeful looking ponies. "I find your toll payment... Very acceptable. You may pass alive and well." I said while leaping back to the flat rocks. "Don't worry, I won't be here much longer. I was merely resting before heading to find a more proper lair. So fare thee well travelers." I commented while bidding them farewells, before leaping off the rock to the air, spreading my wings and flying away from them, mostly following the pull towards the advertised lair. I still wonder how long that darn suppression thing lasts? Later with the travelling trio... "Honey? Did we do the right thing letting our son to give that unique prototype-magic item to that... Sphinx creature?" Stallion asked. "Dear husband, I would have given all the items in our wagon if we could just walk away alive. Especially since we could not get that riddle right." the mare answered. "How did we got it wrong though? I'm certain we counted all the amounts right." "i'm... Not sure. Maybe it had some kind of trick in it?" They mulled it over, before being interrupted by a voice from their colt, still travelling in the wagon, making them turn their heads. "ONE!" "Pardon?" "The answer to that riddle! It started 'As I was going to St. Ives', but the stallion and his wives where not going anywhere! The narrator of the riddle is! I think the rhyme was there to maybe distract." "That... Actually makes sense!" "Well thought son. Keep that up and you just might reach great heights. Maybe you become a great bearded magus someday." "Oh, you mean our son could one day be called Starswirl 'The Bearded'? Yeah, that'll never stick." They all laughed heartily to that and carried on with their trip on the road to the next village.