Pass of the Sphinx

by J-90

Chapter 3 More road before reaching the finish line.

'That was a good nap. Now to stretch and maybe get some grub.' Hena thought after waking up properly from her long rest thanks to a nice looking sunrise. Or just sleep, due said long rest lasted a whole night. This time she had found a resting place on some white rocky cliffs near the ocean, on the side of a little road that went along the edge, with a higher cliff on one side and a sheer drop to the ocean on the other, with an old but sturdy stone bridge going over the river, that roared lightly as it went over the edge and to the sea. Even some fish seemed to be swimming along with the stream too, maybe doing some migratory thing. Some even jumped over the bridge with ease.
To the hungry sphinx the fishes simply meant food. And so she began trying to catch some. It took her almost an hour to catch only one, and another two to catch a few more for now-late breakfast. In the end she caught maybe five fishes.

Before she could start her humble meal, she heard someone approaching down the road, causing her auto-piloted instinct to kick in once more. Hena backed away out sight, while still being able to see the road, and waited for the traveler, or travelers to come a bit closer. Perhaps it was due to her now different body, but she had felt some kind of a positive feedback, which seemed to happen when she did her 'sphinx-thing' of stopping travelers and testing them.
As the noises came closer, Henas ears could make out a set of hooves and a set of... Talons and pads... Two sets of the latter maybe... That was mostly just guess work at the moment.

"Move it you two! The market is not waiting forever!" came an angry male voice down the road.

Soon the travelers came into her sights. A scarred zebra stallion wearing a crude leather armor and a saddlebag, leading on a two golden brown griffins by the rope tied around their necks. They looked like to be a hen, or whatever female griffin is called, and her chick going by some little details. The zebra also looked much cleaner compared to the two feline-avian hybrids, and if the rope and mention of market was anything to go by, it was obvious why they where on a road of this level of seclusion; A potential slaver.
'Well, lets see how he deals with me.' Hena thought to herself, before stepping out from hiding right in front of the zebra and his 'companions', even greeting with a simple "Well hello there".

"What the-?! What hell are you?!" zebra stallion yelled out, while fumbling out a short blade with his rope-free hoof. The griffin hen and her chick looked like they wanted to make a run for it, but had not gotten much of a good night sleep or food lately.

"A sphinx. And I can't let you go past me... Unless you travelers answer my riddle."

"Or what? You kill us? Hah! I've taken down bigger beasties than you, but sure ask away. If I, Zaked the Slaver, can outwit these two chickens, then I can easily answer some dumb question. Heck, maybe someone pays a good money for a pretty creature like you. Might even get a taste myself too." zebra, now named Zaked, boasted, clearly very proud and VERY confident about his abilities and clearly for something else too. The griffins had stayed silent, but the adult one seemed to be trying to find an opening somewhere for a potential escape.

"Very well then, since you're so confident... How about we spice this up a bit with a time limit to give the answer? Say a time it take twenty fish to jump over that bridge?" Hena suggested with a clever fang flashing grin.

"Sure thing. And I will enjoy wiping that grin off your face. You know what, make it just ten fish." Zaked said confidently, even lowering his blade.

"If you say so." Hena shot back, before staring the riddle with a polite clearing of her throat.

"A beggar had a brother who had died.
But when he was alive, this male had no brother.
How can this be?"

Almost right away Zaked looked stumped about the riddle, with one brow shooting up in confusion, clearly being caught off guard. And he knew he was now on timer too, especially when the sphinx voice temporarily broke his confusion.

"One..." Sphinx said in neutral tone as one fish jumped over the bridge.

'Whuh? Wait , how did it go again? Some beggar died? No, wait...'

"Two..."

'It was some beggars brother that died.'

"Three..."

'But then there was some shit about him having no brother...'

"Four, five..."

'What?! That can't be fair! No, wait. She said the timer was going by the amount of fish jumping over that bridge. Of course there would be some double-'

"Six, seven, eight...'

'Gah! No, focus!... Shit, how did it go again?!'

"Nine..."

'Some beggars brother died, but then that brother had no brother. How it is? Is there some trick in thi-'

"TEN!"

Zebras overthinking came to an abrupt end when the sphinx leapt on him, pressing him down with her claws so hard it made him loose his grip on his blade and the rope holding the two griffins and ruining his armor, even sending his saddlebag flying. He managed to look up, seeing sphinx looking down upon him with a wide feral grin showing a lot of sharp teeth.
"Time's up, my stripey meal..." Sphinx said with a voice that sounded lightly more twisted compared to her earlier speaking voice. Like a crazy female with a sound of raining gravel mixed in its words.

"W-wait! Aren't you gonna ask those two?!" Zaked asked in panic, while pointing at the two griffins, who were going through his saddlebag in a visible hurry..

"Oh my dear meaty. striped equine. YOU ALONE chose to take on my riddle, and failed, while they just stayed silent. And price for failing a riddle of the sphinx is death..." Hena said while smiling wickedly at the now terrified zebra. And then she gave a nice and slow bite on his shoulder, clearly stretching it out. either to enjoy the taste or to make it extra painful. Nevertheless it made once so boastful and confident Zadek scream like a little brat in pain as his blood began to stain the white rock beneath him.
Soon sphinx tore out the first good mouthful, which indeed also hurt a lot, causing some more screaming. Zadek could not find enough strength to get away from under this beasts claws. In desperation he called for help from the nearest other creatures... Two griffins now free of the rope, carrying his saddlebag with some fish stuffed in it, heading over the bridge.

"You two!! Get over here and HELP ME!!!" he screamed at them. The mother griffin did stop to look back as the zebra yelled little louder as the sphinx bit down on his other shoulder. But the griffin didn't do anything to help him. Only turned her head away and hurried over the bridge, with her chick holding on to her back, as fast she could, not wanting to miss this chance to get away from her tormenter, and the creature devouring him alive, now swallowing second mouthful of zebra shoulder.
"WAAAIT!!! HELP MEEEeeeeeeeeergrrrggrrgghhh..." Zadek screamed out as he was now being bitten down hard on his throat, fangs of the sphinx puncturing his windpipe and some major blood veins, his voice soon becoming gurgled as flooding of blood began to find way to his lungs, suffocating him, And the vestiges of life definitely left his torn up body as Hena bit deeper on his throat and twisted his neck.
All this did not even bother Hena, mostly thanks to her hunters instinct yelling at her to just eat the meat before her. And she did so with gusto, not even remembering now lost fishes. Soon enough there were mostly bones and some pieces of organs and tendons left of the wicked zebra. Looking at the remains of her meal, Hena was somehow not disturbed by the fact that she had just basically eaten a person. Though she would've used said term very loosely in this case, and was a little thankful that the 'emotional suppression' thing was most likely still active.

"It would be waste to just leave the rest just laying there... Well maybe fishes or bottom feeders will finish it." Hena commented, before simply pushing the remains off the edge to the sea. She even looked at it falling down, but before it could have made a splash, it was chomped up by something that looked like a sea-serpent.

"Okay then. Definitely not going to any beach property or above oceans for a looong while...Potentially never..."

After witnessing the sea-serpent, Hena took flight once again to travel to her still waiting lair, while trying to stick to inland route. You never how high those serpents could leap...

Griffin kept on running down the road with her chick clinging on to her back. She could have taken flight, but did not want to take the risk of this... Sphinx creature maybe still being hungry and chasing after them. After running little more, she noticed a small crevice, stopping before it. It turned out to become a wider, more cavernous space, and the shining daylight revealed to be just big enough for griffin, or pony, sized creature to enter. Any bigger would just get stuck.
After looking around first, she entered the small cave carefully, and finally allowed herself to catch her breath and rest her feet, letting herself to fall on to her side. Little one was not hurt and just climbed over his mommy, looking at her worriedly.

"It's alright. We're safe for now... Now lets feed." she said in a comforting tone, taking better position to allow little one to nurse. Her chick could eat some solid foods but he was still in a middle of his transition phase. While little one fed, she picked out one the fishes for herself to eat. Hopefully the sphinx was not angry about them being stolen.

"Momma? Ar we gonna find home?" little one asked after getting his fill.

"We will, if the winds are fair to us." mother griffin answered.

"Will te mean zeeb com after us?"

"Most likely not. He is probably gone for good by now"

"Because te pretty sinx lady took him avay?"

"... Y-yes, yes indeed. Sometimes such creatures take really bad folk away so that little ones can grow safe."

"Do other ones eat meanies too?"

"... Now then, let's have a good nap now Hermes."

"Awww... A LADY!"

"Whuh? What do you mean?"

"Te begger is a lady. In dat widdle."

"Oh...Huh... That actually makes sense. I wonder why that... Mean zebra did not figure that?"

"Maybe he was dumb?"

"Perhaps... You just might have smart future ahead of you."

"Yay!"

'I... I can feel it. The lair is somewhere close' Hena thought while looking around from her perch upon a cliff in a majestic looking fjord surrounded by mountains. Taking flight once more, she tried to locate the source of the 'lair-pull' that had guided her for several days. And now its pull was getting strong, meaning she was finally about to have a roof of sort above her head, along with starting her new 'job' of guarding somethings.

In the next hour she flew around the fjord, Hena noticed that at the end of it seemed to be a growing and clearly well fortified town, with a road-in-the-making on the shoreline leading there. Smart considering the fjord was connected to the ocean and who knows if them serpents swim this far... And it was always good to have some defence at any settlement.
'Looks like a mining town, but not quite. Maybe they are converting one into something else? In any case, looks like I'm going to have some neighbours after all.'
Seeing nothing of interest in her vicinity, Hena kept on flying, heading towards the mountains while following the 'lair-pull', eventually reaching a small pass winding between some low peaks, also leading to the growing town. Perhaps it was also some kind of a overall short-cut there?

Finally sphinx reached an open area around the halfway-point of the pass, where ground was a mixture of smooth stone and polished white marble slabs. There stood four marble columns, ionic style, which left a wide area for say a wagon to move between them. On one side was a set of wide stairs leading to obvious entry to a cave, which was carved to look like a temple entryway of sort, also having an antique vibe on its style, with a pair of secure looking metal doors on it. And in front of it, jutting out from the middle of the stairs, was a wide elevated altar-like rock overlooking the area between the pillars, clearly meant for 'looking down on her victims'. Hena also noticed that on top of the columns were a small set of statues, resembling stylized eagle, hound, winged serpent and a... Equine? It was hard to tell accurately due to said statue appeared to have been broken down to smaller size by something.
Deciding to check the surrounding a bit more, Hena found a smaller side path around her 'turf' behind some thorny bushes. Only it was a really narrow path, like 'miss-one-step-and-die'-narrow, with a sheer drop down to dark, bottomless looking depths between the surrounding mountains. So it was basically either past her or trough that for those coming down this way.

'Well, might as well go and check the interior then.' she thought after having a closer look of the elevated 'altar-rock' in front of the doorway, only to hear something coming down the road. Sounded like a heavy wagon. Once again feeling her sphinx instinct pulling her strings, Hena moved to lay down on the elevated 'altar-rock' to wait for the travelers to arrive, which they soon did.
Down the road walked a pegasus, zebra, griffin and a minotaur, all wearing a rough uniform of some sort and working together to move a wagon, loaded with wooden boxes. Pegasus and zebra where pulling the wagon, while minotaur was pushing it with one arm, due to other being on a makeshift sling, and the griffin was also helping with the wagon on the side. All of them wore the same emblem on their shoulder pad; sword and a long rolled up parchment crossed over a round shield.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Four travelers hauling something across my lair?" Hena said aloud, lightly spooking the group.

"What the-? Where did all this appeared?? It wasn't here last time." griffin said, looking around the place.

"And you certainly weren't here either... Wait... Are you the creature called Sphinx that the some folks have been whispering about? You fit the description at least." pegasus inquired.

"My my, looks like I'm getting a bit of a reputation, am I? Interesting one perhaps?" Sphinx inquired back, with a gentle head tilt.

"Well, what little rumour there is that you ask riddles from anyone who would need to go past you... And that you slew one very rotten member of my kind. Of which I am personally thankful." the zebra answered, giving a humble bow to her, while not taking his eyes off of her, clearly wary of the obvious predator on their path.

"Aah yes, the slaver one. Dumb one at that. Could not even answer one simple riddle. Though I did get an average meal out of him."

"You... You ate him??" minotaur asked.

"Oh yes. A little bit screamy at first, but no issues afterwards. Don't know about the sea-serpent which ate the remains though."

"And... Do you plan on repeating that on us?"

"I guess, if you fail at answering my riddle. It's what I do, ask riddles and kill those who fail, while guarding my lair and treasure. You know; fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly?"

The four travelers looked at each other at that, and seemed to somewhat agree on it, before turning to face the sphinx again.

"So are you intent on asking us a riddle, or are we allowed to leave if we turn around?" pegasus asked.

"Only if you try to go past me. And yes, if you just want to leave, you may. So what's it going to be? Riddle or leaving?"

Travelers huddled together to talk the situation through. Henas pointy ears picked up them whispering something about maybe trying to take her on in combat, but apparently they had issues with some still healing injuries and the average fear of the unknown creatures abilities. There was something more, like something about the rogue winds being a lethal danger at the narrow side-path, but the rest of it was more muffled to hear properly. Finally they seemed to have come to a decision.

"We take the risk with your riddle. Our cargo is somewhat too valuable to risk getting jumped by some bandits or a wicked opportunistic individuals."

"I see..." Hena said, while sitting up on her rock, probably being somewhat majestic-like sight to the four travelers, before clearing he throat and starting her riddle.

"You throw away the outside and cook the inside.
Then you eat the outside and throw away the inside.
What did you eat?"

All four clearly started thinking over the riddle in a visibly studious manner, whispering and muttering suggestions to each other, having a miniature debates back and forth. Hena merely waited, even grooming herself a little bit when four minutes had passed. She considered herself lucky to have gotten used to that, most likely thanks for that 'auto-pilot-mode' her new 'bosses' somewhere had given to her. No hairballs had appeared yet.

"I think we got it. Only we came to two answers that seem to fit. Is such allowed?" Griffin called to her, asking for a confirmation.

"Why yes. If they are correct ones that is." Sphinx confirmed with a nod.

"Well... We say the answer is chicken and corn..." came the answer.

The group waited with baited breath for the confirmation from the sphinx, who seemed to be stretching the the tense moment on purpose, maybe for some kind of dramatic effect. They had no idea why it would do that.

"Both... Are indeed the correct answers. You all may go past me, all alive and well." Hena told them with a pleasant, if a little bit teethy smile. All four where visibly relieved, and proceeded to move their box filled wagon between the columns and across the sight of the sphinx, while still visibly being a little wary of her.

"Have a good trip you four. Feel free to talk about this little event if ya like. I would love to have some occasional visitor here..."

"...We'll think about it. Lets go then, better we don't keep our superiors at the town waiting too long."

With those words said, the four travelers kept moving their wagon down the road, soon disappearing from sight.

'Well now that I'm alone again, maybe I can finally check the interior of this place.' Hena thought to herself and headed towards the doorway of her lair, the doors opening slowly on their own as she approached alone. Hopefully she could find some detail scroll or something like that about the place inside.

"Anyone else think we got lucky there? I mean personally that sphinx made my feathers stand up. Like she could have taken us out in a flash." griffin commented to the rest of the group.

"Well, maybe I could have tried to hold it off long enough while you ran, even with a injured arm. But that's still a rather big 'maybe'." minotaur said while pointing his arm, still on a sling.

"I think she could have done even worse. But I felt that something was holding her potential powers back, like a cork holding in a great burst of divinely fine wine... Don't ask, it was just a hunch and I just pulled that comparison on the top of my head. Honest." zebra commented, making other look at him weird for a second, making him a little embarrassed.

"Well I think our superiors will be interested that they now have a unknown and clearly magical creature as a neighbour. I wonder will it affect the construction effort too much." pegasus tossed in his opinion.

"It most likely changes something. It is all ready ambitious to convert long abandoned mining town to a truly neutral seat of knowledge. And they don't even have agreed on the name yet. Any idea what it will be?" zebra asked the others, who gave the same answer almost simultaneously.

"Nope"