//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 And the time flies by, to meet the smart guy. // Story: Pass of the Sphinx // by J-90 //------------------------------// Chapter 5 And the time flies by, to meet the smart guy. "Another month, another claw sharpening session." Hena commented as she hopped up to lean against one of the stone walls surrounding her lair, let out her claws and just dragged a long set of claw marks, making a very nice scratching sound. Luckily for her, her ears had long gotten used to said sound. After that she had a closer look at the wall as a whole, and all the sets of long scratch marks. Maybe one or two sets for each month, depending how she felt. And a regular sharpening sessions are good for her claws. "Now lets see if there is any travelers come this way today." she mused while settling down on her altar-rock to keep watch of the pass. The sphinx had gotten rather used to living in these conditions during the last several years, almost twenty to be exact, only leaving if hungry to hunt some food during quiet traffic times. The area around the pillars had also gotten some 'decoration' around them. Mainly some neat piles of bones of both her hunted prey and victims who had failed her test, those who did not want to pay the toll for some reason while trying to get past her or those who just came to challenge and defeat her for fame, honor and glory and also for clout and sexual favors from females of their species. The latter was mostly Henas own speculation, which sounded more half believable to her. Surely some would try to get naughty favors from members of their own gender too. Some of her time was spent reading some books about spells and other powers that could be achieved with enough effort. With nothing much to do, other than wait, she decided to practice a little bit on her psionic-type telekinesis she had red about and began studying more after finding an instructive tome about it, written by someone named 'Qhenchoguassk The Master of Minds' who lived who knows how long ago in some grand empire that apparently reached little bit beyond this world, that eventually fell and seemed to like some kind of tentacle-theme on its culture. There was plenty of other psionic mind things in the said tome, but Hena had decided to start with the easier stuff. And even the author had written that 'with a creative mind, even the most simple psionic practitioner can be an extremely dangerous foe'. Focusing her gaze upon a random set of bones, pointing the palm part of her right paw-hand, with an intense gaze on her eyes. After moving few of her clawed fingers around a bit, several bones began to move. Rather shakily, but still moving along the ground, eventually rising and floating in a vague unspecified pattern she was lightly visualizing. Among the floating bones were few mostly intact skulls, some older than others, bringing up some memories as they passed across her vision... Memory-lane start... Sphinxs ears twitched lightly as they picked up an approaching sounds. There was couple of beings coming down the pass, so she prepared to do her thing, depending how the travelers would choose when facing her. Soon she saw a group of three ponies, all of them unicorns and heavily armed, coming down the path. 'Looks like they have a holy trinity of classes going on there.' Hena thought as she watched the trio approach, noticing one of them brandishing a loaded heavy crossbow floating in a glowing light that matched the one on his horn. "Greetings travelle-" she began, but was interrupted by a bolt flying by her head, missing by maybe an inch, and basically drilling itself halfway in the stone wall with few visible strands of sphinx mane on it. Thank you random head tilt to the side while greeting someone and the random smile from Lady Luck. "-What the?!" "Dammit! I missed it." As the shooter began to reload the crossbow, the remaining two came forth, one in heavy armor pulling out a finely made sword, while the third waved his horn, making the aforementioned sword glow brightly. "Say your prayers beast, for we, the Brighthorns, shall cleanse you off this world before you can become a menace!" armored unicorn called out like some boastful zealot knight, while pointing his glowing sword at the sphinx. "I don't really pray. I only test the travelers, or alternatively gather a toll from them. And I shall extend the same offer to you three as well." Hena said back the trio, now all of them fully on her turf so to speak, while stepping down from her altar-stone perch.. "So what'll it be then? A toll? Riddle or Combat?" "What do you think you dumb beastie?" shooting one said and took another shot at the sphinx, who leapt to the side, dodging the bolt, now clearly being prepared for it this time. "Ah, Combat..." sphinx said calmly, before feeling a rush of power coming over her. And along with the rush of power, came some changes to her form. The sphinx visibly grew in size, maybe being half as big compared to her normal state at the end of the growth. This was accompanied by some other changes, like her claws becoming more visible and almost sabre-like and her tail taking form of a large hissing snake, which seemed to give her a wider field of view. Even her teeth became visibly more pronounced and mane more majestic. And as a tiny bonus, her glasses seemed to fade somewhere else for the moment. "Now then... Come at me you three. Unless you wish to retreat now, last chance you see." Hena said in a challenging tone with a wicked looking smirk on her face, spreading her wings at the same time, looking ready to pounce. "We will never back away from a monster, no matter how much it changes its form!" yelled the unicorn who had cast something on the other ones sword, his horn glowing a little brighter. The other two looked equally ready to fight. "Your funeral..." Hena said and proceeded to give her wings a good flap, sending a strong gust of air at the trio, making them momentarily flinch and look away at the sudden current of air hitting their faces. And that was a long enough distraction for the now enhanced sphinx to take the advantage of. Which she did quickly by leaping over the sword and crossbow unicorns, aiming her claws at the dedicated caster one. A sickening crunch of bone was heard by all four of them as the attacking sphinxs claws landed on the unicorns back, pressing it down against the stone path hard with her body weight behind it. Unfortunately the poor sap did not die from the attack, but was only in pain so agonizing that he could not even manage a scream. The crossbow carrying unicorn turned around, only to see the now snake-headed tail coming at him with its fanged jaws open. He barely managed to dodge the bite, hearing it snap right next to his ear. He did take the shot at the beasts direction, now that it was mostly focusing on his rather doomed comrade. A beastial roar of pain echoed in the pass, as the crossbow bolt hit the sphinx right on the left side of her behind. This made her angrily grab the nearly dead unicorn and throw him at the shooters direction, managing a good hit, knocking him down and hurting or maybe even killing the caster. This caused the armored unicorn to rush check on his comrades, while sphinx was obviously distracted by the pain for the moment. Another sound of pain came out as Hena managed to pull the bolt out. Luckily for her there were no barbs on it, but it still hurt like hell. The unicorns were also in more emotional side of pain when their caster comrade drew his last pained breath, most likely just submitting to his injuries. Two remaining unicorns looked at the sphinx for a second, barely noticing its injury seemingly healing itself a little bit, which was mostly just muscles surrounding it pushing against each other, temporarily closing the wound for the moment. Armored one picked up his still glowing sword and tried rushing the beast, only for it to just take flight and heading over him towards the crossbow wielder, who was trying to reload it in a hurry. It did not end well for him, due to getting pinned down by the sphinx and getting a little too close of a look at its fangs, before they closed in on his face, puncturing his eyes. Unicorns screams of pain were silenced as the sphinx gave his head a good yank, snapping his neck. After tossing the body aside, Hena turned her attention to the remaining one, who seemed to have wisened up a little bit due to him not trying to rush at her, but instead taking a defensive stance with his sword. He kept up the stance even as Hena began to circle him, like the predator she pretty much was at the moment, waiting for an opening. 'If I mess this up, I'm done for. And the spell wont last much longer in my blade. I just need to land a one good slash to cause more serious injury to the beast. But it can probably take me down in one good hit as well.' he thought to himself while keeping an eye on the slowly prowling sphinx, who was equally keeping her eyes on him. 'Allright then. I can do this... For the Brighthorns.' he thought more attempting to encourage himself, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, reflexively closing his eyes for the short second. Which turned out to be a mistake, because the moment he opened his eyes, he saw the monsters claws only few inches away from his face. 'Oh buck my life...' was his last thought as the claws made contact, tearing his face and jugular apart, thanks to one mere second of an opening. On his last moments, he cursed his decision to take on this task without a good helmet. With the last opponent taken down, Hena felt the extra power leave her body, which resulted her glasses re-appearing and the snake tail disappearing, along with the extra size and other fluff. This also brought with it a stinging pain in her rear on the bolt wound, that by some luck did not seem to bleed that much. "Oooooowww... Okay I seriously need to learn healing magic or at least something to ease the pain... This will definitely causes me to limp for a while." Hena thought aloud while gathering the unicorn trios corpses, with a visible limp on her step. Hopefully a fresh meal and a study session would take her mind off the throbbing pain radiating from her wound with every step. Back to the present 'That wound kept me half-awake almost a month, until I got the hang of some easiest basic mending spell to ease the pain a little, and another darn month for it to heal enough for some light leaping action with daily mending. I did not hunt all that well during that time.' the sphinx thought as she floated the three unicorn skull aside, now telekinetically picking up something else among the varied remains. This time it was a thick finger-like bone with a sturdy looking claw on it. 'Ah yes. You where the one who simply an honorable death seeker. And then there was that other shady fellow coming from that town at the other end of the pass.' Yet another memory... "Excuse me ma'am. Sorry to disturb your rest, but might you be the sphinx that is rumored to guard this pass?" asked the low voice reaching Henas ears, waking her up from her little nap. After a short stretch she looked around, seeing some kinda dog-creature, Diamond Dog if she remembered right from one the many books, standing in the middle of the four pillars. "Why yes, I am. And who might you be, polite one?" she asked while taking a closer look at the dog. He was wearing an mixed-material armor, that was clearly made for protection while also being comfortable for long travels, along with the helmet, carrying a round, center-spiked shield and a large war hammer on his back, along with a rucksack, probably containing camping and such equipment. The dog also seemed like he had seen many, many, many winters. "Names Carl. And just to save both our time and to get to the point, I am looking for a good death in combat, after leaving my pack. Had I stayed, I would have been exiled in shame with nothing in my name. Hoped to find it in these parts." was the dogs simple answer, while taking all of his equipment off his back. "I see... Is that all then? A simple combat where you can go down fighting... I can respect that." Having said their piece, both sides prepared for the combat, Hena transforming to the same form she had when fighting those three unicorns several months ago and Carl equipping his shield and hammer, holding said hammer with only one hand, which told the sphinx that despite being an 'old timer', he still had plenty of strength to wield it with ease. Not saying another word, both sides simply began to circle one another, clearly seeing the other as a worthy opponent of sort. Almost half a minute of circling, waiting the other to make the first move... Both of them ended up doing it at the same time, with the hammer and claw meeting at the middle. 'He and his hammer are certainly strong enough to block my claws.' Hena though as she took a swipe at the dog with her other paw, only to have it blocked by the shield, with its spikes digging in, drawing a visible amount of blood. 'And knows how to defend well'. Hena tried taking another swipe at the dog, only to be blocked by his spiked shield again. Aside from the somewhat worsened puncture injury, it did give sphinx enough leverage to hop back a little to try another attack, while also giving Carl a chance to fix his stance. He may be looking for death, but he was not planning on going down easily. With a fast attempt to hit the sphinx with a quick lunge of the hammer, which she managed to dodge with the aid of her wings, while keeping his shield up, the duel continued. Their duel went on well past half-hour mark, with both of them exchanging blows and blocks with varied rates of success. After a full hour had passed on the fight, fatigue finally beginning to slowly settle upon both of them, with their breathing becoming heavier and movements becoming a little slower with less strength behind their blows. Hena had several nasty big bruises on her body and Carls armor was shredded in several places with plenty of claw marks on his thick hide and his shield had been used as an improvised throwing weapon at some point and now it was laying somewhere on the ground behind the sphinx and now holding his hammer with one less finger. "Looks like it might come down to the next big attack for the both of us, eh?" "Seems like it. Only my duty here requires me to be alive, so I kinda have to survive and all that." "Fine by me. I have a full life behind and no regrets... Feel free to find nourishment in my flesh or just toss it to the vultures." Final words now over, both of them took an attack-ready stance and just stood there for a moment. After few long seconds both of them rushed at each other with hammer and claw ready to strike. And the strike fell as they passed each other, after which they stopped for a moment... After a random dramatic breeze went by them, there was a delayed loud snap, as the sphinxs wing-joint popped out of its socket from the blow of the hammer. Around the same time, four gashes opened up around Carls throat, giving out few spurts of blood, staining some of the surrounding stonework. Neither really made too much sound, with Hena mostly gritting her teeth, which were starting returning to the normal form along with her body, and Carl simply let go of his hammer and managed by some small miracle to pass away standing. By the time Hena had returned to he normal form, the diamond dog was rather dead. 'As much as he managed to cause pain to my body, he was probably the most noble visitor thus far.' Hena thought watching the still standing corpse, while thinking how long it would take for her wing to heal back to flying condition. Even with her current mending skill it would be a gamble. "Oh my. That was a rather impressive duel." came a new voice. A glance revealed it to be a unicorn stallion, wearing some delicate eye-paint and robes of arabian or maybe egyptian style, carrying a full looking saddle back. Probably a traveler from afar? "I am inclined to agree with that. *hisss* And what brings you to my pass traveler? Or what made you to wait? You might have had a good chance of free passage during my fight." she inquired while still in good amount of pain. "I thought it might have been somewhat rude to do such a thing. And I actually have some coin to offer for the safe passage." unicorn said politely and pulled out a jingling bag and even showed its content clearly full of gold coins as if to confirm he was not lying. "And I think we could help each other a little bit. You see I am doing some research which needs little amount of some material you could easily provide, and you are clearly in need of some healing, which I happen to very good at. What do you say? A little fair bargain on the side?" "And what are you asking in return?" "Only a little bit of your blood for my research. Nothing more, nothing less." "...Very well, but only after you have done the healing and swear to never use whatever you are intending to do with your research against me." "I shall agree to your terms." unicorn said, while also offering his hoof to sphinx to shake. Which she did with her still bloodied paw-hand. As they shook on it, Hena suddenly gasped out a wisp of black smog out of her mouth, that swirled around the unicorn before disappearing. "Just a little curse to make sure you keep your word about our agreement." she said in a serious tone. "No worries about that, but still understandable. And now to keep my end of our deal." he answered as his horn started to glow. This caused a golden hued glow to surround the sphinx, followed by her injuries seemingly reversing, with bruises and scrapes disappearing and broken wing mending itself admirably fast. "Thank you. And now I will keep my end. Take out whatever you intend to use to collect the blood." Hena said after testing the feel of her now fixed wing, and proceeded to sit down. As the unicorn took out a small enchanted bottle, maybe size of a shot glass, sphinx slowly cut her palm with her own claw, drawing some blood and letting it drip down to the said little bottle. After a moment the unicorn shut the bottle, satisfied with the given amount, and even healing the bleeding cut. "Thank you my good lady. This will help my research a good amount. Oh and before I forget, here is my toll for the passage through your pass alive." unicorn said politely while putting the the little bottle away and taking out his coin purse and giving it to the sphinx. "Thank you for the business. Now off you go then." Hena said as she went to take the monetary toll to her personal treasure hoard, which was mostly just a smallish pile of items left of dead travelers and payed tolls in one of the rooms in her lair. As the lair doors closed, the unicorn took his leave with a smile. "With the blood of an powerful magical entity in my hooves, my research on creation of life shall bear fruit... Once I get home first." he whispered to himself with a smile. Later on the same day the sphinx added the mostly intact gear parts from Carls body to the pile of treasures and ate some of the meat, before burying the rest out of respect. Back to the present... AGAIN. "I wonder what he did with those drops of my blood? Haven't really thought of that for a good while. Guess I could ask the mirror one of these days." Hena thought out loud top herself. Her thoughts were cut short as a parchment appeared next to her with a pop, almost making her hop up like a spooked cat. It had some odd mark she did not recognize, but could guess it was most likely from her 'bosses'. "Allrighty let's see what it has to say." she said while picking up and opening the scroll. "Dear customerHena Due to some budget cuts and some words from higher ups, we have removed most of the anti-thief measures from your lair, including the pillar barrier thingy. This means if you want more security, other than the doors, stone walls and you guarding the two main artifacts, you have to get or make them on your own. The library will still remains secure from outsiders, but as a compensation? you are allowed to borrow a book, or other work in it. to those who only have to ask for ONE month and no more than that. After that the borrowed works will magically return back to their spot. This also happens if they are about to get damaged in ANY WAY. Any outsiders access to the library directly will be left to you personally, be it by another toll-fee or just a polite request. From: DeezPlaced.Co "Huh... That sucks for me on some level..." was all Hena could say after she red the message. Then some ideas to protect her stuff and set artifacts came to her mind as she processed it more. As the scroll faded away, the sphinx was mildly grinning. "Well, guess now I have some cursing to do." she said standing up and heading in her lair smiling, cursing black smog already lightly billowing between her teeth. But before she could get into cursing, her ears reached the sound of approaching set of hooves, making her take her place on her 'altar-spot' out of instinct. And just in time to see two unicorns, one grey youth and one blue elder, coming from the direction of the nearby town, which she had took only few careful glances now and then. She did not even know its name yet. "I'm certain that whatever beast lives in this pass is nothing we can't handle my pupil." blue one talked to the grey one, who was also carrying their full looking saddle back, clearly not yet seeing the sphinx just sitting there. "Really now? And just how would you handle me then?" sphinx asked, making both of the now startled unicorns to look at her direction. There was something familiar feel about the grey one. And the blue one seemed not to be taken aback by the sight of the beastie all that much compared to his pupil. When he talked to her, he sounded less than a mentor and more like a little pompous scholar. "Well you're clearly an intelligent beast, but I think you don't possess anything special, other than knowledge of some riddles. So please, show us oh sphinx. Show me how can you counter my unicorn magic?" Unicorns boasting gave Hena an idea, which seemed to in her skill range. She just needed to focus on a little area on unicorns neck and visualize the target from some anatomy works she had seen. Hopefully it would work without much of a fatigue. Without saying a word, she lifted her claw and looked like she was trying to squeeze something invisible with her thumb and index claw, while mentally reaching for her still rather fresh psionic skills and focusing on the pompous unicorns throat. "What? What is that supposed to b-..." blue unicorn tried asking, but suddenly felt like his throat was being forcefully closed and being unable to breathe. Few futile inhale attempts later, he began to instinctively try to reach for whatever was on his throat with his hooves but finding nothing, soon starting to visibly panic, which lead to loss of focus required for magic use. "There are plenty of ways in this world for someone to make your precious magic useless to you..." Hena said with threateningly even tone, still keeping her squeezing up on the unicorn, who was slowly suffocating. "Please lady sphinx, I think he has had enough. Please, release him..." grey unicorn asked politely, with a clear sense of urgency in his voice. "Very well then." sphinx said as she broke her psionic hold on blue ones throat, letting him fill his lungs with some of that precious, precious air, visibly relieved. "So I assume you know how my rules here go? Toll, riddle or combat? So what will it be?" "Well we have some coin to pay the to-" "We both take your damn riddle! No beast will humiliate the High Mage Azure Star and his pupil!" blue unicorn interrupted his pupil. "But teacher, we might die if we get it wrong." "We won't fail Starswirl. And didn't you tell me you faced one of these creatures as a foal?" "I... I think this is the same one sir. I know those glasses she wears." grey unicorn said, while looking at the sphinx a bit more thoroughly. It also brought back some memories for Hena. 'Well now. Let's see how the little has grown in smarts then with a teacher like that...' she thought while pushing her glasses up a little. "Now then, let us begin with my riddles my good sirs. Masters first of course." "It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. It lies behind stars and under hills and empty holes it fills. It comes first and follows after. Ends life, kills laughter. What is it?" Azure started to think over the riddle right away, most likely going it over few times and thinking over potential answers. He even started to sweat a little bit. Was he thinking his answer over that hard over the riddle, or was it perhaps the remaining stress from almost being choked to death with someones mind? Hena did not care much of that, while she merely waited for the answer. "I think... The answer is Darkness. It at least fits all the terms mentioned in the riddle... Was it right?" he suggested little warily, clearly not wanting another choke-session. "Your answer... Is correct. You may pass safely." sphinx said, pointing at the other end of the pass with her wing. And the blue unicorn walked carefully past her and started to wait for his pupil. At least he did not just run for it and abandon the other. "And now you then. Brave enough to find out if you can figure out my riddles this time?" sphinx inquired curiously. "I will try. I'm not the little colt riding on my parent cart like last time." Starswirl said, seeming confident but still wary. Still sphinx gave him a kind-ish smile before the riddle. "This thing all things devours, Birds, beasts, trees, flowers. Gnaws iron, bites steel, Grinds hard stone to meal. Slays king, ruins town, And beats high mountain down. What am I?" Both unicorns seemed visibly stumped, even though only one of them had to answer. Starswirl racked his brain, desperately trying to figure out what was the life-saving answer, soon even starting to tap his head a little bit with his hoof as he was taking longer to answer compared to Azure, who also was starting look worried. 'Could... Could it be some ancient monster lost before our time? No no, none of the known or vague ancient horrors were not that big to take down mountains. Well maybe some truly powerful magic could, but then there is the detail of it devouring basically all nature. I think it needs to be something existing for the riddle to be viable. But what thing can do all of that mentioned in it?' "Having problems there? You are shaking a lot." Sphinx suddenly pointed out while tapping her claws rhythmically on the stone. Was she in a hurry to do something? "Please, just give me a little more time." he basically 'whisper-shouted' due to slowly rising panic. "Pardon?" "Time. I asked a little more time." he said again, this time louder for sphinx to hear, who now started to smile for some reason. "Correct, young lad. You may pass safely." Hena said pointing with her wing once again. It took few seconds for Starswirl to realize he had accidentally given the right answer, followed by connecting the dots withing the riddle, which now made sense. Even his mentor could make sense of the riddle now. "Oh... Uuuh, well thank you ma'am... Have a good day...? We'll be off your hair then." "Yes, you do that. And name's Hena. Ma'am makes me feel older than I already am." sphinx said back to Starswirl while absentmindedly grooming her mane a little bit, like the large feline she basically was. Not needing any other prompt, both unicorns began to take their leave, while also being happy to have survived the little riddle-test. Before they got out of earshot Hena called out to them. "Nice little goatee! Take care of it and you might get a good beard!" This made Starswirl stop for a second and turn back to look at Henas direction, only to catch the sight of her tail disappearing behind the closing doors of her lair, after which he tried to look or feel the mentioned goatee. He could not see it, but it indeed was there. "I don't think I even want to have a beard. That would definitely make me look much older." Starswirl commented, receiving a good hearted chuckle from Azure. "Well who knows. Maybe it would eventually suit you pupil. Just have to see if it grows. Now let's go, we have a long walk ahead of us still." And so the unicorn duo carried on with their travel, not bothering to think what the sphinx was actually doing in the pass, until they heard about it in a tavern they stayed later on. Meanwhile Hena proceeded to try and curse most of her personal treasure-pile with varied levels of nastiness that she was still uncertain how well such hexes would work, if at all. She might have to read up on that.