The Hearts of Goblins

Chapter XIII

Didymus frowned and huffed as he found yet another dead end. Gwen and Lee groaned in unison at the sight of another wall that blocked their path. Lee glanced at Gwen discretely. The burn on her shoulder was ugly, red, and blistering. The burn on her ankle was only looked slightly better. Her shoulder looked as if it was bleeding. Lee noticed that Gwen winced every time her hair accidentally touched it. The fabric of her shirt was damaged, what was left hung off her burned shoulder. The once pale blue cotton was now a dingy blue grey, dark stains from the muddy tunnel covered the sleeves. Her khaki shorts were four shades darker than they had been when the quest first began. Her face, legs, and forearms had been smeared with mud and grit.

Lee figured he probably looked worse. He felt terrible. A splitting headache grew more severe with each time Didymus spoke. His stomach was empty, but he knew that if he found something to eat there was no way he could have kept it down. His limbs felt weak and fatigue pressed on him relentlessly. He felt frail and pathetic.

Surely this quest must nearly be over, He thought.

"Here's something!" Didymus yapped. Lee felt a sharp pain behind his left eye as Didymus spoke. "Look!" the little knight barked. Lee followed Didymus and Gwen, dragging his feet. He peered into an empty courtyard. He observed it warily. The last empty courtyard they had entered had not been too kind to them.

This one was completely barren. The floor tiles were blank and a somewhat reddish brown color. The walls on all sides were completely free of any moss or fungus unlike the rest of the labyrinth. On the opposite end of it there was an arched doorway guarded by a marble statue of a sphinx. The statue was snow white and looked to have been expertly made. It's feminine face resembled the glorious Greek statues of Aphrodite and Hera. A long crack was stretched diagonally across its face. Upon its head, wavy hair had been sculpted. The pretty face was attached to the muscular neck of a lion. The lion body was seated with poised posture. Great folded wings protruded out of its back.

It looked like any ordinary sphinx statue to be found in a museum. All except the eyes. Its eyed were round cut black gems that stood out strongly against the white marble face. Both gems seemed perfectly symmetrical and were around the size of a larger man's fist. The black gems gleamed menacingly in the dwindling sunlight.

Neither Gwen nor Sir Didymus to notice or care about the statue's exquisite beauty. Both of them walked across the courtyard. Gwen looked at the doorway and tried to find a place where they could all squeeze past the statue. Didymus tapped on the sphinx's chest with his staff.

Lee stood in the center of the courtyard and continued to observe the sphinx.

"Do you wish to pass?"

Gwen and Didymus jumped away from the statue and stood on either side of Lee. The strange voice had come from the sphinx. That much was obvious to them.

"Best my game of riddles and you may go forward." said the sphinx. The statue's mouth never did open. The voice was soft and calm yet raspy and malicious.
Gwen and Lee looked at each other.
"Um I think we'll just find another way, thanks." Gwen said. They turned around to the direction from which they came. Gwen yelped as she saw the exit had closed up. The solid wall had moved and left them caged.
"I'm not even surprised anymore." She muttered bitterly.
They turned back to the statue.
"Fine, whatever." Lee said.
"We accept!" Didymus stated proudly.
The statue's gem eyes seemed to gleam a bit more. The voice came from within the statue, slowly for dramatic effect,
"What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the after-"

"Man." Gwen and Lee said in unison.  The statue never moved but Lee could have sworn that it's peaceful face suddenly had looked rather annoyed.
"Do you have a riddle for me?" The sphinx asked.
Lee looked to Gwen. He could come up with only a few riddles off the top of his head but none were very good.
Gwen smirked. For a moment Lee thought the sphinx looked intimidated.
Gwen cleared her throat and spoke gracefully and calm, but projected her voice as though reciting a soliloquy on center stage.
"A box without a lock, hinges, or lid. Yet inside a golden treasure is hid." She recited. Lee bit his lip and hoped that the sphinx had never had any access to J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit.
"Hmm." The sphinx murmured. "Excellent puzzle, but I've found the answer."
"Alright, what is it then?" Lee asked.
"Eggs." Said the voice of the sphinx.
Gwen pursed her lips and frowned.
"Okay. So what's the next riddle?" She asked. The black eyes of the statue glittered.
"It has no voice, it has no mouth, yet soundlessly it cries. It strikes down trees and spits tons of ice, yet living it is not."
Gwen bit the inside of her cheek. Lee's mind went to work. No voice. No mouth. Soundlessly cries. Strikes down trees. Spits ice. What the hell.
He shook his head and tried to break it down. Spitting ice either sounded natural or supernatural, and in a place like this Lee wouldn't doubt either of them.
Weather? Too broad of an answer. Strikes down trees. Lightning? But lightning has nothing to with ice. The only connection between them was they both came from-
"A thunderhead!" Didymus cried out.
"Fantastic!" The sphinx said. Lee almost glared at Didymus but realized that if the little knight had not called out the answer Lee's own answer might not have been specific enough to be given the Sphinx's approval.
Didymus and Lee both looked to Gwen for the next riddle.
"Your turn." The sphinx reminded softly.
Gwen thought quickly and came up with another riddle, taking another from one of her favorite books.
"Alive without breath, As cold as death; Never thirsty, ever drinking, All in mail never clinking."
"A fish." The statue said after a moment of thinking. Gwen began to sweat nervously. Soon she would run out of riddles. She tried to think of the hardest ones she had ever heard and ready them in order to stump the sphinx.
" Always found in the past, created in the present, never tainted by the future." The sphinx said. To Gwen and Lee both, the answer was obvious.
"Memory." Gwen said at the exact same time Lee shouted out, "History!"