Skara Braens

Part 41

You pause, letting the riddle settle into your mind.

"What is buried underground, but towers over the land?"  Turning to face your companions, your gaze loses focus.  You turn it inward, struggling to find an answer to the riddle.

"Time itself cannot weather it, but it weathers with time."  The answer to this part seems obvious.  Stone.  If wind, sand and sea did not exist, stone would last forever.  Whatever the answer to the riddle, it would be something made of stone.  A tower?  A tower is made of stone.

You open your mouth, then shut it again.  No.  Tower's are not also buried.  What would be buried?  A tombstone?  Again you disregard the thought.  Tombstones hardly stand taller than knee height.  What was taller than a tombstone, was also stone, and was buried...

There is an almost audible click as your brain snaps onto the correct answer.

"Standing stone," you blurt, before you could stop yourself.

You return your gaze to the room, noting that everyone in it is staring at you, their expressions matching in the palpable tension that now lay about the room like a suffocating blanket.

The silence stretches on.

"Menhir," the soft, feminine voice sighs. "Stones that stand.  Yes."

"Oh, thank God," Mordina whispers.

Silence answers her relief.

"So... uh..." you say.  "Are we allowed to go?"

Silence.

"Hello?"

"There is great evil all around," the voice answers.  "You must wait."

"Breathable air is a concern," Drest notes.

As if in answer to that concern, a soft breeze moves through the room.

"Hey," Mordina says, smiling.  "Do you think if I mention that I'm starving, we'll get some food too?"

You scoff, but then the smell of roasted chicken fills the room.  "What?" you murmur, turning around.  Scowling, you see nothing, but the smell continues to fill the room.  Sniffing, Artair walks past you, following his nose to a dark edge of the roughly round room.  He pauses, then appears to walk right through the wall.  Blinking, you stare at the wall where Artair disappeared.

The broad-backed man reappears, holding a sliver of still-steaming chicken.

"There's a room back here," he says.  "With a table.  And food.  Lots of food."

"What?" David demands, walking forward.  "Holy shit!" he exclaims when he comes to a stop beside Artair.  "There's a passage back here!"

"What?" Mordina asks.  She moves forward as David disappears into the wall.  "Holy shit!" she says, before also disappearing into the wall.  From beyond the wall, you hear her muffled voice exclaim, "Oh my GOD!"

Artair rumbles a soft laugh, eats his sliver of hot chicken and grins over at you.  "No, really," he says, probably in response to the expression of utter disbelief on your face.  "It's a damned feast."

Once again, Mordina's muffled voice makes its way to your ears.  "This is delicious!"

Finally overwhelmed by a grumbling stomach, you walk forward only to find the view shift.  What looked like a solid wall from where you were standing, suddenly becomes a depression in the wall.  You walk in and find a small hall leading off from your left.  You walk down the hall and find yourself in a small chamber.