The Sphinx (Part 3)

The saga continues! I hope you're enjoying reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. ;) Any input is absolutely appreciated.

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The Burrow

When Jake opened his eyes, there was no sunlight. Perhaps more startling, there was no pain. He remembered falling, but nothing beyond that. Maybe he'd landed on something soft - or maybe he hadn't landed at all. When reality became stranger than dreams, there was no telling what laws of physics might be broken hither and yon just to make things work.

Still, he wasn't going to complain about the part where things didn't hurt.

Slowly, the man took stock of where he was. He was seated (not standing, so that was an interesting change) in the dark, on a dry, cool, sandy floor. It was firm beneath him and didn't seem to be the sort of floor that would randomly give way under his weight. Then again, there was always the chance that this place was not what it seemed. That chance had much better odds than he was comfortable betting against. Cautiously, he felt around with his hands and bare feet. The floor was the same for some distance in front, but to the sides and behind him he could feel the ground curve upward and into an uneven wall. When he touched the wall, sand showered down on his hands, making him wonder if he was in some sort of huge rabbit warren or something similar.

After some hesitation, he pushed himself to his knees, and then up to his feet, bumping his head against the ceiling and showering himself with dry earth. Not wanting to cause a cave-in, Jake hastily crouched again. This was not the sort of place where a human was meant to be. This was an animal place. He would need to think like an animal to get anywhere with this.

There was no light, so he couldn't see, but he could hear and smell and feel. Through the earth around him, he felt tiny vibrations, like something heavy moving through an adjacent tunnel. In the air, he smelled something damp, but not unpleasant. Water, probably, though he couldn't be really sure. And somewhere, in the hollow spaces in the earth, he heard a whump whump whump sound, like a huge fan, though he couldn't feel any airflow.

Hesitantly, he crawled forward, feeling ahead cautiously with his hands as he went. It was a good thing he did, too, because the tunnel didn't go in a straight line. It curved to the right, then to the left, then dipped down and slanted upward. Passages opened up to the left and right, but they were clearly joining this one, like this was a main thoroughfare. Which made him wonder why it ended in a dead end, where he'd come in.

The whump whump whump was getting louder and closer as he went, though he hadn't yet encountered anything that might be a living creature. It was unnerving, and the longer he went without finding anything but dry, sandy darkness, the more unsettled he got. Suddenly, something changed. Jake tilted his head, still feeling his way forward and sensing more than feeling or seeing the open space just ahead. Maybe it was the sound that gave it away. Whump whump. It stopped, and so did he. It felt like he was being looked at.

Steeling his nerves against the unknown danger ahead, Jake pushed forward.

Carol was depending on him.

Or else this was a hallucination and he would wake up in a psych ward. But at least that way, Carol was already safe.

"You have come far."​ The voice was like the sphinx, but unlike. It had the same dual tonality, but was lighter in timbre. Curious, considering they were underground. "Are you ready for the second riddle?"

Jake moved forward, feeling with his hands and confirming that the area just ahead opened out to either side, so he couldn't touch the walls. Reaching up, he found he couldn't touch the ceiling either. He pulled himself forward, sat up cross-legged, and settled himself. "I'm ready." Asking questions just now seemed like a terrible idea. Then again, this might be his only chance? Before he could think about that more deeply, the not-sphinx spoke again.

"What am I?"

​That... was an unfair question. And not a riddle. But the first one hadn't been a riddle in the traditional sense either, and he still wasn't sure how falling into a hole qualified as solving it. Jake frowned into the darkness, feeling rather blindsided, no pun intended.

"I suppose you're not going to give me any hints?"

"You have all the information you need."

"Am I allowed to leave this room and return when I have the answer?"

"Yes."

"How much time do I have to give you the answer?"

"Ten minutes."

"Generous of you." Jake's tone was very dry, and the creature in the darkness laughed softly.

"I try to be fair," it admitted, and Jake thought he could hear a smile in the creature's tone. "I don't get to play this game very often. It's uncommon for a human to solve the first riddle."

"Maybe after I solve this one, you could answer some questions?" Jake was already getting back to his knees, preparing to crawl away and explore one or two of the side passages to learn what he could about the animal that dug them.

"I doubt it. You're on a deadline, Human."​

Good point. With a nod he wasn't entirely sure the creature could see, Jake turned to leave the cavern. He felt his way forward with his hands, moving more confidently now. As he departed, he felt the whump whump start up again, both in his ears and through his bones. Less a vibration than a rapid change in air pressure. Not enough to make his ears pop, but enough to make him slightly disoriented, which definitely made the anxious feeling in his gut more pronounced. Interesting.

When he found a passage branching off from the main run, Jake realized it was narrower, and slanted upward. He followed it, scrabbling a little at the dry earth on the way up and trying not to slide backwards. He'd actually managed to work up a decent sweat by the time he reached the top of the incline, where he saw a landscape very much like the one he'd been trapped in before, with the gazelle. There was tall grass in all directions, though the sky overhead was velvety black with pricks of silvery light scattered thickly above. He'd never seen so many stars before. If he hadn't known he only had ten minutes to solve this puzzle, then he might have been tempted to just sit down and watch the sky for an hour or two.

Quickly, Jake surveyed the land closer at hand, and noticed something startling that he hadn't before. First, he was standing on top of a fair-sized hill, which put him above the heads of the swaying grasses. Second, the grass was easily twice or maybe even three times his own height. Conclusion - he was tiny. Probably no bigger than a large mouse. Shaking his head, he turned and slid down into the hole again, allowing himself to skid down the slope into the warren below. Reorienting himself by the noise coming from the big cavern, he moved away from it, looking for another side passage. The way he figured, he probably had time to poke around in one more passage before he needed to get back to the big cavern and provide his answer.

The next passage branched off in the opposite direction, and wound gradually downward. When he had descended about a single tunnel height, the passage straightened out, and he found a pile of soft stuff, like feathers or fur. A nest of some sort. Cautiously, he explored the nest, and found a furry creature larger than himself, sleeping in the midst of it. It woke when he touched it, and snuffled at him, but didn't immediately attack. Jake guessed that it wouldn't hurt him while he was in the middle of the Riddle, and tried to calm his pounding heart. This could turn out very badly. On the other hand, sitting there and doing nothing wasn't going to make this puzzle any easier to solve.

Trying not to smell like fear, Jake made soothing noises to the big furry creature and ran his hands over it gently. He felt short, smooth fur, short, sturdy front legs, powerful haunches, and a long tail with longer, shaggier hair on it than the rest of the body. At that point, the creature decided it had had enough of this touching nonsense, and nearly bowled Jake over as it rushed past him, up the winding passage to the main run. The man lay still on his back, winded, but glad he wasn't bleeding. After a taking a minute to recover, he rolled back to his hands and knees and started up the slope. By the time he reached the big cavern, he was tired, but thought he had an answer. The whump whump whump noise stopped again as he crossed the threshold.

"Do you know what I am?"

"I think so." Jake sat down and crossed his legs again, taking a deep breath and calming himself somewhat. "You live in a hot, dry, sandy place. There's water somewhere inside your warren. There are nests inside, for sleeping. And you signal your family with noise and air pressure. You dug these tunnels, I would guess, but your tail is long, not sure. So I would guess that you're a ground squirrel, or something in that family."

There was a slight pause before he replied. "I can accept this answer. It's technically correct."

"I could have answered 'infuriating,' and that would have been true, too. But there you go." Jake was rewarded with a quiet laugh and the sound of claws on the dry, sandy floor. In a moment, there was fur against his arm as she creature took a seat beside him.

"You are brave and clever, but the next riddle will not be kind to you."

"How many riddles are there in all?"

"Four."

"And I've passed two?"

"Correct."

"What happens if I fail?"

There was the slightest of hesitations before the answer came. "You will be lost to the Labyrinth and its occupants." Jake didn't like the sound of that, but what more could he expect? It was a magic riddle competition, and he was playing with the high rollers now.

"Are you ready?" The creature spoke quietly, and not unkindly.

"As ready as I'll ever be."

"Then go. And remember that not everything is as it seems."