Fan Fiction ❯ Harry Potter and the Hero of Time ❯ Riddles in the Dark... ( Chapter 7 )

Chapter 7-Riddles in the Dark

William placed his hands on the cavern door and waited for the slab of stone to slide upward. It did nothing, except that it surface began to glow silver as ancient runes became visible. Alzeroth read them out as translated from Proto-Hylian.

" `If you seek the tunnel up, look to the ring's keeper and answer his riddles. Then the stairs you seek shall appear. To open this door, state the motto of the school whose name is warthogs mixed around.'"

"Now that is an easy puzzle," said Professor Dumbledore. "Hogwarts is the word `warthogs' with its letters mixed around. The Hogwarts motto is Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus. Never tickle a sleeping dragon." The door divided into four slabs that slid into the corresponding sections of rock to reveal a cave. The party walked in easily, a little too easily to Link's mind. He heard a swishing noise as the door slid shut behind him, snapping tight with no sign of where it was.

"Watch out for the Keeses," he shouted. "They're bats-scared of the light and fond of getting into your hair. I'll take care of them; the rest of you can go on ahead."

"No can do," said Hermione. "The door here's got an iron portcullis over it; we need to kill the Keeses or what have you to move on." Link nodded and whacked all of the bats with some help from Darunia and Darmani. The twenty bats soon fell and dropped a few Recovery Hearts and Deku Seeds, but nothing of monetary value.

In the next room, the darkness became so intense that not even the Gorons could see. Knowing the darkness to be magical, they began to edge along a wall until they found a doorway. They found the doorway guarded by several smelly, pig-faced goblins.

"Who are these miserable persons," asked the voice of the Great Goblin. "Search them for weapons and valuables and bring them to me!" Several braziers of coal burst into flame and the hundreds of goblins became visible. The goblin guards surrounded them and frisked them, none too gently, and tried to take their weapons. Sheik and Impa lost their dirks, but the smelly monsters could not steal the Master Sword or the wands.

"What is this," shrieked the Great Goblin, advancing on Hermione and threatening to eat her. "What are these weapons we cannot touch?"

"Blades and magic sticks protected from our touch, O truly Tremendous One," said the captain of the guard. "Some of them bear the mark of the golden triangle on their weapons."

"The mark of the golden triangle," said the Great Goblin, his eyes widening in fear. His beady red eyes sought out William and he moved back. "You! Lord Drakan warned us to fear all traveling with you! Guards, kill them!"

"I should think not," said a new voice as the fires disappeared. "You, Great Goblin, are just a twice-dead Fewmaster and former mayor, Lord Toede!" A pillar of blazing hot fire rose up and then a sword sliced the Great Goblin through the throat from amid the flames. Fewmaster Toede, for that is who it was, brought back from the Abyss by Drakan's power, slumped forward and backward, his body cleaved neatly in two.

"Are you coming," said Gandalf, stepping out of the fire. "Quickly, all of you, follow me if you want to go where you need to go!" His gray cloak hid his white robes most effectively and his broad-brimmed hat was a little covered with soot. The staff was glowing quite brightly and it provided ample illumination for all to see.

"Well, you heard the man," said Alzeroth. "Come along, quickly!" The party dashed along at their best speed while the goblins marched behind him. After a long spiral down, the sounds of marching goblins faded away and the sound of water dripping into a vast lake intensified.

"I'll go on ahead," said Gandalf, extinguishing his staff. "You people will need a little help from the one who lives by the lake to get out of here." The wizard ran past the lake and out of view in the gloom. The party edged down the walls and then soon saw a pair of luminous green eyes gazing at them from a small boat.

"What is they, my precioussss," hissed the eyes. "We needs to know, gollum!" Every time this creature said gollum, he made a horrible swallowing noise in his throat.
"Who is this precious you refer to," Ron asked, shuddering. "You don't have any friends around here, do you?"

"We is talking to our precious self," the creature responded. "If you can answer our riddles, we can show you the way to the bright places above, we can indeed, yesss."

"Very well," said William. "Ask away, Sméagol."

"You are tricksy, you is. Firsst, this riddle: What has roots as nobody sees, is taller than trees, up, up it goes, and yet never grows?"

"That's easy," said Link, son of Darunia. "Mountains have hidden roots, are much taller than trees, go up a lot, and never grow."

"Well put," said Darmani. "A keen intellect is obviously what we need here, kid. Next riddle, please."

"Sss," hissed Gollum, not pleased at how soon they had solved this riddle. "Thirty white horses on a red hill, first they champ, then they stamp, then they stand still."

"Teeth," said Hermione.

"True, miss, but we has only six, preciousss! Voiceless it cries, wingless flutters, toothless bites, mouthless mutters!"

"It is the wind," said Sheik. "It cries with no voice, flutters about us with no wings, bites us with no teeth, and mutters with no mouth."

"Precious is not going to let this one be easy, we isn't! An eye in a blue face saw an eye in a green face. `That eye is like to this eye,' said the first eye, `but in low place, not in high place.'"

"This is sun on the daisies," said Deku Link. "The sun is the eye in the blue face of the sky and daisies look like the sun in a way."

"Baggins taught my precious that riddle a long time ago, but he didsn't know that we was from the surface in long ages past, precious! 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."

"The answer is all around us," said Impa. "The answer is darkness and shadow!"

"Yes, quite," William said, examining the floor of the cave with a torch he had conjured out of thin air. "Carry on, all of you. What I'm looking for is something only a trained eye can see."

"A box without hinges, key or lid," said Gollum, "yet golden treasure inside is hid."

"The answer is a simple egg," said Alzeroth, pulling a hen's egg from one of his pockets. "The yolk, if removed to be eaten, does look golden, certainly."

"So what," said Gollum sputtering. "Tell us, precious, what is alive without breath, as cold as death? It is never thirsty, ever drinking, all in mail never clinking." The group puzzled and puzzled for long moments, making Gollum hiss with impatience. Finally, when the imp began to sharpen his teeth on a rock, a small, blind fish flopped onto Ron's feet.

"There is your answer," said Ron. "A fish, for your dinner, you little sneak."

"A sneak are we, precious? Well, this riddle should be easy. No-legs lay on one-leg, two-legs sat near on three-legs, four-legs got some."

"That is easy," said Darunia. "There is a fish on a small table. A person sitting near on a stool eats the meat of the fish and gives the bones to their cat."

"This last riddle is very tricksy," Gollum said, tossing the bones of the fish to Crookshanks. "This thing all things devours-birds, beasts, trees, flowers; gnaws iron, bites steel, grinds hard stones to meal, slays king, ruins town, and beats high mountain down!"

"Give us some time to solve this, will you," Fred said. "We can't solve your riddle, old boy. We need more time."

"You answered it," Gollum shrieked. "Now, we must show them out, precious, but where is the Precious thing that can help us?"

"Are you looking for this," said Ganondorf, conjuring up a magical fireball as he stepped out of the shadows. "I came through this cave a while earlier and found it on the shore of the lake. It is mine!"

"No," said William. "Ganondorf, if you knew what that, that thing did, you would cast it into the nearest volcano yourself. I cannot, I dare not explain what that Ring can do, save that it turned Gollum from a nearly respectable person into the pathetic, pitiable creature seen here. You will not put it on your finger, ever, if you value your life!"

"Oh, I know what it can do," said Ganondorf. "I will not put it on-not yet. I will only put it on when I am sure that I can control it-not the other way around." Ganondorf stepped back into the shadows and Disapparated.

"What does that Ring do, precisely," Harry asked.

"When you slip it on your finger, it turns you invisible. It has an unwholesome power that makes you unable to let it go except at the earliest stages of possession. If you use it repeatedly to make yourself invisible, it makes you into a permanently invisible wraith, not at all a pleasant experience. Before you become a wraith, you become increasingly unpleasant to be around and slowly, no matter how much willpower you have, you become evil. Gollum is not evil, for the Ring left him of its own free will and came to Ganondorf.

"The Ring was created about 9000 years ago by a demigod called Sauron. He needed that ring to consolidate his power over Europe, Asia, and Africa, plus the rest of Earth. Seven thousand years ago, it was thrown into a volcano and destroyed. Drakan is obviously altering history to bring the Ring here, but we need to stop him before he can travel time anymore. Now then, Gollum, could you please show us the way out?"

Gollum nodded and shuffled up the passage Gandalf had taken to the top. He began mumbling to himself, making sure they had not passed the correct goblin tunnel. Gollum eventually pointed down a tunnel-the seventh one on the left past the third major fork. The imp led them up the tunnel and then stopped halfway along, sniffing the air for signs of trouble ahead.

"We smells goblins," said the pitiful, rag-clad creature. "Goblins is blocking the way out but our friends can deal with them easy, yes, precious, they can!"

"Thank you for your help," said William as the warriors raced off to kill the goblins. "You can either stay with us or go back to your lake."

"The Precious is ahead, and we will regain the Precious for ourselves!"

"We shall not interfere when you do," promised Alzeroth. "Now, take this cloak, and you shall be shielded from the Faces in the sky." The demigod handed Gollum a brown cloak with hood and cowl that totally protected his pale skin from hated sunlight and moonlight. The creature slipped it on and smiled in satisfaction.

"All goblins have been destroyed," called Darunia from up the tunnel. "It's nice and dreary up here-there's not a hint of sunlight through these clouds."

"We're on our way, Darunia."

Notes: Yes, Ganondorf does have the One Ring. Drakan was naughty and used a transtemporal interuniversal gate spell (in D&D terms, that's deity-level magic) to steal it, and Gollum. And yes, the Phantom is the Phantom of the Opera, and Raistlin Majere is true to form. Since Elsewhere is technically in an afterlife-plane, he can use his magic here.