Julia whirled around to face the door and found there were no handles or riddles on this side. “Oh, god!” she breathed anxiously. Jade looked up at her curiously, like a child asking if it was okay―at least that’s what she felt from him.
“Not surprising,” Falcon said, unshaken. “Typical for adventure games.”
She gulped. “Is there usually another way out?”
“Yeah, probably after we beat something.”
She nodded and then joined the others as they examined the metal doors. There was a riddle on each one, and under the words, small rectangles were carved out. Only the door in the back wall was smooth and held no riddle or handle of any kind.
“Look,” Falcon said, standing at the table in the center of the room. “I think these are the answers.”
Julia stepped closer to see. The table had a row of what looked like Mahjong tiles―thirty of the two-inch-tall, rectangular pieces were placed in a circular groove around the edge. Each tile depicted something different, from a stack of wavy lines to footprints to a fish.
“Go read me a riddle,” he directed.
She chose the first door to the left side of the entrance, while Tikki went to join Falcon. The table only came up to her nose, so she grabbed Falcon’s arm and pulled herself up onto his back. He grunted softly with her weight, though Julia couldn’t imagine that she was very heavy at all.
She smirked, then turned to read the first riddle. “It runs, but cannot walk.”
They muttered under their breath while they tried to figure it out. “A nose?” Falcon chuckled. He ran his fingers along the tiles, walking slowly around the table.
“Water!” Tikki yelled.
He grabbed the one with a stack of wavy lines on it and went to the door. The tile fit into the carved-out rectangle beneath the riddle, and the door slid to the right, disappearing into the wall.
Julia let out a scream and threw herself back against the wall. A troll stepped out of a small otherwise-empty room. It was as tall as Badger, though it was a hideous thing, with a wart-covered face, disgusting, gray, slimy-looking skin, a hunched back, and tattered, human-like clothing.
No one had their weapons drawn, nor could they draw them fast enough. The monster immediately backhanded Falcon, sending him and Tikki flying across the room.
The troll paid no attention to Julia, who stood frozen; it went for the others. Tikki was quick to recover and get back to her feet. She pulled the dagger from her belt and ran between its legs. It looked baffled, and bent over, trying to find her.
“Up here, stupid!” She laughed, now standing on its back, one hand holding its ragged shirt so she didn’t fall. A second later, she plunged the knife into his back, between its shoulder blades.
Julia looked away as the beast howled in pain. She heard Tikki stab it two more times, and then a heavy thud. She turned back to see the thing lying on the floor, Tikki still on its back, and Falcon standing at its head with his sword covered in blood.
The troll suddenly vanished.
“You okay?” Falcon asked, coming to put a hand on Julia’s shoulder.
“Yeah,” she almost whispered, then cleared her throat and spoke normal again. “Sorry… I’ll―”
He rubbed her arm. “You’ll get there,” he said encouragingly.
“Where’d it go?”
He shrugged. “I’d guess that there’s some sort of summoning spell that gets activated when the door opens.”
She just nodded, not really understanding.
They were all ready when they got to the next door. The tile that had a picture of footsteps was placed into the rectangular hole below the words, “The more you take, the more you leave behind.”
When the door slid open, Julia immediately shot a fireball. In her zealousness, it almost hit the door, where it would have burst and hit Falcon, who stood nearby. Luckily, it slipped past and struck a man in the chest. He stumbled back, yelling, as his clothes caught fire and he tried to pat out the flames.
Tikki, apparently tired of her dagger, switched to her bow and shot an arrow into the man’s heart, causing him to fall back against the wall. There was a metallic clicking sound from the main room. Everyone looked, but nothing had changed. As the man slid to the floor and vanished, a lever, made of the same sand-colored stone as the wall, came into view.
“That’s it,” Falcon said. “I bet there are levers in each one. That’s how we open the…” His voice trailed off as he saw Julia standing there, staring wide-eyed at the spot where the man had disappeared, her hand over her mouth. “What?” he asked, looking back into the room worriedly, but then frowning when he saw nothing there.
“What if he was a good guy?” she whispered.
He rolled his eyes and sighed. “Black robe, sinister-looking nose, and part of a puzzle to get to a powerful object?” he paused to let her think about it. “No, definitely bad. Now check the other room for a lever.”
Just then, they heard the same metallic clicking sound as before. “Tikki got it. Julia waste time on stupid human.”
“Leave her alone,” Falcon told the little savage. “She’s different than you, but that doesn’t mean she’s wrong.”
“Tikki say it wrong,” she told him simply. “It wrong.”
Falcon rolled his eyes, but also fought a smile as he went back to the table in the middle of the main room. “Jules, read another riddle.”
Just as Julia nodded, her light spell started flickering out. Instead of recasting it, she threw a few fireballs at the torches that were mounted here and there on the walls, lighting them. She looked at the next door and read aloud, “This one says: It happens once in a minute, twice in a millennium, but never in once hundred thousand years.”
He smiled. “I know this one. The letter M,” he said, holding up the corresponding tile.
Jade tried to join them in front of the door, but Julia shook her head. “No. You go over there. I don’t want you getting hurt.”
He obeyed and walked away.
Falcon opened the door to find a goblin. He immediately stabbed it through the middle. It slid from his sword and fell to the floor―but there were two more behind it. The first thrust its short sword into Falcon’s arm. He grunted in pain.
Julia gasped as he took a step back. She glared at the goblin that was responsible, raised her hand, and shot a fireball at it. It yelled at her as it stumbled back, but then came forward again. She threw another fireball and hit it in the chest.
Falcon thrust his sword into the goblin’s stomach and kicked him off, while Tikki finished off the last creature with arrows.
Julia went to Falcon and looked at his arm―blood was seeping through his tan shirtsleeve. The panic knotting her stomach didn’t help with the queasiness she felt at the sight. She couldn’t think. Were you supposed to tie something above the wound? She couldn’t remember.
“Healing spell,” Falcon said.
“Oh! Right. Sorry.” She had forgotten she had it. “I hope this works. I haven’t tried this one yet.” She put her hands on him, trying not to let her nausea show on her face. But she was pretty sure he saw through the act, even if he didn’t say anything.
The spell didn’t work, but then she realized that she was touching his shirt―skin contact made more sense. She moved her hands down and held his bare forearm. The spell practically cast itself. She felt a tingling, comforting warmth pull through her body and flow out from her hands. When it stopped, she looked at his face with wide eyes. “Did it work?”
He grinned and nodded. “Completely.”
She smiled too. “It was so easy. I think it’s because I really wanted you to be okay,” she told him. “Maybe desire is more important than focus.”
“Maybe.”
She wiped off the blood on his sleeve―it was already stained anyway. “I don’t think I can heal the shirt with magic though,” she joked.
He chuckled. “Hey, good job with the goblin,” he told her seriously. “See? Knew you could do it.”
She blushed and smiled. “Thanks.”
“Not mush time. Fight time,” Tikki grumbled after pulling the third lever and rejoining them. “Tikki kill more monster!”
“I’m glad we have you with us,” Julia told her sincerely.
Falcon nodded. “Yeah, you seriously kick ass.”
“Yes,” she agreed easily, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Now read door.”
Julia looked back at Jade, who was sitting in the entrance. “Stay,” she told him, just in case. She felt his impatience, but ignored it and went to the last door. “It goes up and down but does not move.”
“Mountain?” Falcon guessed. He grabbed a tile with two upside-down V's on it and placed it in the door. Nothing happened.
“What about a stairway?” Julia asked.
He found a tile with stairs on it and put it in place. Tikki already had her bow drawn when the door opened to reveal a humanoid with a gray furry body and a hyena head. Tikki loosed an arrow, and it embedded itself between the monster’s yellow eyes. The thing wobbled for a moment and then fell back with a crash.
A second one ran out from behind it and slashed at Julia’s arm with its claws. She yelled as she covered the wound with her hand. It healed instantly; she hadn’t even thought about it, but, of course, the desire to heal herself was there naturally. Damn, magic is cool.
She looked back up in time to see Falcon’s blade sliding out of the beast, but it was still alive. Tikki jumped onto its back and pulled her dagger across its throat. Julia shuddered and looked away as blood gushed and the creature fell to the ground. Tikki gave a short, happy-sounding laugh.
“You okay?” Falcon asked Julia.
She released her sleeveless arm to show him, but her smile turned into a frown when she saw four light scars. “Huh.”
“Guess the spell just makes the natural healing process go really fast,” he said. “Which wouldn’t help with scars.” Curiously, he pulled up his ripped sleeve and, sure enough, there was a small, light scar where the blade had got him. He shrugged. “At least it’s healed.”
She nodded. “What were those things, anyway?”
“Knolls.”
Tikki flipped the last lever, and the metallic clicking sound filled the space once more. They all looked at the double doors, which slid open to revealed only a pedestal with a purple cushion on it. On top of that was their prize.
Julia got to the pillow first and picked up a quarter of the white orb. The full orb would be about the size of a walnut. “How can this be it? How can something so small hold so much power?”
“You have to ask after meeting Tikki?” Falcon asked, and they all laughed.
As Falcon had guessed, the entrance door reopened, and they made their way back to the first room. Tikki stopped just below the ladder up to the shrine. Badger was in the hole above, his hand reaching down toward his sister. Then he noticed Jade. “Kitty!”
They went into the storage room where all the goddess’ offerings were kept. “Why keep the offerings here?” Julia wondered as she threw a fireball at a torch on the wall.
Tikki shrugged. “Hold it for new place.”
“I wouldn’t want to be the one that carries all that up and down the ladder.”
Tikki looked around, then jumped from chest to crate until she reached the back of the room. She must have found a lever, because suddenly part of the wall began opening until it was big enough to fit a wagon.
“Well, that answers that,” Julia said.
“Tikki get Badger,” she told them and left.
Julia felt uneasy taking from the temple's offerings, and seriously hoped the gods in this world were more like Greek myths than actual beings. She picked the nicest chest to open first. Inside there were some gemstones and a bunch of teeth in all different sizes. Strange.
“Oh!” she gasped suddenly as she picked up one of the red gems and turned it between her thumb and finger. “Rubies.”
Falcon glanced at her. “Yes,” he said slowly. “Pretty ruby. Put in pack. Good Jules.”
She glared at him, but he grinned that crooked grin and, as always, she couldn’t help smiling back. “No. The other clue, the one about rubies. Maybe another piece of the orb is in a ruby mine. Where else would there be a thousand rubies?”
He recited the clue, which he had memorized: “It is frozen in a rocky bed, a thousand rubies under its head.” He nodded. “Yeah. And somewhere cold. It’s got to be the Snow Peaks.”
Just then, the ruby was snatched from Julia’s hand. “Tikki want,” the little savage said as she passed by, then went off to look in other chests. Badger, coming in through the side entrance, followed her. He helped open the chests by breaking them with his fist―not bothering to check whether they were locked or not.
Julia opened another chest, and then somehow the whole thing turned into a game of who could get the most. It was impossible to tell who won, though, since Tikki was fiercely possessive and refused to show her share or even tell them anything. All of her goods were in a leather bag, and that bag was in Badger’s secure grip.
Falcon and Julia came away with two gold necklaces and a couple of pretty sets of earrings―probably not worth much but, since they were stealing from the temple anyway, Julia decided to keep them. They also got 131 copper. She guessed that most of Nathora’s worshipers were cheap, but then, they were the ones stealing from her. The rest was just food―mostly fist, which smelled really old―articles of clothing, some wooden carvings of animals, and other random household items.
“So, will you join us for the rest of our quest?” Falcon asked Tikki.
She sat near the ceiling, on a crate that was stacked on top of two others; she seemed to be more comfortable with heights than she was on the ground. She considered his proposal for a moment, but then shook her head. “Tikki stay in jungle. Protect tribe.”
Falcon nodded. “Very noble,” he said. “Well, thanks for your help.”
She gave him a businesslike nod. “Bye, tall people. Bye, brother cat.”
“Bye. It was really nice meeting you guys,” Julia told them.
Badger looked sad at the parting, but he said nothing. Instead, he lumbered over and hugged her. She cringed, waiting for the pain of his crushing embrace, but it never came. He was used to dealing with Tikki, who he could crush easily if he used his strength, so she guess it made sense that he was gentle. Julia smiled at him fondly as he released her.
He moved over to Falcon to hug him as well. “Bye, bird man,” he said. He picked up Tikki, who looked disgusted with all the mush, and set her on his shoulders, then they left the temple through the wagon exit.
