Soon, we continued on our way.
Before we left, Myra told me that I should visit the place where she came from.
I nodded as I told her that I'll think about it then gave her a huge hug.
She comforted me for a while, reassuring me that she will try to find a way too to help me with my condition.
Afterwards, she reminded me that it's okay for me to grieve while still loving the life I have and that my emotions are valid.
Since I had told her that I'm not planning to tell anyone else about my condition, she said that she will try to find a way to be able to communicate with me.
She pondered for awhile before adding that she might visit me at the territory sometime in the future.
Oh, that would be wonderful!
....
Bubu kept smirking at Deus, who tried to avoid her.
She told him in a sing-song voice on how it was quite embarrassing for him to fail during one of his "hunts".
Of course she didn't fail at any of her "hunts". In fact, she was quite successful back at the trading hub as she had....
I covered my ears instantly as I don't want to know the rest of the story.
Since Deus is with us again, we are back to riding steeds.
Lion and I shared a steed as usual. He seemed more clingy, making me think that he knows that there is more to the story on why I was crying uncontrollably the other night.
In fact, it was quite obvious.
Our stay back at the trading hub got extended for a day as I was extremely moody though Myra accompanied me.
I stayed in one of the rooms of her villa, refusing to go out the entire day despite the pack's efforts on trying to comfort me.
Myra understood that I haven't told any of the pack of the real reason why I was moody and told her mate to distract the others as she will accompany me the entire day.
It helped for a bit.
When Bubu found out about my moodiness, she and Myra tried to cheer up by bringing me to a tavern.
Not just any tavern but Myra's favorite tavern.
You get the idea why.
But I behaved though my eyes didn't.
Heh.
The three of us were drunk by the time we got back to Myra's villa. As soon as we arrived, Myra immediately pulled her mate towards their bedroom.
The door closed with a loud bang and they remained busy until we were about to leave.
Myra should expect more offsprings soon.
....
Though my mood improved a bit, Lion noticed that I'm still a bit down so he tried to cheer me up.
Nothing seems to work so he decided that we would set up camp for the meantime.
While everyone is busy setting everything up, I huddled while sitting on a flat piece of rock.
I feel drained.
My mind is empty like all my crying released my pent-up emotions.
After several moments of burying my face on my knees, Lion embraced me tenderly behind my back.
Despite not knowing the cause, Lion tried to comfort me once more without saying anything. He just embraced me without a word then gently carried me towards a large tent.
Inside, he continued to cradle me in his arms until I told him timidly that I want some candy.
Of course he chuckled upon hearing it and thankfully, he gave me some.
He kept on nuzzling me until I started to yawn.
I'm so drained....
I want to sleep....
He placed me tenderly on a thick rug and covered me with a blanket.
I pulled his arm in which he understood that I wanted him to cuddle me without saying anything.
Of course he cuddled me until we heard several sounds of whining and whimpers.
Oh gosh.
I chuckled and told the rest of the pack to join us.
They don't need a second invitation as they, especially Sly, immediately tried to position themselves beside me that caused chaos for sometime until Lion gave an annoyed growl.
Seeing the chaos gave me a fit of giggles that soon turned into uncontrollable laughter that the pack laughed as well.
I think that they are relieved that I cheered up a bit.
It's not their fault.
On that moment, I decided to bury the matter deep in my heart.
Once more, the pack tried to position themselves lying down beside me as comfortably as possible.
My head is on Alpha's chest, Sly is behind me, Lion is on his side facing towards me, Ghost is lying on my abdomen while Orm's head is on my legs.
I can't move!
Thankfully, I'm not a restless sleeper.
But this position is so cosy like we are wolves huddling together for warmth.
We are like wolves in a way.
After several nuzzles from them, I slowly felt sleepy until I closed my eyes.
I'm still awake though even though my eyes are closed.
They fell asleep first.
I can hear Bubu coming inside the tent in which she chuckled for a bit before saying that it's a good thing that she stayed in another tent.
Khamsin and Deus are having a lively discussion as they entered the tent in which Bubu angrily shushed them.
I can feel all of them staring at us until Khamsin murmured something under his breath that made Bubu snicker as she must've heard him properly.
I wonder what he said.
With a huge sigh, I can hear him leaving the tent first.
I was about to fall asleep when Bubu and Deus had some sort of an intense discussion in hushed tones.
They continued to talk until I can hear Alpha growling at them deeply as if he's warning them not to wake me up.
I'm pretending to be asleep though.
Both Bubu and Deus chuckled at him before leaving the tent.
After a while, I can feel Alpha caressing my hair until he fell asleep.
Soon, I did the same.
...
It took a while for us to arrive at the location of the transformation stone where Dad said it would be.
To everyone's surprise, humongous stone mountains that seemed to reach the sky acted like some sort of a fence that prevented us from going further.
There's a cave though but a huge sphinx seems to be guarding it.
Lion handed me to Ghost as he told everyone to position themselves properly.
Ghost, while holding me in his arms and Bubu, stayed at the very back of the group as Lion went ahead, followed by Sly and Alpha, then Orm, Khamsin and Deus behind them.
Lion signaled Ghost to stay put while the rest of them approached the sphinx.
The sphinx has the head of a female being, with the body of a beast and two wings on her back.
She looks intriguing yet intimidating at the same time while pacing in front of the cave.
I asked Ghost if he had encountered a creature like her before during his previous work in which he admitted that he has never met one but somehow familiar with them based on the other researchers' notes.
As for Bubu, she looks.... bored.
The rest of the group seems to be in an intense discussion with the sphinx for a long time until Deus yelled Bubu's name.
Bubu tried to ignore him before noticing that the sphinx is grinning at her.
She mumbled something unintelligible under her breath before approaching them.
I wonder why they are taking so long?
Ghost seems to wonder also as he started to ponder something.
Seeing him ponder while biting his lip in concentration made me feel mischievous all of a sudden.
I moved closer towards him and kissed his neck gently.
His grip towards me tightened as he whispered my name in a lingering way.
I chuckled at him when suddenly, he gave a gentle nip on my ear.
That Ghost! He knows that my ear is very sensitive!
He did it on purpose!
I glanced at him while he continued to stare towards the rest of our companions as if he didn't do it.
I crossed my arms as I look at the sphinx when I felt him licking my ear slowly.
What the...
Again, he acted like he didn't do anything at all.
If he teases me again, I swear that I will...
When I felt his head moving closer towards my ear, this time I'm ready for him.
Immediately, I pulled him closer to me as I marked his neck then told him that he's mine.
He panted as he held me closer to him, telling me that he loves hearing me claiming him and was about to kiss me when we heard the rest of the group calling our names.
I told him that it's a shame that we have something to do first and gave him a kiss on his forehead.
With a huge sigh, he walked towards the rest of the group but not before marking me behind my neck.
Then in a low voice, he said soon.
What did he meant by soon?
Ah.. whatever..
....
The sphinx wants to talk to me.
Why?
Lion took me from Ghost's arms as he told me that the sphinx refused their requests to enter the cave despite their persuations.
And they can't attack her either or else all of us will be cursed and turned into sphinxes for all eternity.
Also, the sphinx doesn't like to talk to males. That's why they called Bubu earlier.
But upon seeing Bubu, the sphinx refused to talk to her and requested to talk to me instead.
They tried to offer her all sorts of stuff but to no avail as she insisted to talk to me or we can't enter the cave.
Lion reassured me that he will be keeping me safe while holding me, with the rest of the group behind us.
After nuzzling me all over, he moved closer to the sphinx, who looked extremely interested upon seeing me.
She approached us then sniffed at me before telling everybody that she finally found someone interesting to talk to.
I told Lion to put me down, much to his reluctance and faced the sphinx.
Based in the fantasy books that I read, sphinxes, especially female ones, demands huge respect and they have a specific way of greeting them.
So I moved slowly, bent one of my knees while lowering my head and called her divine protector of the sands, complimenting her all sorts of things that she looked immensely pleased at my actions.
Ah.. she's quite vain too.
I continued to compliment her all sorts of things with a dash of flattery in between until she finally grinned towards me.
She laughed as she told everyone that she should've talked to me in the first place and not wasted her time with them.
With a smile, she called me little one then asked if I also wanted to enter the cave.
I told her that I can't do that as it would be rude for me not to give her something first.
She laughed in glee and smirked towards the rest of the group as she exclaimed that I definitely have good manners than the rest of them.
Then she sat down and asked me what I'm planning to give her.
With a smile, I asked her if she likes to play a game.
...
Female sphinxes are known to love riddles.
As soon as I asked her if she likes to play a game, she immediately lit up and told me that she knows a good game to play.
Answering riddles.
She told me that if I can answer three of her riddles, she will allow us to pass.
Yes!
However, if we fail to answer correctly, we would face a consequence.
Okay, then! I'm ready!
I waited in anticipation when to my dismay, she said that she will choose among my companions on who will answer her question.
Uh-oh.
Not everyone enjoys answering riddles.
I hope they won't be too obvious with their...
They are too obvious!!!!
Sly and Lion grinned at each other confidently, Alpha and Ghost stared at the sphinx wide-eyed, Orm seemed to be deep in thought, Khamsin looks like he wants to volunteer himself, Deus is trying to avoid catching the eyes of the sphinx while Bubu...
Looks bored.
Ah, great..
I can just guess who the sphinx will choose to answer the three riddles.
....
She choose Deus to answer first, making everyone groan including Deus himself.
The first riddle is:
"I wear a leather coat to keep my innards in working order. I escort you to other realms without a magic portal. What am I?"
After hearing it, Orm, Khamsin, Sly and Lion raised their hands, hoping that the sphinx might choose them instead.
Much to their disappointment, the sphinx insisted on Deus to answer the riddle.
It wasn't a surprise that he gave the wrong answer.
Argh! It was an easy one!
The answer is a book, by the way.
And the punishment is making Deus fight against numerous amounts of Jakalwere, which looks like a hybrid of a being and a jackal.
Extremely ferocious and a predator.
Deus is trapped inside a huge, transparent dome, fighting for his life in which he transformed to his ultimate form.
That's the first time I saw him transformed into his ultimate form!
His ultimate form looks like a scorpion with wings. And he has arms too as he used magic to fight off the jackalweres, along with his tail.
I was almost engrossed watching him fight when the sphinx cleared her throat and asked us to focus on her.
Oops.
That was rude of us.
Then she pointed towards Ghost.
....
The second question is:
"What is so fragile that even speaking its name will break it?"
Ghost almost got the answer but the sphinx wants it to be specific and precise.
Oh, no...
The correct answer was supposed to be silence but Ghost answered quiet instead.
No, she won't consider Ghost's answer.
She look towards me and I sighed deeply before explaining to everyone that silence is absolute absence of sound while quiet refers to low level of noise or minimal disturbance.
In short, quiet can still make a bit of noise while silence makes no sound at all.
Everyone made sounds of realization as they looked towards me in awe, including the sphinx herself.
And of course, consequence time.
Instead of Ghost, it is Alpha, Khamsin and Bubu, much to her annoyance as she yelled all sorts of expletives towards Ghost as they were placed inside another transparent dome while facing numerous amounts of giant, flying sand snakes that kept popping out of the sands randomly.
Soon, all three of them yelled all sorts of colorful expletives towards Ghost as they tried to kill the flying sand snakes with difficulty.
Then the sphinx cleared her throat again.
There's only Lion, Sly, and Orm who hasn't answered yet.
To our horror, Ghost is still included.
I can see him looking terrified as the sphinx pointed towards him, grinning sadistically.
We're in trouble!
....
"My form is stolen, my life is false, my voice is not my own. I grow as more is taken from me. I hold the lives of many, but my story is not my own. What am I?"
Ghost took quite sometime in thinking about the question in which he hesitantly told the sphinx that the answer is a hole.
He's right!
But to my surprise, the sphinx laughed and told him that he's wrong.
Why?!
I thought for awhile before realizing that the riddle has two answers in which I spoke the word echo, much to the sphinx's delight.
She is about to tell us the consequence when I held my hand up and told her that Ghost is right also.
I explained to her that a hole is false for having no physical substance, grows larger as more dirt or space is taken from the ground and can hold the lives of many, especially if it's a deep pit.
Everyone looked at me with amazement in their eyes, especially Lion who looked extremely proud of me.
The sphinx nodded in agreement with my explanation before telling me that she will consider my answer but we still have to face a consequence as Ghost didn't get the answer she want.
Though in the future, she will consider any of the answers.
Why not now?!
Since Ghost answered correctly even though it wasn't the answer the sphinx wanted, she told us that she will give mercy to whoever she choose to face the basilisk.
A basilisk?!!
Noooo!!!
I sobbed upon hearing it, making Lion, Sly, Ghost and Orm asked me in alarm as they have no idea what a basilisk is.
Between my sobs, I told them everything I know about a basilisk, including their gaze that petrifies or kills on sight, not to mention their venom can kill instantly.
Why?!
I sobbed for awhile while the four of them looked like they are trying to think of way to kill a basilisk.
The sphinx sat down near me and reminded me about the mercy she is going to give to whoever will fight the basilisk.
To my relief, she will remove the basilisk's gaze ability to petrify or kill on sight.
Good.
Thank goodness.
And she choose Sly to face the basilisk.
....
Say, what?
I thought that we are done but the sphinx enjoyed the game too much that she told me that she has additional two questions remaining.
Ugh.
Can I just answer everything instead?
I'm no longer worried about Sly's situation as he has stronger immunity against all sorts of venom and poison as a result after he got out of the egg.
He leveled up!
The sphinx took a while in choosing whoever will answer her question next.
It's only Lion, Orm and Ghost left.
I have a feeling that Ghost will end up answering everything.
Lion and Orm must've thought the same as they glared towards Ghost, who tried to avoid looking at them.
Poor Ghost! It's not his fault!
Then the sphinx told us the next riddle:
"Often held but never touched, always wet but never rusts, often bites but seldom bit, to use me well you must have wit."
Oohh.. that's quite a bit hard but I know the answer.
Wait.. the sphinx didn't choose who to answer yet!
To my surprise, the sphinx grinned widely and told us that except for me, the three of them can help each other in trying to answer her riddle.
Seeing the looks on the three made me groan in frustration.
They don't know the answer.