Chapter 70: Sixty Eight

“I am light as a feather and I can be strong, short, and deep. I bring life, but none can hold me for long. What am I?” 

Pacing back and forth before a golden furred Sphinx, I recited the riddle over and over under my breath as I racked my brain for the answer. Upon entering a large room with ornate golden carvings, we’d been confronted by the woman whose lower body was that of a sleek feline. Seated on a plush cushion, the Sphinx spoke her riddle, declaring our deaths should we fail to correctly answer. 

Despite both Pia and Victoria wanting to forgo the riddle in favor of battling the Sphinx, I’d convinced them we should at least try to find the answer. Why risk a fight if we didn’t need to? 

“I think I have it,” Kip said, and I stopped pacing to look at him questioningly. 

Giving the Sphinx a cautious look, the dwarf walked to my side, and gestured for me to lean down so he could speak softly into my ear. 

“Do you think it could be air?” 

“Maybe?” I murmured, thinking it over before giving a slight nod. 

“I’ve got no better ideas, so give it a shot I guess. If it’s wrong, we go to Plan B.” I said, gesturing to a bored-looking Pia who was twirling her spear around like she was a high school majorette.

Rainy was near the Faun, and had formed herself a chair made of vines, where she sat flipping through a book, whilst Victoria was using a rag to polish her newly reformed shield. We’d been in the room for almost twenty minutes, with the Sphinx declaring we had half an hour to answer. 

After alerting the others that we were ready with an answer, Kip approached the Sphinx. The rest of us huddled together, prepared to fight the golden feline if she attacked. 

“I’d like to solve the riddle.” Kip declared boldly to the Sphinx who appeared to be napping. 

Opening her eyes to reveal a pair of stunning green irises with a slit pupil, the half feline woman gave the Dwarf a sensual smile as she spoke her riddle again. 

“I am light as a feather and I can be strong, short, and deep. I bring life, but none can hold me for long. What am I?” the Sphinx asked, her voice a husky purr. 

Breath, it’s a breath. Eyes widening in realization, I opened my mouth to answer, but Kip’s voice rang out before I could speak.

“Air.” The dwarf answered confidently, and I let out a cry of dismay. 

The Sphinx gave a low chuckle, and in a blur of motion dove towards Kip, who’d already started moving after hearing my cry. Victoria’s shield flew towards the Sphinx, with the Kijo clutching the handle, allowing the shield to carry her into close range. 

“Here kitty, kitty, meow.” Pia taunted, bounding forwards with her spear held in front of her. 

As though woken by Pia’s taunting, a series of loud roars filled the room, and the three golden lion statues that surrounded the Sphinx’s cushion sprung to life. Spinning to face one of the large golden lions, I flung a ball of fire at the creature as it rushed towards me and felt a pang of dismay as the flames did nothing to the metal creature. 

Why is it lions? I mentally screamed as I sent Pyr to splatter itself over the first lion, which only made things worse. Pursued by a burning metal lion, I ran as fast as I could around the room. Rainy didn’t seem to have the same issues, and I caught a glimpse of her ensnaring one of the lions in vines. Even Pia seemed to be having an easy time, as she leapt onto the third lion's back like a cowboy at a rodeo. 

With a burning lion hot on my heels, I dug through my pouch, searching in vain for something to attack with. 

Dagger? No. Book? Definitely not. Yes, that’s it. Fingers curling around a square packet of paper, I flung it over my shoulder at the pursuing lion while invoking the transmutation circle. 

“Quicksand.” 

I didn’t stop running, fearing my futile attempt to stop the pursuit had failed, and only when the lion behind me let out a choked sounding roar did I dare risk looking back and saw the lion struggling to move as it sunk deeper and deeper into the ground. 

That’s not how real quicksand works, I thought as I cautiously moved back towards the lion, while scanning the room to check on my team who were all busy fighting off the Sphinx or in Pia’s case, clinging to the back of a lion as it sprinted around the room. Rainy’s lion was being torn apart by her vines, and the Dryad was already sending more vines toward the Sphinx that Victoria had pinned beneath her shield, as Kip darted around stabbing at it with his daggers. 

Jogging back over to the still burning lion that was struggling in the transmuted quicksand, I called for Pyr to return to me, and the flames coating the lion shifted, reforming back into the wisp who flew over to hover above my head. 

I wonder how long the quicksand lasts? Will quicksand suffocate a metal lion? How does one stop a metal statue?

“Yeehaw,” Pia cheered as the lion she was riding dashed past, trying to dislodge the Faun who’d jammed her spear between its shoulder blades and was using it as a handle. 

“Let's see, fire strike, lightning arrow, quicksand, flash freeze? I wonder what that one does.” I mused, shuffling through the paper packets, and grabbing the one marked flash freeze. 

“Flash Freeze.” I invoked, holding the paper pack up in the air with the side the words were written on facing the lion. 

A blast of cool air blew out from the paper packet, and a glowing circle appeared in front of my left hand, shooting towards the struggling lion. The lion froze in place as frost formed over its body in delicate patterns. 

“Lightning Arrow.” 

Using another one of the transmutation packets, I sent an arrow shaped streak of white-blue light towards the lion, and watched in fascination as it shattered into tiny metallic fragments. 

“That was so cool,” a panting Pia exclaimed as she came bounding over to where I stood staring at the remains of the lion. 

“And completely unrealistic.” I muttered, looking over to see the Faun’s lion crumpled on the ground and missing its head. 

“How so?” 

“Most metals fall into one of two primary crystalline structures, which are either face-centered cubic or body-centered cubic, though there are less common options than the main two. Body-centered cubic metals like iron will fracture if below a certain temperature. But, metals like gold, which are face-centered cubic do not have a ductile to brittle transition, so won’t shatter regardless of how cold it gets.” 

“What about marble covered in gold paint? Cause that’s what those were, see,” stooping to pick up one of the larger fragments of the lion, Pia held it up to show me the pale interior. 

“Ah, I thought it was solid gold.” I murmured, taking the fragment from her. 

“Nah, but can you imagine the boner Kip would have if it was?” The Faun snickered. 

“I’d rather not.” 

Scrunching my face up in disgust, I threw the gold painted marble to the ground, and turned to check on the rest of our team. The Sphinx was still alive, and Kip was lying prone on the ground with Rainy kneeling over him. Vines lashed out towards the Sphinx who was reared up on her hind legs, front claws digging into the Kijo’s shield as she stabbed a golden spear at Victoria. 

“Guess we should probably go help,” Pia commented, her own spear resting on her shoulder. 

“Ya think?” I snorted, plucking an orange and black feathered dart from my bracer as I began running to close the distance between myself and the Sphinx. 

Once I was at a reasonable throwing distance, I flung the dart I held at the Sphinx’s back. As the dart imbedded itself into the flesh, the creature let out a scream that was a mix of human and beast. After throwing a second dart coated with Scorcher venom at the Sphinx, I half expected the creature to fall to the ground and begin writhing in agony. But the Sphinx only screamed again, turning her attention to me. 

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Pyr, burn the kitty. I shouted mentally, sending my wisp flying towards the Sphinx. 

The flaming ball of jello slammed into the golden half lion woman with a splat, bringing another garbled scream from the creature’s throat. This time she did fall to the ground, where she rolled and writhed in an attempt to put out the flames, only succeeding in spreading them further along her body. 

“Foxy, go to Kip.” Victoria shouted.

Leaving behind a burning Sphinx, I ran to where Rainy was kneeling next to the Dwarf. As I dropped to my knees beside the pair, I let out a gasp at the sight of Kip’s torn leather armor. Blood covered Rainy’s hands as she pressed on the dwarf’s wounds with a thick linen cloth. 

“Kads, pain reliever.” The Dryad requested, and I quickly complied, scooping an arm behind Kip’s head as I poured the contents of a clay vial into his mouth. 

“Have you already cleaned the wound?” I asked, pulling out a pouch with a white cross on the front. 

“There’s too much bleeding for me to be able to get his armor off, she clawed him pretty bad.” 

“Er,” hesitating, I stared at the contents of the medical kit I’d put together with Dorian's help, as the healer was able to advise what supplies were needed, and which of the tinctures would be best used for different wounds. 

Would soaking a cloth in the elven root tincture work? The tincture is meant to be poured directly onto the wound, but if he is still bleeding, that could be difficult. 

“Just kill me.” The dwarf groaned miserably, and I flinched in response, not wanting to kill my teammate. 

Why am I so useless? I disparaged as I pulled off my leather gloves and cleaned my hands with ethanol before soaking a clean linen in a mixture of ethanol and dried elven root. 

Quickly swapping over the linens, I discarded the bloodied cloth as Rainy pressed the tincture-soaked one onto Kip's wounds. The response from the dwarf was a pained cry, as the alcohol in the tincture no doubt stung badly when pressed to the deep gashes on his chest. 

With careful movements, I used my dagger to cut away Kip’s armor, doing my best not to jostle Rainy as I did so, and steadfastly ignoring the dwarfs' complaints about how expensive the leather was. 

“I’m sure Pia can make you a new one,” I muttered, as I pulled away the last of his chest piece. 

“Lift up Rainy, I want to see if the bleeding has eased.” I directed the Dryad who pulled back the cloth to reveal four deep looking wounds on the dwarf’s chest that, while bloody, were no longer bleeding profusely. 

“Knock me out before you suture,” Kip pleaded, and I furrowed my brow in confusion. 

“Why would we suture it? It’s not that deep,” I informed him as I pulled a jug of pure ethanol from my bag. 

“Kadia, a wound like this won’t heal on its own. The cuts, while not deep, are wide enough that it will require stitches until we can find a magical healer or they heal on their own.” 

“I have a wound salve to heal it. It’s for minor cuts and wounds like this.” I said, pouring some ethanol onto a clean cloth and using it to wipe away the blood covering Kips chest. 

“I’m a little worried about your mental state if this is what you consider minor.” Kip groused, craning his head forward to look at his chest. “That looks a lot worse than it feels.”

“It’s the pain tincture kicking in, and the anesthetic effect of the elven root. I’ve used the improved wound repair salve on worse cuts than this and they healed perfectly fine without Dorian needing to heal them. We tested it on Bastian and Killian,” I assured the dwarf. “We even used it on a stab wound, which took a little longer, and required Bastian to stay still for an hour so the wound could internally heal without him unintentionally ripping it open again.” 

“Were you attacked during the trip here?” Pia asked with interest as she and Victoria walked over to join us. 

“The hunting team was attacked a few times, but Bastian stabbed himself willingly so I could test the wound salve on a real person.” 

“What?” Kip gasped, looking wide eyed, and the others made similar expressions of shock. 

“He owed me, same with Killian and Dorian. Helping with my research was how they repaid their debts.” 

“You made him stab himself because he couldn’t pay you? Ah, Foxy, you're my kind of woman.” Kip chortled, his voice sounding hoarse with pain.

“He didn’t owe me coin, it was an emotional debt, and he only stabbed himself in the thigh, so it's not like it was life threatening or anything. Plus, I gave him a pain tincture first,” I muttered as I smoothed a thick layer of dark purple salve over Kip's wounds. 

“Rainy, can you start bandaging his chest please? I need to wash this off,” I told the Dryad, wriggling my salve-covered fingers to indicate their soiled state. 

“How long until it heals?” Victoria asked as I moved away from Kip, and began cleaning the salve from my fingers. 

“Half an hour if he doesn’t aggravate it, if he pulls the wound open it’ll need to be reapplied.” 

“Can he walk or is it better to lay him on my shield and carry him?” 

“He can walk, but it puts strain on the wound, so carrying him is better,” I decided after thinking it over for a second. 

Nodding, Victoria directed her shield to lower itself to the ground next to Kip, and once Rainy was finished bandaging his chest with help from Pia, the captain lifted the dwarf onto the shield. 

“Can I at least get a pillow?” Kip whined, looking rather uncomfortable on the wooden tower shield. 

“We’re in a dungeon, Shortie, no pillows here.” Victoria told him, patting his shoulder gently. 

“So,” Pia said with a sigh, glancing around the room. “Forward or backwards? We can’t stay here for long as the Sphinx will revive soon.” 

“We’ve come this far, I vote forwards.” Rainy said, and I grimaced.

“Backwards.” I declared, pointing at Kip. “We don’t know what’s ahead, and with Kip incapacitated he can’t scout the traps.” 

“I can scout, I’m not as good, but I’ve got the perception range to know if there is a trap nearby. I vote forwards.” Pia stated. 

“Forwards, we’ll go slow so Shortie has time to heal.” Victoria said, and I sighed, shoulders slumping. 

“Backwards, I wanna sleep.” Kip grumbled, moving an arm to cover his eyes. 

“Two back, three forward, forward wins.” Pia said smugly. 

And here I thought I was going to be able to leave this place without dying. 

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