Beings of the Lovely Hills Option B: Admit You Don’t Know
Happy Thanksgiving to those in the United States =) and for those who aren’t, hope you’re having a wonderful Thursday.
Read on for the second part to our adventure Beings of the Lovely Hills. So far, you’ve stopped in at a random resort because you almost fell asleep at the wheel. You’ve been awakened by a cat who asked you a riddle and have chosen to admit you don’t know the answer to his question.
Beings of the Lovely Hills Option B: Admit You Don’t Know
The cat purrs as it waits for you to answer. The soft rumbling carries to your ears as you consider a response to the riddle.
“Honestly,” you say, “I’ve no idea.”
The purring stops. “You’re no fun. No fun at all. Surely you’ve got a guess.”
“Nope,” you shrug.
The cat harrumphs. It’s an odd sort of half-hair-ball sort of ‘ga-rumph’ that has you standing up off the bed just in case he hocks a hair ball on you.
“Sure you don’t have a guess?”
“Stop tormenting the human, Norman,” says a new voice.
You swivel your head around just as a new cat jumps up on the bed. This one’s got white splotches but that’s all you can tell in the dark cabin.
“We need a hand moving something. Once that’s done, we’ll gladly call it your payment and you can get some rest. Deal?” the new cat says.
“Sure,” you agree, enticed by the prospect of getting some sleep and glad payment sounds easy. The two cats hop off the bed and head toward the door. You shove to your feet with a sigh, opening the door for them, you follow the two felines through.
“Rather nice human this time. Good job picking, Norman,” the white spotted one says. In the light from the moon, you can now see this cat’s smaller than Norman, who has a decided pouch to his stomach.
Norman just purrs louder.
There’s rustling in the trees ahead and the two cats freeze mid-step. You pause behind them.
“Hide!” Norman hisses and ducks behind the nearest cabin. Ducking around the side too, you turn to look back at the trail you were just on in time to see something very large ambling down the path. Its whole body sways and the moonlight glints off of scales.
The answer to the riddle hits you. “Dragon!” you whisper.
Norman shushes you.
The dragon continues down the path and disappears without looking your way.
“Lily, how’d he find us so fast?” Norman asks the white splotched cat.
Lily glares at him. “You, dumby. I went back to the nest and found where you’d rubbed against the entrance. You may as well have shouted to him who took the eggs. That’s why I came to help you tonight.”
Norman’s ears go back and he sinks his belly to the ground. “Oops” is all he says.
“What have you gotten me into?” you ask.
Lily sits on her haunches. “We made a promise to take care of Lady Silverscale’s eggs while she’s building a new nest. She’s had some trouble with Master Nightwalk eating her hatchlings.”
“So why do you need me?”
“We can’t move the eggs and obviously, Master Nightwalk’s onto where we hid them.”
Norman sidles up to your leg and leans in. “Please, help move them.” He gives you that unblinking stare. At least it’s not vapid like the lady in the lobby.
“Why didn’t you just ask the lady in the lobby to help you?”
Both cats hiss. “She’s not all there, if you hadn’t noticed.”
“Right. All right,” you agree.
Both cats give a rumble of delight at your response. You follow them down the path to past the last cabin and then head into the trees behind the resort. They take you down into a valley with a small creek running through the bottom. At a spot where the creek pools, they stop and scratch at the leaves covering the ground.
Underneath are three eggs. Two are white with green spots and one’s solid gray. They’re all the size of a basketball.
“You’re riddle said they were small at birth. That’s not really small.”
Norman gives the equivalent of a shrug. You crouch down to lift one and groan. It’s got to be close to fifty pounds.
“I can’t move them all at once,” you say.
The cats glance at each other. “We can’t leave them here. Nightwalk’ll be here soon. He’s a good tracker.”
Do you…
Bb. Construct something to transport all the eggs at once?
or
Bc. Find a hiding place for the eggs while you move one at a time?
Blessings,
Jennifer
(Please post a comment with your choice. One vote per post please but comment as much as you like=) This makes counting votes easier. Voting will end at 8pm Mountain Time Monday. I’ll post whichever option gets the most votes Tuesday and we’ll see how the adventure continues!)
