Throughout Rudy and Snap's adventures in the chalkzone, they had heard many tall tales, describing fantastic things and people that seemed by all rights impossible. Gigantic dragons that breathed chalk dust, ancient wizards with the power to transmute magic chalk from chalk iron, they had heard it all. What kept them going was the fact that more often than not, there was more than a grain of truth in each story, and these made their adventures all the more fun. On this particular occasion, the duo had heard rumors of a magical mirror deep in the Limestone Labyrinth with the power to connect to chalk sources in faraway places. Naturally, this was irresistible for our plucky heroes, and throwing caution to the wind, they entered the dungeon.
"We need to be more careful, Snap," said Rudy as he reeled his comrade in from certain chalky death with a makeshift lasso made from his magical chalk. "That trap could have been the end of you."
"Aw shucks, Rudy, it'll take more than a lil' 50 foot drop into spikes to kill me." The two continued their advance towards the center of the dangerous maze.
"Are we getting any closer?" asked Snap, being more careful to avoid suspicious tiles down this corridor.
"Well, according to the map, if I'm reading it right," began Rudy, mindful of the safe path down the hall that Snap took, "we should be approaching the giant skull on the map that marks the room before the treasure any minute now."
And so they were, the giant skull showing itself as more than the metaphor for danger the two had assumed it was on the map. It sat at the far end of the room they entered, torches to either side illuminating the pillars that supported it. Upon closer examination, a change in the wall's markings behind the structure made it apparent that the prize they seeked awaited them on the other side of this giant stone guardian. A small, but well-carved slit sat just above the upper jaw and Rudy took a wild guess that magic chalk belonged there. When provided with the chalk, the eyes on the skull changed from the dark brown of its stoney material to a dull green glow, with the gap of the skull where the nose would have existed following suit. A voice echoed from a source that didn't seem quite directly from the skull, with the green glow pulsating in time with its words,
"You have come far adventurers, be sure of that,
but here is where you both fall flat.
For only if you answer my riddles three,
will I bestow my treasures unto thee.
But think long before each breath,
for one wrong answer means certain death."
"I don't like the sound of that," muttered Rudy.
"Can you think of anyone that would honestly like the sound of that?" Snap snapped back.
The skull continued its rhymes,
"My first will be easy for I take mercy upon you,
what makes both the caves and your friend Snap too?"
The two didn't have to think long on that, with only the promise of death for failure keeping them from answering immediately.
"Is it chalk?" Rudy asked tentatively.
"Correct!" The voice boomed.
"This might not be so bad," he told Snap.
"Perhaps I was too lenient and held back my cunning,
but this next riddle will send your mind running.
As a lasso, a sword, a ladder, or a car,
this mythical tool will take you far."
Rudy and Snap looked at each other, confusion on their faces. After a time they decided that even a repeat answer still made the most sense.
"It's chalk again, isn't it?" asked Snap, a trace of impatience in his voice.
"Correct!" The voice rang out again.
"It is true that you are a very clever pair,
but this next one will leave you worse for wear.
Though many adventurers have guessed the first two,
This third may still yet stump you.
It is my hardest yet, and that is no joke,
but if you think it through-"
"Chalk," Snap interrupted the skull impudently. "Now get on with the treasure-"
"WRONG!" The voice boomed and the two adventurers looked stymied.
"B-but wait," Snap began, but this time he was cut off by the disembodied voice,
"Foolish fool, my tricks have led you astray,
Though my last riddle would have bested you anyway.
I will grant your doomed ears the riddle, as a consolation prize,
what gets bigger as you take away from it, right before your eyes?"
"A hole, dunce," came Snap's retort.
A pause, and the voice recanted with "Either way!" as the room began filling with sand.
The obvious exit route from where they came had long since been blocked off from the start of the riddles, and Rudy couldn't suppress his panic, "What do we do Snap...?"
"No need to ponder the inevitable, or think up a lie,
it's quite obvious you both will soon die!"
The skull was considerably more jovial than he was just a few moments ago, apparently relishing the certain defeat that was to come to Rudy and Snap.
"I don't know Rudy, you're the one with the magic chalk! Draw something!"
But draw what? There was no way out the way they came, with the door sealed shut and the sand filling the room from that side first for good measure. The walls were clearly too strong to be broken down by either of the two, regardless of the tools he could conjure up, and it became apparent that if nothing changed soon they would be crushed between the unending sand and the obnoxious rhyming skull.
"You better think of something fast Rudy, we're stuck between a rock and a hard place here!"
And just like that it came to Rudy, and as the sand began to push them towards the talking skull, he went to work frantically with his chalk, producing in short order a bucket, a fan, and a tire jack.
"Rudy, have you lost your mind? How is any of this going to help us?"
"Just turn on the fan and point it over here," came his hurried reply.
Snap did as he was told and Rudy emptied the bucket of its light grey contents into the piling sand, now growing uncomfortably close to the other end of the room. The fan went to work and dried the mixture, as Rudy wedged the tired jack between the new substance and the skull.
"It's quick-dry cement, Snap. We are stuck between a rock and a hard place, but not for long!"
As he said this, the section of cemented sand began pushing snugly against the stone skull. Rudy began quick work in making a shelter for them where there wasn't already cement of skull.
"Rudy, you're a genius! How do you like that, blockhead?" Snap mocked, looking eagerly at the hairline cracks forming along the skull where the tire jack was wedged.
The skull's thundering voice began to quiver as he belted out his next rhyme,
"My dear friends, please think this through,
I can turn the sand off just for you!"
"Yeah, how about no," Snap replied. "I'm sick and tired of your stupid rhymes." He wore an almost sadistic grin on his face as he traced the ever-growing cracks up the skull's jawline to its cheeks.
"Rudy please, Snap's blown his lid,
For Christ's sake I have a wife and kid!"
"Snap, he's right, this feels really wrong, even if he is a skull."
Snap was having none of it. "Forget that, he tried to kill us! If we stop, he'll try to kill us again!"
Rudy never got the chance to reason further, as the skull shattered into pieces, revealing the doorway to the prize they had come here for. Snap ran in and sitting on a pedestal in the center of the room sat the mirror, comparable to a dinner plate in size and gloriously incandescent. It seemed to exude a radiant glow and beckoned Snap towards it.
"There it is Rudy, we made it!"
"Snap, the skull never turned off the sand when he died, it's still coming in! We're still trapped!"
The two ran into the room, and a quick scan showed no way out from here either. It was clear that the skull was going to get its way, intact or no.
"W-what do we do now Snap!?" cried Rudy, looking around for something to help their crisis.
"The mirror, it's supposed to be magic, let's try something with it!"
Rudy didn't have to be told twice, but how was he supposed to know what to do? The rumors they had gathered told only of its connection to otherworldly sources of chalk, and told nothing of how to use the mirror once they had found it. The two had assumed they would find the answer to that along the way, and they might have if their run-in with the skull had gone better. But it was no use dwelling on the past, they needed a solution in the here and now. Rudy and Snap tried everything they could think of to no avail. Merely holding it did nothing, as the two had hoped it would. Neither did rubbing it, waving it, flashing light on it, spinning it, or gazing into it longingly. The only thing that seemed to do anything was bringing the mirror into contact with magic chalk, which caused it to shimmer slightly in the area that the chalk had been for a short time, but otherwise did nothing. With the sand piling up on them and the ceiling of the room rather low for a chamber so important, the two were getting equal parts frustrated and desperate. In a last-ditch effort to make /something/ work, Rudy jammed his chalk into the mirror with all his strength, breaking it and causing a flash of light that enveloped the entire room, leaving nothing but broken glass and sand afterwards.