Riddle of the Sphinx
"ARGH! Aqua, you veritable piece of garbage!" Terra cried as he crumpled to the floor. His attacker covered her mouth in shock and shame, while the imposing spectator raised an eyebrow.
"Terra, I'm so, so-"
"GEEZ!" Terra rolled onto his back. "How could you fudge that upward swing?! I could hardly hold a drink after the upward slashing session we did last week!" The man snapped to attention once again and sat up straight, almost as silent as a statue. Aqua glanced over at the master in a similar fashion.
Eraqus allowed a smirk. He read their movements, haggard but not without control. "At ease, my students. It would seem we have incidentally hit the stopping point for today." Terra winced slightly at the choice of words. "I understand, Terra. Such a mishap is no joke," Eraqus smirked a little wider. "However, I will leave you with a bit of 'homework', so to speak."
"Anything, master." Terra instinctively puffed his chest out when addressing the master, deepening his voice a little. Aqua always found it cute; he did that ever since they first started training together as teenagers.
"The task is simple. It is small, green, and nimble. Bring me something like I have described."
Aqua raised an eyebrow slightly. "A riddle, master?" She cringed at her seemingly dry tone.
"Precisely." The old master smiled. "A simple test of wit. Don't relax just yet though, I expect promising results in three days time." He tapped the floor with his Keyblade with finality. "Dismissed."
Aqua had awkwardly excused herself to her room after the training session, still somewhat guilty. The truth was, though, that she was uncannily exhausted. Her lethargy led to the accident. Terra tried to laugh it off; Rainfell predicted golden showers, I guess! He had said, but it did little for her mood. She kicked her heavy shoes off, careful to point them elsewhere to avoid the miasma of despair that would inevitably rise from them.
"Hmm... maybe I'm not sleeping well," she mumbled. There was a small pamphlet on somnomancy in her closet, but Eraqus often frowned on students learning medical magic. Something about performance enhancing, which she agreed with on principle. 'No need risking a coma,' she mused.
She slapped herself a few times to wake up. "I should get a start on the riddle." Aqua started pacing slowly, but her upper body sagged a little with each lap, her eyelids getting heavier. "Small... green... those clues should narrow it down tremendously. Small, nimble... not so much. Er..." A small bead of wetness formed at the corner of her mouth. It felt like a balloon was slowly inflating in her head, making it heavier and heavier, dragging her body down by the tip of her jaw, her senses slowly-
SLAM! "Hey Aqua!" The girl leapt forward reflexively in an attempt to hit the deck, but instead she impacted the door like a bag of sand, slamming it on the newcomer's head. "Holy guacamole, my head!" he squeaked, as Aqua lay in a thick daze against the door.
"Ven, its gwock – uh – mole – ee, for Pete's suh..." She let out a mighty, spittley yawn. He wrenched his head out with a grunt, Aqua's dead weight shutting the door all the way. She tumbled forward from the sudden shock, just enough for Ven to open the door all the way.
"Might as well be gwack-uh-mole, since you decided to play it with my head!" Sure, he was a little annoyed, but it didn't stop him from going into worry mode. "Hey, uh... you alright? I usually catch Terra admiring the carpet, not you."
"It IS a nice carpet, now that you mention it..." Ven snapped in her face a few times to startle her awake. "Whoa! Sorry. Hey, I guess my snapping lessons sunk in after all."
"You gonna be alright, Aqua? You're usually the one on rooster patrol, what gives?" He hoisted her into a sitting position against her bed.
"I'm sorry,Ven. This is so unbecoming of me." She put her face in her palms.
"You don't gotta be sorry, Aqua. Are you pulling all-nighters again?" Ven waved a finger in emphasis.
"No."
"Nightmares?"
"Mages only get nightmares if somebody is about to die horribly." Aqua giggled internally at Ven's shocked face.
"I-is that a no?"
"I usually can't remember my dreams."
"C'mon, dude!" He got straight up to her face, and she playfully nudged his shoulder.
"No, silly. It just hit me. The sleepiness, I mean."
Ven sighed. "Yeah, it probably happens to everybody." He tapped his chin for a moment. "Well, before you hit the hay, Terra said he was looking for a something small, green, and nimble, said he lost something or... something."
She narrowed her eyes. "I never thought Terra would ask for assistance so soon."
"Wait, what?" He sat down in front of her, causing her to just now notice the rubber boots he was wearing. "Does he always lose small green nimble things?"
"No, no. Eraqus gave us a riddle we had to solve by Tuesday. Knowing Terra's devotion, one would think he'd be all 'lone wolf' like he usually is with his training." Ven looked a little downcast at the observation. "Maybe the vagueness of the clues has made him paranoid?"
"I dunno what you guys do with the master. I was gonna noodle some frogs, since they seemed to fit the bill, but what would the master want with frogs? Is it because he clears his throat all the time?"
Aqua chuckled. "Knowing the master, the solution could very well be frogs. Humility's an important virtue."
"But what do frogs have to do with keyblades?"
"How is a raven like a writing desk?" Ven stared blankly.
"Is that the part two?"
"'B'is in both, and 'N' is in neither." Aqua ignored Ven's grimace due to a sudden revelation. "I guess I can see where Terra is worried."
Aqua waved Ven off as she got up, feeling much livelier. She assumed that the master wanted them to think as a keyblade wielder would, and suggested that they meet with Terra in order to unravel the mystery further.
Aqua padded ahead of Ven, nearing Terra's heavy oaken door. She knew his patterns well enough to guess he'd be resting, rather than in the weight room as he was wont to do. She shied away for a moment, still feeling guilty, so Ven took it upon himself to deliver one of his infamous door knocks.
"Terra! Ya in there?! We need the smalls, the greens, and the nibbles!" Ven shouted, delivering a flurry of kicks and pounds onto the door, appearing as a child throwing a tantrum on the vertical ground.
"All right, all RIGHT, I'M COMING!" Terra paused to let Ven straighten out. "You're like a worm with boxing gloves!" he chuckled, peeking through the crack of his door, as if he were hiding.
"I'm a kickboxing worm, Terra," Ven pouted.
"Aqua would be a better kickboxer..." he glanced at her for a moment. "... if she remembered to wear shoes."
"Har har," Aqua blew him off. She didn't notice Ven cracking up along with the man behind the door. "It seems the riddle has intimidated the tough guy act out of you."
Terra threw the doors open, the gust of air blowing Ven over. "And what makes you say that?"
"Ready was our friend Ven, to trek a stinky fen." She smirked at Terra when he stepped back a little. "Oh, come now. I'm sure you'd expect Ven to be a good citizen and get me to help you, right?"
"Aqua... why don't we work together, just this once?" He gave a pleading smile.
"Why? Because you already lost yourself a point, or because you're bad with riddles and worldplay?" Ven looked between them.
"Points? Is there a high score?"
"Not at all,Ven." Aqua smiled sweetly. "Terra and I have been competing ever since I first came to the castle. We even keep score."
Terra put a fist to his chest. "And I'm leading right now."
"By one. He knows we work on spellcasting next time, so I'll really get the jump on him."
"But this task the master has given us is tricky. I'd much rather swallow my pride just this once if it means we solve it." Terra looked to Aqua. From Ven's angle, it was the stony face of a warrior, but Aqua knew he practiced the face every morning in the mirror. "Surely you agree with me?"
"Nope," she said simply. Terra tightened his vice-like grip on Ven's shoulder unconsciously. "This won't be hard at all."
"A cheeky one," Terra remarked. Ven gave him a pleading look, to no avail.
"Ignoring that. Besides, maybe the master isn't looking for a 'correct answer', just our own personal spin on the clues."
"I doubt the master would waste our time with spiritual mumbo jumbo like that, Aqua," Terra held up a hand to silence her. "Yes, I know there's a code we follow, but what on the road to light is small, green, and nimble? Jumping beans?" Terra shook his head, and began pacing to Ven's relief. "It's probably a test of wits, a way for the master to observe our thought process. Maybe we can only find the answer if we haven't strayed from the path." Terra nodded in affirmation to himself.
"So jumping beans are invisible if you accept darkness? I guess that makes sense," Ven said.
"He's got a point, Terra," Aqua's friends stared at her. "Er, I mean what he said raises a point." Still silent. "Why are you staring Ven?"
"Hey! I have self awareness."
"Right... back to the point, I think it's a simple exercise with no wrong answer."Aqua stomped a shoeless foot.
"And I think it's the most important test we've received yet!" Terra bashed his fists together.
"I think we should play around in the swamp and catch a pet frog!"
"You know what, Aqua? I can do this on my own."
"That's more like it," Aqua's mouth twitched impishly.
"Don't know what came over me." Terra returned the smirk.
"Maybe leaves are the answer, or grasshoppers." Ven found himself in between the two rivals again. "So... what do I do?"
Terra stomped through the back entrance of the castle, Ven at his side. Decked out in coveralls and boots fitting a self-respecting warrior, he was ready to embark on this spiritual journey laid out before him by his wise master.
Aqua was wrong. There was no 'she had to be wrong'' no 'maybe she has a point'; forget 'there's no wrong answer'. Whatever secrets those clues held would only present themselves to an enlightened mind. He would be straying from this path laid out before him if he believed wading through a swamp was 'too good for him'. Eraqus would never look his way again if he returned without having fresh scars to show for this holy labor. Terra had a right to be wary and cautious, and calling it paranoia was foolish. Aqua was foolish. How foolish she would feel after gazing upon Terra, covered head to toe in muck, the answer to the riddle dangling from his hand like the fresh kill of a hunter.
Ven was awfully fidgety, Terra noticed. He kept looking in his friend's direction. He felt compelled to look out for what may be causing his young charge's discomfort, but only saw aged fencepost being choked by overgrowth.
"Is something hiding in the grass?" he asked urgently. Terra was an immovable force, a protector, and right now Ven seemed uncomfortable about the situation. It was only natural to ask.
Ven looked around as Terra spoke, noticing rabbits and possums scurrying away. There was no doubt now that a predator lurked. Terra raised an eyebrow, prompting a response from his nervous friend.
"O-oh, there's absonothing wrong, friend. Not in the slight, buckaroo," Ven said, subdued. It wasn't a whisper, nor a mumble, therefore he was being conscious of his surroundings. Smart kid. In fact, Ven was probably suggesting they pretend ignore the mysterious malevolent monstrosity that was surely slinking silently in the swamp. It was risky to assume they were merely intruding, and that leaving quietly was the best course, so Terra could assume his pal was confident they could react promptly in the case of a bum rush attack.
"Yeah, nothing. Anyways, you should check our nets for holes. Holes love to show up at the worst times." Terra crossed him arms thoughtfully. "Like to gobble up the spare change in your pocket on a scalding hot day, right as you ford the crowd to reach the ice cream stand."
"Can we get ice cream after this?" Ven asked. He seemed a little more relaxed. The boy loved his ice cream. He even asked if a keyblade could be made out of ice cream. Terra has yet to convince him how dumb and impractical that idea was.
"I guess. I'm probably gonna be here a while though."
"That's alright. The best topping for ice cream is a hard day's sweat." Terra and Ven shared a laugh at the odd metaphor.
"Well, there's gonna be a little swamp gas and mud mixed in there, but it probably tastes better than whatever Aqua's gonna wade through today. Dust. Or old paper. Or potato chips, perhaps," Terra spat. The duo stopped at the mouth of the forest, framed by wicked, twisting vines and rotting fence posts. Terra observed the colonies of maggots almost bubbling along the moldy surface. He imagined that that was what a dark heart would look like, but with termites of darkness, and less sulfur in the air. The ground ahead was still moist and heavily pockmarked by old footsteps. He began forward first, his boot squelching into the mud and audibly popping out, followed by Ven's rather light gait. The humidity was already overbearing, and sweat coated his forehead. The odor was offensive, random clouds of stink erratically entering his nostrils. Truly this was the path to be taking. Aqua was mistaken in her casual dismissal of this important undertaking.
Ven had picked up a stick off the ground along the way, and began absently swatting at bugs and leaves. Terra looked like he was trying to read his forehead, or something. He firmly stomped the mud with each step, needlessly kicking up milky brown water all over his legs. 'Maybe this is a swamping technique,' Ven reasoned. Not one to be outdone, he began kicking the mud, sending boodles, flakes and nuggets of sludge in all directions. He found the slapping sound of the mud humorous, and continued merrily. Terra was oblivious.
"To find what is small, green, and nimble..." Terra mused out loud, a few flecks of the offensive mire getting in his hair. "Maybe the master is challenging me to capture this thing, with wits rather than force. What do you think, Ven?," Terra asked, looking ahead still. They were approaching a set of low hanging branches, to his dismay.
"Should we've brought a bug net?" Ven said. "Cuz, I can't think of any other way to catch a bug without kicking its ass. Er, I mean butt. Er, thorax."
"I'm going to tell on you for that one." Terra said, not letting Ven slip by. He turned to face him, but the side of his head met a gnarly branch at the just the right angle, that a stray arm with a beetle perched on it entered his ear with a crunch. Terra froze in place for a moment.
"...you alright?"
"EEEEEEEW! Son of a bit-" Terra stumbled forward, but his foot was suctioned in place by the mud. He fell on his other ear into the ooze.
"I'm telling, Terra."
"Lipstick gleam... Hexachlorophene..." Aqua's step had a light bounce. Terra and Ven had gone Merlin-knows-where, and one of the cooks said they were making those peanut-butter cookies today. She never got to eat the peanut butter cookies. Terra and Ven always took them.
"Cling cling the ring, clang clang she saaaang..." She reveled in the cool air, caused by the ice crystals on the wall. She enchanted them herself, and with persistence and a good sales pitch the master allowed her to deck the walls with them. It was really hot outside, and muggy too. There were no cookies out in that heat. Maybe flies and jogger's nipple. Maybe dirt and mud. Not in this castle though, nope.
"It's tragic magic, there are no coincidences..." Aqua began up the spiral staircase. Staircases always went two directions. There was no mistaking them. You couldn't traverse them any other way, unless you risked life and limb. The riddle was a stair case. Many floors, just a few steps away. Terra and Ven were probably sliding down the abstract rails, or figuratively curling up in garbage cans and metaphorically tumbling down in simile. Aqua was normal, and smart. She would just check each floor, like a janitor of truth sweeping for mendacious mites.
"But sometimes the pattern is more obv..." she clammed up. Aqua sidled up against the rail, listening to the faint voice of Eraqus.
"...are just marvelous!" Eraqus said, always injecting a bit of theatrics when he talked to anyone that wasn't his student.
"You're not going to tell her, are you?" said Mikael, who Aqua knew as the librarian. He was getting on in the years, but Aqua found his intellect a reprieve from her best friends at times.
"Not at all. Humility is a virtue of the light."
"And about that assignment?" Mikael's voice was nasally, which he himself found a bit cliché.
"I was vague in my delivery. I left it up to them to decide the severity of the riddle, as well as whether or not the answer was subjective." Aqua smiled wide. She'd leave in a moment, those cookies were waiting.
"Oooh, how puzzling it must be. I'm sure the boy is climbing the walls right now."
"I trust Terra will be confident in whatever path he chooses. As for Aqua, I am not sure. She has always been difficult to read."
"If I may, I believe she'll take a more abstract route." How about the square root of negative one?
"I pray she doesn't. Between you and me, there is a correct answer." Aqua plopped down on the step, its lip hitting against her butt painfully.
"Is that so?" The girl writhed in place, mouthing curses while faintly rubbing her arms in nervousness.
"I would severely disappointed if they could not solve the riddle in this time." Dragging herself quietly down the stairs on her behind, Aqua began to think. An answer? What the heck was he expecting to get with those clues? It was like trying to fish with a wedding ring.
When his student was out of earshot, Eraqus chuckled. "I mean, the clues were pretty general, yes? I'm certain by students have basic reasoning skills, or at least enough good fortune to never need them."
#~#
The cookies couldn't wait. She thought better when she was full of creamy peanut butter. Small green nimble gall screen wimble pall sheen bindle-
"Magic." She was never more sure of an answer than she was now. "I'd like to think I'm a proficient mage. Surely this is the path I must take." And it was. Terra was a man of will and perseverance. He'd take a path that was difficult, and wait for an answer. It was like hunting ducks accompanied by an evil dog while wearing cement shoes. Aqua was smart. She didn't step where the 'do not touch grass' signs were, and she was a good judge of character, or at least a good judge of canines.
After refueling on nut paste biscuits, she headed to her room. There were four ice crystal framing it, because she loathed the heat. Her crystals were and offensive decision, not defensive. She wanted the heat to suffer. Well, thinking that way made the enchanting easier. Most teachers would tell one not to use anger to fuel magic, but Aqua knew she had lots of control.
The papers on her floor crunched like fresh fallen snow under foot. There certainly was enough to count as snowfall. Most of the pieces of parchment contained scribbling whose meaning was meaningless for anyone except Aqua. If you asked Aqua, she would say that they really were meaningless. Terra mumbled aloud when thinking, while Aqua would scribble furiously, almost as fast as she thought. Ven once mistook her quick writing for her scribbling around randomly. Ven wasted a lot of paper that way, and yet he accused her of doing the same. It was research! What was Ven researching? Inflections of carpal tunnel?
The walls were empty, a relaxing light blue. The rest of her furniture was the same, except the light blue part. She crunched up to her closet door, where her private study was. Not inside the door, behind it. She collected many arcane and occult tomes over the years. Mikael remarked once on her taste in research; it was hardly mainstream. She mentioned this to Terra once, to which he said 'None of that is mainstream'. She withheld calling him a philistine. It was rude.
Aqua fingered through a few rows of books, dust particles gathering in her hands. The dust wasn't disuse, but rather a byproduct from spell work. She grabbed a green tome, the title written in an occult language. After flipping through it, she figured that the spell would be performed outside, since the leftovers from her desired spell were toxic.
Hefting the alien tome down the stairs wasn't much trouble. It was the muggy heat that sapped her motivation. She looked to the east, toward the swamp. A cloud of steam shimmered over it, and the sight almost made her sick. She quickly summoned Rainfell, which promptly took the shape of a parasol. She held the necessary material under her other arm in an aged wooden chest. She keyblade-proofed it, for reasons she didn't understand herself. There'd be questions if anyone were to learn of this. Trust was an important virtue in the castle; what would she have to hide?
After hiking some distance away, in the middle of the plains between the castle and town, bordering the forest. Aqua reluctantly warped her keyblade into a large battleax, the magic compression spell she cast making the weapon heavier. She was already sweating. She stabbed the ax into the ground, then pulled out an enchanted bubble level. It would take all day to explain, seeing how it took years to make, but the device could levitate on its own, perfectly level. She nudged it near the base of the tree, obsessively observing the trunk relative to the level. She yanked the ax from the dirt, flicking the mud off with a sudden flick. It would have been extremely dangerous to do that anywhere near anyone vulnerable to an ax.
"I promised myself I wouldn't be a lumberjack like father."
Terra grasped the breast of his shirt and let it rip. He stared at the shear fabric; it looked like it could strain the dirt of that nearby puddle effectively. Frankly, if he had less common sense, he would have used the grainy water in a heartbeat. He swore the bug was still alive in there, spending its final moments in agony and wax.
"No, seriously, I'm telling." Terra lightly chuckled at Ven despite himself. "Don't try to blow me off! I heard you!"
"I said nothing. I didn't complete that sentence. Therefore, I receive no sentence." Terra dug his finger into his ear one last time, returning it covered in a few flecks of carapace.
"So you're telling me that if I deny the truth enough, it stops being true. Wait until I tell Aqua what I learned from you!" Ven flailed his arms as he spoke.
"Go ahead. Aqua knows it to be true, and so do you now." He got off his knees, already feeling a draft through the hole in his shirt. He found it unfair, how cold the breeze was there, but no where else on his body. "In all frankness, though, petty behavior like this is unacceptable. You do realize I'm just funning around, right?" Terra cautiously took a step, the weight of the mud on his knees strangely disorientating.
"Geeze, can't you make up your mind?" Ven pouted. He hefted his bundle of supplies over his shoulder, setting out along with Terra.
"Hm?"
"You're all jokey pokey, jokus pokus Terra one moment, then way of the warrior wakizashi Terra the next. It's easy to mix up, you know?"
"I don't follow." A chorus of croaking encroached on the conversation. Terra slapped some branches out of the air, to reveal (to himself, since Ven was short enough to see under them) a colony of lilypads floating in a muddy pond. Crusty frogs milled around the area, their young breaching the water incessantly, their ripple giving the muddy pond a velvety texture. The warrior apprentice couldn't see to the bottom, and thus tread carefully forward.
"I got the nets ready Terra!" Ven whipped his own out, waving it side to side.
"Why do we need them?" Terra asked, creasing his brow.
"Uh, duh? You said we were gonna catch a buncha frogs."
"Why would I waste my time catching frogs? I came to meditate." Terra took a tentative step forward.
"Huh? Why would you do it here? It stinks, and it's not cliché like your clothes," Ven chuckled.
"What was that?"
"Er-"
"To answer your question, I came here because the clues were evocative of this location. This environment is filled with small, nimble creatures." Terra cautiously checked the ground underfoot, making sure he wouldn't sink.
"You'd willingly swim around in mud to find something small, green, and nimble, surrounded by things that are small green and nimble that are, and I quote, 'a waste of time'?" Ven stated slowly. He scratched the side of his head with a net, waiting for an answer.
"...yes. I thought what I was doing was clear." Terra had to ask himself, did Ven really know what he was doing? Was he actually a good hunter, or was it just luck? Who would willingly come to a place like this to catch frogs?
"Okay then, what if Mother Nature does write back to you, and says you should catch frogs?" Ven looked a little annoyed, Terra noted. That only happened when he bit into day-old cookies. Aqua preferred day-olds, for some reason.
"Then I'll do it." Terra said plainly.
"So... let's just bring the master a frog, then."
"Ven, the master gave us this riddle to test us, AND help us grow. We don't take shortcuts." Terra declared, and crossed his arms with finality.
"But isn't taking shortcuts mean you know what you're doing? Or at least looks like it? You're still making discoveries!" Ven hit the pond with his net for emphasis, but Terra took it as petulance.
"Forming a rapport with nature and with the light is serious work, Ven!" Terra began to stomp forward quickly. "Only those who wallow in darkness cheat! Bearing the burdens of a guardian, even if they're entirely pointless, is the way of the-oooooink!" Terra semi-cried, his left leg sinking into the mud like a straw through a milkshake. His right leg stayed put, curling painfully to his face. "Ven! VEN!" he cried. Terra was inflexible in many ways: in his dedication, will, and in his legs. His arms were in better shape though, which he demonstrated by forcing his right leg down in the pit as well, to even out his position. "...Nevermind."
Ven began cracking up as the frogs returned to the swamp, satisfied the disturbance was gone. Terra sputtered as an amphibian hopped onto his head. "A riot, I'm sure. Now get me out of here!" Terra wanted to lash out at the mud, but he relented at the site of the cute little tadpoles exploring around him.
"But Terra, you're one with the earth now. You're living up to your name!" Ven broke down laughing at that.
"I'll kick your butt so hard you'll live up to yours if you don't-"
"I doubt you'll be bending like that anytime soon! HAHAHA!"
Terra turned red, from anger and from embarrassment. He chose to be defiant at this time. "You know, Venison, you're right. I WILL meditate here, and be one with the earth. So what if being buried in mud is a shortcut?" Terra smirked, but then another frog nested on his head. Ven stopped laughing at that moment. The two raised their eyebrows, for different reason. Ven scooped up another frog, and tossed it on Terra's shoulder. Ven was acting strange; why were his eyes wide all of a sudden?
"D-don't worry bro, I'll get help!" Ven began to run.
"Hey! I don't need help! I'm one with nature!"
"Aqua can do some-"
"NO!No Aqua!"
"But you're SINKING!"
"WHAT?!" A frog ribbited in his ear. "AND WHAT DO YOU WANT!?"
"RIBBIT!" Ven shouted, before running away.
The stump, it was perfect. Perfectly level, seamlessly cut, an even number of rings (Aqua had counted), and soft like butter. Transforming her keyblade into a dagger, it was an easy task to make the precise carvings required for the ritual. This style of summoning was odd for Aqua, usually spells requiring chants were too simplistic in execution to be a challenge, and the fundamentals of them were difficult or outright impossible to understand, like gravity.
This summoning was especially dubious. The chant required the caster to describe something they were seeking in order to function, so it was like dealing with a genie: you had to specific, or face the consequences. Aqua was confident it would work. She'd simply ask what Eraqus was seeking, the small, green and nimble object he desired. Was it cheating? Magic was her strength, why should she stay away from it?
After spreading summoner's salt over each ring, she waved her keyblade over the stump slowly, so as not to disturb the grainy reagents.
"Squaddly-dee, diddly doo, show the answer, you know you want to,
Within the light, without the mire, bring it forward, the Master's desire,
For with these words, infused with might, I humbly ask, please ponder this sight:
Small as a mouse, green like the grass, nimble in movement, hurry or I'll kick your-"
Aqua realized that she would've had an extra syllable, so she cut it short. The summoner's salt began to crackle, smelling of ozone. A small gem, placed in the center rose in the air, shining brightly. Aqua was a professional, so one could not catch her shielding her eyes in surprise, caught with her pants down as it were. Novice mages always stared directly at their experiments; that's why most mages wear glasses, because they're not graceful or smart enough to know these things. Real wizards had great hair and a good sense of style, like Aqua did. She'd never say this out loud, but then again she couldn't help how she felt.
Thrumming filled the air, the birds and the bees flying in fear. 'Maybe I put an impossible standard for other mages...' Aqua mused, while arcs of lightning traces perfect circles around the stump.
"Maybe I should prepare for first conta-aaa-aaCHOO!" Aqua sneezed from a stray ash particle. She tried to finish that sentence, but another fit of sneezing overtook her. The distracted girl didn't notice the lightning arcs move inward, pointing dead center at the stump, their path flowing through the gem. The emerald glowed a bright white, then began morphing. If she had noticed, Aqua would have called off the spell. It was too late, though.
"CHOO, ACHOOPBLBL! Shoot, I hate when I sneeze," Aqua grumbled, wiping her nose. "Wait... where are all the lights?" She looked to the ground. "Why's the grass singed?" Then to the emerald. "And when did an octopus get here?"
The creature squeaked happily at Aqua, a sound not unlike a whoopee cushion. The 'octopus' actually had nine tentacles, Aqua noticed. It was small, the size of a soccer ball, and was green. A green nonapus, she would dub it. The large black eyes shined with childlike fascination. After a few moments of staring, the nonapus edged toward her, sputtering with joy. Its tentacles moved in waves like some sort of spider, leaving a trail of good. It wasn't very nimble, Aqua noted.
The nonapus seemed to notice her critical eye, and cowered away with a whimper. She felt bad for the abomination now.
"Hey, uh, little one. My name is Aqua. Ah-kwa. Can you speak at all?" she cooed.
It worked its tubular mouth, furrowing what passed for a brow.
"Oh. Oh! Oh-pwa. Opwah!"
"Very good!" Aqua said with a bit of giddiness. It was adorable!
The nonapus suddenly hopped in the air in victory, and began scurrying the rim of the stump with blinding speed. Aqua tried to get a hold of it, but the nonapus jumped over her and started for the forest.
"Hey!" She turned to the stump, noticing the ruined summoning circle. "How will I send it back?" Aqua turned back to where it ran off. There was no trace of it. "Well, it seemed harmless enough..."
A scream pierced the silence, followed by the sight of a nearby tree collapsing.
"Yow! Aaaaaaquaaaaaaa!" a young, impressionable voice called out.
"Ven!" she cried. Another tree toppled over, and another yelp from her young ward.
"What is this fre-heak of naaa-haaay-ture!" She heard an angry bout of farting in response. Ven suddenly burst from above the trees, followed by an uprooted tree. Ven screamed all the way, until he crashed into a floating bubble of water summoned by Aqua. The tree flew overhead, pulverizing the summoning stump, before pinwheeling dozens of yards away. Ven suddenly whooped in excitement.
"Holy crap Aqua, you see that aerial arboreal's awesome acrobatics?!" Ven couldn't stop smiling.
"Ven, get it together! We have a naughty nonapus running amok and nary a net to catch it!" Aqua shouted, shaking the boy by his shoulders.
"Did someone say net?" Ven said with a smirk on his face, brandishing a net in each hand. "Also, Terra's in trouble," he said as an afterthought.
"I'm sure it can wait, right now we have an alien to catch." Ven nodded, and started for the forest, followed by his friend.
"Oh yeah, he IS in trouble!" Ven wheeled around to face Aqua, who bowled him over with her momentum.
"Ven, make up your mind!" Aqua demanded, helping him up.
"Yeah, he's stuck in quicksand in the swamp, and he's sinking!" Ven accentuated this by clasping his face and screaming.
"...Ven, he has a keyblade AND earth magic. He should be able to free himself, even with his hands tied. Unless he's unconscious... is he?" Ven shook his head. "Right, so, the alien comes first. If Terra wants to stew in the swamp, let him."
"He was pretty panicked, like I was."
"He's probably come to his senses, and escaped already."
"Then he can hel-" Aqua covered his mouth.
"NO! He can't! We can't help each other!" Aqua shouted in his face. "The nonapus is my responsibility! It's just a child, and Terra's terrible with toddlers! He can make them cry with twitch of a brow!" She let go of Ven slowly. "Look, we'll find the nonapus, keep it happy long enough for me to fix the circle, then send it home."
"But what about the riddle?"
"...show it to the master, then send it home. Is that clear?" She narrowed her eyes on Ven.
He fidgeted. "So, what the heck is a nonapus, anyway?" Aqua began rubbing her temples, seriously fearing she'd be doing this for the rest of her life.
"For the love of the light, someone help me!" Terra would've said, if he didn't have a self image to keep up. This was the conundrum he found himself in: how to call for help, without sounding helpless. The idea of making manly growling sounds crossed his mind, or imitating Ven's voice, then telling his rescuer that Ven ran off somewhere. He couldn't do either with a straight face. After the fourth mosquito bite to his face did he remember the keyblade, but that was out because it wasn't the path he was supposed to take. This recollection did ease him quite a bit, however.
After a couple of frogs jumped on his head and styled his hair, using their skin secretions, into a cozy bowl he had sunk past the opening of his rubber overalls. The feeling of his pants slowly filling with crud and sludge was like no other, that's for sure. Up to his armpits, and bogged down like he was, there would be no escape from the swamp with strength alone...
"With strength alone... that's it!" Terra declared. "I can open my heart to the wilderness while at its total mercy!" Terra looked to either side at his limp arms, which a family of birds were perched on his left, and a snake curled on his right. He looked up at the froggy top frogs, who were busy snatching pests out of the air (Terra gave many thanks to these frogs). He looked down, where worms were surely writhing as they would on a normal day. "I am in harmony..." Terra breathed through his nose and exhaled out of his mouth three times, then drifted off...
"..."
The snake licked at the air, paying no mind to potential prey at this moment.
"..."
The birds chirped the song of nature...
"..."
The frogs provided a croaking ambiance to the small pool, protecting the psychonaut from becoming part of the material plane once more. Mosquitoes sucked, after all.
"..."
The stillness of the mud made Terra of the Earth feel weightless, the weightlessness the planet itself felt enveloped in the gentle darkness...
"..."
...and he was getting nowhere. The answer was like the rock on the court, and mother nature was mopping him up and down it all day. Was he not devoted enough? It was Aqua who balked at what she couldn't understand, and yet here he was, a fool with no answers. They would laugh at him now. He'd return, covered head to foot in mud, dappled with ant stingers and mosquito proboscises, weeds falling out of his overalls like spaghetti, and they'd laugh. Laugh at his lack of true outdoorsman spirit, at his inability to live up to his name, which was TERRA.
The sun was bearing down on his other cheek now. It must have been a few hours. A few hours of Terra proving what a sham he was. Eraqus probably wouldn't look at him anymore. Aqua and Ven would walk away. He'd beg them not to go, but the words wouldn't come. All for a simple but vital flaw in his very essence. He would never feel clean again. He'd feel like dirt, dirtier than he feels now, covered in mud. He would have to give up his keyblade, no matter hard it was. He would be strong, even in dismal failure, he'd-
CRASH!
"Bbbbwah! Bwwahwahwah! Bbbbb!" Another crash filled the air, spooking the birds. Another, and suddenly a tree tipped over into the pond, throwing a wave of mud everywhere.
"What the hell?!" Terra cried before getting overtaken by the wave, which swept away the frogs. Terra sputtered for air, wiping his face. "Argh! What's going- YAAHAAH!" Terra flung the terrified snake off his arm, who bit him from the sudden chaos.
CRRRRRASH!
"Bbbbwah! Bbbbwoah!"
"Get back here sweetie!" Aqua?
"Yeah, here pussy pussy!"
"VENTUS!"
"Bbbwah!"
"What, it's a nonapus right?" Terra meanwhile was quickly searching for the snake bite on his muddy arm. If not venom, then an infection would do him in.
"Well, give him a name!" Terra looked up at a rustling bush nearby, which a green blob hopped out. Terra flinched as it landed on his head.
"What's this?" Terra asked no one in particular. He looked up, a small green and nimble squid staring back. It had big shimmering eyes and rosy cheeks somehow. It was cute, and further more it was...
"The answer! Woohoo, my faith paid off!" Terra said, before figuratively slicking his hair back. "Well, now all there's left to do is present you to Eraqus, little guy."
"It doesn't need a name, Ven, it needs to go home, its parents are probably worried sick!"
"I thought you were its mommy!"
Terra, satisfied with his find, summoned up magic in his hands, directing the primal force of his spell towards the earth. With a light rumble, a pillar of earth started pushing him upwards out of the swamp. He heard the green creature sputtering with joy, as if it were getting a piggyback ride.
"So you aren't a prude like other squid," Terra said with a laugh. Now fully surfaced, Terra firmly hopped over the pond to the shore, sinking a few inches into the mud. "Hey, was I hearing voices just a second ago?" he asked the squid. "And crashing too. And there wasn't a tree there before, was there? Man, I was in the zone!" Terra felt a bit of pride, despite the embarrassment he saw that attempt at meditation as. He began a light jog through the woods, conscious of his passenger. He was on high alert for whatever was causing the racket as well.
"Hey, wait a minute... what's a squid doing in the swamp?" Terra looked up at Howard (the word 'squid' made his skin crawl). "Then again, I'm no ecologist, Howard. That's your name, now."
"Puh-bbbbluh!"
The nonapus had escaped into the swamp. Aqua and Ven chased it and chased it, the only hints of its presence the carnage it was causing. All of a sudden though, things became quiet. They came upon a puddle with a felled tree laying across it.
"How can it do something like this?"Aqua asked in awe.
"Hey, this is where Terra was stuck." Ven rubbed his chin. "About where that tree fell, I'd say."
Aqua shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I'm sure he escaped a long time ago." Something bubbled from under the tree. "Ohmygosh, Terra!" Aqua screamed. She quickly summoned her keyblade, then delivered two upward slashes. Two pillars of ice followed her gesture, throwing the log away. "Terra, Terra! I'm so sorry I called you a philisti-hine!" Aqua moaned, jumping straight into the swamp. She splashed around, getting coated with the brown paste, calling Terra's name.
Ven meanwhile noticed fresh tracks leading away from the pond, and began following them.
"Terra, Terra, Ter-frog?" Aqua looked down in bemusement at the amphibian. The frog stared back for a beat, then slapped her across her face with its tongue. "A gentleman." Aqua unceremoniously dropped it. "Now look at me! Ven?" She turned around, glimpsing his exit. "Ven you turd, why didn't you help?"
"He already left!" Ven hollered back.
"What do you know?!"
"Fresh tracks! Hurry up!" Ven ran off before she could get a word in.
"Ugh..." Aqua waded to shore, then quickly followed. She could feel mud squeezing between her toes as she ran. "Damn, I lost my shoes!" She ran more carefully.
After a few minutes they reached the entrance, still as dilapidated as ever. Aqua winced as she felt bugs pop under foot. Ven was way ahead of her, nimble as ever. The castle was in sight now.
"I can't let the master, nay, anyone see me like this! Who in their right mind would be okay with it?"
#~#
Terra shoved open the double doors to the lobby, now with a thin skin of dry filth coating him. Howard looked around in wonderment, just as filthy as his guardian. His bowl shaped hair kept Howard safe during the trek, further proof for his rapport with nature.
"Master! I have brought the answer!" His voice echoed through the hall. "I have conquered your terms, never straying into the darkness!" Terra smiled proudly.
Mikael peeked down from the loft, before motioning Eraqus over. "Mr. Eraqus, it seems your student requires your attention!"
"One moment," he answered with his mouth full. Smacking away the rest of the peanut butter, he cleared his throat and joined Mikael's side. "Now what seems..."
"The answer, master!" Terra proudly said. He was dripping wet, and a trail of mud was behind him, long enough that it was out of sight. Weed were wrapped around the mud man's ankles, works writhing in their bonds. His hair was the shape of a bowl containing a small pool of muddy water. In his hands was a farting blob with rosy cheeks, looking around at the castle.
"...let the light save him."
#~#
"We're almost there Aqua!" Ven yelled over his shoulder. She was slowly catching up, but still behind by a good ten seconds. "Hurry up! The doors are open!" He turned to face them, observing a trail of mud leading to it. "And Terra's here!" Ven shouted in Aqua's face.
"I heard you, dammit!" Aqua covered her mouth. "I'm sorry, it's just the nonapus, the mayhem, and this hole in my foot and-"
"Hey hey, it's alright. You're just worried about your pussy." Aqua raised her hand in anger, but then one of the doors flew off the hinges like it was a stray playing card. They watched it tumble down below, folding in and crumpling as a graham cracker would.
"Terra found the nonapus," Aqua said, not asked.
"This isn't good Aqua," Ven said. "He's awful with children."
#~#
"I connected with the land master, and I met this creature as a result!" Terra held up Howard, a child asking a parent if they could keep whatever critter they held in their hands.
"What in Merlin's name is that?!" Mikael cried.
"I know an otherworldly creature when I see it," Eraqus proclaimed. "Terra, where did you acquire that abomination?" Howard jerked back from Eraqus, falling from Terra's grip. It sputtered worriedly under his heavy gaze. "What unholy ritual did you conduct, Terra? Are you mad?!"
"W-well," Terra stepped back, as Howard did. "I meditated deeply in the swamp-"
"As we all can see," Eraqus interjected.
"-and, at first, I felt nothing. I was deep in concentration, when I was jostled out of my trance. Then Howard here jumped out of a bush, onto my head."
"I assume that's where you got the hair," Mikael dared to joke.
"Actually it was frogs." Terra stooped down to Howard. "I'm certain that Howard came to me because of trance."
"It has a name now?" Eraqus was fuming. "Summonings like this are barred from ANY self-respecting Keyblade Wielder! I demand to know where it came from!" Howard sputtered in terror, and leaped towards the door. It was the door Terra hadn't opened.
"Howard!" CRASH! The door popped off the hinges effortlessly, Howard clinging onto it. "NO!" But he was too late. The door slip down the side of the cliff, taking the squid with it. "He was just a child!" Terra wept.
#~#
Aqua and Ven retreated from the cliff, and started for the door. There Terra knelt, his face between his hands.
"...Terra?"Aqua chanced. He didn't respond.
"My student... I did not mean for this to happen," Eraqus said in a fierce whisper.
"Hey dude, are you alright? Did you find the nonapus?" Ven said, rubbing his back.
"Oh, the humanity..." Mikael said, drooping his head. Aqua look up to the librarian, noticing a green thing clinging to his hat.
"Pbbblah."
"So, Aqua, you tried to summon the answer to my riddle." Aqua bowed her head. "And Terra, you tracked mud all over this beautiful castle." Terra looked away, but he was in higher spirits. Ven stood to the side, Howard perched on his shoulder. He picked out a small propeller hat for the creature, one that he found in the castle coffers.
"Howard... that's a good name for you." Ven chuckled when Howard smiled back in his own way.
"It was a simple riddle! What possessed you two to go to such extremes?" Eraqus looked between them.
"When you said there was a right answer, I became paranoid. I was ashamed I didn't take the task seriously, so I tried to make up for it," Aqua look down at the cast on her foot, which Ven and Howard signed.
"And I took it too seriously from the start. I feared that I would be deeply shamed if I failed, and refused to be reasonable." Terra looked over to the set of cleaning equipment he'd be manning for a while. At least the snake bite was feeling better.
"I admit that my words towards Aqua were a simple jest. This riddle is no grave matter." Aqua and Terra exchanged glances. "But I did have my own answer in mind." He looked towards Howard. "It seems you two have found your own. Bringing life to a simple emerald is quite the feat I must admit, as well as befriending it."
"Soooo... what was your answer, master?"Aqua asked.
"Why, it was your dear friend Ventus." Terra gasped. "Small: he is still a youth, after all." Aqua frowned. "Green: he is still a novice keyblade warrior after all." Ven ducked away from his friends, a sheepish smile splayed on his face. "And nimble, as I'm sure you're both aware."
"Ven... he was there the whole time, too," Terra made a fist, flexing his fingers rhythmically.
"Well, it seems this small test has yielded quite the results. A new friend, and new perspectives." Eraqus laughed at their obvious anger.
After being dismissed, Ven suggested they all go for some peanut butter cookies. Howard seemed fascinated by the idea, like with everything else. Aqua dreaded her future relationship with those divine cookies with the little speed demon around. As for Terra, he volunteered for cleaning duty every week from then on. Dirt lost its appeal when he suddenly became the 'mud monster of the castle'.