Lyndsey's Three Challenges
"Well, I guess we'll just have to-" Lyndsey tried to say, looking up at the castle.
"We'll have to tackle the challenges," Ip said, looking pained.
"Let's get to-" Peep started to say, enthusiastically.
"I really hate interrupting," Ip interrupted. Peep and Lyndsey rolled their eyes. Lyndsey sent Peep a Meaningful Look, and he nodded.
"Maybe we should complete the-" Lyndsey started.
"…challenges without talking," Peep finished. Then he smiled at Lyndsey. She smiled back.
"That's a great idea!" Ip said. He brightened up a little.
The three approached the moat. In it was a moat monster.
Peep approached it first. He attempted to step into the water. The monster reared up at him. Peep backed off, daunted.
Next, Ip stepped up. He walked to the edge of the moat, looking around. He seemed to be looking for a boat, or something. He couldn't find one. He backed off, shrugging. Apparently his plan had depended on his finding a boat.
Lyndsey was last. She didn't know what to do. Obviously, they couldn't swim across the moat, and there was no boat to take across. The drawbridge was closed, too.
She thought about their talents. She didn't think Ip's talent would be any good, ever, never mind in this situation, and she didn't see what good it would do to make it night. She herself didn't have any extra talents that would be useful. Or did she? Her good memory wouldn't do much, but what about the yak's ability to speak? She had learned to talk enough without needing the talent anymore. If she gave the moat monster the yak's talent of speech, and then set Ip loose on it…
"Hey, moat mon-" she called.
"What are you doing?" Ip interrupted.
"Want a tal-"
"What's the plan??" Ip asked. Peep looked confused, too. He and Lyndsey were in tune with each other already, but not THAT in tune.
"…ent?" she finished, moving closer to the moat. The monster looked up, interested. It was possibly only interested because a pretty girl was approaching it, but it was still interested.
Lyndsey shot Peep a glance that meant to play along. He nodded, trusting her, even though he was still confused.
"Want a-" Lyndsey started.
"…talent?" Peep asked.
"Tal-"
"…ent?"
"Tal-"
"…ent?"
The moat monster was looking from person to person, thoroughly confused. That was understandable- moat monsters weren't known for their intellect. Lyndsey chose this moment to hold out her hand, touch the monster's slimy back, and transfer the talent of speech into it. Then she jumped back. Peep and Ip just stared at her.
"What?" the moat monster asked. Ip hadn't interrupted it, as it hadn't completed a full sentence.
"I gave you-" Lyndsey said.
"What did you do that for?" Pip asked.
"A talent," she finished. The moat monster looked overwhelmed.
"What?" it asked.
"Why? Ip asked.
"Play-"
"…along-"
"..Ip," Lyndsey and Peep said together. Ip shrugged and nodded.
"Here is our-" Lyndsey paused on her own, unsure of what to call Ip. Was he a friend? Peep covered for her.
"…fellow inquirer, Ip."
"You should talk," Lyndsey said.
"…to him." Peep finished. Ip looked at them strangely, and they nodded. He shrugged again, and walked to the moat monster. They began to talk animatedly, Ip interrupting every sentence the moat monster could manage to say. This was increasingly frustrating, as the monster was just learning to talk. Every time it almost had it right, Ip interrupted. Finally, the poor monster fainted, exhausted from the effort.
"Now!" Lyndsey cried, using the moat monster as a platform to run across the moat. The others ran quickly behind her. They had gotten past the first challenge!
Lyndsey looked up. They were standing at the bottom of a very large hill. There were no stairs, and no animals nearby. Lyndsey decided to make the assumption that the Challenges were set up to test the talents of the contestants. She decided it must be Peep's turn.
"Peep," she said, uninterrupted, as she had not spoken a full sentence. "Use your-"
"What's the plan this time?" Ip interrupted.
"…talent," Lyndsey finished. Peep looked confused, as he had before, but he shrugged, and complied. He lifted an arm, Day style, and closed his eyes, Night style. When he lowered his arm, and opened his eyes, it was nighttime. The hill had turned from an upward slope to a downward one.
"Again," Lyndsey said. She was learning a new way to outmaneuver Ip's talent of interruption.
So Peep closed his eyes, and raised an arm. When he opened them, and lowered it, it was morning. The slope had gone back to uphill. Lyndsey scrunched up her face, thinking.
"Ip," she said, a small lightbulb forming on top of her head. "How strong is your-"
"My what?" Ip asked.
"Your talent?" Lyndsey asked.
Ip looked taken aback. "Well, I don't know," he said. "Nobody's ever paid much attention to it. Or me," he frowned. "My talent is quite annoying," he admitted. Lyndsey glanced at Peep, and nodded. Ip continued talking. "Anyway, I'm not sure how strong it is. Why?"
"Is it limited to-"
"To what?" Ip interjected.
"To interrupting sentences?" Lyndsey asked, somewhat irritably.
"I don't know," Ip said. He cocked an eyebrow. "Why? What do you have in mind?" Peep also looked very confused, but had kept his mouth shut, not wanting to be interrupted by Ip.
"Day, uphill," she said, not using full sentences. "Night, downhill. You interrupt-"
"Yes I do," Ip said. Apparently his talent recognized short commands.
"…interrupt Peep's talent-"
"I could try," Ip said. Apparently that counted, too.
"…make it afternoon, flat ground!" she spat out. The boys looked at her, impressed.
"That could work!" Ip said, voicing the opinion of both of them. "But not if Peep is a Magician, and I'm just spot-on-the-wall. Everyone knows it takes a Magician to outdo a Magician. And even they can't, sometimes," Ip said.
"Well, maybe Peep isn't-" Lyndsey said.
"But he could be," Ip said.
"And maybe you are-" Lyndsey commented.
"I doubt it," Ip said, raising an eyebrow.
"Try," Lyndsey coaxed. Peep and Ip shrugged. Peep closed his eyes, raised his arm, and verbally said, "Change the tim-" (well, almost said it), while he was going through the motions. Ip concentrated hard on him, and when he spoke, he interrupted.
"Make it afternoon," he said. Everything went dark. Then it went slightly lighter. There was a swirl of colours, and suddenly-
"IT WORKED!" Ip exclaimed.
"Good!" Peep said brightly, smiling at Lyndsey. She blushed, and he hugged her. The land had gone flat, and it was afternoon.
"I wonder how it happened," Ip wondered. "Maybe I was only able to interrupt because he spoke verbally. Normally he wouldn't. Or maybe it's just for the purpose of the Challenge." Ip continued rattling off theories that all insulted his talent, and complimented Peeps. The trio continued onward, into the courtyard.
There they encountered a strange sight. It was an odd sort of creature, and it was muttering something.
"Hey!" Lyndsey called. "What are you-" She wasn't asking what the creature was, but rather, what it was muttering, so she was interrupted.
"This is weird," Ip said.
"…muttering?" Lyndsey finished. The creature looked up. It had the upper torso of a human male, but its lower half was what sort of resembled a Mundane giraffe.
"I won't let you-" the creature started to say.
"Won't let us what?" Ip asked.
"I won't let you-" the creature tried again.
"What?" Ip asked. The creature got angry.
"PASS! I WON'T LET YOU-"
"Oh, you won't let us pass," Ip concluded. The creature turned bright red. Peep shot Lyndsey a Look, and she understood it, and nodded. They had to take over the situation.
"Are you a-" Lyndsey started.
"…Challenge?" Peep finished.
"Yes," the creature said, sneering.
"What is the nature of-"
"…this Challenge?"
"To pass-" The creature was going to say 'to pass me.'
"Oh, we have to get by you," Ip said. The creature glared.
"Please excuse-"
"…him. His talent is to-"
"…interrupt people." The creature simply looked at them.
"What is-" Lyndsey started.
"…you talent?" Peep asked.
"Impassability," the creature answered. Apparently it wasn't part of the Challenge to have the creature lie.
Lyndsey thought. If she could take the creature's talent, they could pass by. But the creature would not let her get close enough. Unless it was distracted. And dark… She formulated a plan, a lightbulb flashing brightly on top of her head.
"Peep- talent," she said, not using a full sentence. "Ip, talent!" she said. The boys looked a bit confused, but complied. Ip went over, and began annoying the human/giraffe thing crossbreed, and Peep changed it to night. Lyndsey walked over to the creature, and touched it. "Please let this work," she murmured, remembering that her talent only worked when the other creature was willing to give away their talent.
She felt something happening. She was receiving the thing's talent! It had worked! "Yes!" she cried.
"Oh..." the creature said. "You win." Then it strutted off, not looking angry.
"How?" Lyndsey asked.
"Well, you're a Sorceress. Or at least a Neo-Sorceress. Peep could be a Magician, and I…have some magic," Ip said. He was the likely choice to explain, because he wouldn't interrupt himself. "There are bound to be loopholes. When three gang up against one, especially when two are powerful…well, the odds aren't good for the one," he said. Lyndsey smiled, impressed.
"Good thinking!" she said. Ip smiled.
"Thanks," he said. Peep grabbed Lyndsey's hand.
"Shall we-" he started.
"Go see the Magician?" Ip finished. They all laughed.
"Yep," Lyndsey said. The three of them walked towards the door. It was time to see what their Questions were!
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"Well, I guess we'll just have to-" Lyndsey tried to say, looking up at the castle.
"We'll have to tackle the challenges," Ip said, looking pained.
"Let's get to-" Peep started to say, enthusiastically.
"I really hate interrupting," Ip interrupted. Peep and Lyndsey rolled their eyes. Lyndsey sent Peep a Meaningful Look, and he nodded.
"Maybe we should complete the-" Lyndsey started.
"…challenges without talking," Peep finished. Then he smiled at Lyndsey. She smiled back.
"That's a great idea!" Ip said. He brightened up a little.
The three approached the moat. In it was a moat monster.
Peep approached it first. He attempted to step into the water. The monster reared up at him. Peep backed off, daunted.
Next, Ip stepped up. He walked to the edge of the moat, looking around. He seemed to be looking for a boat, or something. He couldn't find one. He backed off, shrugging. Apparently his plan had depended on his finding a boat.
Lyndsey was last. She didn't know what to do. Obviously, they couldn't swim across the moat, and there was no boat to take across. The drawbridge was closed, too.
She thought about their talents. She didn't think Ip's talent would be any good, ever, never mind in this situation, and she didn't see what good it would do to make it night. She herself didn't have any extra talents that would be useful. Or did she? Her good memory wouldn't do much, but what about the yak's ability to speak? She had learned to talk enough without needing the talent anymore. If she gave the moat monster the yak's talent of speech, and then set Ip loose on it…
"Hey, moat mon-" she called.
"What are you doing?" Ip interrupted.
"Want a tal-"
"What's the plan??" Ip asked. Peep looked confused, too. He and Lyndsey were in tune with each other already, but not THAT in tune.
"…ent?" she finished, moving closer to the moat. The monster looked up, interested. It was possibly only interested because a pretty girl was approaching it, but it was still interested.
Lyndsey shot Peep a glance that meant to play along. He nodded, trusting her, even though he was still confused.
"Want a-" Lyndsey started.
"…talent?" Peep asked.
"Tal-"
"…ent?"
"Tal-"
"…ent?"
The moat monster was looking from person to person, thoroughly confused. That was understandable- moat monsters weren't known for their intellect. Lyndsey chose this moment to hold out her hand, touch the monster's slimy back, and transfer the talent of speech into it. Then she jumped back. Peep and Ip just stared at her.
"What?" the moat monster asked. Ip hadn't interrupted it, as it hadn't completed a full sentence.
"I gave you-" Lyndsey said.
"What did you do that for?" Pip asked.
"A talent," she finished. The moat monster looked overwhelmed.
"What?" it asked.
"Why? Ip asked.
"Play-"
"…along-"
"..Ip," Lyndsey and Peep said together. Ip shrugged and nodded.
"Here is our-" Lyndsey paused on her own, unsure of what to call Ip. Was he a friend? Peep covered for her.
"…fellow inquirer, Ip."
"You should talk," Lyndsey said.
"…to him." Peep finished. Ip looked at them strangely, and they nodded. He shrugged again, and walked to the moat monster. They began to talk animatedly, Ip interrupting every sentence the moat monster could manage to say. This was increasingly frustrating, as the monster was just learning to talk. Every time it almost had it right, Ip interrupted. Finally, the poor monster fainted, exhausted from the effort.
"Now!" Lyndsey cried, using the moat monster as a platform to run across the moat. The others ran quickly behind her. They had gotten past the first challenge!
Lyndsey looked up. They were standing at the bottom of a very large hill. There were no stairs, and no animals nearby. Lyndsey decided to make the assumption that the Challenges were set up to test the talents of the contestants. She decided it must be Peep's turn.
"Peep," she said, uninterrupted, as she had not spoken a full sentence. "Use your-"
"What's the plan this time?" Ip interrupted.
"…talent," Lyndsey finished. Peep looked confused, as he had before, but he shrugged, and complied. He lifted an arm, Day style, and closed his eyes, Night style. When he lowered his arm, and opened his eyes, it was nighttime. The hill had turned from an upward slope to a downward one.
"Again," Lyndsey said. She was learning a new way to outmaneuver Ip's talent of interruption.
So Peep closed his eyes, and raised an arm. When he opened them, and lowered it, it was morning. The slope had gone back to uphill. Lyndsey scrunched up her face, thinking.
"Ip," she said, a small lightbulb forming on top of her head. "How strong is your-"
"My what?" Ip asked.
"Your talent?" Lyndsey asked.
Ip looked taken aback. "Well, I don't know," he said. "Nobody's ever paid much attention to it. Or me," he frowned. "My talent is quite annoying," he admitted. Lyndsey glanced at Peep, and nodded. Ip continued talking. "Anyway, I'm not sure how strong it is. Why?"
"Is it limited to-"
"To what?" Ip interjected.
"To interrupting sentences?" Lyndsey asked, somewhat irritably.
"I don't know," Ip said. He cocked an eyebrow. "Why? What do you have in mind?" Peep also looked very confused, but had kept his mouth shut, not wanting to be interrupted by Ip.
"Day, uphill," she said, not using full sentences. "Night, downhill. You interrupt-"
"Yes I do," Ip said. Apparently his talent recognized short commands.
"…interrupt Peep's talent-"
"I could try," Ip said. Apparently that counted, too.
"…make it afternoon, flat ground!" she spat out. The boys looked at her, impressed.
"That could work!" Ip said, voicing the opinion of both of them. "But not if Peep is a Magician, and I'm just spot-on-the-wall. Everyone knows it takes a Magician to outdo a Magician. And even they can't, sometimes," Ip said.
"Well, maybe Peep isn't-" Lyndsey said.
"But he could be," Ip said.
"And maybe you are-" Lyndsey commented.
"I doubt it," Ip said, raising an eyebrow.
"Try," Lyndsey coaxed. Peep and Ip shrugged. Peep closed his eyes, raised his arm, and verbally said, "Change the tim-" (well, almost said it), while he was going through the motions. Ip concentrated hard on him, and when he spoke, he interrupted.
"Make it afternoon," he said. Everything went dark. Then it went slightly lighter. There was a swirl of colours, and suddenly-
"IT WORKED!" Ip exclaimed.
"Good!" Peep said brightly, smiling at Lyndsey. She blushed, and he hugged her. The land had gone flat, and it was afternoon.
"I wonder how it happened," Ip wondered. "Maybe I was only able to interrupt because he spoke verbally. Normally he wouldn't. Or maybe it's just for the purpose of the Challenge." Ip continued rattling off theories that all insulted his talent, and complimented Peeps. The trio continued onward, into the courtyard.
There they encountered a strange sight. It was an odd sort of creature, and it was muttering something.
"Hey!" Lyndsey called. "What are you-" She wasn't asking what the creature was, but rather, what it was muttering, so she was interrupted.
"This is weird," Ip said.
"…muttering?" Lyndsey finished. The creature looked up. It had the upper torso of a human male, but its lower half was what sort of resembled a Mundane giraffe.
"I won't let you-" the creature started to say.
"Won't let us what?" Ip asked.
"I won't let you-" the creature tried again.
"What?" Ip asked. The creature got angry.
"PASS! I WON'T LET YOU-"
"Oh, you won't let us pass," Ip concluded. The creature turned bright red. Peep shot Lyndsey a Look, and she understood it, and nodded. They had to take over the situation.
"Are you a-" Lyndsey started.
"…Challenge?" Peep finished.
"Yes," the creature said, sneering.
"What is the nature of-"
"…this Challenge?"
"To pass-" The creature was going to say 'to pass me.'
"Oh, we have to get by you," Ip said. The creature glared.
"Please excuse-"
"…him. His talent is to-"
"…interrupt people." The creature simply looked at them.
"What is-" Lyndsey started.
"…you talent?" Peep asked.
"Impassability," the creature answered. Apparently it wasn't part of the Challenge to have the creature lie.
Lyndsey thought. If she could take the creature's talent, they could pass by. But the creature would not let her get close enough. Unless it was distracted. And dark… She formulated a plan, a lightbulb flashing brightly on top of her head.
"Peep- talent," she said, not using a full sentence. "Ip, talent!" she said. The boys looked a bit confused, but complied. Ip went over, and began annoying the human/giraffe thing crossbreed, and Peep changed it to night. Lyndsey walked over to the creature, and touched it. "Please let this work," she murmured, remembering that her talent only worked when the other creature was willing to give away their talent.
She felt something happening. She was receiving the thing's talent! It had worked! "Yes!" she cried.
"Oh..." the creature said. "You win." Then it strutted off, not looking angry.
"How?" Lyndsey asked.
"Well, you're a Sorceress. Or at least a Neo-Sorceress. Peep could be a Magician, and I…have some magic," Ip said. He was the likely choice to explain, because he wouldn't interrupt himself. "There are bound to be loopholes. When three gang up against one, especially when two are powerful…well, the odds aren't good for the one," he said. Lyndsey smiled, impressed.
"Good thinking!" she said. Ip smiled.
"Thanks," he said. Peep grabbed Lyndsey's hand.
"Shall we-" he started.
"Go see the Magician?" Ip finished. They all laughed.
"Yep," Lyndsey said. The three of them walked towards the door. It was time to see what their Questions were!
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