FAIRYTALE
"Nervous?" Fergus's horse Bobby questioned.
"You bet! They were very vague when it came to a description of my task. They just said "find the portal", he replied.
It was a sunny day and Fergus and his horse Bobby were travelling across a beautiful forest. Fergus was a young fellow; he was 20 in 3 months and 16 days and was on the way to the first of his two trials of initiation. He had originated from Scotland and he was intelligent, polite and mindful of other people. In contrast to that he was also a brutal fighter, with a serious amount of military training; and he could talk to his war horse Bobby.
Bobby himself was a magnificent strawberry roan stallion. He was very swift, diligent and also very young.
After another good two hours walking through the wood they came across an archway. Suddenly a figure in black robes appeared in front of him! In a split second Fergus had strung his bow and shot three arrows at the spirit. This seemed not to harm him and as Fergus struggled to draw his sword the spirit said in a strong and surprisingly calm tone "Peace friend, I come to help not for you to kill yourself trying to give me battle". At this Fergus scabbarded his sword, retrieved his arrows from a nearby bush and turned to face the spirit.
The spirit handed him a bit of parchment and said "all will become clear" so Fergus opened the parchment. It read:
INSTRUCTIONS:
To cross you have to be skilful
You must have the strength of a bull
To fight the ogre you must find
The safe letters on the floor
The puzzles spell out the key word
Jump on the letters and don't breathe a word
To anyone else inside this world
Corridor one)
the first letter is in "my" but not in "mine"
The second is in "eat" but not in "ant"
My 3rd and 4th are in "love" but not in "dove"
My 5th is in "oak" but not in "cake"
My 6th is in "wallow" but not in "shallow"
What was this all about? Fergus was clearly meant to undertake a test of strength and intelligence. But what did it mean? "stop there I think I know what to do" said bobby "I have the strength of a bull", he said to Bobby. "And I am good at puzzles. But where is this ogre? And where are the puzzles?"
Just then, they came to a sort of natural arch in the forest – a sort of gateway, and behind it Fergus could just about make out what might be some hedges. Tall dark trees were all around, and in the half light it almost seemed as though they could move!
"Do you see what I see?" said Fergus to Bobby. "Are these trees moving?"
"They don't do that in Scotland", said Bobby, except when our King Macbeth is in a spot of trouble in a few years time. "I tell you what… I think that might be the moving maze – very tricky I've heard tell. And if I'm not mistaken we've also met your ogre!"
Just then the peace and tranquillity of the forest was shattered by the most amazing roar that Fergus had ever heard in his whole short life. It left his ears ringing, and silenced the wild life for many leagues around.
"OK, Bobby", he said. "There is no point hanging about. Let's get in there and see what we can do". As they walked through the temperature dropped
"Hold tight!" said Bobby, and off they went into the moving maze – for that is what it was. And no sooner than they had entered the maze, Fergus saw that scattered across the maze floor were some tiles with ancient runic writing on them. "So that's the puzzle" he said. "Now what does that one say?" But before he could focus on it, the Ogre was in the clearing, striding towards him and swinging his huge club above his head. A tricky situation thought Fergus. What would he do? Just then he noticed that the maze was moving against the ogre faster than the ogre was moving towards Fergus. "Maybe I just need to stand my ground", he thought. "If the ogre trips over the hedge that's racing up on his left side, I might be able to get a blow into his head as he stumbles".
"Good thinking said Bobby" who was a mind reader as well as an expert in Scots. "Always go for the head: it's the weakest link"…
The Ogre broke into a shambling lope and was catching up with them. But with its eyes fixed on Fergus it was not looking where it was going just then a root did trip up the ogre and it fell with a deafening roar to the ground. Jumping forwards Bobby jumped and stamped on the ogres head whilst Fergus stabbed him repeatedly in the back.
"Nothing beats a bit of teamwork eh?" Bobby laughed
"Hmnn" Fergus said
"so what does the riddle mean"
"You have to work out a letter which is in the first word but not the second"
"Oh that simple"
"So that makes Y-E-L-L-O-W"
"So on this first line of tiles I step on Y not T, F, D, H or any of the rest"
"Exactly"
Fergus closed his eyes and stepped onto Y then E then L then L then O then W and he was through to the next corridor.
He looked at the instructions, no time for celebration B-L-U-E. "got it" he said to Bobby. B-L-U-E through to the next corridor.
It was a short one this time, only 3 tiles. He could jump it but he decided against it just in case. R-E-D
The next corridor "Bobby is it just me or is this following a pattern"
"Fergus they are all colours"
"Calm down Bobby"
"Sarcasm Fergus"
P-I-N-K jumped across
The final corridor O-R- An ear splitting roar broke out from just 10m from where Fergus was standing "that will be your ogre then" said bobby with a horsy grin on his face. "well, lets go and fight him" whispered Fergus with a grimace.
O-R-A-N-G-E and they were across.
As soon as they were across a huge club came smashing down on Fergus parried it with millimetres to spare and bobby galloped around the ogre and kicked him in the back it fell forwards onto his blade killing him instantly.
Fergus retrieved and cleaned his blade. He jumped onto bobby and they stepped into the portal.
They were magically transported to a well lit castle immediately and the spirit was waiting for them. "well done" it said
"thanks" Fergus replied
"I am going to fuse my mind with yours and then you will able to use magic"
"cool"
He stepped forwards, clicked his fingers and I felt my brain welcoming the new information"
He clicked his fingers and said "in 5 seconds you are being transported to a room with a dragon in, its your next trial, overcome it and put it in chains"
A rush of air and there he was fighting a dragon!
He pointed his sword at the dragon's eye and BANG the dragon was no more.
"that easy" he asked bobby
"yes"
A click of fingers, the head knight congratulating him. The next few hours were a blur to him. There was a girl, Elizabeth Matheson, who apparently he was destined to marry. And then Bobby had a beautiful mere presented to him, and off he went. then there was feasting and merriment, just like one of those fairytales. from fairyland. where the knights lived. where fergus and elizabeth lived. where bobby and silver did.