“You're asking me another riddle?” I wanted to pull out my hair. As if all the other riddles weren’t enough.
“Oh,I love riddles,”the dragon said with a smug look on his face.“You have until sunrise. If you don't know the answer to it, you will stay here forever.” He began walking toward the castle and disappeared through the big steel door.
I realized what the Sacred Cavern was all about, a cave full of riddles and brainteasers. All these years, the people of Paegeia were afraid of nothing,and I wondered why dragons weren’t allowed to enter.
I tried to ponder the answer, but for the moment, fatigue, as well as a throbbing shoulder, made it too difficult to think clearly.
My lower lip vibrated and I wiped off a tear before it could even run down my face as it became apparent that I didn't know the answer. I sat against a rock and rested my head against the cool stone as I watched the maidens play in the dragon's garden. I started to think about Becky and what would have happened if it had been her and not me that entered those wooden doors. Would he have let her in or ate her up and chucked her soul in the lake with all the others?
Lucian was next. I had given him my word, but I felt so sleepy. I couldn't think about riddles anymore.
My mind went blank for a long time. When it rebooted, I thought about my mom. All I had was that picture and deep inside me, I knew that I would never find her.
I would never know who she was. Somehow, the Bible and God crept into my thoughts as well. The riddle was linked to Him. What is greater than God?
Could it be a dragon?
A dragon might be more evil than the devil, but how could the rich need a dragon and the poor have a dragon? The last part didn’t make sense. It wasn't a dragon.
I folded my arms around my legs and rested my head on my knees, contemplating everything for hours. I gave up, thinking I would never see Lucian again. If Paegeia was destroyed, would they find all of the maidens and the dragon here?
I must have passed out from sheer exhaustion, and when I woke up an hour later, I started to freak out. How could I have fallen asleep, there was so much at stake? For the love of blueberries,if I don’t get this riddle’s answer, I will stay here forever, with a rainbow dragon that has a yellow and purple head. My mind rambled and didn’t stop for a long time.
I felt as though I had dragged everyone into this for nothing. I’d given it my all, only to draw a blank now. It wasn't fair.
I saw the maidens again. They weren't so curious about me anymore.
My father jumped into my head, reading from the Bible after he'd tucked me in. Knowing now what he really was made it sound ridiculous. A dragon reading from the Bible. He used to tell me that nothing was greater than God or more evil than the devil.
My heart felt as if it stopped for an instant. Then it continued beating faster and faster. Could the answer be nothing? The poor have nothing and the rich need nothing, and if you eat nothing, you will die.
I jumped up overwhelmed with a sense of both shock and euphoria as I was sure that nothing was the answer. The maidens in the garden froze as I rejoiced. I looked at them, and then they started screaming hysterically. I spun around with my axe in my hand, but found nothing behind me. Alertness made my heart bounce like crazy and my arm ached, the nerve endings pulsating. I stared at absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. The earth rumbled and I fell down. The dragon appeared inches from me.
“You’ve got the answer!” he roared.
“Yes,” I whimpered.
All the friendliness he’d shown before was gone. “What is it?”
“Nothing.”
Twin jets of flame twenty feet long shot out of his nostrils. He looked like a two-year-old throwing a temper tantrum, as I watched at the frustrated dragon shrieked and kicked a few boulders around.
I crawled in fatal position and covered my head with my good arm. When he calmed down, the entire garden was engulfed in flames. I just looked at it, not believing that he’d just scorched everything.
“It has been a long time since anybody has gotten one of my riddles. But a deal is a deal.” He grabbed my body with his front talons and started to fly.
I closed my eyes. I just completed what the Cavern holds, and I still don’t have the stomach to deal with heights.
He took me up another mountain and dropped me as he swooped down, before he landed himself. I fell and rolled over a couple of times before stopping. Was he trying to break my neck?
I lay there for a while just listening to the sound of my heartbeat. Then I lifted my head. Tall threes with a small path to the right greeted me, as I inhaled the smell of the grass. I got to my feet, and I watched the dragon folded his paws under his huge body and lay down like a cat. He made a soft purring sound that made me feel some sort of serenity.