First, it was necessary to find out what kind of solution was expected. The symbols were already visible, and I didn’t assume it was one of those puzzles where letters had been replaced by numbers. It probably wasn’t a matter of changing the order of the symbols either, like a code lock was about pressing certain keys in a fixed order.

Since it was a magic lock, the solution had to involve magic. Could it be that access was only allowed to mages, and to identify myself as such, it would be enough to fill the symbols with mana? But then why were there six different symbols? To recognize a mage, just one would be enough.

Nevertheless, I did not want to leave it untried. I looked at the first symbol and muttered, “Fire” Nothing happened, although a glance at my mana level showed that three units of mana had been consumed. That was strange. I activated the library tab and noticed that the four unknown characters from the gate were not listed there.

Thoughtfully, I looked at the characters in the library, especially the ones for fire and light, which were also part of the puzzle. The symbols were added to the library after I saw them being used and only activated when I cast the spell myself. So I had to find out what the other symbols of the riddle meant. Were they analogous to light and fire other elements?

I imagined the second symbol and it appeared before me in the air. “Water!”, I said firmly, but nothing happened. “Earth” I tried a little less surely and lo-and-behold, a heap of earth trickled onto the ground. Wow! Buoyed by this success, I looked again at the library tab and saw the earth icon standing there. Satisfied, I rubbed my hands together and knotted my mind to the next symbol: “Water!” Again, nothing. Um, what’s next? “Air!” There was no visible appearance, but the symbol disappeared and appeared in the library, in addition to which I felt a slight breeze.

Well, the next had to be then, but water and so it came, a trickle poured out of the air on the earth pile and formed a mud puddle. So now I had the four elements and the light in addition. But what did the last symbol stand for? I tried different ideas, like darkness, night and eclipse (as an opposite to the light) or open, opening and even hole, but the symbol did not react. It had to be something else.

I put that part of the puzzle on hold for now and turned my attention to activating the spell. The first symbol, the fire sign, was well known to me, but I could not activate it on the gate. What was the reason? I stared at the listing of symbols in the library view. Somehow their outlines looked unfinished, like unfinished pictures in a coloring book. And how about... I remembered changing the mana color in my mana jar and imagined the fire symbol in the library filled with red paint. Obediently, the symbol lit up red.

Inspired by this, I colored the water sign blue, earth brown, and air yellow. The light had to be white, as I had originally seen in Nigel’s spell. I left the arrow and flight colorless for now, I wasn’t sure which color would apply here and they didn’t appear in the puzzle. I blanked out the library again and looked urgently at the symbols on the wall. “Fire!”, I said decisively, and the sign lit up red! Buoyed by this success, I called out the other elements one by one in the correct order: “Earth! Air! Water!” and saw them light up accordingly.

But when I arrived at light, it didn’t work. The symbol only flashed, but then became colorless again instead of glowing white. “Light!”, I repeated, but this time there was no reaction at all. That’s when I got the idea to check on my mana and was unpleasantly surprised: mana 0/47. Damn! I didn’t have enough mana to fill all the characters, besides I was missing the last symbol.

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Discouraged, I turned away from the gate and checked the position of the sun. It had to be past 12 o’clock and I hadn’t even had breakfast yet. It didn’t help, I had to make my way back and find some food for me and Orthok on the way, something that had more calories than a duck. As nice as it would be to enter the estate, I doubted there was a full refrigerator waiting for me.

I first walked back to the river bend and then along the river against the current, so that I first moved further away from the cave. I wanted to walk about an hour in that direction and then turn back if there was nothing to be found there. The river provided a good landmark, so I wasn’t afraid of getting lost.

The area beyond the bend in the river was little different from the area I had already explored. The banks were mostly lined by reeds, some of which were so high that they obscured my view of the river and the other bank. In between there were clumps of trees and shrubs, but nothing that would have helped me forage. On the other side of the river, I sometimes saw black streaks snaking through the terrain, but I couldn’t make out exactly what they were.

Then, as I was about to turn back, I noticed a group of five antelopes on the far bank, just drinking from the river. I was lucky to be on the leeward side, so they couldn’t smell me. The reeds on my side were so high that I could just see over them and I ducked immediately when I saw the animals. I took an arrow out of my quiver and quickly checked my mana supply, which had now replenished to 12.

Cautiously, I peeked over the reeds. Three antelope were drinking, one was grazing on the bank, and the fifth was standing off to the side, looking away from me. From the horns, this had to be the buck. I imagined the arrow hitting him in the head, but when the arrow was already in flight, the animal took two steps forward and the arrow missed his head and flew on. So that was how it was, magic did not make the arrows target-seeking projectiles. Aiming was apparently only done at the time of casting the spell, after that, the arrow was no different from one shot with a bow.

I quickly reached for the next arrow. I had only mana left for one shot, and it had to be good, so this time I aimed at the buck’s body. The arrow hit and elicited a cry of pain, but instead of collapsing, he ran away with the rest of the herd, frightened. Annoyed, I waded through the river and examined the ground on the other side. The hit animal seemed to be bleeding profusely, so I decided to follow it, hoping that it would not be able to run far away.

The tracks led away from the river. I was able to recognize them quite well in the low grass and ran after the small herd as fast as I could. Again and again I found small and large blood spots on the ground, which gave me new motivation. Soon I could see my destination ahead of me, the females ran ahead and then stopped again to wait for the buck. He seemed to be losing strength but would not give up and continued to try to escape.

During the pursuit, I had already crossed two of the black stripes I had seen from a distance earlier. They were about a meter wide and consisted of dead plants. I didn’t know what had caused this, but since the antelope crossed them unharmed, I did the same and ran through as well.

The buck in front of me was slowing down, no longer running away from me, but staggering ahead with his head down at the last of his strength. He was maybe 50 meters away from me. His herd no longer stayed with him. They saw the danger in me and increased the distance. If I still had mana for a shot, I would put the animal out of its misery, but so I had only the sword. I was about to make the final spurt when I noticed a movement on the left side.

There lay the end of one of the strange stripes and it was now racing towards us with the speed of a city car. The grass in front of the apparition, which had just been green, instantly changed color as soon as it was touched by it, but it did not turn black directly, but silvery-white and shone in the sun like... frost? Was it ice that abruptly covered the ground on a summer day? I didn’t know how to react as the head end of the ice trail rapidly approached. Fortunately, the ice magic was not heading for me, it slightly corrected course so that it hit the wounded animal exactly.

There were no special effects, the streak of frost simply passed over it and continued on its way. The buck remained motionless and did not react to my approach. His body was covered with ice crystals from the hooves to the horns and when I carefully touched him, I found that he was shock frozen.