I wrote down another line and then scratched it out almost instantly. I was no good at riddles. I thought it would be a simple thing; just find the ring on a lion statue and steal it. What’s hard about that? Well, it turns out, and you might want to sit down for this, I was wrong.

The problem was that every lion had a ring on one of its paws. My Enhanced Shadow Eye was no help either. All the skill did was illuminate every ring in the place. Hundreds of lion statues, and hundreds of rings. I get it, they are clearly important. It is not like I can go around stealing all of them, especially not when each and everyone has some sort of crossbow in its mouth loaded with bolts made to skewer me to the wall.

The mouse creeps around the house hunted by the king.

Right, well. That one seemed to be obvious. I was the mouse. Me and Stella anyway. The king was hunting me. Hundreds of them actually and all of them with a toothless bite, just like the next line said.

He who is brave enough to steal the golden ring,

Yeah, but which one? I’m brave enough, or perhaps desperate enough was a more accurate description. Couldn’t they have just given me an old school map with an X marking the spot? I could follow a map. Never trust a poltergeist to give you clear instructions.

There is only failure without sight.

I have eyes. Magically enhanced eyes even. Was that not enough to qualify as ‘sight’? I can’t believe how badly I had wanted to do this quest. Now all I wanted to do was go back to the Red Fox Inn.

I scratched my head, trying to ignore the amount of white flakes that came off with each scratch. It was a good thing Stella didn’t mind strong smells. Every time I lifted my arms I got a whiff of the potent stench brewing there. If I ever made it back to the Red Fox Inn I might just sit in the shower for an eternity. Roska and Affald could drag my ass out of there the moment my bum bag ran out of gold.

Stella huffed and readjusted her position on the floor by the door. She was bored of our adventure already. Stella was a working dog. She needed to be kept entertained or she got despondent. It was a real shame there didn’t seem to be any monsters for her to brutally murder. There was however a mouse out in the hall that she was eager to get back to. Cattle dogs are not the best riddle solvers going around.

My scratching crept down my face until I was rubbing at my cheek. I stopped the moment my fingers brushed against a thread of stiff wire. My pulse quickened and breathing became difficult as I ran to the nearest statue and slid on my knees to stare at the distorted golden image of my face. The whiskers had started to appear.

Fuck.

Alright, so, to not become a mouse I had to steal the ring from the king who was hunting a mouse which I was turning into. Yep. Made total sense.

Maybe I should just steal any old ring and accept the bolt that was meant for me. It had to be better than suffering through this crap.

The dead silence in the room didn’t help. I was actually missing the occasional wailing and icy winds that kept assailing me outside this room. The poltergeist knew how to make people stew in a silent chamber of suffering. It occurred to me that I would not do well in an isolation cell.

Okay, enough procrastinating. I had to focus. Figure out the stupid ghost's stupid message. That’s all. Just one thing. I could do one thing. I am not panicking, I swear.

The mouse creeps around the house hunted by the king.

The mouse is creeping. Find the creeping mouse. I could do that with my eyeballs. See, that’s two lines down. That’s a win.

“Stella, find the mouse,” I said.

Stella lifted her head, her ears perked up, and focused on me. The command meant nothing to her though so after a short moment of watching me weave through the statues, she huffed and dropped her head back to her paws. No help there but she did look adorable. I’m not sure if that counts for anything.

I was careful not to touch the rings on any of the lions I walked past. It was clear enough to me that they were the triggers for the odd contraptions hiding within the lions. The statues were cramped together in some places, driving me to my knees as I crawled through them. Next thing you know, I’ll have a tail poking out my ass.

There didn’t seem to be any mice skittering around. I hoped maybe by inspecting them I might see something different about one of the lions but aside from their size, they were the same, and all of them facing the same direction. None of them were what I would consider ‘hunting’.

I was doing something wrong. I should be using my sight but for whatever reason it wasn’t working. I used my Enhanced Shadow Eye again and squinted through the blinding light of all the sparkles, looking for an arrow or maybe some golden twinkles amongst the silver.

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Nothing. There was nothing. Double fuck.

Stella whined and scratched at the door. I stuck my head up like a meerkat to look in her direction. I wish I hadn’t. Her triangular ears had changed into circular discs. The shadow globs I had summoned to get her into this place morphed with her but it was an odd look. A dog with ridiculous long whiskers that moved on their own and big flat rounded ears. I reached up, trying not to breathe too hard as I touched my own ears. They were thankfully still oval fleshy shells.

I swore again and squeezed my bulk back through the army of lions to the wall so I could stare desperately at the words all over again. I reached up, tracing the curve of the letters with a finger. The mouse was being hunted by the lions, if you were silly enough to count the word ‘mouse’ as being one. That made that line almost redundant. Toothless bites had been determined. I was brave enough to steal the damn ring if I could figure out where the hell it was so line three was taken care of. That left line four. I was beginning to feel like a failure so maybe I was accomplishing that line as well.

What kind of thief was I? Stealing jewelry should be the easiest thing. Hell, I’d even stolen some out in the main hall from the hidden cache behind the painting. None of it had been a ring though which was unfortunate.

Sight. See. Vision. What else did that word mean? Where was a damn thesaurus when you needed one?

“Stella, stop scratching at the damn door, it’s not going to open,” I barked, spinning around to glare at the dog.

She dropped and trotted over to me, her tail hanging low. She looked up at me with her glowing purple eyes. It’s hard to stay mad at her even when she kind of looks like a demon dog. Her eyes were super creepy in the most adorable fashion. They even glimmered a little like the sparkles I saw when I used my Enhanced Shadow Eye. She was already a treasure so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.

The idea hit me like a ton of bricks. I took the time to stroke Stella between her oddly shaped ears before darting around the room, staring deeply into the eyes of every lion I could find, even the ones that were palm-sized.

My eyes might not be good enough to find the one ring to rule them all, but maybe the king could see better than I could.

In the middle of the army of lions and off to the left by at least three I found the one I was looking for. The king was nothing special. Its size was average compared to all the others, and its grotesque roar concealing the wicked crossbow matched every other. The king wore his ring on the third, uhh, finger? Do lions have fingers? Anyway, the third finger on his right forepaw. It was little more than a solid gold band, not jeweled or decoratively engraved like many of the others.

The only difference between this one and all the others was the tiny depiction of a mouse raised up on its hind paws engraved on its eye.

The mouse was hunted by the king, and I just found him. Now all I had to do was be brave.

I cautiously reached down and yanked the ring from the lion’s paw stumbling back in anticipation for what was to come next.

New Item Received: Royal Golden Ring

Description: A beautifully crafted golden ring. Size 9.25.

Click.

The door swung open. Stella let out a loud bark and bolted into the main hall, heading right for the mouse hole. She was insatiable for that damn thing.

I eyed the lion I’d just stolen from as I followed her. I didn’t want to turn my back on the thing. I kept having visions of it coming to life and chasing me down. The fact that I managed to step out of the room and watch the door swing closed on the army of lions felt wrong. In all honesty, it kind of felt like the poltergeist had missed an opportunity on that one.

With a shrug meant for only me, I jogged to the door baring two of the hourglass icons. They were glowing a lovely shade of green. My fingers itched to use the bear head knocker but announcing my entrance seemed like a bad idea. Thieves were supposed to be a little sneakier than that.

I used my Blindsense out of habit though by this stage I was beginning to think it was useless in this place. No auras were warning me of what might be on the other side. I ground my teeth at that. The skill had seemed like the most amazing, game-breaking thing I’d ever gotten. Apparently, Melumek, or whoever ran this game was determined to make sure it wasn’t.

I snapped my fingers and pointed at the ground beside me. “Stella, come.”

Stella came but it was slow and begrudgingly.

“Stop your sulking, it’s time to face the ghost’s next puzzle. Yay for me.”

The wailing sounded again above and the icy wind swept over us, raising bumps all over my arms.

Get out…

Is it weird that I wasn’t at all disturbed by the disembodied voice? There are only so many times you can hear shit like that before it gets boring.

I turned the knob and Blinked, darting inside to find a shadow to hide in. Thankfully, unlike the other room, this one was awash in darkness.

I watched from my place behind the dense fabric of overly large window furnishings. Stella put one paw into the room before yanking it back. I frowned at that, folding my knees and snatching my glove from my hand to press my bare fingers to the ground.

It was as cold as ice.

I waited but nothing happened. The room smelled of one of the flowers Mrs. Percott grew in her front garden. The one with the tall purple blooms. It was oddly soothing despite the chill and the breeze that blasted it into my face.

I ground my teeth, hoping there would be no sudden appearance of any monsters. Stella wasn’t wearing those little booty things and I did not want her to damage her foot pads on the icy floor.

I turned my eyes, scanning the room for my next challenge.

All that stood between me and the third door was a large ornately carved chest with a fancy-looking lock holding it closed. I grinned at that. I might not be the best thief in the world but I was pretty good at the lockpicking minigame.

I jogged to the chest, lifting the heavy padlock in my hand and focusing on the little icon.

My high spirits died the moment I saw the number of bouncing balls waiting for me.