"You will not let me go? Do you want to fight, then?" Tabarnacle asked, readying the fire within his belly.

"Fight?" The cherub laughed, "How could you possibly fight me? Do you know how long I've been around this place? I can do things here you can't even dream about, you little worm."

Besos floated in between Tabarnacle and the cherub, slowly expanding in size. The octopus looked like someone was blowing it up like a baloon, as its size grew until it was equal to the cherub. As his body changed, so did his top hat. When the change was finally done, Besos spoke in his peculiar, bubbly manner, "You will do nothing, evil-doer. I was following a pitiful one before, but now he has truly begun to walk the Random Road, and therefore I will not allow you fight him unfairly."

"Evil this, evil that... You guides are remarkably judgemental in comparison to your random ethos," mocked the cherub, shrugging his shoulder. "Surely you will not object if we play a simple game of chance?"

"I will allow for chance," said the adjudicator imperiously, bobbing up and down, "As long as you put a wager on the line."

"And your guidee?"

"Will match your wager, or he will refuse the wager."

"Very well, little Tabernacle, are you willing to play a game of chance with me?"

Tabernacle looked from Besos to the cherub. They were both giants, making him feel like a small fly.

Perhaps...

Willing it, he imagined himself into a similar size as the other two. One moment he was a fly; one blink of the eyes and he was their size.

The change felt weird. He was still getting used to the way his will could change things around him. He settled down on a cloud opposite the cherub before he answered, "If you cannot obstruct me through force, why should I take your offer?"

The cherub smiled again. It was such a strangely malicious smile in that innocent face. "Because," it said, "You will probably do anything to get out of the form I imposed upon you."

Tabernacle nodded. There was little he wanted more.

"Haha, yes. I knew I was right. See this?" The cherub put his hand into the bucket of sand and pulled something up from it, "This is a transmogrifier I've been saving for a while. With it, you can take whatever form suits the path you're taking. So, interested?"

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"I am interested," said Tabernacle, although wary of whatever trick the cherub was trying to pull. However, with Besos the way he was right now, surely the octopus would not allow the cherub to cheat... right?

"Good! However, you have to wager something that matches my wager. You've obviously not been walking the road for long, so I will tell you now: a transmogrifier is not an easy thing to come by."

"I'm sure you have something in mind, so just tell me what you want," Tabernacle was already getting of this game-before-the-game the cherub was playing.

"Of course, of course. What I want is simple: to match this transmogrifier, you will have to wager your guide."

"My guide?" Tabernacle looked over at Besos, who had moved aside and was now observing the both of them from a distance, "Can I even do that?"

"Of course you can. Right, Guide?"

"It is allowed," said Besos.

"I thought you didn't want a guide. Why would you want mine?" Tabernacle asked, suspicious at the innocent face the cherub was trying to pull off.

"It's not about me wanting your guide, as much as me wanting you not to have a guide," said the cherub, grinning. "So, are you in or not?"

"What kind of game are we playing?"

"Ahh," said the cherub, putting up a finger, "That's not part of the deal. All you need to know is that it is a game of chance, and what the stakes are."

Tabernacle looked over at Besos, but the adjudicator was silent. Since the octopus was not speaking, the cherub was probably within his right to pose the stipulation. He had to consider carefully. Although his experiences on the road were limited, he had been told plenty of times how important the guide was.

In contrast, he also remembered the strange woman he had met in the hut. She had not had any guide, but had recognized his. Had she been like this cherub?

Shaking his head, Tabernacle forced himself back on-topic. The guides were important, but clearly not to the point he might die if he lost his. On the other hand...

"I accept," he said, after stopping himself thinking too hard on it. If there was one thing he had learned over the past few experiences, it was that it was often more important to throw yourself into action than wait and think about doing it.

"Hihiiha, very good," the chubby cherub laughed, "Observe carefully, then."

Spreading out his arms, the cherub gathered the clouds around them into his fists. They flowed willingly, obeying the command of the cherub's will. While they formed, sand from the bucket floated up and into the cloud in the right-hand cloud.

Tabernacle looked on, astonished, as the sand coalesced into a ballshape within the cloud. "Look closely, little Tabernacle," said the cherub, still grinning viciously, "Take careful note of the cloud with the sand in it."

Following the cherub's advice, Tabernacle looked very closely. The ball of sand soon faded into the condensing cloud, before it became a grey mass approaching a dark thundercloud. The cloud in the other hand likewise turned dark, until small sparks of lighting began to crackle within. When they formed to perfectly dark spheres, the cherub removed his hands and, with a swiping motion, willed the two clouds to circle around one another at a rapid pace.

Trying to keep his eyes on the right cloud was absolutely impossible. The Cherub's grin told Tabernacle that this was exactly the point. When the two clouds finally came to a halt, the cherub gestured towards the two black orbs.

"Now, littler Tabernacle, choose the cloud with sand in it."