Slowly, it grew larger and larger as Friedrich, Marina and Teleri strode across the sandy path. Almost all traces of road had been dug up and cast aside, leaving only a couple of lingering bricks in the ground. Standing before them, towering at least fifty feet tall was the wall.

The Guardian Wall of Kai’roh was built into the side of a cliff, but there was no way to reach the top of that cliff, so jagged was its face. It was behind the large stone doorway that the Orb of Valskythe could be found, deep in the bowels of the temple that lay within. It was there that Friedrich hoped he could finally find an explanation for his nightmare and an answer to Elketh’s riddle. What that would mean, he did not know, but he prayed to Jorren that it would mean greater control over the minotaur.

“At last,” sighed Marina. Even with the stops along the way, she was tired from the long journey across the island.

Teleri especially had been feeling the effects of the heat and had to stop more regularly than the others. She said that no elf of any kind would be able to deal with the temperature as well as she could, especially dark elves. Friedrich had the easier time of the journey, being able to keep cool in his fox form that was naturally acclimated to the island. He had even resorted to turning into a minotaur once and carrying the girls for five minutes until they reached the shade, something that Teleri told him was never to be mentioned again, adding another item to their list of sworn secrets.

The walls were as basic as could be, tall bricks of pale limestone that were held together by the heaviest duty concrete imaginable. There was no grandiosity to the walls other than their height. Even the wall outside Port Bastia had more gravitas to it. It was as though the temple was made to be forgettable.

Stopping outside the towering doors, Friedrich gave them a shove, but they didn’t budge even a little. “Can you sense anything?” he asked Marina.

“No,” she said warily. “There isn’t even a hum of magic, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. It could be too subtle for me to detect.”

“Why would they need magic when there are immovable stone doors?” remarked Teleri, running her hand along the rough surface.

“There must be a way to get inside,” said Friedrich.

“Stand back,” said Marina, twirling her staff around and pointing it at the doors.

When Friedrich and Teleri had cleared the way, she launched an immense lightning bolt, but it only chipped a small wedge from the door. Marina tried again, creating an even more powerful bolt, but it too fizzled out on the wall, making very little headway. Another couple of spells like that and she would be magically drained and they would still be stuck outside.

“I suppose we had better turn back,” said Friedrich, shrugging and turning around.

“You are not serious, are you?” asked Teleri, unable to tell.

“Of course not,” said Friedrich, putting on the minotaur mask and transforming as the girls’ expressions turned to horror.

“Be careful!” called Marina as Friedrich charged forward as a minotaur.

He slammed his hairy palms against the door, dug his hooves into the ground and pushed with all of his might. Even with his massively enhanced strength, the doors did not budge even an inch. Friedrich strained himself until his arms were shaking vigorously before finally giving up. Once his transformation had worn off, Marina and Teleri approached again.

“That was a waste of time,” he said as he placed the mask back under his tunic.

“You need to give us more warning before you wear that one,” Marina scolded him.

“I wasn't going to kill anything so the bloodlust couldn’t take hold. I know what I’m doing.”

“You always claim to know what you are doing,” said Teleri, shaking her head despondently. “If you knew what you were doing, we would not have crossed the island only to be left outside the door of the temple. Suljah must have not told us about this deliberately so that we would not meet an unfortunate end.”

“We could always tame a tunailean and have it burrow us in,” joked Marina.

“Hmm,” said Friedrich, looking down and then up. “You’ve given me an idea. Teleri, you’re a good climber, right?”

“It is not possible for me to scale that wall,” she said, raising an eyebrow. “None of us can.”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“We’ll see,” muttered Friedrich, taking out the goblin mask and transforming into yet another of his forms.

Friedrich ran towards the wall and leapt towards it, sinking his sharp goblinoid claws into the groves. Difficult as it was, he was able to hang on. He lunged upwards with one of his hands and sank it into another groove. He repeated and he repeated, slowly making his way up the wall while Marina and Teleri watched on in awe.

“Do you remember when we told him not to climb that statue?” asked Marina.

“Perhaps that would have been good practice,” said Teleri as Friedrich continued climbing higher.

“What do you think he’ll find if he reaches the top?”

“I do not know, but I doubt it will be as helpful as he thinks it will.”

“I hope he doesn’t fall,” said Marina, biting her bottom lip and folding her arms. “At least the sand will be soft.”

“Not if he falls from the very top,” uttered Teleri.

Friedrich continued to push himself, feeling like his spindly fingers would break or his nails would be torn out, but he could not stop. He didn’t even dare to glance down to see how far he had come. He could have been a quarter of the way up the wall or halfway, but it didn’t matter. He knew that he had to keep climbing, no matter what.

He grunted and he groaned, the voice that escaped his throat was that of a snivelling goblin. As his tiredness grew, it became amusing to him and he wanted to laugh, but he bit his tongue so that the pain would distract him. If he laughed, he knew he would plunge straight back to the ground below and break something.

“Geh. Geh. Geh,” was the noise he made as he strained.

The top was near and within his grasp, but his strength was starting to fail him. He could not risk climbing faster and slipping, so he opted for the more daring approach. Digging deep for a mighty heave, he pulled himself upwards and clung onto the top edge of the wall while his arms ached and his lungs burned.

With a final swing of his legs, he threw himself onto the top of the wall and lay there panting. He cackled to himself once his breath had returned to him. He wanted to stand up and show off to the girls below, but he was too exhausted. Instead, he sat on top of the wall and gave them a small wave.

“Are you alright?” Marina called up to him.

“Heeegh!” shouted Friedrich, trying to say that he was.

“Even a goblin mask can be useful,” said Teleri to Marina. “I have to hand it to Friedrich. He can be quite resourceful when he puts his mind to it.”

“How do you think we survived before you showed up? One time he pretended to give me to Muriance and his men to try and stall for time while a fireball trap recharged.”

“I remember him saying as much once before,” said Teleri, looking back up to the top of the wall. “Where has he gotten to?”

Friedrich had moved back from the edge and was crawling around, looking for anything he could use to make his way inside the temple. A trap door, a staircase, anything would do, but there was nothing. He flopped to the ground and turned back into a human as the mask fell from his face.

“This was a waste of time,” he said despairingly before looking to the rocky mound to his right. “Unless…”

Friedrich stood up, tucking the goblin mask away and climbed up the rocks. Much to his relief, there was a large gaping hole that led into the temple entrance. As quickly as this relief had come, it was replaced by dread. The drop was that of the fall from the wall and there was nothing to cling to on the descent. If he jumped as he was now, he would perish. So, he decided to be something else and try his luck that way.

He weighed his options between the fox and the minotaur. If he was the fox, he would be much lighter, but would that be enough to absolve the damage done by the harsh plummet? The minotaur was big and burly and he had survived a fall from Lord Buckstone’s window in Akatfall. Granted, this fall was twenty feet greater, but perhaps it would be alright.

“Here goes nothing,” said Friedrich, drawing a deep breath and putting on the minotaur mask. If he spent more time thinking about it, he would become too cowardly to take the jump.

As the minotaur, he lay flat on his stomach on the ground and lowered his legs into the hole. He tried to swallow the lump in his throat as he slowly shimmied lower and lower. If Marina or Teleri were here, they would tell him it was a terrible idea and not to try it, but they were not here so he would ignore their imagined advice.

Friedrich raised his fingers, letting go of the ground and dropped into the hole. He fell, picking up speed quickly, but before he had much time to process it, his feet hit the ground. There was a loud crack and he fell back onto the sand, his tailbone—and flattened tail—ached horribly, but he was alive and relatively unharmed.

He used his thick fingers to dust away the sand and could see the stone tiles underneath him. The crack he had heard was not that of a broken bone, but of the tile he had landed on. It was broken into seven large pieces and two dozen smaller ones, yet remained mostly held together.

Friedrich heaved himself onto his feet and limped over to the large door before him. To his left there was a large iron rod wedged into a bracket. It was in the forward position, so perhaps pulling this would release the door. Clutching it tightly and digging his hooves into the sand, Friedrich put all of his remaining strength into pulling it. It began to move and, upon being dragged to the other side, there was a loud click and the whirring of turning cogs. Slowly, the door began to open.

“You did it!” called Marina, but recoiled upon seeing Friedrich as the minotaur. He held up a hand to signal that he was in control.

“You have impressed me, Friedrich,” said Teleri. “I did not think we would find a way inside. To say I am relieved would be a lie, but I acknowledge your resourcefulness nonetheless.”

Friedrich gave a grunt of thanks and then lay down on his stomach. He did not want to stand any longer and his rear was too painful to lie on his back. The girls gave him an odd look, but they waited patiently for him to turn back into a human.

“Did you fall through the roof?” asked Teleri, pointing towards the hole in the ceiling.

“Dropped, Teleri,” said Friedrich, standing up and finding that his pain had now subsided. “I dropped down willingly.”

“That was unwise. You could have gotten yourself killed.”

“I knew you would say that!” he chortled. “And isn’t it a good thing I didn’t take that to heart.”