Click!

The door closed and the White orc and Leőn were gone.

“Ok Gob, it's just you and me again. You ready?” said Kylie.

“wot wil happin?” he asked.

“Well, you never really know with dwarves… probably a few things. Like Leőn said, blades, also, flying spears, sometimes, death-puzzles.. ooh! fire bursts! They love fire bursts! ummm... acid sprays are popular, boiling oil... there's crushing walls, or a variation on crushing walls: rolling boulders… they're always coming up with interesting ways to mutilate innocent travellers.” Gob shrugged

“yoo help mi handl it kylz. i truz yoo.”

She flew back up and over to his side of the barrier, and sat on his head in her usual spot.

“Well that's a worry! But Ok then, let's do this” she said with a deep breath.

He took a step through the runes.

Nothing happened.

Gob looked around expectantly. No blades. No spears, fire, acid or crushing. No sound at all. They waited a full tense minute.

Nothing.

Their tension gave way to a wary confusion. Then impatience.

“wer trap?” Gob asked, still not wanting to move.

“No idea.” said Kylie “I guess we just… keep going.”

Gob carefully took another step. Then another, and when nothing happened he gave up being careful. This room had a door identical to the one they had come through on the far wall, as well as one on the right side wall. An old skeleton of a previously trapped, long dead traveller was slumped against the wall, his empty eye sockets leering at them from under a rusty metal helm. Gob reached down and picked up a half rotted money pouch from the floor next to it's hipbone.

Loot: +1silver +1silver +uselessdwarvenantique +1redrubyofexquisitehue

"treza!" he said happily, dropping the coins and the ruby into his pants and throwing the useless dwarven antique back into the skeletons lap.

"Ooh, the ruby's nice" she said. "I've been thinking a lot about colour lately. Actually I've been thinking about a lot of things lately. I like red! Did you know red is the natural colour of a neon fairy? It's the colour that pure neon emits with an electrical charge run through it. All the other fairy colours are made by balancing other gases in our systems... but red? That's OG."

"wy iz yoo green kylz? yoo neva tel me da storee."

"Well, fairies can change colour by ingesting and expelling other gases. I changed when I went to rescue Leőn from the fighting pits because I wasn't going to be able to get in while I was blue. Goblins don't like Brights, or anything blue or heroic... or anything not green for that matter... Well they didn't at least. I guess they're all gone now. It's hard to believe it's even possible..."

Gob let her have a moment, then said.

"i lik red. mi new statz iz red an it werks betta! yoo an mi can be red togeva."

He pulled the ruby out of his pants and presented it to her with a flourish.

"Oh Gob! Thanks, that's really sweet. You know what? Being red will actually be a lot better an idea if we do meet some dwarves... they're just as discriminatory as the greenskins, just against green. They wouldn't have a problem with a red fairy though..."

She flew to the centre of the room, took a deep breath, held it, squeezed her eyes closed, and strained. She held it, and held it and held it... Gob was starting to get worried when suddenly she let the breath go with a wheezy

puuuufffffffff!

and flickered suddenly from green to a bright ruby red.

"yoo look lik treza!" said Gob

"Aww, I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me Gob!" She spun around, and flew a little circle in the air.

"Feels great!" she said.

"red wuns go fasta" said Gob sagely.

"Where on earth did you pull that from!?" she asked with a laugh.

"evywun no dat" said Gob with a shrug.

"Alright, well, red it is! Now let's get on with this trap!"

Gob walked to the other end of the small stone walled room, to the same door the White Orc and Leőn had gone through. He pushed it open gingerly and peered inside.

The next room was another square stone room, exactly the same size, again featureless except for a door, but this one on the right side wall. He thought about whether he should go and investigate the side door in the first room before he stepped through.

"do yoo fink we shood go frew or tri da ova door?" he asked Kylie.

"Well Orc and Elf went this way... they usually know what they're doing... I've got a feeling we're in a puzzle room."

He stepped carefully through the door, which closed behind them. There was a very faint

swishclick!

accompanied a slightly odd sensation in his tummy.

"GOB?!" Kylie exclaimed. She was still sitting on his head, but had nearly slipped off. She jumped into the air and hovered in front of him. "If you're going to turn suddenly, at least give me some warning!"

"wot turn?" he asked with an odd expression "i didn mov!"

"Oh." she said strangely, looking around. "Well that's weird..."

Gob carefully took another step. Then another, and when nothing happened he gave up being careful again. This room had the same door, door identical to the one they had come through on the right side wall. He walked to it, pushed it open gingerly and peered inside.

The next room was another square stone room, exactly the same size, again featureless except for the same door on the right side wall.

"dis feel weerd now." he said to Kylie.

"Definitely." she said.

He stepped reluctantly through the door, Kylie hovering just next to him this time instead of sitting on his head. The door closed behind them. There was another faint

swishclick!

accompanied a very odd sensation in his tummy.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Kylie, "you're standing on the wall!"

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"no, i didn mov. but now you iz flyin flat." It was odd, Kylie was exactly where she had been a moment ago, but now she was hovering face down on her tummy. Like she was lying down flat... floating parallel with the floor. He'd never seen her do that before.

"I'm telling you Gob, you are standing on the wall! Think about gravity. Trust me, I fly! Knowing which way's up is kind of important. It's built in! Which way feels like down for you?"

He had to admit the feeling was confusing. It did feel like he was being pulled forwards, but certainly it wasn't pulling him so hard that he couldn't stand up straight... but now she mentioned it, the way his tummy lurched it did feel like the ground should be in front of him, not under him as it obviously was. It was an odd feeling. Was Kylie right, was he standing on a wall? How could that even be possible?

He decided to test it out by trying to step forwards. He stepped. No problem. It still felt weird, but it worked as expected. So he stepped again. Again, no problem. He walked to the next door, pushed it open and looked through. It looked the same.

He stepped through, Kylie floating next to him, still oddly flat. This time he kept his eyes on her to try and see exactly what would happen.

swishclick!

She stayed sideways, but rotated a quarter turn. It was an extremely disorienting thing to watch.

"You're still on the wall." she said, "but a different wall. Somehow you twisted the floor sideways. I feel nauseous just looking at you do it!"

"we try agin." he said, pushing through the next door, keeping his eyes on her again.

swishclick!

There was another lurch in his tummy, but it settled immediately this time and felt... normal again. Kylie had righted herself.

He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, and walked to the next door but didn't step through it.

“iz same.” he said to Kylie, opening the next door and pointing.

“Yeah" she said, "I know they all look the same”

“no” he said again, “IZ same”

“What?” she said looking around her.

“com an look. dis iz da same room agin. see?” without going through the door, he pointed across the next room to the skeleton. It still leered at them.

"how we be bak heer agin?" he said with a growl of frustration.

Kylie flew off his head and sat down on the stone floor in front of him, resting her chin thoughtfully on her hands, tapping her cheek with her finger.

Gob sat down too, slumping against the wall. He was starting to understand the skeleton's predicament.

“dis tunnel magik” he said.

“Well no, actually. Dwarven trap wrights don't make their traps magical, in fact not many of them even do magic. They're much more into tech, mech and rune crafts. Runes often behave like they're magical but they aren't. Like the Orc said they're a craft that use programmable symbols to organise information, the power of words apparently, to produce a specific outcome from a predetermined input.

So let's assume this is the same room, and it's mechanism is runic… no wait!” she corrected herself, “there's that ‘swishclick'... so there's a mechanism too. It isn't just runes, it's got to be also partly mechanical… AND there's definitely something mucking around with the gravity..."

emergent:problemsolving +3intelligence

Gob stood up quickly “kylz i hav idea!” he said

“yoo stay rite der”

“Gob! what are you--”

swishclick!

Gob had excitedly run back through the doorway to the previous room.

swishclick!

He ran back in again.

"it werks!" he said excitedly.

"What, you think you've worked this out?" She asked incredulous. She had no idea what was happening.

"I still don't understand."

"i no unda-stand eeva. BUT i git da puzzl!" he said happily, "it like dis..." he made some shapes with his claws in the air,

"dis is da first room. den we go in an shut da door an it go swishclik. an dis is da nex room."

He twisted his hands a quarter turn.

"an den we go in da nex room, an shut da door an it go swishclik. an nex room go lik dis"

Trying to keep his hands twisted a quarter turn he now bent over sideways and comically looked at her through his claws.

"an den swishclik an den lik dis"

He tried a strange contortion and fell over on the floor. She couldn't help laughing at him.

"an den swishclik an den lik dis agin!"

He stood up again triumphantly, his claws back in the original position.

"Ha ha ha! That was hilarious Gob! But I still have no idea what you're trying to say!"

"coz i is standin on da flor, i stik on da flor. i don no how, mibby magik-y stuf or roon-y or grav-y stuf, woteva. but YOO iz not on da flor, so YOO stay da sam way!"

She shrugged and shook her head.

"wate heer kylz. i won chek sumfin."

“Gob, don't leave me here! I don't know what's happening!"

"iz ok. i got dis. truz me kylz. juz wate."

"Ok" she said, " as long as you're sure. If you abandon me here I'll never forgive you! Don't rush though. Remember Gob, these are dwarf traps. Anything could happen.”

"no kylz, yoo don get it! wate!"

He ran back through the door again leaving her behind.

swishclick!

He ran through the next,

swishclick!

and

swishclick!

and

swishclick!

He flung open the last door, and yelled

"HEYA KYLZ!"

Her back was to him and the little fairy gave a startled jump and turned around with her hand on her chest.

"You frightened the life out of me Gob! How on earth did you get THERE?!"

"iz lik a skware!... um wot yoo call a skware dat iz also a skware dis way an dis way?" he pointed to the walls and ceilings.

"Oh, you mean a 'cube'?

"ok. iz wun coob, too coob, free coob, for coob, six coob, sevin coob, ate coob, nyn coob. nyn coob. like dis."

He was trying to represent a cube made of multiple cubes with his claws.

"Ummm you missed 'five'... so you mean eight cubes?...

WAIT!" she yelled, suddenly getting what he was trying to describe.

"LIKE A RUBIK'S®️ CUBE!!?? BUT THOSE LITTLE TWO BY TWO RUBIK'S®️ CUBES???!!! GOB YOU'RE AN ABSOLUTE GENIUS!!!!"

"wot dat?" he asked

"A genius is a person who is so amazingly awesome that they surpass all awesomeness!" she exclaimed.

"not dat, wot iz ROOBIK COOB?" he said, with a scowl.

"It's the most confounding puzzle on earth!" she answered, "So Mr genius... how do we get out?"

"i don no!" he answered

"Ummm... ok. That it?"

"iz hard to werk out. i fink if we go dat way and cont to free, den go dat way an cont too, den bak dat way wun den dat way agin fyv. i fink we git it so da first room wiv da too doors iz on a ova corna an den we can walk frew into da next tunnel."

"You think?" she said, "I think we might end up like that poor guy” she pointed to the skeleton.

"I've got another idea Gob. Come with me, and if you can work it out, show me the wall where the door WILL open when we get the configuration right."

They stepped through into the original room with the skeleton and shut the door behind them.

swishclick!

then once more,

swishclick!

Gob pointed at a blank wall.

"i fink dis iz da rite wun." he said.

"Ok, now take out your flask." she said.

He looked confused, but did what she had told him.

"Now take two swigs."

"TO KRUNCH!" he said, and took two swigs.

Zzt!

+1size +1size +1size

Gob felt the now familiar heat and power surge through him, and the stretching and swelling as he sized up. His muscles felt phenomenal.

"Wow, that works so good!" she said.

"Ok, now stchack that wall right there as hard as you can!"

He smashed his claws into the stone wall with a resounding

Stchak!

Rock, debris and dust exploded outwards with the power of his blow. When it settled there was a hole in the wall, with another heavy timber door laying splintered and broken in the rubble.

"Well you calculated correctly!" Kylie said cheerily. "That door there was concealed behind the moving wall... you just saved us a lifetime of mucking around. I was never one for those puzzle things anyway. They always just made my head hurt."

They peered through the hole they had just made into a long smooth stone tunnel, completely different to the small stone rooms they had got used to.

-1size -1size -1size

Gob held his head between his hands to try and ease the thumping comedown.

"i got to werk dis out!" he groaned "iz good to be big, but iz no good to stop beein big."

Once Gob was sufficiently recovered they stepped out of the puzzle room, into the long tunnel.

"Now, we should not forget tread carefully. We aren't going to be able to bash our way out of every trap those pesky Dwarves have put in our way."

Gob took a step forward.

Swishting!