Princess Aravo Part 1

8

When Irbis came to herself, she found herself in a very dark place. Having felt with her fingers the rough stony wall and seen a dot of light above, she understood that she must have been at the bottom of the pitch. The monster stood over her staring at the girl with its only eye and its mouth twisted in some sort of a grin. It was slowly moving its face to Irbis. "To be eaten by some Jabberwocky... No thank you," the girl thought. When the beast approached its head to her really close, she unexpectedly roared at it making loud horrifying cry as she got used to do on hunting of big predators. The monster got angry and cried in its way on her letting out flows of air on her. Irbis felt the floor trying to find some stone to throw into the eye of that Cuttlegnat. Strange... There must have been but something as this thing had been flying around making little parts of the walls fall. But the girl found nothing...

The fierce monster flying around thundering over walls and stones fell and fell. Irbis tried not to get under them but suddenly she stumbled and landed over her side. A big stony piece was darting exactly at her. She rolled aside but it wasn't enough to avoid it. Here! Wait... What? She seemed to feel absolutely nothing. She touched the floor around but there was nothing. A strange idea came into her head. She stood up, closed her eyes and ran to the opposite side. She made it easily. Then she started feeling the wall looking for the thing she needed. After some time she found it! Her hand was on the head of a bear. She tried to open the panel but she couldn't. Then she just pressed on it and it obeyed. What's then? She tried to turn it and it was whirled counterclockwise. She pressed it again and it was in its primary position. Then she turned it clockwise and pressed it again. The panel moved somewhere leftwards opening a puzzle.

It was too dark. Where could she find light? Then the only source of it was the Cuttlegnat. It should be risked. The monster was flying here and there ruining little by little the walls and trying to be as frightening as hard as it only could. Irbis stood before it and started teasing it, making faces and saying words usually said in such situations. The beast hissed at her, set itself in bottom of one wall partly touching the floor. It put in front its head, completely opened its mouth and started crying.

"That's excellent! Thank you! You are the best!" the girl exclaimed and ran hopping to the puzzle.

The light from the Cuttlegnat's eye and mouth fell directly at the panel. If this filth also hadn't cried so loud, it would have been just perfect... It was a sliding puzzle. Well, what to do was quite clear. The girl started easily and quickly sliding the squares. The monster was in the shock for some while as nobody had called it the best ever before. It stood thus until it actually understood that the girl was solving the puzzle. This was not good and needed to be set right.

The light suddenly disappeared. Irbis looked and saw that the Cuttlegnat was turning to her with its bottom side with the belly. "And it is not very well," the girl thought remembering about the lava-like mass. "And yet it cannot see where exactly does it shoot." And yet she should be careful. But on the other hand she had the light! There the girl stood one moment moving the squares and then evading the nasty mass. Suddenly the substance fell directly at the puzzle and right when Irbis had almost solved it. She had to wait till it at last would run down. The monster would not let her get bored. It turned itself awfully wriggling in such way as to see at least a little bit its target. But the girl wasn't going to surrender. She ran here and there, hopped and skipped. Once she had done it so swiftly that the Cuttlegnat just found itself in such position of which no yogi could dream. While the monster was trying to get itself straight again Irbis ran to the puzzle that was clean again.

The image was the coat of arms she had seen in the throne room above the prince's throne. There was a black bear in a gold crown on the red background. A sound was heard and the door on the opposite side opened. The girl ran there. Having noticed it, the monster set itself straight and dashed to the door too. By then the girl had already entered it. The Cuttlegnat cried into the doorway in which it couldn't enter. In conclusion it set its belly to it and made the most powerful and fastest shoot it had ever done. Irbis saw it in the mirror and managed to fall on the floor on time. The shoot ricocheted off the mirror and flew back to the monster. The beast's heart-breaking cries were stopped by the closed door.

The girl again found herself in the mirror labyrinth lightened by magic. She went ahead. It was easier than the first time. Here she found the water closet. She decided to try three turns left and two to the right and there was the eating room! After leaving that Cuttlegnat her appetite just grew high. That time she had more substantial food. She was sitting there for a while to get some rest and gather her spirits. The first stage was over and yet there were other two. She wondered what nasty things would be there. And yet there was only one way to know it. To go and see. All right, she rested a bit and set off to face other adventures. Irbis had been wandering along the labyrinth till she found the needed door. It was the second room...