Chatoyant College, Book 1: New Student Orientation

Chapter 47: The Riddling Contest

Riddles? That was so much less scary than Dawn had been expecting. She looked back at Edie and Corrie. Corrie still looked terrified, but Edie smiled and nodded. Dawn turned back to the faeries. "What are the rules?"

"Simple," said their leader... could she be the queen? That would make sense, but she didn't know for sure. "Three riddles will be asked of each side. We will each ask you a riddle; you will each ask us a riddle. The side that gets the most right is the winner."

"What if it's a tie?" Dawn asked.

"Then we shall keep going until one of us falters," she said. She sounded highly amused.

"And you'll let us leave with Annie if we win?"

The redhead nodded. "That is the agreement."

Dawn didn't want to ask what would happen if they lost. At least the faeries seemed unwilling to kill them. And it didn't seem as though they had any choice.

"You may go first," said the woman.

"Okay, I know a riddle," Corrie said. She took a deep breath. "A woman is at her mother's funeral, and meets a wonderful man she didn't know before. She falls in love with him, but doesn't know his name and can't find him again after the funeral. A few days later she kills her sister. Why?"

"How strange," mused the snake-woman.

"You humans and your customs," said the redhead, sounding bored. "She wanted to meet the man again, of course."

"Uh... that's right," said Corrie. She looked unsettled. Dawn felt creeped out herself. That had been far too easy for the faerie woman to solve. Not only did it not bode well for the rest of their riddling contest, a motive for murder shouldn't be so easy to find.

"I shall ask the next riddle," said the fox-man. His glass of red liquid was gone. "The beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, the beginning of every end, and the end of every place. What am I?"

Dawn glanced at Corrie and Edie. Neither of them seemed to know the answer. "Can we discuss it?" she asked the faeries.

The fox-man smiled. "Take as long as you like."

"We have all the time in the world," said the woman in the black dress.

Dawn turned back to her friends. "Okay, riddles are metaphors, right? What's this a metaphor for?"

Corrie shook her head, but her expression was thoughtful. "Well, space and time are infinite, right? And so is eternity. So they don't have beginnings or ends. Maybe the answer is nothing."

"I don't think so. There's a better riddle for that."

Edie was mouthing the words, then suddenly brightened. "Oh, I know. This one would be really easy if it was written down."

"Really? Why?" Dawn tried to picture the words, but couldn't think of anything.

Edie grinned. "It's the letter E, of course."

"Oh," said Dawn, a little silly with relief. "You're right. All right, we'll tell them." She turned back to the faeries. "The answer is the letter E."

"Correct," said the fox-man, sounding not at all surprised. "It is your turn."

"What's that riddle from the Lord of the Rings?" Dawn asked her friends hurriedly.

"There's a lot of them..." said Edie doubtfully.

"That's true. I guess we just have to come up with one or two."

"Okay. I remembered one. I'll ask it." Edie turned back to the faeries and raised her voice. "What has roots that no one sees, is taller than trees, up it goes, and yet never grows?"

"Never grows?" said the redheaded woman, sounding surprised. The three faeries turned to each other and began murmuring together. Dawn felt hope rise in her chest. This one was giving the faeries some difficulty--so maybe they had a chance of winning. But her hopes were dashed in the next moment when the redheaded faerie turned back to them, smiling, and said, "A mountain."

"That's right," Edie said sadly.

The snake woman was next, leaning forward and resting her chin in her hands. "I move incessant to and fro, obedient to moon and sun, but though I serve both high and low, all wait for me, I wait on none. What am I?"

"I think it's the tide," Dawn said quietly to her friends. "It follows the moon. Does the rest of it fit?"

Edie nodded. "Ships have to wait for it, right? And it goes back and forth every day."

"Great." Dawn spoke again to the faeries. "The tide."

"Indeed," said the snake woman with an eerie smile. "What a pretty contest this is. We shall have more!"

"Okay, I have a good one, I think," Dawn said, with what she hoped was a reassuring glance to Edie and Corrie. "What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs at night?" True, it was probably the best-known riddle of all time, since it was the one that had made Oedipus a hero. But she hoped the faeries wouldn't know that--were they likely to read human literature? Anyway, since as far as she knew faeries were immortal, infancy and old age might not occur to them. Her plan seemed to be working, as they were conferencing quite hurriedly, and some of the courtiers standing behind them were joining in as well.

Finally the faeries turned back to face them, and Dawn bit her lip, hoping they would get this wrong. The snake woman gave a harsh laugh. "The answer is man!"

Dawn thought her hopes had not been inflated and deflated so often in such a short space of time. "Right. You're right."

"Our final riddle is this: Formed long ago, yet made today, and most employed when others sleep; what few would like to give away; and fewer still to keep."

Dawn wondered how long the contest could go on. Would they lose if they couldn't come up with another riddle? Well, first she should focus on figuring out what this riddle meant. "I think the toughest part is the end... what do you want to not give away, but not keep either?"

Corrie shook her head slowly. "Maybe love? No, you want to give that away, right?"

"Not if you're heartbroken, I guess. But the sleep part doesn't work with that."

"It could be nothing," Edie suggested. "I think there are a lot of riddles that have 'nothing' for an answer."

"I guess you're doing nothing when you sleep," Dawn agreed.

"But nothing isn't created, is it?" Corrie said doubtfully. "What about tomorrow? You wouldn't want to give away tomorrow, and you start it by sleeping."

"I think that works. Tomorrow is made today."

"But what would keeping tomorrow mean?" Edie asked.

Dawn thought for a moment. "Hanging onto it, I guess? You can't hang onto tomorrow, it's always in the future."

"That makes sense," said Corrie, smiling a little. "You tell them."

Dawn hoped they were right as she turned finally back to the faeries. "The answer is tomorrow."

The forest clearing rang with laughter. "You are wrong!" came the clear voice of the redheaded faerie through the laughter. There was a blinding flash of light.