Freelance Saga: The Legendary Hero
Episode I: Doorway to Reality
Chapter I -- Part 3
Scott snorted softly then said, “I play too many games.” His dreams were often filled with game events and characters, but
this was ridiculous.
He walked over to the floating cube. It was
obviously a puzzle of sorts. A small placard on the pedestal read: The sun and the moon dance among the stars.
Petty people strive, but no one wins the war.
“Seriously? It’s a riddle?” Scott looked to
the cube and saw that there were six symbols, one on each side. The pedestal
had six slots, three were together in one section, two were together below and
to the left, and there was one slot by itself on the far right.
“What now?” Curious, he touched the cube.
The cube wiggled a little in place but did nothing else. He touched it again
and this time he pushed upward. The floating device turned over and a new
symbol was in front now. The new symbol had two distinct sections. There was a
white half and a black half. On the white half he saw a yellow circle. On the
black half there was a white crescent.
Scott fiddled with the cube for a short
time and took note of each of the symbols. There were two star symbols, the
half and half symbol, a sword, a stick figure man, and a hangman’s noose. He
read the placard again and considered the symbols.
He spoke aloud, as he often did when he was
alone and had a riddle to deal with. “Well, the sun and moon are probably that
half and half symbol. The stars are probably the stars mentioned.” He followed
that line of reasoning and decided that the stick figure would probably
represent the people. The sword and noose were a bit out of place at first, but
he decided that the sword probably represented war and strife. The noose was
definitely not something a winner would have to deal with.
The bloodied man thought that he had the
puzzle figured out. It was simple really, if this was the case. However, what
did he do now? Obviously the pedestal slots were part of the puzzle. He could
not remove the cube, he had tried.
Carefully he touched one of the slots and
the part of cube facing him began to glow. He touched the glowing cube face and
the symbol, the sun and moon, faded away. A blank space appeared in its place.
On the pedestal the center portion of the separated slots began to glow. The
symbol faded into sight within the confines of the slot that he had touched. A
green light began to radiate upward from it. A ding-ding chime sounded and he
decided that this must mean that he had gotten it right. “Well, good job on
making it obvious. What a weird dream.”
He repeated the process with the stars.
Scott placed one on each side of the sun and moon. Two light shows, and two
dinging sounds later, he was ready for the next phase.
Now there were three more slots and symbols
to consider. He knew that the symbols meant something specific. What he did not
know was the order that they would need to be set. Scott placed the stick
figure in the slot farthest to the left and it began to glow with a red light.
A loud horn sounded in response and the lighting in the room dimmed then turned
to a sickly red illumination. The dangerous background music that he had heard
before returned in earnest.
Will-o-wisps began to flitter into the
area. At first it was one and then it was two. More came; soon they came by the
dozen. Soon, he lost count of the number of wisps flowing into the room. The
words, “Warning, thirty seconds remaining.” appeared above the cube. The number
thirty popped up next to it and started to flash. The countdown began and Scott
was forced to start the puzzle over from the beginning.
He placed the stars and the sun and the
moon once more. Time ticked by steadily as he tried once again to pick the
right spot for the stick figure. He placed it in the solitary spot and it began
to glow green. The countdown stopped at the twenty-two second mark. It did not
disappear, however. The will-o-wisps stopped forming into a monster as well. In
truth they seemed to be frozen in place.
Scott had two choices left and two symbols
to choose from. He placed the sword farthest to the left and it flared red! The
slots emptied and the countdown timer began to move. It was twice as fast this
time. He moved with all possible speed to place the symbols into the right slots.
He knew the answer now, but it took several seconds for each piece to appear.
Yes, he could move to the next slot even while the first piece was moving into
its proper location, but there was no guarantee they would all be in place in
time. He fitted the sword and noose in their appropriate spots and waited.
Each piece seemed to take forever to
appear. The wisps began to flow to a single spot in the room and the rough
outline of a massive beast started to form. Whatever it was, it was a lot more
intimidating than the rat had been.
The last piece faded into existence at the
three second mark and the green light appeared signifying the correct choice.
The timer stopped at the half second mark. The wisps faded away. The light
levels shifted back to normal and the background music became subdued once
more.
Scott took a deep breath then slowly
released it. That had been far too close for his comfort. He could barely deal
with a rat, much less whatever that hellish thing had been.
A single ray of light speared upward from
the pedestal to intercept the cube. The floating puzzle device disappeared and
in its place appeared a red crystalline sphere. It glowed with a gentle unassuming
light.
Scott reached for the floating sphere. He
felt a sudden rush of energy race up his arm the moment his fingers brushed
against it. The sphere faded away but he did not notice. He was too busy with
the raw influx of pure, unadulterated, knowledge that had invaded his mind.
Images, sounds, names, places, and many other things raced between the cracks
of his subconscious and became new memories.
The steady drumbeat of his heart rose to a
feverish tempo as his blood raced through his veins. His breathing became
labored as he struggled to pull in enough air. The molecules of his body began
to shift in subtle ways that became dynamic results.
When the complete assault on his body,
mind, and soul ended he fell to the floor gasping. He had never felt so tired
in his life.
“What the hell was that about?” Scott
gasped loudly; the air could not enter his lungs fast enough. His body felt
strange. There was a subtle difference from what he had always known before.
Thoughts of the changes within his body evaporated when the sound of an opening
corridor echoed throughout the room.
He looked to the side and once more a way
forward had presented itself. Scott rose to his feet then took a moment to
collect his scattered wits. The dream had become a nightmare; an all too real
occurrence that he could not properly fathom.
There was no other choice for the man, though.
He could not wrap his head around the insanity that this dreamscape
represented. If it had been something normal he would have awakened by now. As
things stood currently, he wondered at what was really going on. Going back was
not an option. Now he needed to know what was ahead. He had to find out what
this crazy dream was supposed to be about.
The corridor beckoned and Scott heeded the
call. Whatever would lie beyond would either bring more questions or finally
grant him the answers he desired. There was no point in staying here either
way.
~*~
No comments:
Post a Comment