Rumi's Riddle

by Eliot Schrefer

  The platform ground to a stop. The eels swam a tight circle around us, a frenzy of spines and teeth. We were barely over the water level.

  “Very well,” Kalk said. “I will allow you your attempt.”

  His eye on the thrashing eels, Sky wasted no time. “Is the answer . . . forgiveness?”

  Kalk spoke. “The only cure for regret, easily sought, but hard to get—that is indeed forgiveness. You are correct.”

  The stone rose again, Sky and I scrambling to keep our balance. One last platform rose before us.

  “You have passed the second challenge,” Kalk said. “Your final test—and the lens—await beyond.”

  The spiny eels dissipated as we hopped onto the last platform and then beyond, to the far side of the watery cavern.

  “Thank you, Sky,” I said. “If you hadn’t known that answer, we’d have been eel food. Forgiveness. Of course.”

  “I was stuck on the first two, but that answer came to me right away,” he said ruefully. “I guess I have forgiveness on the mind, after my mistake of helping Auriel.”

  I almost said that I had forgiveness on my mind too, but I didn’t want Sky to ask me any questions about it. It wriggled deep into my thoughts, the blank space in my mind around forgiveness. Sky had done something horrible by helping Auriel to nearly destroy us, but he was frank about his guilt, instead of banishing it far away. It made me realize how much I was avoiding my own past. Sky had something to teach me. I decided I would ask him more about forgiveness, and how to find it, on the trip home from the lens—if we survived, of course.

  I see you’re all confused about what I really mean. We’ll get to that part of my tale soon, don’t worry.

  The far side of the watery chasm was almost completely dark, only traces of the mottled light surviving the trip down. It wasn’t too hard for a nightwalker like me, but Sky was fully blind. He followed behind me, and I kept chirping so he’d know where to place his claws. I told him not to follow too near, of course, since I didn’t want to accidentally poison him. Technically, my toxins need contact with blood, but I didn’t want to take any risks. Sky definitely agreed.

  It was a clammy, frigid passageway, and though the moist air was great on my porous skin, I was worried about my cold blood, my metabolism slowing down with no way to rev itself back up again. My limbs were getting uncoordinated, and my thoughts were frazzling further and further. Good thing the riddle challenge was over.

  “Halt,” came a voice in the darkness.

  We were in an open space, my chirps echoing against distant rock walls. The voice sounded like it was coming from all around, from the walls itself.

  “You seek the lens, and you have made it farther into the Cave of Riddles than any since the extinction of those who created it. Do you understand the power of the item you seek?”

  I was about to give a list of precisely what we understood and what we didn’t, but Sky spoke first. “No, we do not understand.”

  The voice warmed. “That is wise to confess. No one, not even the creatures who made the lens, knows the extent of its power. The sun and moon take turns in their dominion over the rainforest, and the lens has the power to combine their energies, doubling the vital force of Caldera and directing it to a single point. It can create life, and it can take it away.”

  “That is why we are here,” I said. “After the eclipse that made us shadowwalkers, the prison that once held the Ant Queen set her loose again, and she is running amok, trying to return the rainforest to an older era, when it was just insects and plants. We want the lens so that we—”

  “You need say no more,” the voice said. “I am charged with protecting the lens from unworthy hands, but I do not wish to know what you plan to do with it. If either of you should prove worthy, what he chooses to do with the lens is his affair. Though I would caution you—once the Ant Queen has directed her minions to a task, simply destroying her will not make them stop. If you should win the lens, I will finally sleep. I do not want my rest to be hampered by thoughts of the destruction you might wreak.”

  “What do we have to do to prove ourselves to you?” Sky asked.

  “To pass the cave’s first challenge, you had to demonstrate that you knew the cycles of sun and moon that are the mechanism of the eclipse. To pass the second challenge, you had to show that you were aware of the virtues of a true champion. But an intellectual awareness of virtue is not enough. Does one of you have the inner strength to make the right choices with your newfound power? To answer that, we must know your innermost hearts. You must let us inside, let us see your greatest fear. Do not worry that you have a secret or an insecurity—everyone has those. What we need to see is the possibility of courage, despite vulnerability. Does what you fear most dominate you, or is your fear instead a weary companion, something you can spend your whole life living beside?”

  “How will you test that?” Sky asked.

  “Let us touch you. Let us use that link to enter your mind, to know your innermost selves.”

  I peered into the chamber’s dark shadows. “Hmm. Is there any other option?”

  “We will undertake your test,” Sky said at the same time.

  “What are you?” I asked. I was more nervous than I’d have expected to be. My skin pricked. I could feel the tang of my poison exuding on my back.

  “We are the future and past; we are timeless but not bodiless. We are not animals, but neither are we gods. You will never see us in the light, but you will feel us. We will reach out now.”

  “Wait!” I shrieked. “I have poison exuding.”

  The voice was unmoved. “We are not afraid of your poison, little frog,” it said. “Now, relax. Let us in.”

  Even when we faced certain death fighting Auriel and the Ant Queen, I never felt as afraid as I did then. Letting some strange creature into my mind—it sounded like the worst kind of torture. It felt like doom. If I didn’t know that you all were counting on me, I’d have turned and fled.

  I held still, wanting to press against Sky for comfort but too scared to hurt him with my poison. I was all alone, shivering as the first velvety touch came. It was like a soft sort of worm, or maybe a wet dead leaf curling over my head. Not unpleasant, except when I realized that the . . . thing touching me was also probing deep into my mind. That was when I began to shudder.

  Out of my control, my thoughts went back in time. Not to our time together, not to my time as a frog, but all the way back to my tadpole days. Back to my home swamp.

  No, I thought. Don’t make me go back there. Anything but that.

  RUMI TAKES A deep breath to gird himself, and is about to barrel through the story of his origins, when the ground starts to shake. He dives under Mez’s belly while Sky caws and flaps into the air. The space under Mez’s belly gets even more crowded when Gogi joins Rumi.

  “Get out!” Mez says. “I’m not going to be able to fight whatever that was if I’ve got a monkey under me.”

  “What is it?” Gogi cries as the ground continues to shake. Rumi’s collected himself enough to hear the rumbling now, a low sound from deep in the rainforest. It’s like the sound from the strengthening volcano, but at a different pitch than before.

  Sky flies out of the den. Rumi can hear his friend’s wingbeats as he takes a perch somewhere above the entrance. “You have to come see this,” Sky calls.

  “See what?” Chumba says as she slinks out of the entrance, shaking sleep from her ears. “Oh.”

  “I want to see, I want to see!” Gogi says, barreling out from under Mez.

  Rumi holds on to Mez’s underside as she creeps out. When his eyes take in the scene, he lets out a low whistling croak.

  The Veil dropped while Rumi was telling his tale. Half the sky is starry night, but the other half—in the direction of Caldera’s center, where the volcano is located—has filled with black smoke. Great plumes of it rise and spread, filling the sky with an inky haze. The horizon is lined in orange reds, and Rumi realizes that’s from fire. T
he distant rainforest is aflame. He’s never imagined such a thing could happen.

  Another rumble shakes the earth. The shadowwalkers instinctively fall into combat crouches, but gradually release. This is not an enemy that can be fought.

  Another rumble. “It’s so loud,” Chumba says, wincing, her ears flattened.

  Rumi starts counting the time between rumbles, as a place to put his worried thoughts. Forty, forty-one.

  Rumble.

  Wispy and steady, haze invades their clearing. Their sight distance, already short in the jungle, becomes even shorter. “Are we really going to head farther into that black fog?” Gogi asks.

  “Hush,” Rumi says. “I’m counting. Fifteen, sixteen . . .”

  He gets to ninety, and no rumbles. “Maybe the volcano has calmed down,” Mez says, tension reducing her voice to a growl.

  “It seems to go in phases,” Sky says. “Lots of activity, and then it lulls.”

  “Like, do you think it might quiet down for a few years? That would be nice,” Gogi says.

  “That seems highly unlikely,” Rumi says. “By my calculations, it’s still on track to go off seven Veil drops from now.”

  “I believe you, little buddy.” Gogi sighs.

  “I guess we keep moving toward the volcano,” Mez says. “What other option do we have?”

  There’s a creaking sound from the den behind them. Mez whirls, claws out.

  “What did I miss?” Lima says, yawning as she walks forward on her feet and wingtips.

  “Just the impending doom of Caldera,” Sky says.

  “Okay,” Lima says groggily, smacking her lips and looking around, finally comprehending the black clouds on the horizon. “Wait, what? Oh my!”

  They assemble at the cave’s exit. Mez, Chumba, and Rumi are alert and watchful, Lima and Gogi yawn and scratch at their arm- and wingpits. Rumi listens carefully to their surroundings, trying to detect any enemies. But the volcano’s rumbling has stopped. It’s only the usual jungle sounds: throbbing insects and chirping birds and the distant roar of howler monkeys. The wisps of smoke that reached them have started to dissipate. But Rumi knows they’ll be back—and worse.

  The volcanic rumbling seems to have energized Auriel. He’s a yellow arrow zipping around the cave exit, tasting the air before zipping back. “Would you look at that?” Gogi says, tightening his woven sack as he approaches Rumi. “Our little Auriel has grown into such an active young snake.”

  “He’s practically glowing,” Rumi says as he admires the line of yellow jagging through the dusky clearing.

  “Correction: he literally is glowing,” Sky says between preenings. “He’s lighting up the night out there.”

  “Well, I’ll be,” Rumi says. “You’re right. That’s more light than he was producing before, right?”

  “Yes,” Sky says, “definitely more.”

  “What do you think that’s about?”

  “He appears to be growing in power and size, without needing to eat,” Sky says. “And to be investing himself with some sort of magical ability again. That’s as much as we can tell from observation so far. I might hypothesize that he’s deriving energy from the volcanic energy, but there’s not enough evidence to draw any conclusions yet.”

  “Well put,” Rumi says. “Perhaps there’s an accretion of the energies of sun and moon that were released when his resurrected form was destroyed, in addition to any energies being released by the volcano. Whatever the cause, I’d postulate that this process will only continue.”

  “Come on, guys,” Gogi says, scratching his armpit. “I didn’t follow any of that. Talk normal, please.”

  “How big do you think Auriel will get?” Mez asks, pushing her neck toward the ground to stretch her forelegs before the night’s travel.

  “That,” Sky says, “is a very good question.”

  “He’ll do for watching, that much is sure,” Chumba says.

  “Sky is off the watch list, and Auriel is back on,” Lima says. “Got it.”

  As if he’s heard them, Auriel stills and lifts his head.

  “Um, just kidding?” Lima squeaks while he stares at her.

  Auriel glares for a long moment more, then starts off into the jungle, toward the plumes of black smoke.

  “I guess we’re moving,” Gogi grumbles. “Let’s go, everyone!”

  As they head out, though, Rumi hears an odd crunching sort of voice: a turtle. No, make that three turtles. They’ve camped out in front of the abandoned panther cave, heads extending far from their shells as they gawk at the companions. “Are you . . . ?” one of them begins to ask.

  “The heroes of legend who defeated the Ant Queen? Why, yes, we are,” Gogi says, winking at the assembled reptiles.

  “No,” says the second turtle, “we meant . . .”

  “The saviors of Caldera? Are you looking for the saviors of Caldera?” Lima offers.

  “No,” says the third. “Actually, we were wondering about . . .”

  “The stalwarts who proved their mettle to the guardians of the Cave of Riddles?” Sky asks, feathers puffing.

  “Or perhaps you’re looking for Lima the Healing Bat, ferocious-er than a piranha, scarier than a cat?”

  “No!” says the first. “We’re not looking for any of those!”

  “Oh, may you stay still and the sun warm you, elders,” Rumi says, slipping into cold-blooded honorifics. “Who are you looking for, hardshells?”

  “Thank you, polite frog. Is that the resurrected Auriel, Elemental of Light?”

  “Wait, you mean to tell me you’re looking for that guy?” Lima asks, thumbing her wing in Auriel’s direction.

  “Yes,” says the second turtle. “Passed from bird to mammal to reptile, word has spread of the glowing snake born out of the Ant Queen’s doom. We have traveled many miles to learn his wisdom. He must stop the black smoke.”

  Lima reluctantly nods. “I have to admit, Auriel does sound pretty special when you use those kinds of words.”

  “As you can see, he doesn’t have any wisdom to offer,” Mez says. “He’s totally mute. And pretty puny. So far.”

  “Still, he appeared at the same time as the volcano began to erupt,” the first turtle presses. “That can’t be a coincidence—maybe he has some clue to how we can stop it?”

  “That seems logical,” Rumi says, nodding. “Auriel does seem to have something in mind for stopping the volcano. We just have to survive long enough to get him there. Tell me, have you seen the volcano eruption up close?”

  “Yes,” says the third turtle. “It destroyed our homeland. Every other creature that could escape in time did. We’re the last of the survivors. Because we’re turtles. Shells and all.”

  Gogi raps on the hard surface of the nearest turtle’s shell. “That has always seemed like a really useful thing to have.”

  “Would you please stop that?” the turtle asks.

  Gogi withdraws his hand. “Oh, I’m so sorry!”

  “Could we travel with you, and learn what we can from the Elemental of Light?” the turtle continues.

  “There’s really not much to learn, I promise,” Gogi says. “And we’re heading back toward the volcano.”

  “Near, far, it doesn’t matter. Nowhere will be safe once the volcano goes off,” says the third turtle, wagging its head.

  “Let us see Auriel up close, at least,” the first turtle says.

  “We don’t have time for this,” Mez says, eyes on the horizon.

  But Lima has already carried Auriel over to the turtles. “Isn’t he so pretty?” she asks. “Watch, the yellows change as you look at them, that one’s like a parakeet beak, that yellow’s more like sunshine, but you guys wouldn’t know sunshine because you’re a nightwalker species of turtle, but it’s a really pretty color, I promise. Anyway, I actually licked Auriel before, he doesn’t mind, but he doesn’t taste sugary like you might think, he just tastes like snake. It’s really a shame.”

  The turtles ooh and aah at Auriel, the
ir green faces broadening with joy as Lima places him around their necks, one by one.

  “He’s the key to solving this, I can feel it in my blood,” the second turtle says.

  “Okay, Lima, definitely time to go now,” Mez says.

  The turtles look like they’ll never finish admiring Auriel, and Rumi wonders how to break the shadowwalkers away from the group of adoring reptiles. But it’s Auriel who leads the charge, promptly uncurling from the turtles and streaking into the nighttime jungle. The companions follow after him.

  “This is a most unusual development,” Rumi says to Sky as they fly over their friends, who are making their way from treetop to treetop, the two panthers and a monkey leaping between branches.

  “Yes. Auriel as inspirational figure. Not what I would have expected, either,” Sky says. “I’m sorry your story got cut off, by the way. We’ll get back to it as soon as we take our next rest, I’m sure.”

  “Yeah, wait, hold up everyone, Rumi didn’t get to finish his story,” Lima chirps out.

  “No, no, we’re all ready to move now. I’ll continue next break,” Rumi says hastily.

  As the friends progress through the rainforest, Sky and Rumi fly above, scouting out the animals streaming against them, fleeing the black smoke. During the nighttime it’s possible to imagine all is well in the rainforest, but when Sky and Rumi scout during the day they can see that the flood of refugees is without end, animals of every sort joining a sorry line of misery. A porcupine has had half its quills singed off. A heron lands on one leg, the other curled away, scarred by fire.

  “Should we go talk to it and see if we can get some more information?” Rumi shouts into Sky’s ear.

  “We might have saved the day against the Ant Queen, but we can’t count on rumors winning over the animals we meet. We’re still a daywalker-nightwalker pair, and you know how most animals feel about those who cross the Veil. I don’t think we should risk it unless the whole group is together. The others are too far off in the canopy.”

  “Yes, I get it,” Rumi says. “I just wish animals would be more evolved, you know?”