Trickey #15.5
You drop the satchel and the contained treasures beside a sturdy stalagmite, trusting that it will be safe until you return, and scramble up on to the lip of the pool, spreading your wings for balance. Taking a deep breath, you dive forward into the pool, slicing cleanly into the water and only leaving a quickly quelled ripple in your wake, the water terribly cold. It feels like an icy grave encasing your body but you push on, swiftly swimming to the rugged bottom of the pool and snatching up the mirror in your painfully inadequate human teeth, needing your paws and legs to swim, however slow your progress is.
You have it! You have the mirror!
Looking up with the mirror in a tight hold, you see with alarm that there is something dark spreading across the surface of the pool...like a layer of black ice. In the underside of the ‘ice’, if that is what the strange darkness is, a sphinx appears, her hair and expression stormy as she smiles cruelly to you, mouthing the words ‘you are trapped’ with exaggerated movement of her perfect, crimson lips.
No! This is impossible! You must escape! With the mirror gripped firmly between your teeth, so woefully inadequate for holding such a thing, you spread your wings to their full wingspan, imagining for a second that you are floating in air and not water. Desperately, you power through the dark water, paws flailing wildly as your lungs burn, a fire inside your chest. The ice spreads rapidly and then you are up against it, smashing through it with the sound of shattering ‘glass’ tinkling in your ears.
Dashing for the exit, you gasp and stumble to a halt, your jaw falling open. There is another sphinx standing in front of you – exactly the same. She smiles serenely, stunningly beautiful. Is that really how you look? You just know that she appears exactly like you, there is no doubt about it, but it stirs up a sense of deep-seated unease in your stomach and you flutter your wings anxiously. A shiver runs down your spine and you crouch, snarling at the mirror image, thinking of the mirror tucked safely within the satchel. She’s not going to take it from you!
“What do you want?” You snap, unnerved and trembling all over. “Why do you look like me? I just want to get out – I want to escape!”
“You shall never escape,” the other sphinx says slowly, bowing her head to you.
“Yes, I damn well will escape!” You explode, leaping for her in more of a warning than aggressiveness; every limb in your body aches and you do not honestly know if you have the strength to engage in another tussle today.
“No, you will not escape,” she replies sadly, unfazed by your display. “You are doomed.”
“I will escape as soon as I return to the genie,” you protest, though her words raise the beginnings of doubt in your gut. What if he does not honour your agreement? No...no... You are going home, you are sure of it.
She seems to sense your refusal to accept this and shakes her head sorrowfully, half-turning away. Rearing back on to your hind legs, you flap your wings hard, buffeting the sphinx with great gusts that push her back across the cave, fighting to maintain her balance. When you drop to all fours again, you glare threateningly, daring her to challenge you, daring her to challenge all that you have encountered and daring her to challenge the last hope you have. Knowing that you are a lost cause to her, she bows her head and vanishes much like the genie did before, although she leaves a whisper of breath behind her: take care...
Written by Amethyst Mare on 16 February 2015