The Hall of Hooves
The Hall of Hooves turns out to be an accurate, if not terribly imaginative, name. It's a hall full of hooves. A set of them hangs on each of the many doors along the narrow corridor. You only spare a second for a quick glance; you don't have much time. The ones nearby are fairly obvious - four horse's hooves on the first door, some sort of deer's on the second, and so on. Farther down the hall, they get stranger. One of the doors has only two hooves on it, easily three times the size of the rest - a minotaur, perhaps? Across from it are four pearly white hooves that can only belong to a unicorn, and a door even farther away seems to have eight.
You don't stop to count. Following Lance's instructions, you turn to the first door on your right - the horse - and get ready to repeat your knob-biting trick.
It turns out not to be necessary. A stick is wedged into the door, lying on the floor and keeping it just a few inches away from closing. Better yet, you can hear human voices on the other side. You can just pull the door open and follow your ears.
Should you, though? Maybe you don't need the black-clad adventurers after all. You hadn't even considered trying to cheat the mansion. Now that you know it's possible, you could probably come up with some ideas of your own. You've even got a handy stick to start with. You're sick of being a lizard, too, and some of the doors in the hall look intriguing. If the two-hoofed one is a minotaur, you could get your hands back. The unicorn looks good, too - it couldn't hurt to have some magic on your side.
It's a hard choice: stay a lizard in the hopes of acquiring guides, or set off on your own as something better?
Written by Chrysalis on 15 January 2009