Part 5. Cyclops and waves.
It didn't take long to get there. They went out to the foot of some mountain, near the mine. Before Forlie could ask where the waves were, they appeared. They walked in dense formation, keeping the pickaxes ready. Bearded faces were flaming with militancy.
- Get the hell out of here, you tax collectors! - One of them shouted.
- We're not from the tax office," Forlie said, "stepping back and raising our hands.
The waves stopped. They whispered for a while, and then they seemed to be in charge.
- And what business are you on? What else do we need from this evil shelf?
- To whom?" Forlie didn't understand.
- Her Highness the Queen! To eat her leg," the dwarf explained.
- Has the evil queen stepmother tortured you? - Sophia asked understandably.
- Who? Oh, this one! We saw those stepmothers, on a tree, but in a loop! Ha! - as if the dwarf shone, and then continued much darker - Queen Snow White! The ruler of Wachovia," explained the foreman. - Every month she increases taxes. We did not produce so much in the best years, not what we have now. Beautiful girl still put it on us, darling!
The waves spat like a team.
- Handsome? - said Forlie.
- Yes, he lies in a crystal coffin, sleeps. Krigyonika, her mother is under the mountain. Good for him. He only needs to be guarded. Dust, eat them, blow them away. And we still work four shifts a day!
- And where is this "handsome man"? - Smirking, Sofia asked.
- There's a path up the mountain, don't miss it," the dwarf pointed out somewhere to the side. - You take him away. He's not needed here. And we lived well without the pretty ones.
The waves, bickering over, went back to the mine. Forlie thoughtfully said:
- I wonder if anybody has a normal fate here?
- Yeah, Snow White! Very vital, by the way!
Climbing the mountain was hard. The path was loopy and dodgy. The nasty wind was blowing in the face mixed up with rain or snow. A couple of times huge boulders rolled down from somewhere on top of them, from which they dodged only a miracle. Someone's laughter flew down with the stones.
Sophia and Forlie found the pest a little higher. They found a very hairy Cyclops in shabby skin. When he saw them, he shyly hid another cobblestone behind his back.
- You can't walk! To guess the riddle - then pass! - he said.
- It's the first time I've heard a cyclops make a mystery," Forlie said. -You're not a troll, not some mystical guard, not even an old man in a raincoat! This is absurd! Where is the Sphinx?
Sophia nodded, agreeing.
- Scarecrow, who put you here? - She asked a mystery lover.
- Her Majesty the Queen of Wachovia, Snow White," the big man said without a single mistake, surprised himself at her literacy. - These priests of yours ask to eat, ask for money, ask to live. And I don't have to do anything about it. I have to solve a riddle!
- Well, make your riddle," Forlie said.
Cyclops combed his hair, trying to remember.
- Well, this one... on three in the morning, four in the afternoon... and two in the evening!
- Didn't you get it mixed up? - Remembering the original riddle of growing up, Forlie asked.
- No!" the annoyed Cyclops barked. - I'm not a fool! You're a fool! Answer me or I'll hit my head with a stone! You will see who is a fool here then!
Sofia, who had been yawning desperately before, lost her patience. She came up and, like a balloon, knocked the cobblestone out of the paws of the Cyclops, throwing it down. From there, a desperate cry broke out and immediately came to an end.
- If you don't miss it, you'll follow," she told a mystery lover.
Cyclops did not understand the hint and tried to move his fist at her. Solifeleset grabbed him by the wrist and hung him over the abyss like a doll, and shaken him well.
- Here's my riddle for you: who keeps you one step away from stupid death and just wants to move on? - shaking him like a fuzzy, she asked.
Rumbling something incoherently wheezed. Succubus pulled him out and carefully planted him. Making sure the Cyclops wouldn't cause any more problems, he and Forlie went on.
- I didn't think you were that strong," the magician said thoughtfully.
- It's only here that it's my fairy tale," Sofia said, smiling at all her teeth.
Finally, they climbed to the top. Contrary to expectations, there was no wind and the sun was warm. There was a crystal coffin on a huge stone table. There was a sign in front of it, like the ones that were placed in museums in front of works of art.