A Beautiful Puzzle

Flowers parted gently around Cedric as he pushed onward through the Slumberlands. Sound traveled oddly here, his sword should make noise where it clanked against his key, but he could barely make out the slightest ‘tink’ sound each time. Which would be fine if everything was just muffled but rather noise just seemed to come from an offset location to its point of origin. Every step he took had an odd chance of being heard, sometimes sounding like another Minikin stalking him from behind, sometimes like a distant foot fall of another traveler, but most commonly nothing at all.

Even humming didn’t reach his ears correctly, but the vibrations were nice as he made his way onward. The landscape was quite difficult to traverse, with the environment itself fading and shifting to fog before settling into a completely different landmark. Altogether this made travel impossible to gauge, as within mere minutes the environment could change drastically. Slowly though, some of the plants formed began to settle more, solidifying into an encounter. Cedric paused, standing up on his hind legs and placing one paw on his sword just in case.

A faint breeze swept the scent of flowers and growing things through his fur even as he twitched his nose. Plants continued to solidify, towering milkweed casting deep shadows while beautiful butterfly bushes bloomed before his eyes. Hesitantly he progressed on his hind legs still, petals and leaves brushing against him as the plants became thicker. The ground beneath his feet was a moist, rich dirt that sunk slightly when he stepped. The fog from before was still present, though now in hesitant tendrils that wound around his feet and the thick stems, as opposed to the thick, all-consuming, blanket of before.

Cedric shoved through a particularly thick tangle of leaves and stems, suddenly stumbling out into the soft glow of the ‘sun’light that was found in the Slumberlands. He blinked a bit to clear the spots from his vision as his eyes adjusted quickly. The plants formed a thick semi-circle around the clearing he had now found himself in. A semi-circle because directly in front of him, the ground simply dropped away into a great crevasse. The flowers reached the edge, leaving no easy pathway to follow except to travel directly forward. Into the abyss. Cedric huffed a bit, flicking his tail in upset. Sure. That’s what he was going to do. Jump straight into the big hole. Maybe he would just take his sword to the thicket that was growing thicker before his eyes, even that had to be a better idea.

Movement from above the pit caught his eye though, preventing him from truly drawing his weapon. Hundreds of flashing colors as butterflied streamed from the forest of plants, swirling into a single-minded dance. The wind from their flapping wings, each individual merely enough to brush a whisker, but together the breeze blew into Cedric’s face, causing him to squint through the assault. When he opened his eyes again, they had formed into words, a riddle. Cedric narrowed his eyes to read it aloud.

“’I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with wind. What am I?’” Cedric glared at the unconcerned insects. “What’s your problem anyway? Can’t a guy just have a normal stroll?”

They didn’t respond.

“Fine.” Cedric sat down, scratching at an ear. “I speak and hear but have no body. So, like, it’s a concept? A story? A song? Does that work?” He glanced up at the butterflies, but they didn’t change at all. Probably not those then. Unless he had to address them? Ugh. Why couldn’t have had to fight a shadow or something?

He got up and started pacing.

“Wind. Instruments? When I blow into a flute it can ‘speak’ music? But it can’t hear, unless that bit is a pun.” He stopped to put his paws on his hips while staring at the butterflies. “Do you like puns?”

There was a sound like a great rushing wind as all the butterflies changed positions to make a new word.

‘No.’

Cedric nodded decisively.

“Yeah, that’s probably for the best.” He hummed again, tapping a claw against his jaw as the butterflies flew back into their previous position. “Speak. Speak. What talks?” His eyes slid down towards the great cavern that whistled slightly from the wind. “Oh. Right.” He looks back up. “Real original guys! Though um, thanks for not making it harder.”

The butterflies fluttered unchanged.

“Oh right. Are you an echo?”

The swarm came to life again, swirling down into a thick, multicolored bridge, starting right in front of Cedric, and stretching out into the fog.

“Aha! Awesome!” Cedric pumped the air once before dashing out onto the bridge and onward to the next encounter.