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With her lips pressed into a tight line, OuO dug down deep into her memory to find a fun riddle her dad would have given her. There were so many she didn't want to repeat, some she couldn't remember completely and so many that she didn't even understand. There were many simple ones, and those were the ones she was trying to grasp even though they were probably very easy. (It really didn't occur to her that maybe she should be trying to win...)

"What has a face and two hands but no arms or legs?" She asked.

"A clock." He yawned. Too easy maybe. Now it was his turn again.

Attempt #1 ( Part 2 )

"Hello" the tree says, one that was the same as the others. Considering the recent request and droves of muttering foliage, it wasn't surprising when another one spoke. This voice however was velvet, smooth and intrigued and the smile could be felt, the one high up in the tree above KingREX. "If your story is entertaining, then sure." he replied back, weighing the potential gravity of its words and watching with a careful eye for anything that was misleading. It was one creature that he could not trust, not even as far as he could throw it.

He wasn't even sure if that was possible with the way it flicked in and out of the seen world. "Cheshire cats, huh?" he muttered, wondering if they were fluffy or if the food they eat also turns invisible. It was a very wordy creature, and continued to prove the point. "A riddle, lay it on me." he enthused, getting his braincells working and perking his ears up as far as bunny ears could perk.



BACON- BACONBACON BACON - NO wait........ it took a moment, but that was not the answer he was looking for. Riddles was not KingREX's forte, as he stood there dumbstruck and trying to pull sensible idea out of his head. "Life?" He answered meekly.

"The answer is a tongue of course, for a tongue you always chew on, accidentally maybe, but never can swallow. Assuming you are still very much alive, that is."

It was not the right choice. The true answer that had him starting blankly at the wordy feline. Even with the wrong answer, the cheshire cat was still smiling and thrilled at the inner workings of his mind as he crooned "All right, now it is your turn. Ask me a riddle, and give me a second to think. If I guess right however, I win. If I don't guess right, then you win, and I will give you my treasure. Come now, ask me anything. A riddle is as good as a story."

"Sigh, very well then you mangy cat."

Briar_Rose wasn't sure where she was anymore, she had been walking for so long. The Lake only had so many pathways, all similar in appearance, so this one was just as good as any. She turned once more around the winding road... And ended up in the exact same spot. She had to have walked down a shortcut somehow, so she walked back. And went forward. Then went through the trees. And every single time

she ended up in the exact





In fact, it seemed as if she hasn't moved at all.

"What is going on?" She almost screamed at the bent tree in frustration.

"Hello," says the tree, "Have you come for a story?" The tree smiles, or rather, the space above the tree, just at the very nook, above one of the signs, to the left over the overhanging branch. "Are you here for a story or a riddle?"

"A story or a riddle? But I thought you were supposed to show me how to 'find my way'?" She asked the teeth confused. At last, the teeth grew eyes, and a face, until a very smug half-invisible cat materialized on the branch.

"You may call me a Cheshire cat," it begins, fading in and out of sight at random will, "but just one of many. We reside here you see. This is a nice place, and we so very much do enjoy a good riddle. Let us play a small game, if you will so indulge me. I'll give you something nice of course in return. All right, here goes the riddle: What turns around and around and around but quite rather slowly?"

"Uhh..." Rose would have said herself, but she did not think that was what the cat wanted to hear. She decided that she might as well guess something anyway. "A Turtlecat on a racetrack?" The cat shook its head in a 'no'.

"The answer is time, it is eternally slow, though to those transient perhaps too fast." It purred at her effort anyway.

[ Enter ]

Making his way out of the Eternal Forest, he found himself at a tree. Or, it kinda LOOKED like a tree. Trees... didn't usually bend like that, did they?
The voice startled him, but really, it shouldn't have. Talking trees were apparently normal in this world.
Or... he had THOUGHT the tree talked. Upon closer inspection, he noticed it had not been the tree, but another voice. A striped cat, barely visible.

He had came for neither, but... a riddle was shorter, right? He really didn't want to come here for some longass story that probably made no sense. And while he hated to admit it, the prize it mentioned had piqued his curiousity, if just a little.

SpringTooth was so caught up in old memories -- the lingering effect of the Lake -- that the first words from the tree not only failed to strike him as strange but, in the grand scheme of things, seemed almost normal in comparison.

He stared up at the bent shape above him, trying to come into focus on exactly what had been said, and as he thought the shape of a cat came slowly into focus.

"You may call me a Cheshire cat,"

And it wasn't even that surprising, just now, that a cat was speaking to him.

"but just one of many. We reside here you see. This is a nice place, and we so very much do enjoy a good riddle. Let us play a small game, if you will so indulge me. I'll give you something nice of course in return. All right, here goes the riddle.."

And by now, at least, he had come into focus, drawing in a breath, trying to puff out his chest to where it had been before the strange waters reminded him of what an insignificant little boy-in-training he really was. SpringTooth tipped his chin up and squinted at the cat, ready.

"What has three legs but only uses one?"

...or, perhaps, not that ready. Too much time spent browsing meant that Harrow's place immediately went to someplace Entirely Inappropriate, his mouth opening to let it spill out and then closing, slowly. The cat had claws. It might not appreciate his 'humor'.

"...um."

What even had three legs? He shook his head, floundering.

"A stool?"

"What kind of plant grows but never dies?"
It seemed, as a punishment for such a simple riddle, he'd have to answer another one himself.

"I don't KNOW," he huffed, exasperated. "There's no such thing."
"The answer is poison, thick and prevalent in the heart, it will poison a soul for eternity and then move to the next."

"That's not even a proper ANSWER," he hissed.
So done with this stupid cat.

As someone approached she peered over her shoulder and smiled. When the boil posed a question of both her gaze flickered curious up to the tree. "Both would be fun-n.." Gabriel Santiago paused and blinked when referred to as sad. Blushing softly her hands went up in a defensive gesture and she shook her head, ears flopping a little with the motion. "I-i'm not sad..or very cute, but you see-e...I was just dizzy and so I -" Oh stop talking, clamping her mouth shut at her inner voice she looked down before getting startled into the boil as the Cheshire cat came into view and spoke out to them.

"Yes please...party. " She whispered to hellrisen before eyeing the cat as it spoke of riddles. On a swallow she stepped away from hellrisen and nodded, hands held tightly to her chest in a cup, "o-ok...a riddle." Listening she thought over the cat's riddle; "What can I hide but always find?".

That's a tough one but after a moment she tried, " a shadow?" The cat purred and delighted by the noise she turned to grin happily at hellrisen. Turning back to the cat she rubbed her chin in thought, thinking of a riddle that might get his treasure.

"What is flat but sharp at the edges?"
"Paper."
"The answer is a knife, for a blade is best flat, and of course sharp at the edges. Quite a simple question this one, it's almost not a riddle at all."

... Paper worked too ok.