It’s asleep now but I don’t know for how long. There is a riddle carved on the wall of this tiny nook that I am hiding in and I think that I need to solve this riddle before I am eaten.
Let me explain how I got here first.
The Far North is not only far but it’s also frozen and difficult. There are very few villages out this far. I know that the ice giants live among the mountains so I left Nestor behind in a warm barn at the last village that I would see before reaching the Far North.
It was a terribly long and cold trek to the mountains. There was nothing but the storm and snow and ice that covered everything. Nothing moved but the wind yet still I felt as if I was being watched; maybe even followed.
What they say about the rivers of the Far North is true. They are frozen and deathly still.
They are also ridiculously slippery.
After crossing a river at the base of the mountains and being glad that no one was there to count how many times I had fallen, I saw what looked at first like a tall pile of snow. Was it a snowman? It was too small to be an ice giant. Then I saw the horns.
It was the White Ghost.
It wore an ugly mask resembling an old haggard man or woman with horns that stuck out from under the hood of its white cloak. It had a large rock in a sling hanging from its hand.
I was surprised and scared because I was along but in that moment I thought of Lady Tagalong. I thought, “What would she do?” And so I stood my ground.
The White Ghost began swinging the rock while I stood there doing my best impersonation of a warrior wolf. Then it charged at me swinging the rock with big hard swings. My opponent was surprisingly slow and I was easily able to step back and dodge the swings. I was the warrior I thought, and then the White Ghost stopped moving forward and hurled the rock at me but the heavy thing landed at my feet. A miss!
But as the ice beneath my feet gave in and as I fell into the cavern below I understood that the White Ghost was just driving me back and that the rock was never meant for me.
I heard the low rumble of a growl as soon as I hit the floor. My body was sore and the wind was knocked out of me but I forced myself to get up anyway. And there it was.
The Wumboo is a huge type of troll, much bigger than any type of person. Normally this wouldn’t be bad since trolls are mostly harmless but the Wumboo is really big and really, really cute. I mean squishably adorable, and soft and fuzzy with big heart melting eyes.
Of course to a troll cute is bad so the big cute Wumboo makes up for its “deformity” by being extra, extra mean.
So here I am, trapped in a small in a small pocket in the Wumboo’s cavern, only just barely out of its reach. It started to dig but then got tired and fell asleep right outside the cave so I can’t even hope to sneak past it. I’m trapped.
However, carved into the ice on the wall of this tiny cave is a riddle, and there is a bag of tools in here including a saw, pliers, a wooden mallet and an old axe handle. I think the answer might be here. Can you unravel the riddle and help me get out of this mess?
It cannot move and yet it does every day. Sometimes it is a place where silver and gold are stashed. Sometimes you get paid when it is lost; sometimes they try to replace it with gold. Like a terrible king when it is bad sometimes it is crowned with gold. It makes the lowliest of belly crawlers feared by the biggest and strongest, but without it they would both be as helpless as babies.
What is it, and most importantly how do I stop the Wumboo?