Quite Contrary by Richard Roberts Page B

walked and I was bored again. The changing scenery did help. The land became bewilderingly uneven, mixing huge black rocks with jagged gullies. I don’t think I ever saw the same bush twice, so I derived some entertainment from peering at things like a bright red clump of tall grass with visibly serrated leaves. The sun got low on the horizon, and we ran across the gorge.
    “This has to be it,” Valdis said for all of us.
    In the middle of this already uneven terrain, a furrow dipped into the earth, with the walls on either side going up ten or twenty feet at the tallest. The furrow ran straight and smooth, like a tunnel dug not quite below the surface.
    We followed the slope down into it, and kept walking. I was thinking the sun would go down soon and making camp would be a break from the tedium when I spotted something different ahead. A crude stone gate had been built over the middle of the tunnel. Incredibly crude. It was just three huge rectangular stones like a doorway with nothing to block it.Eric held out a hand to block me as I tried to step up and peek around him. “Stay behind me, Mary.”
    “What does it mean?” I asked. I knew I sounded a little too eager not to be bored.
    “I don’t know,” Eric answered.
    He might not know, but his other hand slid his hammer out of his belt. Valdis unbuckled her own sword, although she held it loosely at her side.
    “It means we’re going to be challenged. You can’t just visit the Sibyl whenever you want,” Valdis murmured to us.
    “Foot,” I whispered, pointing past Eric at a boot sticking out from behind a bush.
    Maybe because I’d blown his cover, the owner pushed himself up and staggered out from behind the bush. Standing right in front of the gate, the scruffy little man couldn’t block it. He was almost as skinny as me, with ragged clothing, red hair, and a beard that went everywhere. What I could see of his neck, wrists, and ankles was hairy, too. There was no way this wasn’t deliberate. He wanted to look like a scarecrow.
    He brushed stray grass off his pants and greeted us. “Hello, travelers. Let’s not pretend we don’t know why we’re here. I’ve been asked to guard this gate, and I won’t let you pass until you can beat me in three tests. If you don’t beat me, I don’t suggest trying to pass. Even for a son of Thor, that wouldn’t be a good idea.”
    “What kind of tests?” asked Eric, sounding a lot more calm than I felt.
    This guy screamed ‘up to no good.’ So much so, that he didn’t care if we knew it.
    “The usual.” The ragged shrugged. “First the test of Strength. I take it you’ll be facing that one?”
    “A chance to test my strength against an Aesir? I’d be honored,” Eric announced.
    Geez, he was as eager as a puppy, shucking off his carrying bag and his bow, and laying down his hammer. He stepped up to the scrawny redhead and they clasped hands.
    “Ready?” asked the ragged man. Eric nodded, and before he’d finished the ragged man ballooned into a bear and fell on him.
    I’d never been this close to an angry bear. I thought Eric was big. I’d thought Magnus was huge. The bear was a
bear
, a giant mass of flesh and hair, bigger than both of them together. It roared, and I had trouble breathing seeing those fangs bared so close to Eric’s face. It didn’t use them. They held each other, hand in paw. I couldn’t imagine how strong that hulking thing must be, but even if his shoulders shook and his body strained to do it, Eric forced those paws up. He pushed the bear a step back, then another, and then with a lunge, threw it onto its back and kneeled on top of it.
    No matter how strong Eric was, he couldn’t really have pinned something that big. I guess he didn’t have to. It shrank so fast that Eric was left with hands empty, kneeling on the ground as the ragged man rolled out from under him.
    “Not bad,” the ragged man conceded, wiping bear drool from his mouth. He didn’t sound surprised.