My Castle, My Castellan
Chapter 23 - Gnomes, Ten Questions! (III)
"The dazzling spar, the cold iron block, the red cedar tree, the hot sweat accompanying the water, the sound of Ding Dong, the feathers of the birds, what is the life melting the ice of the earth?"
"Next question." McQueen smiled even more brilliantly, and the answer became clearer.
Percy was influenced by McQueen"s expression and said in a lower voice, "the flying spear is stabbed on the body, it can fall but it can"t be shaken. The sharp sword is placed on the neck, the head can be broken but it cannot bleed. Every glory In my heart, the war weapon of the wolf, the paddle of the Volga River, who is singing the immortal songs with the wind?"
"Next question."
"The flower blooms three times a year, the Pilipuri gra.s.s is dry in January, the child is going to change his teeth, the girl is going to marry, the snow in the Dan mountain will not melt. Please tell the hyacinth, every day in the underground is bright. Because, what do the boys have?"
"Next question."
"Sprinkle, sweep the house, fruit wine, scorpion meat, sly dance, songs along with drinking, what is the festival underground that makes people so happy?"
"Next question."
Percy was stunned, "there"s no more. I"ve read all the ten questions."
"All have been read?" There"s a sharp light in the triangular eyes of McQueen. He put his yellow hair backwards, and said domineeringly, "Will, practice the gnome"s wrench tribe, let us answer the questions."
"My city lord, do you already know the answer?" Will trembled and said with obvious suspicions. As the head of knight of the Toss City, he knew the city lord the best - he could be described as compa.s.sionate and wise, but surely enough, he wasn"t the one who could answer those questions.
For a question that cannot be solved by more than 20,000 people, how could the city lord solve it? Also, together with Percy and Bank, Will has been thinking about the questions for so many days and they haven"t got the slightest hint of it. How is it possible for McQueen to solve them so quickly? Will stayed suspicious.
"It doesn"t matter whether it"s me who solve them. What"s important is that we have to face these gnomes sooner or later. I"m sure we will overcome everything by getting in touch with them." McQueen said confidently and firmly.
In fact, McQueen indeed had his own ideas, but he still needed to verify with the gnomes. The ten questions have a common point, that is, after answering the question, they could go to their site to be a guest and trade with them. This also implies being a friend with them. And since it implies being a friend, one has to be very familiar with the gnomes. And when facing someone who"s going to be a friend, who would the gnomes ask? Of course, they cannot ask questions such as "what"s your name?", and neither could they ask something as stupid as "who"s the most beautiful woman in the Kingdom of Sofala?"
With all these ten questions, it"s obvious that the gnomes designed these questions about them, like the most flexible hands, brain with wisdom, steam, gas, coal, steel, machine, etc…they"re all about the gnomes. No matter how they made these questions look tricky, they were just trying to give themselves compliments. With this logic, it"d be easy to guess the answers.
As for the first question about the Big Bang and the second question about a round sky and square earth, McQueen could only say that the gnomes have lofty power and great spirit for exploration. The third question was stupid, and McQueen couldn"t figure it out, but it didn"t mean that he couldn"t answer it - there was a small allusion, one that McQueen had personally experienced.
After knowing this, and with his self-confirmation as the stay-at-home-guy who loved leaving comments online, McQueen was full of confidence. He thought, what a piece of cake. He wasn"t that confidence of his IQ before, but it looks like it isn"t that low either. He even started admiring himself - how could he be so clever?
"Gnomes, just wait to be fooled by me. I"ve been taught way too much."
"What the city lord said was right, this is something that we have to face eventually. There"s more than one chance, and we might as well get some hints." Bruce said with determination.
"Well, I will contact the wrench tribe." Will stood straight up and looked at McQueen with determination. Then, he turned and walked to the depth of the cave. This stone gate was merely a decoration, not a real door. The real wrench tribe was located in the innermost part of the cave.
"Could Will be really gay? His way of looking is simply too horrifying." McQueen had gooseb.u.mps all over his body after Will glanced at him. He started doubting, "although I"m handsome and elegant, my looks could shock the United Nations, I have to say firmly that I only welcome different kinds of women, and women only."
"Percy, Bank, we need to hurry up with the plan of the tunnel. I"m very optimistic to this plan. By the way, who made the proposal at the first place?" While waiting for the gnomes, McQueen thought of the tunnel. If the plan was successful, there would be a huge amount of wealth waiting for Toss City. The city could get insanely rich just by selling the machines that the gnomes made, and that"s a guarantee of the city"s success. Of course, they still had to answer the ten questions first. However, McQueen was pretty confident.
Percy and Bank looked awkwardly and said loudly, "we must hurry up with the tunnel plan. And we have to ensure to finish it quickly. As for the one who proposed the plan, it"s the boss of the commerce team, Mr. Blues."
"Blues, I"ll remember that." McQueen nodded, he had to talk to this Mr. Blues someday. These are all geniuses.
"My city owner, even if we fail this time, we have to return earlier. There"s not much time left after your awakening. Also, we don"t have enough food here, the tunnel plan will likely go in vain." Bruce reminded him.
McQueen smiled with admiration, "Bruce, you think very thoroughly. Indeed, we have to consider the consequences if we fail. Bank, please arrange the tasks to everybody. While you"re digging, please also pack your stuff and get ready to retreat from the Magic Cave. Also, please ask somebody to deliver us food. Percy has been starving for a few days, he won"t survive if this goes on."
"I"ve got it, my city lord." Bank bowed and walked away in big steps.
Percy was so grateful that he"s almost crying, "thank you for your concern, my city lord. I only have to resent myself of being stupid, and my city lord needs to worry about me. Sigh…back then, when Master Lech was there, we should have dealt with these ten questions. This wouldn"t have happened."
"Master Lech?" McQueen was surprised. Will already told him that they had to depend on Master Lech"s relics before being approved to live there.
Posey continued saying, "Master Lech risked his life and brought us news about the gnomes lacking daily necessities. Unfortunately, his heart was hurt by the Magic Monster, and he couldn"t make it in the end. Initially, we all thought that Master Lech came while representing the gnomes, we had no idea that he was worried about them lacking daily necessities. Now that we"re here, we even have to solve the questions first."
"Don"t worry too much. If there is a gnome coming out, it means that they still want to trade. As long as we spend enough effort, we"ll still have hope without having the right answers." Bruce comforted them.
"Also, we might be able to answer them." McQueen raised his eyebrow and said loudly, "Percy, once you have the faith to, you"ll be able to achieve anything. Moreover, we"ve made it this far, we"re not going to give up."