The bull sent Chert flying with a sideways kick, but the barbarian managed to hang onto Brool. The bit came free, and Chert was ready and waiting for the aurochs when it charged again. This time he stood squarely in the huge animal's path as it bellowed and snorted in its charge. The great axe was above the hillman's head as the bull approached. In a blur of motion. Brool flashed down and split the heaviest portion of the auroch's skull, the poll, and passed clean through in the process. The animal's momentum continued, dead on its feet as it was. Gord screamed a warning as the charging beast struck Chert, flung him backwards, and parted man from axe once again. Then the aurochs crashed to the blood-splattered grass, kicked convulsively and finally lay still.
"Are you all right?" Gord asked, rushing over to where his friend lay like a heap of bloody rags. Chert's eyes were closed, and he seemed lifeless.
"Oh, Chert!" Gord moaned, dropping beside his bulky friend. "If only i'd refused that dastardly wizard's proposal in the first place, you'd still be alive!" Gord was beside himself with grief and guilt. He allowed his head to fall on his friend's chest and the sobs came freely.
"Hey! Don't drown me!" Chert's eyelids snapped open suddenly, and the barbarian flashed a mischievous grin. "Fooled you! But I’m happy to hear you'd miss me if I were ever to depart from this very strange plane." Obviously the barbarian was battered and bruised, and the gouge on his leg trickled gore. But his wounds were definitely not fatal.
"Buffoon! You scared me out of a year," Gord said in disgust as he stood quickly, the back of his hand attempting to wipe away any telltale signs of premature mourning. Then he added in as disgusted a tone as he could muster, a hard task since he was feeling nothing but relief, "Well, I see you didn't get off without some pain, at least. And I say it serves you right. Anyone who'd pull a nasty prank like the one you just pulled on me deserves to suffer," Gord said with mock severity.
"The cobra wasn't too much for you, I see." Chert remarked, ignoring Gord's lecture.
"Piece of pie — snake pie," Gord said with a smug grin. "I'll bind your leg. and then you can help me find my dagger. ..." The thiefs voice trailed off then because a resounding screech from the roc reminded him that the wizard was still in jeopardy.
"Balls. Gord, that bird's going to finish Eneever Zig in a moment unless we do something — fast!" Now it was Chert's turn to panic.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Gord called over his shoulder as he trotted toward the struggling wizard. "Don't stand there gawking, come on!" The young thief made it there before the hobbling Chert could come anywhere near.
Gord's shortsword was a puny pin against a creature with a wingspread of more than sixty feet and strength sufficient to lift an elephant. Nonetheless, the bold adventurer rushed ahead and hacked at the roc's tail. The blade severed monstrous feathers and must have cut the bird's skin as well. It squawked mightily again, pivoted on its encaging left foot, and glared at Gord.
"Oh, shit!" The exclamation rose unbidden to his throat as Gord saw that the roc was now intent on snapping him in twain with its huge beak.
Just at that moment Chert, limping along as quickly as he could, finally joined the group, and the roc was distracted for a crucial instant. Eneever Zig had been left alone long enough to recover his breath, gather his wits and cast a spell. With a courage bom of desperation, the wizard completed his dweomercraefting and grabbed fast to the nearest huge talon of the monstrous bird. One instant the glaring eye of the roc glittered menacingly at Gord as the bird's neck approached. The next, feathers were a uniform gray, eye stony, and talons calcious. "Run. Gord!"
Gord took Chert's shouted warning to heart, scampering away as fast as he could. The petrified bird was toppling over with majestic slowness, but the pull of gravity would soon cause the fall to quicken. If Gord were anywhere under the thing, there would be nothing left of him but a smear on the ground!
The crash of petrified bird upon the earth made the ground shake. "Wow!"
"I'll second that Chert!"
"Good," a dry voice said, breaking their awed reverie. "I see that you two have managed to handle your lesser challenges well enough, although I deplore the condition you both appear to be in. Tend to yourselves immediately, while I settle matters with the Element Master," Eneever Zig ordered.
"How about a thank you?" Gord asked, amazed at the lack of gratitude on the part of the wizard.
"Duty carried out deserves no praise, nor any thanks. It is duty," the wizard said with no hint of emotion.
"Come on, chum, help me with this bandage," Chert said. "No sense in starting a quarrel with him now."
Both adventurers were in fair shape when the wizard came stumping back with the Element Master. "I told you, these two need not be bothered in this matter," he said crossly to the druidlike figure.
"Nonsense, little wizard. They passed their tests, and now I must inform each of his personal options. You have these choices as well but you can not speak for these other two. Each is free to decide for himself."
Lips compressed, Eneever Zig stood back and watched the Element Master address the two young men. "Having won fairly, you each are entitled to select one of the two following options. You may accept a prize that I will bestow upon you and then return the way you came. Or you may opt to go from here, without any reward save such passage. The choice is yours."
Of course there was no real choice, although both men considered the aspect of the first option. Treasure and return would be useless, for the way back was unknown to them. They had to press on. "I told you so!" the wizard said smugly as the Element Master heard the two young adventurers opt for going ahead. The tall man shrugged, spread his arms, and the light was gone. The three were in a tunnel that sloped gently downward. Behind them a cavern was obscured by alternating colors and conditions.
"Now for the Lord of Balance!" Eneever Zig said, almost gleefully, as he rubbed his long hands together briskly.
Soon enough they came to the place where this personage was ensconced. That was evident from the nature of the cavern. The sign of the balance was only one indication, and a huge metal scale before them another. The cavern was half-lighted, half dark. Flames shot from a pool, but the fire burned in only half of the basin, for the other portion was crystal-clear, placid water. Gord saw that it was so crystalline and still because it was solid ice. Everything else seemed to contradict something as well. Lush grass sprang from barren rock, while dead plants thrust up from rich, dark soil. Colorless trees were bedecked with a riotous array of blossoms of all hues, only one such tree had tiny ones, another huge-petaled blooms. The ugly and beautiful, delicate and coarse, wholesome and poisonous, soft and hard, wet and dry, male and female, tall and short, and every other sort of contrast was everywhere — and nowhere at the same time, it seemed!
"Welcome, strangers. Why come to the place of Yangyin?"
The wizard stepped forth, hands raised, palms outward and before him. "I recognize you, Lord of Balance, Master Yangyin," he intoned. "I demand passage through this place."