Heart of the Mountain

“Alright,” Felix the hedgehog began. All the candidates seem to have arrived through the portals. I’ll explain how this rung works shortly.”

The liaisons had transported the boys and girls into what appeared to be inside a cave. They stood in a narrow, winding tunnel with dingy stone walls surrounding them. It was dark, but Felix had conjured an orb of light with magic.

“Do not be alarmed,” the hedgehog insisted. “We are in the heart of Filo mountain and closer to the summit than earlier. If any candidate feels uncomfortable or has trouble breathing, let me know. We will portal you right back. However, remember that would be considered a forfeit from the contest.”

The candidates nodded. The contests were getting weirder.

“What sort of test will you conduct here?” Blaze asked. He was so tall that his head almost touched the tunnel’s roof.

“In the last rung, we tested whether you could re-ignite love through your words. In this one, we’ll test if you can resist love.” 

The candidates looked confused. Therefore, Felix went on.

“You can see two diverging paths ahead of us. The boys and the other will take one each.”

“Why split us up?” Penny asked.

“Well,” Felix replied. “Since this test will be conducted without clothes, we felt boys and girls would want their privacy.

“Wait, what?”

“Naked?”

“This doesn’t make sense!”

“I like this rung,” Ivy said. “But we don’t have to split up.”

“Silence!” Felix commanded. “You heard me. And yes, you must take off all your clothes. When the girls and boys take diverging paths, they must undress and go completely naked. You will ultimately reach a foggy underground chamber where you will reconvene. That is if you survive until then.” 

“Why do we have to strip down?” Jackie asked. “Walking around in swimsuits is embarrassing enough.”

‘But that’s a treat for me,’ Pan told himself. The premise of the beautiful girls undressing had made him extremely alert. It was stuff like this that made a fantasy world more exciting!

“That is a good question,” Felix replied. “As you move deeper into this cave, you will encounter a species not found on the surface. These creatures dwell exclusively in this cavern. They secrete certain fluids that can set any fabric on fire. Therefore, shedding your clothes is for your safety.”

“Hold up!” Cory fired back anxiously. “Monsters? Setting us on fire? Elaborate that! I didn’t sign up for monsters!”

“What is this, Mr. Liaison?” Zete posed. “You are laying down a situation that is more like a survival game than a test.”

The hedgehog nodded. “You are correct about that. Anyway, these monsters… we call them ‘freaks’. They are gnarly, eyeless creatures that look like eels. Some have tiny legs, and others slither.” 

“I’ll pound them to mulch with my hands,” Blaze declared, making a fist.

“You can use violence,” Felix explained. “Whatever you can physically do to complete the test will be valid.”

The candidates exchanged glances. Were the freaks carnivorous?

“Don’t worry,” the hedgehog added. “They don’t have teeth and will not EAT you.”

“Where did the freaks come from?” Pan asked. He wanted Felix to elaborate on the stripping-down regulation but could not ask the question directly. Why couldn’t they all take the same path, boys and girls together?

“Well, all of you just experienced the divine flood that provides fertility to the planet Erode. While the flood gives life to the surface, there is percolation beneath. The filtered-down divine fluids leak sub-surface. This process has been repeated over centuries, giving birth to these infernal creatures in the absence of light…” 

They heard a bellowing far off somewhere. A shudder ran down Pan’s spine. Was it a monster’s call? He looked around and saw that his siblings were equally anxious. 

“If they are not carnivorous, how do they survive?” Penny asked.

“Oh, they are eternally hungry and barely ever get nourishment. However, they have long lives since they were born from King Eros’ flood.”

“Hungry for what?”

“Bodily fluids.”

The candidates laughed nervously at first, thinking it was a joke. But they soon realized Felix was not kidding.

“You cannot be serious,” Blaze said. “What do you mean by bodily fluids?”

The hedgehog crossed his tiny arms. “Oh, I am dead serious, my boy.”

“Yuck! Why are you pitting us against them?” Jackie said with a grimace. “Are they going to suck us dry? Like the moisture in our body?”

Felix walked around his position briefly and sat back down. “An important part of Eros’s work is to invoke desire in mortals. But another lesser role of the god is to control and regulate desire. Desire and Loathing are antithetical, yet there is a fine line between the two. Too much desire can cause Loathing, and too much Loathing can invoke desire.” 

“What does that have to do with these weird creatures?” Blaze posed.

“Freaks are out of control and hungry without cause. It will be a learning experience for you to encounter them. Sexual gratification has always been an obsession of humankind. As a successor of Eros, you must understand and face it in the most nightmarish form. The freaks are literal and symbolic representations of the burden of lust that mortals carry.” 

There was an uncomfortable silence in the cave. The hedgehog felt that philosophy and high rhetoric did not fly well with the youngsters.

“However!” Felix added. “Defeating them is not what the task is all about. The freaks produce precious stones called ‘desire crystals’. Each of you has to collect ten pieces to qualify for the next and final rung of the tests.”

“They produce them?” Zete asked. “Are the crystals their eggs?”

“Far from it,” the hedgehog replied. “The freaks egest them. They let out these crystals as an excretory orgasm.”

“What!” Jackie exclaimed. She made a face and vomited on the cave wall. “Sorry,” she said. “The mental picture you painted is so gross.”

“Gross! Yuck!” the others agreed.

“Dealing with freaks seems disgusting, yes. Nonetheless, it is the task assigned to you,” Felix insisted. “It goes without saying that you can quit anytime. There is no compulsion to go through this. Every candidate has free will, and all liaisons will respect your choice.”

The boys and girls discussed the subject among themselves. After a few minutes, they arrived at a consensus.

Pan had nobody to talk to, so he stood quietly beside Jewel. He had no objections to stripping down and dealing with horny monsters. It all seemed like a lucid dream to him. ‘Perhaps I will wake up any time,’ he thought.

Jackie wiped her mouth and said, “I’m all right with this test. Ready to go.”

The other candidates also agreed to the rules. Nobody was prepared to back out, no matter how weird the tests became.

Ivy stepped forward. “I’m looking forward to what those freaks can do to me… I mean, what I can do for them… you get my drift…” she said, licking her lips. Ivy sounded less interested in winning the contest and more excited about being molested by the freaks.