Heart Of Ice

Title: Heart Of Ice: Chapter Seventeen: Frogs In Fashion
Author: Allison Wonderland
Rating: PG this chapter, NC-17 overall.
Summary: Avery realizes being barefooted in the labyrinth is not an ideal situation while it does help him mark his trail and he meets two more of the labyrinth’s inhabitants.
Warning(s): Language
Disclaimer: Technically, this is a rewrite of the movie Labyrinth. However, how much it resembles the movie remains to be seen. I do not own/am not associated with Labyrinth or anything related to it. However, all of the characters and some of the ideas in this story are mine.
Note(s): The chapters should start getting longer and the ratings should start getting higher from here on in.

~*~

There had been no one there only a moment ago. Avery gasped and spun around to look back toward the dead end.

But the passageway behind him was no longer a dead end. Now there were two gothic archways carved into the far wall. Inside each archway was a wooden door made of rough-hewn planks with a large tarnished silver knob. And in front of each door was a guard. Or at least Avery supposed they must be guards since they were standing directly in front of each door as though put there for a reason. Except…they were enormous frogs as tall as Avery himself and about four times as round. Each frog wore a powdered white wig with a tricorn hat perched atop it. The frog on the left wore blue and the one on the right wore red. Their jackets were the same color and Avery briefly wondered how a frog – particularly one that large – could have found clothing but he did not question it. Everything was strange here. Besides the jackets they wore white – or Avery supposed they had once been white – button down shirts. Their back legs and butts were encased in pants that matched their jackets and their feet – both sets – were bare.

“I am called Johan,” the frog on Avery’s left croaked.

“And I Jonah.” This from the one on his right.

“I…I’m Avery?” the boy said by way of introduction. “And you…you said something about it not being fair? What…um…” He was talking to frogs. “What exactly did you mean?” But maybe they could help him.

“We know who you are,” croaked…umm…Johan. Or at least that was who Avery thought it was.

“Unfair is only half of it,” added Jonah in his own croaky voice.

“Umm…half of what, exactly?” Avery asked. He was happy the frogs had not wanted to shake hands when they were all introducing themselves. There was no way he was going to touch some nasty frog, not even here in this strange place where frogs might not feel yucky. He was not about to take any chances.

“Half of everything,” Johan said.

“Oh. Right.” He should have known. Of course the frogs could not possibly help him. No one in this place was going to help him. Except the worm. He had been helpful, unlike Mohandas. Avery doubted anyone he was going to come across even knew the way through the labyrinth. “All right, look,” he said, pointing to the wall behind the two frogs. “That was a dead end just a minute ago.”

“No.” Jonah laughed. It was not a pleasant sound.

“That’s the dead end behind you,” Johan pointed out.

“It isn’t!” Avery spun around. But the frog was right. The opening which Avery had come through was blocked by a solid stone wall that matched the rest of the labyrinth. The doors behind the frogs were now the only way out of the little square chamber he had somehow become boxed into. “Oh!” he exclaimed angrily. “It isn’t fair! This place just isn’t fair! What am I supposed to do?” He looked imploringly at the frogs, hoping one of them would have some sort of suggestion as to what he should do.

“Try one of the doors,” Jonah suggested.

That was hardly helpful from Avery’s point of view. He had no idea where they led. “Where…where do they go?” he asked.

“One of them leads to the castle at the center of the labyrinth,” Johan provided. “And the other one leads to-“

“Duh duh duh dum!” Jonah interrupted.

“Certain death,” the first frog finished.

That hardly helped either. “So which is which?” he asked, sure there had to be some catch there somewhere.

“We can’t tell you,” Jonah claimed. He shook his frogish head.

“Well, why not?” Avery asked.

“Because you can’t ask us.” That was Johan.

“You can only ask one of us,” Jonah corrected.

Avery shrugged. “Why?” he asked.

“It’s in the rules.”

“Rules? What rules?” Avery asked. If there was a rule book and he could get hold of it somehow, well this place was bound to make more sense if he knew the rules.

“It’s in the rules,” the other frog said without the first one having answered the boy’s question. “That one of us always tells the truth and one of us always lies. I tell the truth.” His gaze flickered to Jonah. “He always lies.”

“Oh, don’t listen to him,” Johan contradicted. “I’m the one who tells the truth. He always lies.”

“Oh what a lie!” Jonah claimed.

If I can only ask one of them, Avery mused, And one always tells the truth and one always lies… He had heard this riddle before, was sure he had read it in one of his books. But what was the answer? If he could only ask one of them there was really no way of telling who was telling the truth and who was lying. He needed to ask them both. So maybe there was a round about way to ask both of them the same question but really only ask one… Only, that seemed ridiculous. “This is a riddle,” he said out loud to the frogs, trying to buy some time. “I’ve heard it before in a book or a movie or something. But I’ve never figured it out.” He still could not.

The frogs muttered wordlessly among themselves. It was helpful neither to his thinking process nor to getting him farther through the maze.

There has to be one question I can ask that doesn’t matter which one of them I ask, Avery told himself. But what is it? “Oh, be quiet,” he said irritably to the two frogs. One always tells the truth, one always lies, he continued to reason. But the one question they’ll both answer the same way is… But he had no answer for that question. Would he tell me… he wondered, staring at the frog on the right… that his door leads to the castle? But if I ask him…

Oh!

Maybe… Just maybe…

But he had to take the chance that he had the right question to ask or else he would not get through the door at all. Even though he had no idea what would happen if he asked the wrong question. Would he have another chance or would they send him through the certain death door right off?

There was only one way to tell.

“All right, you,” he said, approaching the frog on the left. Avery really hated frogs. They were all slimy and disgusting. “Would he-“ pointing to the frog on the right “-tell me that this door-“ pointing to the one behind the frog on the left “-leads to the castle?” he asked, praying to whatever passed as a god in this place that he had just asked the right question.

The two frogs looked at one another. They conferred in whispered croaks that Avery were not quite sure held words in them. “Um…” the frog on the left croaked finally, “yes.”

Avery smiled victoriously. “Then,” he announced, “the other door leads to the castle and this door leads to certain death!”

“How do you know?” Johan asked. “He could be telling the truth.”

“But then you wouldn’t be.” The more he thought about it the more sure Avery was that he had gotten it right. “So if you tell me he said yes, I know the answer would be no.”

“But I could be telling the truth, “ Johan pointed out.

“But then,” Avery said, pleased with himself, “he would be lying. “So if you tell me he said yes I know the answer would still be no.”

“Wait a minute,” Jonah said, frowning. “Is that right?”

“I don’t know,” Johan admitted. “I never understood it.”

“It’s right,” the boy insisted. “I figured it out. I never could before. I must be getting smarter.”

The frog silently moved out of the way to allow Avery to pass through the door he had chosen.

“It’s a piece of cake!” he announced.

Beneath his feet the stone floor opened up and Avery fell into darkness.