Philophobia || Dreamnotfound

3

Wilbur continued, "Each one of you has been raised to rule. You have all been preparing to become king or queen of your land one day, use those skills you have gained to help you in today's challenge. Alright... now let's begin.

"For today," Wilbur paused for dramatic effect before continuing, "For today, we are starting it off simple. Each of you are going to answer a riddle."

A riddle? George looked around and met equally confused princes and princesses' glances.

"I sense your confusion," Wilbur said with a chuckle, "your ability to answer the riddle correctly will give us insight into your abstract thinking and how much you can think out of the box. This could come in handy when devising war strategies or solutions to help the people. You will be timed, so there will be pressure on your completion time. I will be asking you all individually and afterwards, you will leave through a different door from which you came so there will be no cheating."

Wilbur went over a couple other instructions before directing everyone to sit and wait. The volunteering princes or princesses went first. One at a time, they entered a room.

George shifted in his seat uneasily. He was good at riddles, after all, he spent a lot of his time at home reading. He used to read about a mythical creature known as the sphinx, a being who asked questions in riddles.

George felt pretty confident that he could figure out an answer in a decent time, but that wasn't his plan. His plan was to lose the tournament without making it look like he did it on purpose.

He met Maia's gaze from across the room and smiled. She smiled back nervously. George looked away as he saw the first prince enter the room. George chewed on his lip as he thought.

His heart started to beat inexplicably fast. Relax, I just need to time this out, George thought as he took a deep breath and watched the next royal enter the room. The time differed with everyone; some took as much as twenty minutes, others took only one.

George waited a while before it was his turn. He stood up and nervously walked into the room. He sat at a table across from Wilbur.

Prince Clay's face lit up in a smirk at the sight of George and George had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. The prince was seated behind Wilbur next to a man George didn't recognize. The man had a scroll and a small circular object, which George assumed was a pocket watch for the timer.

Wilbur studied him for a moment, "Alright, Prince George, are you ready?"

George nodded slowly. Wilbur hummed something to himself and wrote on the scroll in front of him. He looked at George and took a deep breath.

"Remember, you are being timed. You will be scored on how long it takes you to answer and if you answer correctly, got it?"

"Yes," George replied, glancing at Prince Clay, who was watching him curiously.

George looked back to Wilbur as he started, "Let's begin... this is the riddle now: I am something people love or hate. I change peoples appearances and thoughts. If a person takes care of themselves, I will go up higher. To some people I will fool them... to others I am a mystery. Some people might want to try and hide me but I will show. No matter how hard people try I will never go down. What am I?"

George let the words settle in his head.

"Let me know if you need it repeated," Wilbur said quietly.

George chewed on his lower lip. Something people love OR hate... changing appearances... can be fooling and mysterious... never goes down.

"Never goes down," George muttered quietly to himself.