The Challenges of the Tower Room

Prince Tod knew he was better than most people at most things. What Tod didn’t know was what he was agreeing to when he accepted his rival, Prince Blake’s challenge.

Tod was always the first and usually the best. Problem solving occurred naturally to him while everyone else takes much longer to find a solution.

Prince Tod agreed to confine himself in the tower room for and an indefinite amount of time. He will have to overpower a spell that's cast over the dwelling.

The Challenges of the Tower Room is something every soldier in Prince Blake's Kingdom must endure. The experience is always the same, but the man being tested determines it's length. The soldier is to break the spell by overpowering it. A man who does not learn from the challenge and break the spell, will be relieved after two weeks of endurance.

The Kingdom demands all who fight to know how to overpower this kind of darkness.

Prince Tod boasts to the crowd of onlookers gathered around, “If this scrawny excuse of a man is truly the one who set the record at 2 days, I bet it’ll take me 2 hours to break the spell. My massive muscles and perfectly toned abs are sure to scare away any dragon used to fighting men of this size,” he said, gesturing to the men in the crowd.

Prince Blake smiled knowing well the hardships this pompous ass was about to endure. “So you accept,” Blake said, reaching out his hand.

Tod shook it with a confident grin, and solidified his fate.

The tower rises from marshy meadows with no castle, fortress or shelter to define it. Nothing about it looked intimidating, just abandoned. Vines reach up it’s stoned walls and must have done so for many years, covering the tower’s base with greenery. 

Thudded boots landing on the tower steps announced Tod’s entrance. Creaking opening the wooden door atop the staircase, Tod scanned his small prisoned room before he entered. “It must have been furnished some years ago,” he thought. 

The brave Prince closed the door behind him and appeared through the window to show he was ready for the wizard to cast the spell.

Soon, a smokey mist began to bleed through the air surrounding the tower, burning his royal throat and eyes, and pushing a cough through his chest. 

Tod’s elbow attempted (but failed) to shielding his mouth from inhaling the smoke as he closed the windows, trapping some that had already penetrated the room, but preventing any further contamination. 

It was too late. Discomfort had already been set in the room.

It was late afternoon when Prince Blake left his rival at the tower. Now that he was about to loose sight of it, Blake focused his eyes to the top room before he was too far away to look at it again.

Squinting to see if the windows had been closed, Blake whispered his own spell to follow the darkness that was already set. He continued on his away with a mischievous grin while the sun shined brightly in the fresh clear sky.

Blake’s gleeful pace quickened his way home.

Heat slowly radiated in from the misty smoke encapsulated tower. Although Tod couldn’t see it, he knew the air outside was intensifying the atmosphere within the room. 

As he was alone, Tod saw no harm in disrobing. Keeping his sward close by, of course, and quickly tying it back over his hips after baring what skin could he could expose.

The Prince has been in a sauna before, and he had no problem do it again. Tod sat down, and took slow breaths to calm his mind and help him manage the heat. 

One long hour passed while his nose, eyes and throat tickled and itched a bit, but nothing too torturous was happening here. He can easily withstand this discomfort.

“I thought this was supposed to be a challenge, Blake?” Tod laughed to the roof the tower. The laugh turned to a cough, then back into a laugh again; a lighter laugh this time.

The room went dark. 

Dark. Dark.

His laughter stopped. 

His eyes widened to adjust to the light.

Pitch Dark.

He lifted his hand infront of his face, but couldn’t see it. 

He stood and placed his hand on the hilt of his sward, tuning into every sound his ears could pick up.

Long nailed rats scurried up the walls, and across the floor. Tod adjusted himself at every sound. He could hear one find bits of crumb, and pictured as it retreated back to the place it came from.

The prince couldn’t help but focus on what little his senses could detect. Surely some beast would attack him in the dark, but he would be ready for it.

A crow that must have been waiting there this whole time began to caw, drawing the blade from Tod’s sheath. Each caw jolted the small birds body up, scratching it’s nails on the chimney’s pipe.

“dewip, dewip, dewip,” droplets of water begin to well and release from some unknown source, landing into a pool of water that Tod had not remembered seeing before the darkness consumed the room,

 “dewip, dewip dewip…”

The consistency of the singular tone lay heavier and heavier on the Prince’s mind. With 

each 

tone 

that 

fell, 

pressured on his royal head increased, like the tip of a nail pushing further and further into his scull. He couldn’t help but focus his attention 

on 

each 

drop-

let. 

Tod was consumed with discomfort.

Taking a moment to reassessed everything that’s happened, the air he breaths, the light he needs to see, and the sounds that he can’t control. Fred’s senses were being assaulted. This was not a challenge of muscle or battle of beast. 

He could not stop the smoke. He could not stop the darkness. He could not stop these sounds from sounding around him.

These torturous things were simply beyond his control. “What do I do when I feel like I can’t control anything,” he thought.

When you feel like things are beyond your control, stop and control yourself. 

Tod looked inwards, the dripping nail still pounding in his head, breathing heat into his scratchy throat, and nothing for his eyes to fall on for distraction. 

It took a few moments to reflect on his anger, discomfort and fear, 

but it didn’t take long for Tod to release these feelings as he cleared his mind of all thoughts and internal monologue with meditation. 

The pain of his headache started to ease a little, but hadn’t retreated completely. 

“If you can’t beat them, join them,” Tod thought. Tod sang out loud to the dripping water in the darkness, “bum, bum, bum.” 

Then he alternated a note or two and drew a second harmony to the rhythmed note, “bum, bam, bum, bam.”

Soon, Tod was free writing a joyful melody around the singularly tortuous tone, “bum, buddy-um, buddy-um, bum”

The leak was no longer a source of pain or discomfort.

Now it was providing inspiration for creativity and joy!

There is a natural giddiness inside us all that playfully arises when we create.

Prince Tod whistled a tune, a melody that brightened the gravity of the room. It was easy to imagine girls dancing to his music while sitting in the darkness.

He was having a dream while he was wide awake, all the while turning his fear into happiness.

He pictured twirling skirts while beads of sweat gathered and fell from his forehead. Laughing faces danced in rhythm with his music. This dream land of creativity flowed from Tod and surrounded him with the comfort of his own heart, providing serenity from within his own mind.

The light returned to the room. 

Tod’s eyebrows lifted in excitement. Eyes darted to reach the window’s shutters before his hands could.

He thrust them open with little doubt and welling confidence to find fresh cool air in his nostrils, and expanding in his lunges.

He opened his mouth to the scenery outside. “YAS”, he yelled, curling his fists over his shoulders, “I am the champion!” 

Someone knocked on the tower door carrying his heavy foot heals to answer it. “I have won! A new record,” he boasted as he opened the door, but the Prince was surprised by who was on the other side. 

A dainty young lady holding a dinner tray blushed at Tod’s half naked appearance and graciously gestured the try of food. 

“A feast,” he said. “What a fine prize for my accomplishments. Come in! Set it down.”

And she did.