Pyramid Entrance Exam (Tg) Draft (Patreon)

It’s funny how a day can go from the best day in one's life to probably one of the worst ones in the blink of an eye. Just one mistake can sometimes make or break a day, and Leo had definitely pushed his luck too far today.

But let's start with the good part. After months of digging and analyzing, Leo had actually found another previously undiscovered hidden passage in Cleonya’s great tomb, one of the largest pyramids his crew was tasked with exploring. This was, of course, an absolutely amazing thing, as that meant that maybe even more treasure was hidden in this seemingly endless Egyptian dungeon.

Though that all came crashing down really quickly as Leo, on his way out to tell everyone his new discovery, fell down a trapdoor that definitely didn’t lead to any treasure. Well, maybe it did, but for that to be useful he first needed to find a way out of this tomb, because otherwise it might just become his own as well.

“Trespasser!” A booming voice announced as Leo was just about to try walking out of the room he found himself in through one of the many corridors. He instantly froze in his place as sweat visibly appeared on his forehead. “Did you come here to become the new guardian of these sacred halls?”

“Uhm…” Leo wasn’t sure how to answer to the magical booming voice that seemed to come from everywhere at the same time. But after a little bit of thinking, he realized that maybe, as the guardian of this pyramid, he would be granted exit from this deathtrap. And he would probably get all of the treasure as well, so it was better than saying that he was a “trespasser”.

“Yes, I came here to become the new guardian.” Leo answered, trying to sound as convincing as he could.

“I can see through your motivations, human. But I shall accept you as a guardian, if you manage to answer enough of my riddles.” The voice spoke, making Leo shiver. But at least he now knew that he had a chance to escape.

“Here is my first riddle, Human: What fits better as you cry?” The disembodied voice asked.

Leo winced, then was taken aback by the riddle and asked out of reflex. “What fits better as I cry? What kind of question is that? What the…? Ahhh!”

Suddenly his clothes started moving on their own. They tore and stretched around as if they had a mind of their own, slithering around his body as they started to combine again into seemingly completely different garments. His shirt and jacket fused together and then split into a headband, a coller cloth and a piece of cloth that just barely covered his chest, looking almost like a bra. At the same time his pants just formed into a very simple loincloth with not much extra.

“And the answer was: Your clothes!” The booming voice spoke and you could hear it suppressing a laughter.

“Wait! This is unfair! You didn’t…!” Leo tried to complain.

“Next question! A smaller version of you weighs exactly as much as you do. How is this possible?” The voice spoke and Leo immediately gulped.

“Because… uhm…uhh…” Leo stuttered. Loe knew that he didn’t have much time because this thing was surprisingly impatient, so he needed to come up with something now. But his mind was drawing a complete blank.

Like it was carried in a gust of wind, sand started to blow through the room around Leo, almost as if to trap him inside a vortex. But the sand wasn’t painful at all as it passed by and over his body. It was as if the sand wasn’t trying to hurt him, but polish him. All of his rough skin, scars and even his body hair below his eyebrow was simply wiped away as the sand passed by.

“This time you couldn't answer at all. Before I reveal the solution, let's raise the pressure but give you an easy question to answer. One that even you can’t get wrong.” The voice spoke way more amused than Leo was at that point.

The atmosphere suddenly grew super heavy for him. So much so that he struggled to stand, yet his legs just refused to give in. It was then that he noticed that he was shrinking through that immense pressure from the top. And for some reason, his hips started to tingle while his chest felt increasingly weird as well…

“Would you rather fight in war with a trusty sword or claim the riches of a fresh new cave all for yourself?” The voice asked.

Leo could barely concentrate with all that pressure and sand from all sides. He didn’t even realize that he had become a good head shorter than he was before and neither did he realize that with the sand trimming his waist and skin, he now actually sported a kind of girly figure. And let’s not talk about the boobs that had already started to inflate on his chest.

“Cave! Ahh! I would take the cave!” Leo answered, and suddenly the pressure from above subsided in an instant. Yet his eyes went wide as that same pressure suddenly returned, but focused on a single point: his manhood.

“Then let's make sure to get rid of your sword and create that cave, that you so dearly wished to explore~”

And within a second, his manhood returned whence it came from, opening up the entrance of the gate to Leo’s womanhood. After her heavy panting subsided and she could think again, she felt increadibly stupid for not catching on to the voices riddles sooner. She looked down at her sizable chest and her impressive behind and let out a short. “Let me guess. The solution to the second riddle was: Because of more weight on the front- and backside, right?”

“Took you a while, but that is correct. Now for the final riddle: What walks on 4 legs when it is morning, on 2 legs at noon and on 4 legs in the evening?”

“I know that one! It’s a classic. It’s me. The solution is all humans… Wait… Did you say 4 legs in the evening?” Leo stopped her train of thought as she noticed a loud gurgling in her stomach. Something was happening to her again and this time it was… stretching her?

“You are correct! The answer is indeed: You!”

Leo’s abdomen was stretching to an inhuman length by now, making her even taller than she was initially. But that wasn’t even the weirdest part. For some reason, she felt something pushing out from within her. Two lumps were forming on her front side that almost looked like… legs? Two additional legs?

“You walked on all fours as an infant and on two legs as a human.”

Her original legs were changing as well. In fact, all of her extended lower body was changin, growing yellow-brown fur all over it as her feet deformed and became almost tiger-like claws. By then, the two additional limbs in the front had also grown to the point where they were about half the final size and clearly cat-like paws as well. What was happening to her?

“And now, as a Sphinx, you will walk on all four legs again. Hahaha!” The voice finally burst into laughter, making Leo realize that she really didn’t have a shot at escaping from the very beginning.

She could feel her ears being pulled upwards as they changed form, becoming very large cat-like ears as well. What was rather unexpected for her was that on her backside two additional limbs also started to grow, becoming wide white wings that almost reminded her of those of a falcon. And finally, as her second pair of legs reached their full size, she could no longer hold herself upright and crashed down now standing on all of her four legs. Just as the voice had said.

“Your greed for riches and fame brought you here, and now you are bound to protect this land from people that are what you used to be. I am happy to announce that you passed the test.” The voice spoke and somehow it felt like a command to Leo. She needed to protect the treasures of this sacred tomb, but no one said that she couldn’t leave this place anymore.

“Gotcha. See you later.” Leo said, galloping down a different corridor to escape the trap of the tomb. She knew that she could no longer resist any command that voice would give her, but if she got away with her newfound knowledge of the pyramid before he could say anything anymore…

“W-Wait! I command you to stay… and she’s gone. It seems like turning her into a sphinx has really turned her smarter than me. I should really think this through some more.” The voice spoke, seemingly downcast a bit. But it recovered quickly and said. “She might have gotten away just like the others, but I swear I’ll make you mine, intruder Nr 32, whenever you decide to fall down this traphole! Muhahaha!”

And thus, Leo escaped back to the surface, ready to meet her coworkers again and tell them of her amazing findings. But with a much greater love for riddles than she had before.

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What is your favourite riddle? And do you think you would answer it correctly if a sphinx would give you a variation of it?

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