He's in the hall of trials.

On one side of the hall, is the trail of evil. On the other side is the trail of good.

Weirdly, the trail of evil and good are facing each other.

Between the two trails is a Jester.

"Welcome, mortal." It tells Turtle. "Choose your trail."

Only one trail can lead to the exit of the room.

To decide which one it is Turtle must make a Choice.

Turtle chooses good.

Jester : Do you really mean it?

Turtle: Yes.

Jester : We shall see. Prove it, then.

Turtle: How?

Jester : By facing a challenge. The challenge has a factor of evil and a factor of good. Here.

Jester snaps his finger.

An arena occurs in front of Turtle. In the arena, there's a Skeleton Knight with a sword. And there's a starving and sad dog.

The skeleton knight with a sword is evil factor. A starving and sad dog is only moderate good factor.

When he faces a challenge, Turtle must choose which factor will help him, and which factor will hurt him.

For the sake of trial, Turtle chooses the starving and sad dog to help him fight against the Skeleton knight with a sword.

The skeleton knight is wearing a helmet and an armour.

Turtle takes one step forward and swings his boomerang. The boomerang whistles as it goes through the air and hits the skeleton in the head, cracking the helmet. The force of the hit sends the skeleton's sword out of its hand, and the boomerang into the ground.

The skeleton picks up the sword from the ground and charges towards Turtle. Turtle and the starving sad dog must battle him out.

With the dog by his side, the battle is not easy. The dog bites the skeleton's hand every now and then, but the skeleton keeps on coming while Turtle strategically evades, but he is slowly getting pushed back to the corner.

Despite the various tactics the dog tries to employ, the skeleton is relentless. Eventually, the skeleton slices open the dog's stomach, and pulls out his guts.

Turtle looks at the dying dog. "You did your best," Turtle tells him. "Rest now, I'll avenge you."

The dog looks up at him and licks his hand.

"Thank you master." and it dies.

The dead body of the dog magically transforms into a massive hammer, startling Turtle. A sneaky smile plays up on the lips of the Jester who is witnessing the battle as the judge.

Turtle now looks at the skeleton with fury and rage.

The skeleton charges at him again, but this time Turtle parries the blow.

Turtle swings the hammer with both hands and smashes the skeleton's shield. The force of the hit breaks the shield and shatters it. The skeleton is sent flying back, and hits the wall behind him. He slides down the wall, slowly gets up and pick up his sword.

He charges at Turtle again, but this time Turtle jumps backwards. The skeleton loses his balance and falls down. His skeleton comrades from the gallery seats laughs at him.

He gets up. He swings his sword at Turtle, who side steps it again.

He tries to hit the skeleton with his hammer, but the hammer slips out of his hands and falls down. The hammer lands on the ground with great thud.

The skeleton tries to defeat Turtle still while his comrades laugh at him. They continue to make jokes about him. Triggered skeleton charges another swing at Turtle, but Turtle rolls to the side and picks up his hammer. He swings it with both hands into the skeleton's knee. It cracks and the bone snaps, making the skeleton fall down again.

He smashes the skeleton in the face with the hammer. The force of the hit breaks the skull completely, and the upper part of the skeleton's face is completely destroyed too.

Turtle walks forward.

"Evil will always lose. Good must always prevail."

Jester claps "Good job! You can now follow the trail. It will lead you to the exit portal."

After a long time, he arrives at the end of the trail. A large portal is in front of him. A Shadow guard stands on each side. They stand still without saying anything, letting Turtle pass the exit portal. As he passes, he sees himself back to the tent of Mazilla, sitting in a stool in front of her, while Ratty by his side.

Turtle is feeling dizzy.

Ratty: "Hey, buddy, you alright?"

Turtle: "Yeah... I think so..."

Mazilla: "You've passed the trial." She adds "Give me the hammer." 

Turtle : "Why?"

Mazilla: "It’s the price." 

Turtle: "Fair enough". He hands over the hammer.

The Shaman roots through a chest of drawers, draws out a small silver amulet and passes it over to him. It's an animal's head, but not any animal he is familiar with. It looks like a cross between a goat and a lion. An arcane symbol is carved into the animal's forehead. The silver feels warm to the touch, like it has some hidden power.

"This will help you," she tells you."Think of it like a suit of armor. It will protect you, but only so much. It will also speed up your reflexes, allowing you to fight the magical energy being unleashed. It will also cloak you from damages, making the fight less harsh on your body." and after a pause She adds "Oh, here. Take this. You will need it."

"What’s that?"

"It’s an arcane magnifying glass. You can see the translated version of arcane language through it."

"Alright."

Turtle nods and slip the amulet into his pocket. "And the death curse?"

Mazilla waves a hand in the air. "Gone. But I cannot prevent your enemy from casting another. And I doubt you will want to go over more trials."

"How hard is it to cast a spell like that?" Ratty asks.

"It takes time", she says vaguely, which really isn't an answer at all. "But if I were you, I'd work fast."

Ratty: "What do you mean?"

She looks at Ratty like Ratty is the dumbest being she ever encounter.

She rolls her eyes, sighs and says "He'll explain it all to you leter. Best of luck, Turtle. Mazilla out."

Ratty : Wait! Anything for me? Any item?

"For that, there's something you want to give me." says Shaman Mazilla.

"More?"

"Yes, the necklace of bones that you found in the storage house."

Turtle knows her nature. He doubts that Mazilla knows everything in this universe. An omniscient enity, perhaps.

He doesn't question her how she knows about the necklace.

"Oh yeah. Totally forgot about that."

"Give me that, and I will give you a magical item that will help you fight the man in blue."

Turtle hands over the necklace.

Mazilla: You may leave now.

Ratty : Hey! What about the item?

Mazilla: "Oh, almost forgot." She smirks slyly. "Here." Mazilla tosses Ratty a small box.

"What's this?" Ratty asks.

"Open it and find out."

Ratty opens the box and finds a silver ring inside.

Ratty: What does it do?

"It's a ring that allows you to cast a massive fireball." says Shaman Mazilla.

"Cool!" says Rat.

"It has its limits, however. It won't allow you to fly, for example."

"I suppose that would be a drawback." says Turtle.

"Yeah, I would have to take off these wings first." adds Ratty.

Turtle: You don't have any wings.

"Good point." Ratty says. "I guess Mazilla is correct. It won't allow you to fly."

Mazilla : Other limits are you can use one fireball per hour. You can cast up to 4 fireballs and then the ring will become useless.

Ratty counts his fingers "1, 2, 3....and umm..4. Huh? I guess that'd be enough. Sounds good."

Ratty puts the ring in his pocket. "Well, I guess that will come in handy for certain situations."

Mazilla takes the necklace and puts it around her neck. "Good-bye. You may leave now. Best of luck."

They tip her a salute and step outside. The sun is a lot farther west than it should be. A quick look at Turtle's watch confirms their suspicion. They've been in Mazilla's tent most of the day. It's nearly six o'clock. What felt like minutes was actually hours. The shadows are getting long. The day is nearly done.

The tent of Mazilla is empty. Every trace of her disappeared like it never existed to begin with. Just like always. The mannequins are gone, not that they'd answer any questions.

Well, this was an interesting adventure. No ghosts, no demons, no werewolves. Just a beautiful and friendly half-human, half-man, talking rat and a shaman. Maybe it doesn't happen often, but weird adventures are a dime a dozen. This is just another one in a long list for Turtle.