Secrets of the Sphinx

Julie and I entered the cavernous opening before the chamber of scrolls. Our last test awaited us. The sphinx looked down from her perch with a toothy smile and a fiery flare to her nostrils. She was a ferocious looking creature; the elegant black head of a woman, the body of a cheetah and the talons and wings of an eagle. “The question”, she said in a voice so full of malice and sick enjoyment that I felt my stomach make a full 180 degree turn. “It has no legs, yet it path is easy to track; it scars the earth without tools, It bellows ferociously without lungs; the safest place to hide is directly in its eye. What is it?” My mouth lay open she may as well had taken the soul out of my body right then and there. I turned to Julie for any sort of comfort but she stared back at me. There was no comfort only fear growing in her eyes and our hearts. The sphinx spoke. “There is a time limit to this final test. Any fool could figure this out given days to ponder- the test here is to be quick under pressure. At the end of 5 minutes if I have not heard the answer I will tear your souls out of you and slowly chew your bodies until the next pair of fools tries to take my secrets”. Her glassy green eyes gazed hungrily at us as if she were deciding where to start. I peered into the chamber beyond. The entrance was very small perhaps we could scrape in past her. As if she sensed my thoughts she swooped down sending a gust that blew Julie off her feet. “A tornado!”, Julie blurted out. The sphinx scorned and moved aside.