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There was a creature, who guarded a wondrous door. No one knew quite who or what she was, or even what she guarded. Some called her sphinx, hydra, harpy, gorgon, or any of a million other mythical creatures, but she would just smile and refuse to answer to any name or title. Instead, she would say that anyone who answered her question would be able to pass the gate she guarded.
Of course, there were many people, mighty as kings and humble as beggars, and she asked everyone the same question. "What is the one question that everyone asks, but no one can fully answer?"
She got many answers, from the practical, like "What will the weather be like tomorrow?" to the more fantastical, like "Do the stars sing?" And every time, she would smile and tell them that it was a very good question, but it was not the answer she sought. More and more people came to her, young and old, rich and poor, small and large. Every one of them offered their suggestions, but to every one she would just smile and say that it was not the right question.
Then interest began to wane, and gradually people stopped coming. Where at first there had been lines for miles, there came a time where there would be hours, or even days, between each person coming to brave the creature guarding the door. She began to sleep, only waking when someone else came to brave her riddle. But even then, no one seemed to know the right answer.
Eventually, the wondrous door and the creature who guarded it faded from memory, and she slept for longer and longer periods of time. She would awaken occasionally, to travelers who stumbled across her in her lair. She helped them get back to where they were meant to go, but still no one was able to answer her riddle, and she grew more and more morose. She was tied to the door, and could neither leave it nor pass through it until someone answered her question.
Then, one day, a man with a child in tow came across the creature. He spoke a language she did not recognize, but the door that held her near also let her understand him.
"Well, this is a bit of a trip, isn't it Em? What do you make of this statue here?"
The creature opened her eyes. It had been many years since someone had last come, and much had changed. The man standing in front of her wore strange clothes and spoke strange words, but he was the first she'd seen in many a long year. "Hello. Are you here to answer my riddle?" The words felt strange coming out of her mouth, but it wasn't the first time someone who came spoke a foreign language, so she ignored it.
The man let out a startled yelp and jumped backward as the creature shifted and several stalagmites that had formed on her back fell to the side. "WHAT the Hell! You... but... how...what in the world?!" He reached back, herding a child behind him. The creature did not know their age, but thought the child was past their tenth year at least.
The creature sighed. "I see I have been forgotten again. It has been so very long, I think. If you cannot answer my question, I will help you if I can. But first, what year is it, in the outside world?”
The man continued to gape, but the child peered around him. “It’s June 18th, 2020. What’s your name?”
The creature blinked at them, caught off guard. “It has been a very long time since anyone asked me that. I don’t know if humans can pronounce it.” But she shrugged a little, ignoring the sound of another stalagmite falling, and spoke her name for the first time in what she knew to be centuries.
The child frowned a little, and the man seemed to calm, as the creature made no move to attack. “Ka-the-rang-don-nus-ter?”
The creature couldn’t help but laugh at the attempt. “Not quite child, but good try.”
The man frowned a little, glancing back at the child. “I’d probably mangle that worse than Emma here did if I tried to pronounce that, but can you say it again?”
The creature smiled at the man’s curiosity. Perhaps she should hate it, as it was her curiosity that had gotten her trapped for so long, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Instead, she repeated her name, and a third time when he asked.
“Do you mind if we call you Kathryn? It sounds a bit like the first part of your name.”
The creature blinked at him. “I suppose, but why do you ask?”
The man shifted a bit, obviously uncomfortable. “It feels strange, to not know what to call you. You look a bit like depictions of dragons in folklore, but I don’t really want to call you ‘the dragon’ in my head all day.” He looked away for a moment and brushed himself off, though there was no dust to brush away. “I’m Mark, by the way, and this is my daughter Emma.”
The creature—Kathryn, yes, she liked the sound of it—tilted her head. “I do not mind, Mark and daughter Emma. As I said, it has been a very long time since anyone asked my name.” She sighed a little, knowing that it was unlikely she’d see the two again after they’d left, but she had a job here and she’d already delayed long enough. “But now, I have to ask you my riddle, that you may answer and either be on your way or open the door at last.”
The child—Emma—looked at her father and then back at Kathryn. Before she could ask the question that Kathryn could see in her eyes, her father spoke. “What riddle? And how did you get here?”
Kathryn smiled at the man. “It has been a very long time since anyone has asked me that, but it is a story I cannot tell until my riddle has been answered.”
Mark nodded. “Alright. What's your riddle?”
Kathryn took a deep breath and asked—she hoped for the last time—the question no one had yet been able to answer. “What is the one question that everyone asks, but no one can fully answer?”
Mark stared at her for a long time. “I guess it was too much to hope that it’d be the classic ‘four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon and three legs in the evening question,” he said weakly. It was obvious that wasn’t his answer, so Kathryn didn’t respond, just watching him sadly.
Mark began to pace, muttering quietly to himself. Emma looked between her father and Kathryn, but evidently decided to leave him alone for the moment. “Can I talk to you without answering your riddle? I mean, you didn’t ask me.”
Kathryn smiled at her, though she knew humans didn’t always understand the gesture. “Yes, we may speak. It is your father’s turn to attempt my riddle now.”
“What if he gets it wrong?” It’s obvious Emma is trying to be brave, but Kathryn can smell her fear.
“If he needs direction, I will tell him how to escape these caves. He will be welcome to return if he likes, but no one ever has.”
Emma frowned. “That sounds lonely. What do you do when no one comes?”
Kathryn shrugged, remembering the stalagmites that formed on her back a moment too late. “I sleep until the next person comes. It has been a very long time since the last, as you may have noticed, but I cannot leave until the door is opened. Not even through death.”
Emma frowned at her. “Are you under a curse or something? How did that happen?”
Kathryn sighed, knowing Emma had come so close to the answer to her question. “That is a story I may not tell until the question is answered.”
Emma looked like she wanted to throw something. Kathryn was very familiar with the impulse. But the girl just stomped off muttering angrily and Kathryn watched her go. Then Emma turned back, and Kathryn saw her father look up, alerted by what she had no idea. “Look, we came out here to explore, and this is a really cool adventure. Dad’s right, you look like a dragon, and I love dragons, they are so cool!” She stomped up to her and Kathryn couldn’t help but draw back in alarm, uncaring of the cascade of stone off her back.
“You said that you can’t leave, that you’ve been here for a really long time, and that you’re tied to the door. You said it’s a long story, but you won’t tell me what it is, because we haven’t answered your riddle!”
Kathryn knows she shouldn’t interrupt, but she had to correct her. “No, child. I cannot answer until someone has solved my riddle. I’m sorry.”
Emma threw her hands up in the air, pulling away from her father before he could try to calm her. “You keep saying that! But why?!”
Kathryn blinked as the word echoed through the small cavern. “Yes, child. Exactly.”
Mark had to practically drag Emma away, but the cave was shaking apart around them, and he dared not stop until they were outside. He hoped Kathryn wouldn’t be harmed, but he had to watch out for Emma.
“Dad! Dad, wait! She’s still in there, dad!" Emma wasn’t struggling as much, but he didn’t dare let her go just yet.
“I know, kid, I know, but there’s nothing we can do for her, we barely got out as it is. We’ll have to hope she can get herself out, now.” But he stared at the rubble that was still settling over the small entrance and didn’t hold much hope.
“What happened? Why did everything start shaking like that? Do you think she’s okay?”
Mark sighed, and cautiously released her. “I’m not sure, kiddo, but I think you answered her riddle.” Emma blinked at him, not understanding. “’What is the one question everyone asks, but no one can fully answer?’ I think the answer was ‘why?’”
"It’s funny how many people have come so close to the right answer,” a voice spoke behind them. Mark froze, startled. “One man asked me ‘why do the stars shine at night?’ I told him that the blind man knows nothing of stars beyond what he is told of them by the sighted.”
Emma spun around, and Mark couldn’t help but look as well. A short woman with long red hair stood there, though he couldn’t have said when she arrived. She wore an odd blue dress, shoes that looked even stranger, and a wide-brimmed sunhat that looked oddly normal in comparison to the rest. “Sometime later, though I couldn’t tell you when, a ghost asked me why she was murdered. I told her that there were some things that no one could be expected to truly understand.” She paused, looking thoughtful. “She was never able to answer my riddle, but we kept each other company until she was ready to move on.”
Mark stared at her. “Kathryn?”
The woman looked at him, and he could see that she had the same blue eyes as the trapped dragon they had been forced to leave behind. “That is the name you gave me to use, yes.” She looked down a little at Emma. “Thank you for freeing me, Emma. It has been a very long time since I could spread my wings in the sunlight.” She plucked the hat from her own head and set it on Emma’s before her dress shifted and Mark blushed as he realized it wasn’t a dress at all. But he only got a brief glimpse of her bare human form before a dragon sat in front of them, wings spread to catch the breeze.
Emma shoved the hat up a little. “You said you’d tell me how you were trapped! Do you have to leave already?”
The dragon who had briefly looked like a woman laughed. “Do not worry, Emma. I will come back to tell my story. For now, there is a place I want to visit now that I am free.” Before Mark could say anything about what could happen if she was spotted, Kathryn flapped her wings and took off. Soon she was so high that she looked like nothing more than an odd cloud before disappearing into the distance.
“Do you think she’ll come back, dad?” Emma asked. She was clutching the hat Kathryn had given her.
Mark smiled at her. “She said she would, Em. She said she would.”