"Huh." Rig fell silent, thinking about the riddle. "Dang, I know this one. Hang on."
It took him a full fifteen minutes of riding along, quietly murmuring the words over and over to himself, sometimes in a different harsh, clipped language, sometimes phrased differently, changing words out, rearranging it, but he finally brightened.
"Your shadow?"
"Yep!" Vozreal said, "here's another one. If eleven plus two equals one, what does nine plus five equal?"
"Arright no way I know that one, Math is already stupid."
"If eleven o'clock plus two hours equals one 'clock, then nine 'clock plus 5 hours equals two o'clock!"
"Alright, that;s just unfair. You guys use a whole different system of calculating time, no way I coulda got that," Rig complained lightly.
"What system of calculating time do you use?"
"We're so far up north that the sun almost never sets fully. We either have it, or we don't. So our season's are a lot longer, and our days are all sorts of messed up. My tribe kinda has their own system as well, but it makes it hard to calculate time down south." Rig grinned ruefully. "You should see our calendars, they're wild."
"Oh, thats pretty neat! Heres another riddle! What is it that given one, you'll have either two or none?"
Vozreal asked.
"Choice. I know that one." Rig said. He didn't look quite as happy as he had a minute ago.
"What's wrong?" Vozreal asked, concerned.
"Ah, that's one used by some people I lived with before…before I met my tribe. But it wasn't really a riddle to them, it's kinda like how people say 'what's the magic word?' to get you to say please, they used it like that." Rig shrugged. "That wasn't my favorite time in my life, that's all."
"Ah, okay. Sorry about that…"
"Eh, don't worry about it. It was a long time ago, I was like…eight."
"Anyways… Any other riddles you know?"
"Yeah, I got one more. What has a life in the ocean, yet no scales, is hunted by all yet a threat to none, and sings a song all can understand?"
"A whale?"
"Yep! That one's not super hard." Rig laughed slightly. "Didn't stop me from puzzling over it for hours as a kid."
"Neat!"
"Thanks."
The days past by and finally they arrive at the mafia's hideout
"Welp. That was a little less involved than I'd thought. Alright, I guess let's go kill everybody."
"Alright, who will be the first?"
"The first to go in, or the first to die? Because either me, or whoever we meet first."
"The first to die. We're going in at the same time."
"Well, whoever we meet first then. Let's go."