Pascal rounded the gloomy corner of the dungeon, and his purple eyes went wide at the sight before him. A toad, truly larger than life, sat daintily upon a boulder covered in moss. His front feet hung over the edge of the stone like massive,sticky hands, firmly planted onto the gray surface. A long pipe extended from his mouth that he puffed on every minute or so, smoke billowing out his back. He seemed to illuminate the area around him, eyes flicking over to Pascal with a vague interest. 

“WHO ARE YOU?”

Pascal stumbled back, whinnying out of instinct.

Am I hallucinating? Was there some sort of fungal spores in this area?

“I SAID, WHO ARE YOU?”

“Uh…” Pascal stumbled over his words. “Pascal.”

“PASCAL. INTERESTING NAME.”

The horse and toad stared each other down for several minutes, Pascal’s fur growing itchy with the anxiety of the moment.

“NAME A FOOD THAT BEGINS WITH THE LETTER ‘P.’”

Pascal’s brain burst into static, clamoring to understand what in the world he was experiencing.

“Um, peppers?”

“GOOD. YOU  MAY ENTER.”

With that, the toad hefted himself up, blowing out one long stream of smoke that completely obscured Pascal’s vision. He coughed and sputtered, and when he next opened his eyes, the smoke had cleared entirely. With it, both the toad and the stone had seemingly vanished as if both had never existed in the first place. In the toad’s wake, a small alcove had been exposed, rich with treasure.

“... huh.”