Challenging Riddles   ( O _ o) ?!

---

1)  A sealed land forgotten,
      To precious shapes it yields.
      Zephyr on zenith found
      Across strange woods and fields.


2)  Mother of magic and father of air,
      Their colorful children heard everywhere.
      Ancientest stone wears no blemish nor crack.
      Take a half-step forward, then three steps back.


3)  Life within death, water in fire,
      A path opened in child's darkest hour.
      Secret behind a marker of stone,
      From tunnel emerges a far away home.


4)  Treasure untold, no key, nor lid,
      Yet inside purest ichor hid.


5)  Water aplenty and green round and round;
      Many happy faces, their counseling sound;
      A haven for rest with secrets abound;
      Have faith and be shown a way underground.


6)  The damned leading the blind,
      On a pathway ill-defined.
      No memory of silence, no thought of sky,
      Sight to no avail, yet liberated by the eye.


7)  Walk across the ropes,
      Under protector's gaze;
      Bounded by a golden arch,
      Ancient are these ways.


8)  Creature of half-sight, by tribulation healed;
      Loved of divinity, with wound by goddess sealed.


9)  Once left, never the same.

     Two halves of a whole, 
     Each well-defined; 
     Brief expanse of blue,
     Wood-bridge combined; 
     Low marks innocence, 
     Height, Experience.

     Once back, ever the same.


10)  Five in order, one by one,
        It will not stop until it's done;
        Wrested from unseemly hand, 
        A spirit rests within its band.

​
11)  Death bound and eternal waking;
       True evil — there's no mistaking!
       Yet, this Shivan allegory
       May tell us a different story.