Escape the Riddle Rooms

“Wake up!” I seemed to be in a metal room with an old man shaking me awake. “I’ll make you a deal. If you can answer all of my riddles correctly, I’ll give you 42.3 billion dollars!”

I saw the money dancing in my head. After some consideration, I agreed.

“There are three rooms, each with one riddle. If you don’t make it to the slowly closing door in time or you  answer one of the riddles incorrectly, you’ll stay in the riddle rooms forever!” snickered the old man.

Just then, he vanished. I heard a distant voice saying, “First riddle: I’m brown and small. I have a head but no neck and a tail but no legs. What am I?”

There was a timer on the wall counting down in sync with the door closing, 55, 54, 53. I had to think fast. I put my hand in my pocket and felt a penny. I realized it is small and brown with heads and tails.

“A penny!” I shouted, and the door opened. I went through, and the timer read 38, 37, 36.

The voice then said, “Which do you choose? The door with fire raging ten feet high? The door with a swamp full of bacteria and no way around? The door with poisonous dust?”

I looked around and noticed an empty bucket in the corner. So I took the swamp water, sprayed it on the fire, and it went out. I skedaddled through to the next room. The timer showed 20, 19, 18.

The next riddle was: “What is as light as air, but the  average strongman couldn’t hold for a minute at a time?”

I didn’t know the answer so I took a deep breath. Then my mind registered that was the answer. “His breath!” I shouted. The door opened, and the old man tried to keep me from escaping. He fought me for his money, but I slid under his legs and through the door. The timer went 3, 2, 1, and next to me was the money that was once dancing in my head.