Riddle me this
1559 Words
When Kawasha’s cryptic chanting came to an end, the ground began to tremble. The animal carvings on the stone totem gave off a bright blue light and began to shake. Soon, the ground before them caved in to reveal a hidden underground door.
“That’s the door to the secret passage,” Kawasha said, jumping down into the pit.
Nashoba and Mawanko followed in quick succession. Aaron and Zach were the last to enter.
The stone door in front seemed to have been constructed several centuries ago. It had developed multiple cracks all over, some of which ran from one corner of the door to the other. If the door was any indication, the passage ahead was going to be in even worse condition. Aaron warned the others to watch out for traps and fault lines, before asking Kawasha to open the door.
Kawasha ran his index finger along the perimeter of the strange runic symbol painted on the door and whispered something. The door immediately parted in the middle to reveal a dark and gloomy tunnel on the other side.
Aaron could see the hesitation on the young tracker’s face and asked him to step back.
“Does this tunnel bifurcate up ahead? Or is it just a straight path to the camp?”
“The tunnel should lead straight to the camp, if the old legends are true,” Kawasha replied.
“What old legends? You’ve travelled through this tunnel before, right?” Aaron asked, quite perplexed by Kawasha’s words.
The young tracker stole his eyes away from him and stuttered out a hesitant reply. “I...only read about it on one of the old tablets I’d found. But, I never actually went inside to see where it leads.”
“That’s just what we needed,” Zach snickered. “Now we could be walking straight into a death trap, all thanks to your brilliant idea.”
“Well, he did bring us this far,” Aaron intervened. Opening the map on his Z-band, he showed it to Zach. “The quest marker isn’t far from here. I think this path will lead us straight to the Dark Orc camp.”
“It’s never been explored before. Ever thought about that?”
Before Aaron could continue the discussion, the creaking of branches, followed by a familiar groaning sound, attracted their attention.
“That Oak isn’t dead. We can’t stay here. Our only choice is to get inside the tunnel.” Aaron quickly accessed his inventory and took out the torches. Using his glowing hot fingers, he lit them one by one and handed them to the others. Holstering his knives for now, he took a torch in each hand and stepped inside the tunnel. “Follow me, but don’t get too close.”
As Aaron set foot inside the dark passage, the damp, musty air gave him the chills. The group followed behind with their torches held firmly.
Swinging both torches with a sweeping motion, Aaron slowly made his way through the dark tunnel. This neat little trick helped him to illuminate a wider area, as he moved along the narrow path. Instead of just focusing on the ground, he made sure to check the walls as well. He had played enough games before to know how treacherous such hidden tunnels could be.
There could be traps or even hidden runes carved on its walls. Some of the survival games that Aaron had played during his school days had similar tunnels and hidden passages, and a few of them would only yield an exit after making the player solve some sort of puzzle. If that was the case with this particular tunnel too, then Aaron had to make sure he didn’t miss any special clues hidden from sight.
When the group had come quite far, the stone door behind them closed shut, just as Kawasha had told them it would. Aaron was too focused on what lay ahead to pay any attention to other things. So far, he hadn’t discovered any runic symbols or traps, but he wasn’t about to drop his guard. The only plus point of being in a century-old tunnel was that there weren’t going to be any dangerous beasts lurking within. Insects, however, could still lurk in the cracks and crevices.
After walking for a while, Aaron finally paused. The path ahead split into 2 smaller tunnels.
“I thought you said there were no bifurcations,” Aaron fixed his eyes on Kawasha. “What do we do now?”
“Maybe they both lead to the Dark Orc Camp,” Mawanko replied in his stead.
“Yeah, right,” Zach scoffed. “That would make it a really crappy survival game.”
“A what?” Nashoba questioned.
“Jesus, never mind,” Zach muttered under his breath.
All 3 of the tribesmen looked completely clueless about what they should do. Eventually, Zach came up with his solution.
“We can just split up, you know. I can take one of the tunnels and you can all follow the other one. Whoever finds the exit to the Dark Orc Camp, can just contact the others.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, bro. We don’t know if the Z-band’s comms feature will work so deep under the ground. Plus, there’s a good chance you may run into something.”
“What am I gonna run into? No animals live under the ground.”
“Well, I think you’ve forgotten what happened the last time we raided a tomb in Pharaoh’s Wrath.”
Just the mere mention of that game refreshed Zach’s memory in a flash. “Oh f**k, how can I forget the damn sand beetles and leeches!”
“So, we are better off sticking together, bro. Here, take this.” Aaron handed Zach one of the torches and walked up to where the path diverged. Both paths looked almost identical, with no clues to point him in the right direction. He bent down to see if there were any old Orc or human tracks, but found nothing of interest. This secret tunnel had never been used before and they were probably the first ones to venture inside.
Unable to obtain any useful information from his immediate environment, Aaron turned to his Z-band for assistance.
Whereas most survival games always allowed players to access the local map, Evolution Island had no such feature. The Z-band only enabled the players to get a general overview of the regional map. However, inside enclosed areas such as caves, tunnels or towers, the player could only rely on directional or tracking skills to find his way.
Out of all the members in the group, only Kawasha could use tracking skills, but his character level was so low that he could only track landmarks/points of interest which were above the ground. At that moment, it seemed like Zach’s risky idea was the only way out of this mess.
“You might wanna take a look at this,” Zach spoke with urgency in his voice. As Aaron looked up, he turned his Z-band towards him.
The quest tab on Zach’s Z-band showed a single open quest: Demolish Dark Orc Camp. It was marked as an active quest and just under it was a timer which showed the time left—45 minutes.
“f**k, it’s a timed quest! This guy is just setting us up to fail.”
“Should never have expected Gilbert to play fair. The guy’s a real prick.” Zach squatted down beside Aaron and once more suggested that they should split up.
Aaron considered all the possibilities in his head, before making a final decision. “That’s exactly what Gilbert would want. We’re sticking together.
“Kawasha, what else did that ancient tablet say about this tunnel? I need all the details that you remember.”
Kawasha wasn’t the strongest in the tribe, but his memory could always be trusted. Though he had read the inscriptions on the tablet almost a year ago, he was able to recall most of the lines written on it.
“Beyond the dead Chestnut Trees,
A sleepless watcher stands tall.
He answers not to the words of men,
But is moved by the whispers of time.
Under his stony feet, you shall find
A path long forgotten.
Seek out the shadow and you shall rise.
Alight your path and swift will be your demise.”
the
The words went right over Zach’s head, but Aaron asked Kawasha to repeat the lines one more time so he could note them down in his Z-band.
“It’s a riddle!” Aaron exclaimed. “The sleepless watcher refers to the stone totem. It answers not to the words of men, because the totem can only be awakened by an ancient incantation. And here’s our way out.” Aaron pointed at the last two lines. “We have to seek out the shadow.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means we have to put out our torches and navigate the way in darkness.”
“Are you serious, bro? That has suspicious written all over it!”
“There’s only one way to find out if it’s true.” Aaron blew out his torch and asked the others to do the same.
- Writer
