Nadine Book 3

8. Puzzle Game

The 4 of us look around under the water. I find something yellow and big on the ground. It says -START HERE- It has a red arrow going off to one side.

I take off and grab Tye. He's doing something, but I drag him back to the yellow mat. Thora and Frode follows us.

Frode tries to sort it out, but Thora just grabs him and drags him in the direction of the red arrow. Me and Tye are about half racing to get there. I try to trip him, but instead I trip myself. He picks me up. I get the sand out of my boobs as he stands beside me laughing. Thora drags Frode right by us.

We catch up to them and Thora is standing on top of a big boulder. She does the, I don't know, signal. I help her down and she pushes the boulder. Frode shakes his head.

There really is nothing else here. I help Thora push the boulder.

We move around the boulder, pushing it, and once we hit a certain angle, the top of it opens. It's a chest made to appear like a boulder. We both fall over top of it when it opens. The boys pick us up then see what's in it.

They read something on a shell and look around at the same time. I grab the shell.

Tye grabs me and Frode grabs Thora. They drag us away before I can read it.

They drag us to a huge set of rocks. They are like a doorway. 2 huge boulders stand to nearly the top of the water and one rock sits across the top of them. We go through and there is another yellow pad on the ground. It has 2 red arrows pointing away from it. Going in opposite directions.

The boys pull us in opposite directions.

Me and Tye come to a large group of fish. They are all swimming in circles. There has to be 200 fish. All swimming in 1 area. I see one with a big yellow pouch stuck to the side of it. I point to it.

I take off and miss. I do that about 12 times. I stomp my feet. I give him a dirty look. He kisses my head then gets the fish. I kick him as he pulls the big pouch off it. He puts his arm around me and unfolds it.

It says something about a rocky lagoon to the west. I peek at him and he laughs again. He points in a direction and go that way for quite a ways. Then we come across a bunch of rocks. It's the weirdest thing to find underwater. There are no other rocks around us.

It's like a cave. I stare at it. I wonder if it will be dark in there. I stare at it for a while. Then I turn around. He's about 10 feet behind me. He smiles. Maybe it won't all be like a cave. I go in and he comes in behind me. I stub my toe on a weird triangle rock and kick it.

Right inside the entrance is stairs. We go up and come out onto a regular floor. There's no water in here. And it's light. We can see fine. I give him the biggest hug. "I didn't think I could do it."

He hugs me right back. "You did good." He kisses my head, and we go down the hallway.

We go into the first room, and it has a doorway to another room. But there are 3 holes carved out around it. We both try to open it but the door won't budge. The carved out holes are different shapes. Round, square and triangle. I remember the stone when we first came in. I take off running out of the room and back down the hallway. Down the stairs and into the water. Tye follows me the whole way. I get to the entrance and pick up the triangle rock. I show him and smile. He nods and starts searching. I run and put my stone in the doorway cutout. He comes in with the other 2 and puts them in. Then the door opens.

We go through the door and onto a little platform. The next door is on the other side of a very long room. There is no floor to get there. There are floating platform rocks. We are going to have to jump from one to another, all the way across. It seems if we miss, we will fall forever. And it's all black down there. I do not want to fall down here.

He kisses my head. "Do you want to go back?"

I shake my head and jump to the first platform.

"We can fly over baby." He turns to a dragon and flies over.

"I want to do it the right way."

"Ok. Go ahead. I'll wait."

I keep jumping. Boulders start falling out of the walls and swinging on chains. "THIS MAKES FLYING MORE DIFFICULT SIR."

"Well, you should have flown over with me."

I nearly get knocked off the platform by a boulder. He comes up to me on the ground. "It's not deep, it's very black to make it appear deep. Come here. We can walk over."

He pulls me down and I hug him. "This is really intense for a bunch of little girls."

"Yea, it is."

The next door opens right up for us.

"I feel like we cheated."

We get into the next room, and it's packed with stuff. Piles of stuff everywhere with anything you can think of. One pile goes to the ceiling. The next door has 10 empty cutouts around it. He smiles. "It's a scavenger hunt."

"Ok... That one is a sword. A shoe. A book maybe?"

He nods. "Cup. Dagger. That might be an instrument. I think I saw it by the other door."

"A teddy bear."

"Bottle of wine."

"If I find a bottle of wine, I am drinking it, sir."

"I don't know what this one is. Maybe a block or chunk of gold or something. Keep an eye out for something small and cube-shaped."

"Seashell."

"Let's search and don't drink the wine without me. I need some too." We laugh and throw things around.

"THE WINE IS EMPTY."

"Well that's unfortunate." I laugh at him and put it in the cutout.

20 minutes later, we get the last piece in the door. We climb on a pile of stuff right by the door and open it. Both of us and the pile of stuff we're standing on fall into the next room.

We lay there and stare at the ceiling for a few minutes. "This really is a lot of work."

"Yea, at least in jail, we only had to break out of one room."

I crack up laughing. "Well you're not wrong sir."

We go to the next door, and it has a puzzle built right into the door. We finish it quickly. He pushes the lever and the door opens right up.

Then we go down some stairs into a circular stone room with a round table in the middle. The table has 2 levers, one on each side. A yellow star is on the table. In the middle it says to click them both at the same time.

I get on one side of the table, and he gets on the other. "Click it on 3. 1..2..3."

We both click them and a rock comes down and seals the way back up the steps. We are in a cave. We have light, but this is a cave. I start to shake. He is coming for me. I jump into his arms, and he wraps me up.

"It's ok. I need to read this. I won't let go. Try to relax." He carries me somewhere, I can only hold him and shake.

"Baby I have to push this. This place will fill with water and the entrance will be revealed. Whatever that means. But this is the end. It's ok. You're safe."

I look at the torches on the walls giving us light. I close my eyes and hold him tighter. I start bawling.

He kisses my head. "I promise, I won't let go."

The place fills with water. He hugs me so tight. It's only pitch black for a few seconds before another wall opens. He carries me right through it, and we're back in open water. I can see light again. But I can't look around. I hold him and bury my face in his chest.

He holds me and rubs my hair.

I close my eyes and try to relax. After a few minutes, I notice we are standing on a red arrow. I don't want to do this anymore. I want to go back. This stopped being any fun at all.

He picks me up and follows the arrows. There are actually quite a few now. They are leading us right to something. I snuggle him and watch.

We come up to a bunch of underwater grass that is taller than we are. He winks at me and smiles. That makes me smile. I do really like him. He is so sweet and kind. He gives me a kiss. He is very gentle with it. Then he rubs my cheek for a second. He gets a smirk on his face. That smirk tells me that my eyes went dark. I swear they are always getting dark. He kisses me again. Then I kiss him. He is so sexy. We kiss a couple more times then laugh. Not sure what that was about.

He puts me on my feet and gives me 1 more deep kiss. Then he puts his arm around me and we go into the deep grass.