Nadine Book 3

39. Challenge 1 and 2

Tye looks at me.

"CAN YOU SEE ME?" He nods. Then I really do hug him.

He hugs me right back. "What's wrong?"

"This isn't a clue. I can't get anyone's attention. LOOK." I run over to Dipak and try to shake him. He's standing there watching the scenes play out. He doesn't even notice me at all.

"It's going to be ok. We have to move forward. How did you get me back?"

"I tried to hug you and tackled you instead." I start sobbing.

He turns around and tackles Dipak. Dipak stands back up and watches the scene's play. "Wow, he is really into this." He punches Tre in the face. His nose starts bleeding and he keeps watching too. "Well this is odd." He stands there thinking, then he grabs me and pulls me in front of everyone. He gives me the sweetest kiss. I really like his kisses. I kiss him back. He smiles at me. "I really thought that would work.

"What do we do?"

"I don't know. Let's search for an exit. Maybe we can drag their asses to the next room." I start in another direction. He pulls me back against him. "No you stay right with me."

We try to find the edge of the room while ignoring the scene that's playing out. He keeps a tight grip on me. We get to what seems to be the edge. We fall right out.

We fall into blackness. "Turn to a dragon now."

Challenge 1.

I try but it doesn't work. We are both falling fast. I grab onto him so tight. I wrap my arms around his neck. He wraps his around my waist. Suddenly, I land right on top of him. It doesn't hurt. Jars us both a bit. I lift my head and look at him through a veil. We stare at each other very confused. Then we search. "We're in jail Tye."

"The same jail. Look at your dress."

"It's from that ball. Did we somehow fall back in time?" I take the veil and gloves off. "Black feathers again. Not like they will do much good now anyway. My boys are in a damn trance."

"We didn't fall back in time. There are no guards here. This is something different."

I make an orb. "I have magic this time." I throw it at the door. "AAAAHHHHH!" It bounces right back at me.

Tye tackles me and lands on me. So we're laying on the bed, and he's on top of me this time. "Let me try to knock it down first."

"Good idea."

I get up, and my boobs are not right. I start trying to fix them. He's yanking and pulling and punching the door with dragon strength. It is not opening. "What are you doing?"

"My boobs are not right. This dress is horrible for boobs."

"Quit doing that. You're going to rip it off." He fixes my boobs. "I really like this dress. That better?"

"You just like boobs."

"I do like yours. Come look at the door. Dragon strength and magic seem to have no effect on it."

I go over to it and turn the knob. It does not open. "It was worth a shot."

"Maybe I can lift it at an angle or something. Like pressure release."

"Maybe it's not the door at all. Do you see anything different?"

"It looks exactly the same." He pulls the bed away from the wall. "Nothing under it." He stands there staring at the wall the bed was against. He kneels down and pulls a brick out. He sticks his hand in and pulls out a yellow pouch.

He opens the pouch and I sit down on my knees beside him. "Does that open?"

He pulls out a paper. He reads it. "Sometimes strength and power are worthless. All you need is a bit of patience..."

"Great." I say as sarcastically as I can.

"What?"

"They've locked us in a room together to be bored sir."

He laughs. "I'm sure we can figure out something to do if that's the case." I lift my eyebrows and he busts out laughing. "And intellect. So, we're going to have to use this on something and be patient with the results."

"Maybe we have to pick the lock."

He goes over to the door again. He kneels down in front of it. "Come look at this."

I go over and he points at the keyhole. I peek in, and see a green grassy field in the middle of daylight. "He said that would be a really boring door for us."

"I don't think this is our door at all."

We search again. "I hope they don't expect us to dig our way out with that thing."

He smirks. "I think the safety's on your dress are sturdier than this thing."

He spins me around and pulls all 4 safety rods out.

"Maybe we have to dig out another brick on the wall."

"Maybe. Take a rod. We'll have to check every single one of them. See if you can carve into anything."

I pick up a rod. We start at the bottom in different corners and see if we can get any of the bricks out. None of them seem to do anything though. After what seems like a million years, I throw myself down on the bed. I must have done it to hard though because I roll right off the side.

He picks me up off the ground and laughs. Then he fixes my boobs again and stares at the bed weirdly. He pulls the bedding off and there lies a door. It was under the bedding. We couldn't see it at all before.

He turns the knob and it doesn't open. "It was worth a shot."

"Let me look in the keyhole." I climb up on the door and get my eye close to the hole.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" The door falls in, and I fall into blackness again.

His arms are around me so fast.

I wrap around him. "Did you jump in?"

"Well, I sure as hell wasn't staying."

This time we land with him on top of me. And it's so "f*****g COLD." I wiggle out from under him and climb on his back.

He stands up with me still on his back. It's daylight. Everything is covered in snow. We landed in a big pile of snow. There is a place for a fire. But no fire. A few little ice huts of some kind. I hang on his back. "Well, you wanted to go somewhere cold. Here we are."

"I would have picked different shoes, sir, and maybe something to cover my shoulders."

"Maybe there is something we can put on you in those huts." He goes in and it's completely empty. I cry. "Stay in here and let me look around."

I get down and hug myself. It is so cold. After a couple of minutes, he comes back with some boots clothes. He's got a big coat on. It nearly drags the ground.

My tears are trying to freeze on my face. I am so cold. I shiver and hug myself.

He wraps me in his arms. He puts my body inside the coat he has on. "You're to cold. We need to warm you up a little." He lifts me up. I grab his sides with my legs. He's so warm. He wraps his coat all the way around the back of me. Then he rubs my back. "Calm down. You're alright."

I'm still shivering badly. "You're so warm." I hug him tighter and bury my face in his neck.

After a few minutes, he says, "We can put this stuff on you now. You're not near as cold."

I shake my head. I don't want to let go.

"You'll be fine. We have to get it on."

He holds on to me and I put my feet down. Then he kneels down in front of me and takes my heels off. He puts big warm boots on me. He ties them up and my feet feel so much better.

He stands back up and then runs his hands down my arms. "Arms are still cold. But the coat should fix it now." His eyes are dark. He starts messing with the coat and I can tell he's trying to get rid of them.

I know it's terrible timing, but now I want a kiss. I pull him into me and give him a gentle kiss. He wraps his coat back around me. I feel something in my chest connect again. He gives me the deepest kiss.

He puts his arms back around me and pulls me in so close. Then he whispers, "I wish I was yours too."

Something else connects and he gives me another kiss. I don't even know what to say. I didn't know anyone could ever want a life like this. It just happened to me. I don't think any of us wanted it before. We just all accept it.

"You alright?"

He backs up and puts the coat on me. He buttons it and gets the hood part right. I help him with his coat and get the hood out of it. Then we both put some gloves on. "We are doing this backwards."

He laughs. "Let's make a fire. Then we can figure out what's next."

We get outside and I smile. "This stuff really works."

He goes over to a table. "I can get a fire started with this stuff. But we need to get stuff to burn..."

"I CAN DO THAT." I take off with speed and go right towards the trees. I get so much stuff and bring it back. I get everything we need and so much wood.

He makes the fire in the bowl. He sees my pile of wood and stuff. "This is going to be huge."

I smile at him.

"Good job."

"Thank you. I like warmness."

He chuckles and starts the fire. As soon as he does, someone comes up behind me and I jump straight into his arms. "That's just weird."

It's someone dressed like us. With a big coat, boots, and gloves. Tye is staring at the man. Then people come out of all 3 huts. Even the one we were in, that was empty. They all stand by the fire and get warm. "Hi." I wiggle a bit and Tye puts me on my feet.

He yells, "HELLO!"

The men look at him and say "Good afternoon." at the exact same time. There are 6 men, so it's very creepy.

Tye says, "Good afternoon."

"It's a good day for hunting, isn't it?"

I watch them all talking in unison. "No."

The 4 females all smile at me.

I say, "Good afternoon."

The girls all say, "It's a good day for hunting, isn't it?"

Tye nods. "What do we hunt for?"

"And with what?"

One of the girls points to a hut. We go over, and it's full of all kinds of stuff now. He grabs a sword and shield. I grab a bow and arrows. I smile at Tye. "I get it. We do something and it unlocks the next part. Like we made a fire and they all came out."

He nods. "And the huts filled up." He grabs a couple of traps and hooks them to his coat. There are 2 horses outside and the people are all gone now. "Put these weapons on the horses, and we will go through all the huts."

We get situated and go back to the hut we were just in. It's empty. "Maybe the others have stuff in them?"

He nods, and we check, but the others are all empty.

I shrug my shoulders. He helps me climb on a horse.

He gets on the other horse.

We walk for a while side by side. "Why did you seem so shocked when I said that?"

I think about it for a minute. "Because none of us wanted this. You made me realize that. It's something we deal with. It is the way it is. We were all blindsided. It's not the way it's supposed to work. You know?"

He smiles at me.

"We made it to the sea."

He points into the distance. "Over there. It's some kind of animal that comes out of the sea."

"If we get close enough, I bet I can hit it with an arrow."

"Alright. As long as this doesn't turn into the fish thing."

I give him a dirty look, and he laughs as we go towards them. I put an arrow in and pull the bow up. The horse moves all over the place. I put the bow down and it stops. I put it up and the horse moves again. Put it down. Horse still. Tye's watching me and trying not to laugh. "I guess I'm getting down."

He smirks. "I guess so."

I get off the horse and get a few feet in front of him. I pull the bow up and the horse headbutts me right in my back. He knocks me face-first into the snow. Tye cracks up laughing and hops off his horse. He tries to help me up and the horse headbutts him too. He lands face down in the snow and then I crack up laughing. "I guess we're supposed to lay down."

"I guess so." I find a little one away from the sea. I control my breathing and draw the arrow back. I aim as perfect as I can and let go. It hits the target in the head perfectly. I get another arrow as soon as I can and put it in. I draw it back. I hit it again in the chest.

"You are damn good at hunting. Why would anyone say you're not?"

"Thank you." He helps me up. "I can't catch animals with my hands or kill them like that. And I've never tried hitting anything with an arrow before."

"Plenty of ways to hunt. Not just 1."

We get up to it, and he pulls the arrows out. It looks at us and screams. Then I scream, "AAAAAAAHHHHH!"

He shoves a sword into it so fast. "Now it's really dead."

He picks it up, and we go back to the huts on the horses. A man takes the animal and roams away. All the others look at us at the exact same time and say, "I'm thirsty."

I scream, "THAT IS f*****g CREEPY!"

Tye laughs and grabs the bowl again. He gets a bowl of snow and melts it on the fire.

A girl takes it away from him. "Thank you."

I smile. "Good afternoon?"

"Nice day for a nap." They all point at a hut.

Tye puts his arm around me. "I could definitely use a nap."

I start laughing, and he pulls me in the hut. There is a door there now. Right on the back wall.

I put my head on his shoulder. "I wonder where we're going next."

He kisses my head. "Hopefully it's not cold." He reaches out and turns the knob.

As soon as it opens, we are in the room with everyone else. Dipak, Tre, Mary, and Omar. They are still standing in the same places. I look at Tye, and he is watching the scenes play out. "Tye." Nothing. I shake him. Nothing. Kiss him. Nothing. Kick him in the shin. Nothing.

I kick Dipak. Nothing. Omar, nothing. Mary, nothing. Tre. "OUCH."

"That hurt baby."

I give him a big kiss. "Tre, this is part of the test. Look." I show him everyone and how they're stuck. "Apparently the next part is with you."

He gives me a hug. "Ok baby. But why do I have blood on me?"

"Tye was trying different things to bring you 2 out of the trance. I think he punched your nose."

"Tye is in a trance."

"He wasn't before. He did the last challenge with me."

"What did you 2 do?"

I put my arm through his and lead us towards the exit.

"Went to prison. We got out of that and landed in a snow pile." I'm in my original ball gown. The cold weather stuff is gone.

"A snow pile?"

"I'll tell you later."

We step out of the room and start falling again. I wrap around him as we fall.