The Keeper Exams

Chapter Fifteen - Saved by Sea Creatures

Realm Two: Underwater Atlantis Maze

Team Purple

Zander

I pull Hannah towards the left tunnel ,and we sprint down the dark corridor.

Well to be more accurate...she sprints; I attempt to, but it isn't long before I have to slow to a hobble. My vision swims slightly in front of me and I lean against the wall breathing heavily. I obviously haven't totally recovered from the blood loss.

"I'm so out of shape!" I breathe. "I feel fat. Hannah, do I look fat?"

She raises her eyebrows at me exasperated. "Yes, you're obese Zander. You need to go on a diet."

We laugh at that, and I stop abruptly, surprised. I hadn't laughed in so long and this would have been the last place I would have guessed that I would have laughed in.

"You know what's funny-" I start to say planning on sharing my revelation, but suddenly a pungent smell assaults our nostrils, and I quickly shut my mouth. It smells strangely...fishy, and a moment later we know why.

"Woah," I say. The tunnel had open up into a wider corridor encased under a dome, and on the other side of the glass is the ocean, or at least what looks like it. Fish swim aimlessly, above us, around us, everywhere. The water casts a gentle, wavering blue glow on everything, and the shadows shift and dance as the light is refracted by the moving water.
Hannah doesn't talk, like always, but she runs up to the glass pressing her hands against it. A curious octopus swims lazily across the water stopping right in front of her. I watch mesmerized as the two start having what looks like a conversation. Hannah doesn't speak, but every so often the octopus inclines its head as if nodding, or waves its tentacles in complicated gestures. A few minutes later it swims away, and she returns to me. I stare at her questioningly. She surprises me by answering.

"She says it's a maze."

"She?"

"Yes, the octopus is female, what did you expect me to say?"

"Nevermind."

We continue down the tunnels only talking to discuss our options at forks. The city or maze-whatever it is- is breathtaking. Elegant statues line the corridors, some missing noses and limbs but no less beautiful. Moss line the walls like miniature forests. And through it all the beautiful blue glow from the water shimmers and shifts like cloth floating in the wind.

I have a vague guess that we're supposed to look for an exit, but have no idea how to find one whatsoever.

A sharp knocking noise interrupts my thoughts,and I look around confusedly for the source of the sound. Hannah nudges me motioning upwards. There hovering above us is not one, but four sea creatures. There's the octopus from earlier, a huge shark, a sea turtle, and a dolphin. Hannah waves to them giving me a pointed look to do the same, and I obey. The four animals wave back, before motioning with their tentacles and fins to follow them.

They try to guide us best as they can from the above and after a couple dead ends and wrong turns, we eventually we end up in front of a shimmering blue wall with a large holographic number 5 on it.
Hannah and I exchange concerned looks.

"Is it a trap?" she asks voicing my thoughts. I stare at it suspiciously.

"Probably. But it could be our way out."

"I'll go through, and you stay here so that if it's a trap our team won't lose two people at once," she volunteers. I shake my head adamantly in reply. "Absolutely not! If we go, we go together."

She gives me a small smile and I grin back. We step through the the wavering wall into a tiny, claustrophobic room. My breath quickens.

"Ok, I'm out," I say turning back to the screen, but it's now a solid glass screen. "Damnit, I knew it!"