The Curse of Hidden Hollow

The Second Trial

Ahtunowhiho's grin disappeared. "Coming next is the test of intelligence." Ash sighed, intelligence was not his strong suit. Ahtunowhiho wished him luck, and Ash started down the carved-out hallway. The more he went on, the more good-looking the walls looked. They looked like someone had actually taken the effort to carve the walls. Ash's mind was still spinning with everything he had taken in. One of the weirdest things to him was that he was walking along a path that many others had walked upon. "If these walls could talk." Ash thought to himself. His thoughts switched more to what Ahtunowhiho had said. Whose life would he be putting on the line? Ahtunowhiho had mentioned a great sacrifice that Ash would have to make, whether it be his life or the life of someone else's. He had also mentioned that it would be a girl. Ash didn't know if he could make that kind of choice. He wasn't the best at making decisions. Heck, he had a hard time choosing what to eat for lunch, how was he supposed to pick if someone lives or dies? How was he supposed to pick if he lives or dies? He finally came to the next chamber. No lava, that was good. There was an old piece of paper in the middle of the room on a stone table coming out of the ground. Ash carefully stepped onto the platform to see the paper. The platform made a big "CACHUNK" sound and began to move. Ash froze, waiting to see what would happen. Suddenly, a wall sealed up the entrance he came in through, and water began to pour through holes in the top of the room. Ash began to panic. "Oh shoot, oh shoot, oh shoot, oh no!" He grabbed the paper and looked it over. The paper said, "Make all symbols match before the room is full, your life light goes from bright to dull, for when the waters start to rise, soon will follow your demise." Ash frantically looked around the room. He didn't notice when he came in, but now, there were four symbols, all on opposite sides of the room, all glowing green now. A feather, an arrow, a wolf, and a bear. Ash went over and pressed the bear. He looked behind him, and the arrow had changed into a bear. He ran over to the wolf, water sloshing around his ankles, and pressed it. He looked at the rest of the symbols. The original bear had turned into an arrow, and the original arrow had turned into a bear. He ran back over to the arrow and pressed it. It turned into a wolf. Ash yelled out in frustration. This was going to be impossible! He was going to die! He looked over at the symbols. There were two wolves, a bear, and a feather. Could have made for a good joke if he wasn't so scared. He ran over to the bear, and pressed it, it turned into an arrow, and the arrow turned into a feather. So now there were two feathers and two wolves. This kept going until he had three wolves and one arrow. The water had risen up to his neck, and he was hopping up and down to stay afloat. The symbols were harder to see now, so he had to hold his breath, go under and look for a second. He swam over to the arrow, and pressed it down, it changed into a bear. He came back up for air, only to realize that the water was only a foot from the ceiling. He took one last deep breath and went under. To his horror, he realized that one of the wolves had changed into a feather. He frantically swam over and pressed it. He looked back and saw that there were three wolves and a feather. He was almost out of air at this point. He swam over and pressed the final button. A feather, a bear, and finally a wolf. All of the symbols turned blue, all of them wolves. A door opened on the other side of the room, sucking all of the water out. Ash felt his lungs were about to burst when he felt himself being pulled with the current. He tumbled end over end, completely disoriented. He smacked his head into the wall, then his arm, then his leg. His mind raced with fear. Where was he going? When was this waterslide from hell going to end? He swam where he thought was up, and broke the surface. What he saw wasn't any better than what he couldn't see. He was racing at an alarming speed down the tunnel, the water fighting to pull him underneath. He gasped for breath, trying to stay above the surface. All of a sudden, he felt everything underneath him disappear. He felt himself flying through the air, then all of a sudden he heard a splash, and smacked into the ground. All of the wind got knocked out of him, and he rolled over, coughing. He coughed for a few minutes and tried to stand up. He saw Ahtunowhiho waiting in front of him. "Congratulations, you have passed the intelligence test." Ash grumbled sarcastically. "Thank you very much for your approval." Ahtunowhiho laughed. "I am pleased to see you are learning to go with it. Up next is the strength trial. This is the trial where many have failed. I have full confidence that you can accomplish it. Have full confidence in yourself." Ash took a deep breath, trying to get his bearings. He still felt a little winded but knew he had to get going. He took another deep breath and pressed on.