Once Upon a Time: Ever After High (Book 13)

Ch.7 Jungle obstacles

Now at Gold's Antique Shop, a shop that pretty much has everything, Mira stepped inside to the sound of the bell ringing to find the shop empty, but she knew better.

"Gold!" she called out.

She waited until the owner, a man in his fifties, but actually older than he looks stepped out from the back room.

"Well-" he grinned when he saw her "What can I do for you Ms. Queen?"

"I need your help" she began "I need something that can help us communicate to Ever After, something that can allow everyone to talk to their loved ones on the other side."

"You need a communicator huh? Well I might have something, but it wont be easy."

"Nothing's easy in this town" she remarked "Just show me what you got."

He went into the back room as she waited until he came back out with a box in his arms as he placed it on the counter.

"What I have here is something that hasn't been used in many years" he informed "I don't even know if it still works."

He opened the box and reached in to pull out a vintage black telephone covered in scratches and dust that Mira had to brush the dust away from her face.

"This telephone can communicate through realms" Gold explained "All you have to do is turn the numbers 3 times, and say which realm you want to locate and who you wish to speak to. But because of your curse, it may take some of your magic in order for it to work. And like I said before, it hasn't been used in years, and I don't know if it still works."

"I'll take my chances" Mira declared as he placed the phone back into the box and handed it to her.

"Now I couldn't help but notice you have some sadness in your eyes" Gold suddenly put in "I'm guessing it has to do with the curse and your daughter?"

"That is none of your concern" she muttered before heading out the shop, leaving him with a small sneer on his face, already knowing what was wrong.

_________

Still in the jungle and in front of the obstacle course, Elena and Olivia looked around for anything that might surprise them once they take the first step.

"I'm gonna guess that if I take the first step-" Elena began "Arrows are going to shoot at me."

"Would it be consider cheating if you use your magic to get through?" Olivia wondered.

"Of course it'll be cheating, but the question is, does my magic still work?"

She held her palm up and tried to create a fireball, but no luck.

"I guess they made sure I wouldn't cheat" she sighed.

"Well then-" Olivia breathed "I guess we'll just have to do this the normal way, and by that I mean possibly get ourselves killed."

"Can we like, throw something in front of us to set off the traps so we can get through?"

At that point Olivia picked up a nearby rock and tossed it in front of them, but nothing happened.

"I guess not" Elena grunted as she took a deep breath "Okay you know what? I'm gonna go for it."

"What?" Olivia eyes widen just as Elena took the first step, only to be pulled back by Olivia to avoid an arrow that had been shot at it at it hit a tree.

"Whoa" Elena breathed in shock "I was right about the arrows."

"Great" Olivia muttered "We're dead aren't we?"

After a moment of thinking, Elena came to a hard decision.

"I think we should just run" she suggested "Run and pray that the arrows don't hit any of our organs."

"We really should of brought some helmets" Olivia sighed "Alright let's do it, if we die, we die."

They both took steps back away from the obstacles and got prepared to run.

"Ready?" Elena asked.

"Let's do this."

"Go!"

They took off towards the obstacles, and as soon as they ran through the first part, arrows are shooting at them as they did their best to avoid getting hit. And as soon as they made it past the arrows, they were still alive, but now covered in cuts.

"Damn!" Elena exclaimed in pain while clutching a slash wound on her arm "That was not easy!"

"At least we're alive" Olivia breathed while clutching a slash on her thigh "You still have the first aid kit?"

"Yeah, let's just take care of the big cuts, I know we're gonna need more band aids later."

After doing so, even though their smaller cuts were already oozing out more blood, the two went up to the next part of the obstacles and stopped.

"Okay judging by the way this is arranged" Elena began "I'm gonna say something sharp will swing down on us."

"I hate this already" Olivia sighed "Let's just get it over with."

They took deep breaths before taking a step forward, and just as they expected a sharp blade swung down from above and at them as they quickly stepped forward, just barely missing it.

"We got this" Elena declared while holding her hand up as Olivia nodded before taking it.

And with that they continued to step forward while being careful not the hit slashed by the blades as they made it to the other side.

"Okay that one was a bit easier" Olivia commented.

"Well it looks like we've got one more" Elena pointed out "And the by the looks of it, I'm guessing if we step on the wrong block, it means certain death."

"How do we know which blocks are the right one?"

"We don't. Although what I suggest we do, we just run like we did with the arrows, if we're fast enough, we could escape the falls."

"Let's do it."

Just like before, they took some steps back, and once they were ready, they zoomed over the stone blocks, already feeling the wrong ones dropping beneath them. They were close to falling, but managed to make it to the other side.

"We did it!" Olivia cheered as they gave each other high fives.

"I guess the arrows were the only hard ones" Elena remarked.

They then spotted the Golden Gorilla on top of the stone, still shimmering from the light.

"There it is" Olivia breathed astonished as they walked up to it "Be careful, there may be another trap if we take it."

After taking a deep breath and being careful, Elena reached her hand out and slowly wrapped it around the object. And being quick she took it off the stone as they stepped back to avoid any sudden traps, but nothing happened.

"Is that it?" Olivia questioned.

But before Elena could reply, they suddenly felt magic surrounding them as they closed their eyes, and when they opened them, they found themselves back in their living room, and their cuts had healed.

"We're- we're back" Olivia gasped "And our cuts are gone."

"Wow" Elena remarked when she noticed the Golden Gorilla in her hands "We- we did it. We got the last item."