Castle (The Badlands Series) Book 1

Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Puzzle Of Life

Emlyn and Stella looked around, there was a small hallway with a floor made of metal. In each corner there was a different color gem, there was red, blue, yellow, and orange.

They headed over to the door which had a circular object in the middle with a place for two round objects. "It's probably for the two gems, we probably should start trying combinations." Emlyn suggested and before Stella could respond the floor at the far end where they had just come in fell apart from the rest of the floor far away done.

"I don't think we have much time." Stella said and jumped over grabbing the red gem and tossing it to Emlyn right as the second part of the floor fell.

"Right." She placed the red gem in one of the holes then began to think what colors you could make with red and she grabbed the blue gem which was in the right corner closest to the door and placed it in.

The 3rd part of the floor fell and there was only one left, the combination didn't work, and she stepped onto the little ledge and clung to the wall like Stella did on the far end.

"What do we do?" Emlyn asked, since they didn't have much time left and Stella looked around the room for a minute before pointing to the ceiling.

"Look at the ceiling." She said and Emlyn followed her gaze. On the ceiling there was an inscription.

"The floor is falling, but you need not worry, for just remember to not survive, but live."

Emlyn suddenly realized what it meant and looked at Stella, "Get the yellow gem on the far-left corner over there." Stella who was terrified but moved along the little ledge and grabbed the gem tossing it to Emlyn.

Emlyn places the gem in place of the red gem and the two gems came together and formed a green gem which began to glow brightly in the room and the door opened right as the fourth floor dropped.

She jumped into the new room and turned to face Stella who still was clinging to the other end. "Hold on Stella." Emlyn knew she couldn't recreate a floor; Camilla would be too smart to allow something so easy.

She carefully focused on bringing Stella to her side, on getting her back to herself. Stella suddenly began floating over the missing floor and she carefully landed next to Emlyn. "That was pretty cool, you're getting good at that."

Emlyn smiled happy to have her friend back as she turned to see what they had to face next. She wished she hadn't though. A three-headed dog came out through a set of metal cage doors. It was their way out, but they had to get pass the animal first.

"These things can be sweethearts or ruthless depending on how they were raised. I believe this one was raised to be ruthless, "she pulled out her sword and sighed, "we are going to have to kill it."

Emlyn looked at the animal and there was a sadness in her eyes. She didn't want to kill something that could have been good if raised correctly. The thing wasn't attacking them, it knew it could kill them instantly if they took the wrong step. So, it just stays there, and Emlyn thought back to her very first fight with Camilla.

"No, we don't have to kill it, we can get it to help us. If it was raised to be ruthless it was raised without love. All we have to do is give it love." Before Stella could stop her Emlyn ran towards the dog who arched and growled. He was ready to attack but was startled when Emlyn wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

The animal looked shocked and Emlyn began petting him and talking to him gently about how cute he was. About how much she wished she could have had a three headed dog like him. She scratched behind his ears on his middle head and chuckled when he wanted the other ones scratched.

"I could kill you but your giving me love?" He asked her and Emlyn smiled at him.

"Well I could kill you too, but why should I have to do that when I could be your friend instead." She responded and the animal smiled and stood up.

"That's the words of a true leader, I'm Thunder and I think you've earned yourself a partner." He ended his sentence by licking her face with all three heads and she giggled.

Stella crossed over to Emlyn and smiled, "Your way to brave, you could have died you know." Stella said folding her arms at her and glaring playfully.

"Well I didn't so let's go we got a new friend to help us." She headed for the cage like door on the other end as they crossed into the craziest room she ever saw.