Heart of a Berserker: Hope (School of Dragons)

Chapter 12

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude." – Thomas Jefferson

Chapter 12

"This is what I live for, my friend!" Skulder said excitedly. "I can't waste time worrying about little things like danger and death when there are ancient civilizations to explore. We should make sure the Krayfin is happy before I get distracted; I warn you, I will get distracted."

I chuckled. "No problem."

I approached a wall filled with gears. I had to get the gears moving by solving the puzzle to open the entrance to the next room. It took some work, but I eventually succeeded. The next room contained several lock boxes to solve. After that, we discovered a challenge Mala did not know about, and Skulder suggested it was added later on by someone from Berk. Solving this puzzle led me to a treasure room.

Mala looked around at everything in the room in awe. Then her gaze settled on some sort of weapon. "Heavens!" she exclaimed. "This is the Winged Spear, an ancient symbol of our connection to the Eruptodon. I must return this - and the rest of these beautiful relics - back to their rightful place on our island." She turned to me and smiled. "Our journey together end for now, but this will not be the last time we work together. These trials tested our mettle and you proved worthy. I have no doubt you will find what you seek."

"Thank you for your help," I said. "I could not have come this far without you."

"It was an honor, your majesty," Phlegma said. "Come on, lassie. We need to follow that tunnel to the next room."

I led the way down the tunnel to the next room. The Krayfin became very excited as we walked onto a catwalk. He jumped into the water surrounding us and began to swim around.

"Well, now we know what the leviathan wants," Phlegma said, "but this looks too deep for you and me! Is that the intended trial, to figure out how to lower the water level?"

"We are on the same brain wave, my dear Phlegma!" Skulder said. "We can close the valve on those pipes to stop the water! They have an outer part called a seat that makes sure there is a tight fit, then the inner part (called the body) can open or close to control the water flow. We can open or close the body by using the leveler." His words had come out rapidly in excitement, but now he stopped suddenly. "'My dear...'" Heat rose to his cheeks as he repeated his earlier words to Phlegma. "Oh! I mean. I mean no disrespect, I just... Oh dear. Brennda, please save me from the embarrassment! Go close the pipe valve. And don't look at me like that!"

I had been watching him through his stammering with a knowing smirk. "Fine, I'll save you this time." But we were so talking about this later.

I approached the valve and solved the puzzle. Like expected, this lowered the water level. I had to solve several more puzzles until we reached the bottom. Then a solved a gear puzzle on the door that opened it, leading us to a corridor with another door at the end.

"My word," Skulder said. "What a strange place! It's a dead end, but I'm sure we can figure this out. Perhaps it's a hiding clue for us to solve! Let's put our heads together." We walked around, looking for clues. Skulder stopped by a lever near the door. "Okay, I got it. I know that this lever will open the door. Here we go!"

Suddenly, the floor gave way, and we all fell through. I groaned as I sat up and rubbed my back. Then I noticed we were outside in what appeared to be a lush jungle. "Well, that was unexpected," I said.

"Is everyone okay?" Skulder said.

"Everything's fine here."

"Good. My apologies, everyone... but at least we're not locked in a cage, ha ha!"