Dear Adventures and the Mystery Beneath Dimashistan

7th Installment Chapter 24

Elinor observed the shaky rock in front of them. It looked exactly like all rocks in the cave, but it was much lighter. If you pushed it from one end it would wobble like a table, with one short leg. Shelly tried pushing the rock, but it wouldn't budge. It would only wobble if you pushed it from the side.

Elinor observed the girl as she fumbled around the rocks, entirely confident that there must be a lever or a secret button somewhere. Elinor knew that they were not on the set of Scooby Doo, but she felt a tang of guilt as Shelly moved about, adamant that there must be a way. While she thought the girl was moving aimlessly around the passages, wasting their energy, Shelly was not stuck on being lost but she was searching for a new way for them to get to their friends.

The realization caused her to go and look around the rock herself. She sat on the floor and patted her fingers on the hard ground. She pushed and pulled on every little thing that met her hands but was unable to find anything. She looked up at Shelly who had now moved on to the cave wall beside the rock. Just looking at her fumbling around dissipated any thought of aborting this mission from Elinor's head. Instead she asked Shelly for her phone, who handed it to her instantly and went back to patting down the wall, even though she could not clearly see where or what she was touching.

Elinor shone the flashlight on the rock and observed it from each side. Then she sat back on the floor and tried to look at the bottom side. Lo and behold, the rock had wheels underneath it. It wasn't obvious but when Elinor saw that the edges of the rock were lifted slightly above the floor, she ventured to take a closer look and placed her cheek on the ground very close to the rock and pointed the light at it.

On further observation she saw that there was sort of a path right next to the wheels. It wasn't exactly indented but the fact that there were no bumps or ridges exactly in the shape of a half D was more than enough proof, but it wasn't enough to tell her how to open the thing.

Shelly was standing on a smaller rock besides the big one and exploring the unreachable parts of the wall, when Elinor called her and shared her discovery. She excitedly jumped beside Elinor and took a look for herself and noticed that the path ended right beside the rock she was standing on. She immediately took to observing that rock instead. She sat on the floor to look beneath it.

"Hey Shelly," Elinor called, squatting beside her. Shelly gave her a glance as if to say keep going on and went back to inspecting the rock. "I am sorry for taking out my frustration on you." Shelly looked at her. "You know I like to have plan for something and when things seem out of control, I don't take it very well."

"Elinor, none of us signed up for this," Shelly answered. "We came here to have fun, not to get bruises and scrapes in this dark cave." She swung her arm open and continued, "I cannot talk for anybody else but talking to you guys through the internet has always been the highlight of my day. From Eileen's informative posts and Daniella's supportive commentary, while Lindsay rallies everyone together for the next competition, and Sammy dramatizes everything, to your silly impossible captions, I love all of it" Elinor stared at her hands. "What I am trying to say is that all of you are special to me, like my own family. And if I can go this far for Earthee I can definitely understand your being frustrated at a time like this" Elinor smiled up at her. "But please tone it down a little, I can understand most things, but you need to be less impossible." The two girls laughed heartily at that.

"You know I think you are the awesomest person alive, with a heart of gold, right?" Elinor said while giving her a tight hug. Shelly lost balance and fell forwards as she tried to push Elinor off of her. The phone fell a bit farther and Shelly went to pick it up and her eyes fell upon the ground. There were no rock or bumps there.

"Elinor look at this," Shelly said as she shone the light on the semi D like shape. Elinor moved up to her, and instantly realized that both the rocks had similar tracks. She went to the smaller rock and pushed it and was not surprised when it moved like butter. With it moved the bigger rock as well. They were connected by some kind of mechanism, it was ingenious.