Chapter 3: The pyramid: it begins

Chapter 3

The pyramid:

It begins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They all sat and talked still as I was deep in thought. Then a small pyramid appeared in front of me on the table. No one else noticed but me. I picked it up and examined it. You think though that it just magically appearing would bother me, but I had seen enough like that to not care. It seemed useless, so I set it down on our green carpet and tried to listen to what they were talking about.

Once again the ground shook, and we all rushed out side…again. We got out just in time to see a huge pyramid crash onto our front lawn. We all gawked. And it was on the green grass. I raised a brow at the site. “ I think I may have done that…when I set the toy pyramid on the green carpet…I really do have powers!” that was all the proof I needed to be happy with it.

Seeing no dangers near and the pyramid sealed closed still, we all walked over to look at it. Its not everyday a pyramid crashes into your yard. After circling it a few times, it was apparent that there was a doorway to get in. It was sealed off though. We all tried so hard to push it, pull it, and slide it to a side, but it just wouldn’t budge.

There was something inscribed into the door though, and it was in English even. “Hey guys! There are words on the door!” I said. Then read them aloud as they gathered around.

A pyramid of puzzles and so

Being in it helps defeat your greatest of foes

Meet the cast and all inside

Don’t stay long and watch your pride

This place be filled with puzzles and riddles

Play right and answer quick

Or in being trapped

You’ll feel the sick

 

Get through this

Room by room

Either do it right to win

Or meet your doom

 

“Oh wow…” I said in shock. There was no way to mistake the meaning of that poem. Simply we needed to get inside and complete whatever was there to save us from whatever Rob’s plans were. But we didn’t know what was inside, none the less how to get in even!

Then I noticed below the stanzas was a riddle of some sort. That was how we were suppose to start I guessed. “Well, I guess we have to go in, and I think answering that riddle might help get this stupid door open.” I said, and of course no one objected to it. So I read the riddle aloud:

This one being simple

Just to get in

It be the riddle of the sphinx

A dragon’s favorite hymn

 

What walks on all fours in the morning

Walks on two in the afternoon

And three at night?

 

No kidding, that was too easy, especially for someone who loves mythology like me. “God, I think we all know that one,” Amanda said, “it’s literally too easy. Come on now.” Although I would never argue when something’s “too easy”.

“Right then,” I said, then yelled out the answer, “ a man! He crawls on all four as a baby, on two as a man, and using a cane as an elder makes three!” Standing there, nothing happened for a moment. “Great, I was wrong some how.” I said, we were all puzzled. Then it shook and dust fell off the sides and slid down as the stone door slowly slid open for us.

The only way to go was in, and we all felt like we had no choice seeing our situation. We all cautiously walked in and looked round at the pitch-black darkness that was the pyramid inside. We all entered and not a moment after the door slammed shut faster than it even would open! We turned around to try to reopen it, feeling around on the sandy stones that held up the side, but it had vanished. All that was there was a stone wall, no outlines or traces of where it had been. We were trapped inside.

We started walking in, no other place to go and no need to talk it over. It was very dark though, and silent too, an eerie silence. After about one hundred feet or so though many lights came into view. Torches were lighting around us on their own, and it was plenty of light. “That’s better,” Jennifer said, “I think…”

We walked on slowly, examining all the things around us. We all were worried, but being as what her job was, Jennifer was having a blast. I’m sure that wouldn’t last long when she realized the whole situation. But we let her have her happiness for now.

We came across some more sandy and stone ground than when we first entered, and in the distance we could see what looked like a cliff edge. We walked towards it to see. When we got ever there we saw it was just a little bigger than a cliff. It was more like a canyon. Just looking down was enough to scare me, and there didn’t seem to be a way across either. So we scaled the sides and looked far down each to our left, then to our right.

After a long walk on the right side, we came across something useful. There was a huge slab of stone standing up in our way, and on it was another puzzle for us to solve! And below it was a box drawn out of the dirt and sands there, probably to draw in our answer. It was the next place to where we needed to go. It read this:

Now is a time you cannot leave

And in your way next, way down beneath

Runs a river of fire

Maybe burning of your last hopes and desires

 

To get across just answer this

Take a look, there is not much to risk

 

Only one color, but not one size

Stuck at the bottom, but easily flies

Present in the sun, but not the rain

Doing no harm, feeling no pain

“Oh wow…” Jennifer said, “that ones just a little more difficult than the first one.” That was for sure. “Any ideas?” No one said anything. “Ok then…” I said, “ any ideas on how we can figure it out? Because we all know there is no other way across unless you want to die.” That then I saw some brains working. A good sign.

“Well,” Amanda started, she was best at these, “ we start by looking for the easiest clue and work from it.” She stood up and walked over to the slab and stared at it for a moment. “Got it! ‘Feeling no pain,’ that’s the easiest thing.” “I thought it would be ‘only one color’?” Jennifer said. “No, because there are too many colors.” Amanda told her. We all thought, though my dad was silent. Poor guy, he was terrible at these, he probably felt stupid.

“Well, what feels no pain?” I said. “We can definitely rule out anything living then, and any plants as well, along with anything invisible or we cant reach.” Amanda said. She was right, that did bring the choices down. “Wow, um, ok. Well, what if it was more of something off of something? It sounds like it follows, but it has to only be something in sun.” I said, that also ruled out so many things.

“So what’s in sun but not in rain?” Jennifer said as she pondered. “Well, rain means clouds, what disappears in clouds?” I said. Very few things did, but the major one is something we didn’t have in the dark pyramid, but we had dealt with creatures of it many times before. Now it was all clear what the answer was. “Shadows!” I yelled out. It was shadows. It was the only thing to make sense.

“I think we’ve got it then!” Amanda said seeming proud. She walked over and knelt next to the dirt box and used her finger to write in the answer we said. “There.” she said as she stood back up.

Immediately after the ceiling shook, and hug pieces of rock started to crumble and fall off. They all fell until just about an inch below the edge and floated there. Enough of them fell like that until there was enough to jump or hop from each one to get across the canyon. They were only like centimeters apart each.

“Oh wow, how interesting they would fall like that.” Jennifer said. My dad took a step on very carefully, when it didn’t collapse in on him he stomped on it once and then jumped back. The stones stayed in place. It was hopefully sturdy enough. “Come on, before it goes down or something.” he said.

We all stepped up behind him as he cautiously stepped on. He had his arms up for balance and barely lifted his feet as he stepped on and off each stone to make it across. We all followed in his step, knowing those were the safest ones. We all made it pretty well, except for at one where point Jennifer stepped too close to the end and a little of the stone crumbled beneath her foot, but she jumped over and stayed more towards the middle after that. She was new to the adventure thing, I could tell.

We all made it off the bridge and back onto the dirt one by one, and as soon as the last of us were off, the bridge fell, going down deep and disintegrating into the magmas below. An eerie thing to see.

Now we didn’t know what to do. “Well, what are we looking for?” Jennifer asked. Like I said, we didn’t know what to do next. We started walking once more down what seemed like an extremely wide hallway that was only lit by more dim torches. The air was filled with dust and it was getting harder and harder to see and we kept on. It was another long hallway to travel down. I just wondered where this one led too…..