by Yajat Sharma
Daniel nodded and extended his hands and closed his eyes, but nothing happened.
“Too… much… pain,” Daniel said, trying to calm his breathing. “The spirits of the trees are in pain with dryness, and they need -”
“Water?” James said, stepping forward. “I am on it.”
He sprayed water on the trees. The grey leaves and branches turned green. Daniel at once summoned his creepers, roots, branches and trunks, which captured the monster beneath the tree. Matt threw powerful bursts of wind at the monster, keeping it under the tree.
“Archer, I want you to burn the trees,” the Scavenger shouted.
Archer was confused. “But then won’t the monster escape?”
The Scavenger shook his head. “The trees of this species are fire resistant. The fire will slowly desiccate the slimy coat, and the monster will burn to death. Just do it!”
Archer nodded and did just that. The monster shrieked and howled as he burnt to ashes.
When the monster was completely converted to ashes, they restarted their journey.
They soon emerged in a clearing and saw a trunk lying in the centre. The trunk was shaking, probably due to the movement of sheep inside it.
Archer was about to step forward when the Scavenger stopped him. “Wait. Looks like there is a trap.”
The Scavenger was right. Suddenly, warriors carrying swords shot out from the bushes.
They slashed their swords at the Scavenger’s head, but he ducked, quickly unsheathing his Lightning Sword.
The warriors backed away from the Scavenger, and the trio circled each other.
“Who are you?” one of the warriors questioned.
“Don’t bother!” The other warrior cut him short, waving his hand in the air. “I know what’s going to happen. You are going to try to take the trunk, and we will kill you in the process.”
The Scavenger laughed. “I won’t be so sure. I bet you are the rangers the Joker spoke about.”
The first one banged his fist into his other hand. “Rangers! I hate that word! It’s always rangers, not protector, not guardians, not defenders, never! He just needed some word to rhyme. Couldn’t he have used our names?”
“Anyway,” the other warrior broke in, “my name is Ling. And this is Ming.”
“We want the trunk,” the Scavenger said.
The ranger sighed. “But we just can’t let you take that. We are cursed by Arcane to obey the Joker’s wishes.”
“I see,” the Scavenger said. He was stalling for time as he planned his attacks. “Why did he curse you?”
“We were two mischievous twins, causing trouble everywhere. It was the time when Arcane was assigning protectors to guard the pieces of the Crown. He assigned Joker as one. But Joker wanted two great warriors.”
“Yes,” Ling took on from there. “So Arcane captured us and cursed us to serve the Joker forever. Only the prophesied children can open the trunk and take the sheep to the Joker.”
“But we are the prophesied children!” James exclaimed.
“Hah, liars,” Ming said. “You have no idea how many people have said that before. We called their bluff each time.”
The Scavenger drew his sword. “Then you leave us with no choice.” He charged at the two rangers, gesturing the children to take the trunk away.
“Wait!” shouted Matt. “Hey Ling and Ming, how about a small taste of the prophesied children?”
Matt raised his hands and powerful gusts of wind struck on Ming and Ling from all sides. Archer shot fireballs that blasted just near their feet. Daniel sent roots, tying their legs up, and James sprayed cold water over them.
The rangers were taken aback.
Ling shouted, “Elemental Powers, my God, the prophesied children are here. STOP. The trunk belongs to you.”
The children immediately stopped using their Powers. Ling and Ming bowed before them and gestured the children to move towards the trunk.
The sun was setting fast. They had barely half an hour.
Suddenly, Ming attacked the Scavenger with phenomenal speed. The rangers had tricked them.
The Scavenger gritted his teeth and snarled, “Backstabbing! That is not an art of a true warrior!”
The other ranger attacked again, with a punch straight at the Scavenger’s jaw. The Scavenger flew and struck a tree.
“Well, who said we were true warriors?” Ling said, grinning.
Ling and Ming attacked the Scavenger with full strength. Meanwhile, the children tried hard to open the trunk, but the lid just wouldn’t budge.
Ming lunged at the Scavenger and backhanded him across the already hurt jaw. The Scavenger howled in pain. Suddenly Ming laughed, seeing the children trying to open the trunk. “You cannot succeed! Only our touch can open the trunk!”
James ran to him. “You shouldn’t have told us that!”
Archer realized James’s plan and ran to help. Ming sprang up and jumped high. He caught hold of a branch and jeered, “You can’t catch me! Na-Na-Na-Na-Na!”
He jumped from one branch to the other, like a Tarzan with white hair.
Daniel put a quick end to his antics by raising his hand. The foliage of the jungle enveloped him, and soon he was wrapped like a mummy, covered with the jungle growth.
In the meantime, the Scavenger and Ling were involved in a fierce fight.
The time was slipping fast. Shifting his body weight to the left, the Scavenger carefully balanced himself and leapt at Ling in the attack great warriors knew as the ‘Defeater’.
The Scavenger’s hit caused Ling’s body to jerk to the left, but he did not fall. The Scavenger immediately hit again at Ling’s chest. Ling didn’t get up and groaned in pain.
The sun was setting as the children and the Scavenger dragged Ling closer to the trunk. Archer watched as the Scavenger put Ling’s hand on the lid.
Then, all at once, the sun went down, darkness fell, the lid opened, there was a blinding flash, and everyone disappeared.
14
Matt found himself in a small chamber that had a golden table in the centre. Other than that, there was nothing more, except the Joker, who was hanging from the ceiling; Matt couldn’t figure out how.
The Joker was dressed like a circus clown holding a long sword in one hand.
“Aww!” he cried, floating down on the ground. “Come on! You could have made it more interesting! First, your dialogues were lame. Second, you destroyed the monster too fast. Third, please, Ling and Ming were great warriors! You could have fought them longer! And… couldn’t you add some witty comments or something? Phew! Booriiiiing! And also…”
“Enough!” The Scavenger said. “We have passed two of your three tests. Give us the third test, fast.”
The Joker sighed, “Okay, okay. The third test is…” Then after a pause, he dramatically blurted, “Chess!”
“What?”
“Yes.” The Joker seemed excited. “You send one from your team to play chess with me. I win… bad luck for you. You will be fed to the animals or kept prisoner for my entertainment. I lose, you get the second piece, and I will not stop you. Agreed?”
“Yes,” the Scavenger conceded.
“Wonderful!” The Joker clapped his hands and two chairs along with a chessboard on a table appeared. The Joker rubbed his hands in glee. “Now choose your player.”
The children huddled around for a quick discussion. “James,” the Scavenger began, looking at James
Surprisingly, James shook his head. “This time, it won’t be me. You don’t know it, but Matt was a district champion in chess.”
Matt nodded. “Don’t worry, I will take him on.”
Matt and the Joker sat facing each other.
Chess pieces popped out from the air and placed themselves on the chessboard.
“You first,” the Joker grinned. Matt moved his pawn.
The Joker moved his knight.
Matt proceeded with another pawn. The Joker shifted his bishop.
The game pro
gressed. The Scavenger couldn’t make any sense of the game and felt lost.
The Joker tried to demolish Matt’s soldiers. But Matt knew this trick. He lost two soldiers to convince the Joker that he was oblivious of this trick. Matt quickly moved his knight and killed his queen.
“NO!” The Joker was furious. He moved his bishop forward.
The Joker eliminated another two of Matt’s soldiers, but it was too late. Matt had knocked out the Joker’s queen, which was the most powerful. Now he was free to surround the king. But first, he had to make sure the Joker’s knight and bishop were out of the game too.
Matt suddenly saw a flaw in the Joker’s formation. Seizing this opportunity, he surrounded the knight.
Another two moves and the knight was gone. But the Joker killed Matt’s bishop too. It was turning out to be a neck-to-neck competition.
The Joker moved his bishop… and killed Matt’s knight. “Oh no!” Matt cried, banging his fist on the table.
The Joker knocked out Matt’s remaining two soldiers.
Matt found a big opening. He lost his rook but managed to kill two soldiers and the last bishop of his opponent.
The game was nearing an end. Matt had a knight, no bishop, two rooks, no pawn and, of course, the king and the queen. On the other hand, the Joker had no knight, no bishop, one rook, five pawns, no queen, and the king.
Matt knew this was a tricky situation. If the Joker killed even one of his rooks, Matt would be in trouble. And if the Joker killed his knight, then the game was over for Matt. Matt knew he had to kill the Joker’s rook, but he had to sacrifice something.
The Joker killed one of his rooks with his rook. But Matt trapped it and killed it with his knight.
Matt slowly eliminated all of the Joker’s soldiers, but he lost his other rook in the process. Now he only had his knight and the king and queen. The king was the only one left with the Joker.
Matt almost fainted with relief. He finally killed the Joker’s king. “I WIN!” Matt yelled, whooping in delight.
“Enjoy all you want,” the Joker murmured as he turned and started walking away.
“Wait!” the Scavenger said, halting him. “What about the second piece?”
“Sorry. I cannot give you that,” the Joker said.
“But you promised us!” The Scavenger protested.
“Yes, but I have to break it,” the Joker said, glancing at his nails absent-mindedly. “It is already pledged to someone else. He is on his way, I think, and is just about to reach here. The chess game was just to stall for time.”
“Who is he?” the Scavenger asked, looking around with fear. “Is it…?”
Suddenly he doubled over and slumped to the wall.
“Darkness. I feel great darkness. The Death Lord is coming.”
“That is right!” the Joker said, rubbing his hands gleefully. “And I will get the prize I want! HA-HA-HA!”
“We need to get out of here!” the Scavenger yelled, advancing towards the Joker.
“Quickly! The Joker has betrayed Lord Arcane. James, create a portal. Meanwhile, I will get the piece.”
The Scavenger slammed the Joker hard against the wall, searched his clothes and fished out a piece that glowed. He pocketed it and ran towards the waiting portal as fast as he could. The portal was shrinking fast. The children were already in.
Suddenly, the Scavenger cursed himself as he realized that he had forgotten the riddle. He ran back towards the unconscious Joker.
A dark glob of energy shot towards him. He rolled away, and the glob hit the wall. The wall began to crumble. The portal was shrinking fast. The children started shouting.
The Scavenger found a strip of paper, which he pulled out and stuffed in his pocket. He had barely moved a step when a shadow leapt in front of the portal.
You cannot escape. Your boy tricked me with the wrong riddle, but I came back. He will pay, don’t worry. I have a mind to crush his bones and torture him. As I did with Mars, as I will do with you, then with this fool of a Joker.
The Scavenger was filled with rage when he heard about Mars. He looked at the portal behind the shadow, which was continually expanding and contracting. The children were trying to sustain it, but for how long, no one knew. The chamber was collapsing too.
The Scavenger looked at the second piece of the Crown in his hand. He knew he had to take the risk. Yelling defiantly, he raised the second piece. Light exploded from the piece – like a ray of sunshine in darkness, and it charged towards the shadow – the power of good.
The shadow leapt aside to avoid the collision with the beam of light. The Scavenger leapt for the portal. Just as he entered, the chamber collapsed. The Scavenger could hear the shadow’s voice shrieking, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
***
Matt was scared. He had never felt so much darkness; it seemed to be sucking at his soul and feeding on his fear. He could tell that his friends were scared too. James was shivering. Though he had managed to make and sustain the portal, it had severely drained his energy.
They all tumbled out of the portal.
Matt asked the Scavenger, “Did the Death Lord get the piece?”
The Scavenger shook his head and pulled out the piece that radiated power. “No, we were lucky this time. We could get the piece and the riddle. But I feel sad about Mars.”
Everyone observed a minute of silence.
The Scavenger looked around and saw green grass and beautiful trees all around in the gleaming sunlight. “Where are we?” the Scavenger asked James pointedly.
James shrugged. “I don’t know where the portal took us. My brain was not working properly when I created it…”
“Don’t worry about the place. We will find a way. It was important to get out from that chamber. You did a good job, James,” the Scavenger said.
“Hey! Let’s decipher the riddle for the third piece,” Matt said.
The Scavenger, pulling out a piece of paper, read aloud:
“A boon or a curse, you decide,
Win the powerful Tiger’s Hide
The altar of Arcane lost,
Melt the statue’s frost.
That’s it,” the Scavenger finished.
“But I don’t understand!” James said. “It doesn’t make much sense.”
“I think I do,” the Scavenger said. He explained, “Lord Arcane, before dying, had created an altar for himself. He covered it with frost that could only be melted by the Tiger’s Hide. He must have put the third piece in it.”
“So we have to get hold of the Tiger’s Hide first,” James speculated. “And then find the altar. Where’s this Tiger’s Hide?”
“It’s in the Tree of Wisdom,” the Scavenger replied. Wasting no time, he summoned a chariot, and they began traveling. The children got the opportunity to catch up on their sleep.
It was an hour before the Scavenger stopped the chariot and they descended to where an ordinary looking tree stood.
The Scavenger stood in front of it. A voice came out of the tree:
Well, my friends, will you be interested
If I tell you something, you would be educated
I was just joking, but this is no silly joke
Cast away the distractions, and throw your cloak
I am the guardian of the Tiger’s Hide
Only those can enter, who have courage and might
Swerve to your right, then to your left,
Rather doing this, I must be at rest.
Instead of explaining all this, I will cut it short,
Solve the riddle, don’t take help of any sort.
I won’t tolerate cheating, and that is my word,
I am a fair guardian, I won’t spare a nerd.
The riddle is about, figuring out the code,
Listen!
The code is Dinf het melon Etrov!
The voice stopped.
“Dinf het melon Etrov... what does that mean?” The Scavenger sighed.
“Find the melon trove,” James sa
id at once. Everyone looked at him incredulously. “How?”
“It couldn’t be simpler. Just unscramble the words.”
The others tried and discovered that James was right.
Everyone started searching the area for a melon trove.
Matt wandered into the bushes. He used the Power of Wind and bent all the trees within the radius of one mile. He was quick to spot some yellow fruits.
“I found something,” he exclaimed, running towards it as the others soon joined him.
“Wait! Those are lemons, not melons,” James said.
“Well, we forgot to unscramble melon. It will become lemon!” Matt said, grinning.
“Bingo! Look, they are bunched. We need to separate them,” the Scavenger said.
As they separated the lemons, a black hole revealed. The Scavenger gestured for the children to follow him as he jumped down the black hole.
Matt followed him into the darkness and landed on a soft cushion the Scavenger had created.
Matt got up with the rest and looked around an underground cave where torches blazing with fire lined the wall. Shards hung from the ceiling, and Matt had an eerie feeling that disturbing or shaking the wall could crush the shards.
The children followed the Scavenger deeper inside the cave.
Spiders were crawling on the walls, making Matt shudder. He just hated spiders.
“How’s this cave holding up?” Matt asked, looking at the huge shards. “With so many hefty shards like that… it’s impossible the roofs could hold up.”
The Scavenger smiled. “That’s the handiwork of the greatest builders of all time – the Anvil Heroes. No cave they have made is known to collapse.”
A howl suddenly came echoing inside the cave.
“What was that?” Archer asked, shuddering.
The Scavenger replied grimly, “Tigers that protect the Tiger’s Hide.”
“Tigers that howl?” James asked. “Strange.”
The Scavenger put a finger to his lips. “Don’t talk. We need to take the tigers by surprise. It will be tough to get the hide otherwise. The tigers love human meat.”
Matt quivered, “This is going to be tough.”
“Yes, but anyone who wears the Tiger’s Hide can command them. So one of us just needs to wear it, and then it’s a cakewalk.”