4. The Forth Obstacle – part 1

"What is that?" Pinky asked while we all bewilderedly watched the odd sand-coloured buckled cone-shaped lump of hard clay lying inside the capsule.

"I have no idea", I said ponderingly and gently picked up the clump to take a look at it. I twisted and turned it in my paw, studying the long tiny dents on its surface. Its shape did look kind of familiar though…

"It looks like a spettekaka", Terry said.

"A sped-what?" Pinky asked confounded.

"A spettekaka. It is a kind of Swedish delicacy, mostly made out of sugar and flour", the turtle explained.

"Well, I was going fol something sweet", Peter said and suddenly grabbed the lump from me.

"NO…!" I cried and reached out my hand for it, but too late, the panda had already taken a bite of the top of it. He chewed for a while, then his face crumpled into a nauseate grimace before he suddenly spat out the chewed pieces on the ground.

"YUCK! Swedish desselts ale not a big hit", he said.

"YOU IDIOT!" I shouted angrily and hastily took back the clay lump. "URGH! I'D JUST FIGURED OUT WHAT THIS IS, AND YOU TAKE A BITE OF IT! HOW MORE STUPID CAN YOU GET!?"

Seriously, how can anyone be that stupid!?

"Don't call me stupid!" Peter said exasperated. "He was the one who said it was candy."

Peter pointed accusingly at Terry.

"Huh? Um, I just said it looked like it, not that it was it", the turtle corrected, a bit shocked. "Besides, I am not sure if spettekaka is classified as candy. I think it is more of a bake work rather…"

"Ugh! Yeah, anyway, what was it that you'd figure out, Perry?" Pinky asked a bit sighing.

I breathed out slowly to try to come to my senses before I started explaining.

"Okay, look, this is a map", I began, holding up the half-eaten clump. "It's a 3D-model of the mountain behind us! That's our next station!"

"OHHHH!" everybody said, suddenly realizing.

"Yeah! Now I see it!" Darren said and viewed the model fascinated. "All these tiny jack are roads that shows how to get up."

"Yeah, I'd just manage to get a glimpse of a tiny red cross by the top, that will say, until someone ate it", I said, staring firmly at the panda.

Peter sighed bothered and rolled his eyes.

"Allight, I'm solly!" he said a bit snappish.

"Okay, I guess we should try to find this spot and then go up", Terry said thoughtfully and pointed at a place at the bottom of the model where the road began. "We have to navigate by ourselves the last part."

"I can fly in advance to overview the area when we get there", Darren offered.

"Okay, great! Then let's go!" Pinky said joyful. "To the top!"

While we walked through the woods towards the mountain, I heard Darren chuckle a little to himself behind me.

"Hehehehehe…"

"What's so funny?" Peter asked next to him.

I turned my head and saw the wild drake grin amused at the bear.

"Hehehe… Seriously, Peter? Seriously? You actually thought that thing was candy!? Ahahaha…"

"Urgh! Ah, cut it off!" the panda said provoked and pushed the duck.

"Hey! I just realized one thing! All these tasks represent the four elements!" Pinky suddenly said while we followed the rocky path up the mountain. He was walking right behind Terry, who was walking behind me. I had taken the lead since I was the one who'd offer to take care of the model. Just to be sure that a certain someone wouldn't have a chance to destroy it even more.

"How do you get it to that?" Darren asked Pinky skeptic. He was walking last in the line (right behind Mr. Someone) so that he could overview everybody in case any of us would fall.

"Well, think about it! The first task, the minefield, represents earth. The second one, the alligator lake, is water. And this one represents air."

"What about the third one?" I questioned.

"Well, since there only are four elements and the test has five stations I guess one has to be left out", Pinky adopted.

"Actually, according to some philosophers, the fifth element is ether, the thing that surrounds the Earth", Terry informed.

"Exactly! And that fits perfectly in with the strange box", Pinky cried elated.

"Well, if that's the case I guess we already now can figure out what the last obstacle is going to be about", Darren said.

Before me, I could already imagine the blinding light from the tall flickering flames surrounding us all inside an incredibly hot circle.

"Uh-oh... well, that does not sound very promising", Terry said and laughed a little uneasily.

"I think you'le just thinking too much", Peter said sceptic. "Thele is plobably no lelation between the elements and the obstacles. At least not inteldentally."

"Well, who knows?" Darren said and shrugged.

I looked out over the misty forest where the tree tops were sticking up out of the fog. We had already gotten pretty far up. Though, I already knew things were going to get tougher ahead…

"Halt!" I called to the others behind me. Then I took out the spettekaka to compare it with our current position. (I couldn't help but quietly sigh every time I saw the bite marks that lined the hollow model.)

"Have we come to the bitten part already?" Darren asked.

"No, but this road is going to end a bit further ahead", I told. "Look here."

I held up the model in front of them and pointed at a place where the path melted into the clay.

"To continue on, we have to get to this point here", I told, pointing at a path on the model that was going parallel above the one we were on.

We all turned our heads up and peered through the thick fog to try to get a glimpse of the other road. It was very difficult to see, not only because of the mist, but also because it didn't really stand out when you looked from seven meters below. It looked more like just a small bulge in the rock. If we hadn't had the model we'd probably never have noticed it.

"Okay! Let's climb up there then", Pinky said tagged.

"Let me handle this," I said and put the model aside to haul out a long rope. At one end I quickly tied on a quadruple metal hook.

"Back off a little, please!" I asked the others to do and waved to the left that they should take a few step back. Then I started swinging the hook in my left paw while I focused my eyes on the edge high above us.

"Um, Perry?" Darren said and walked up towards me. "You know, I could just… OUCH!"

A high clang was heard through the mallard's cry when the metal hook hit his bill, and in the corner of my eye I saw the little waterfowl disappear over the edge.

"WAAAAAaaaaaahh…"

"Oh my!" Pinky exclaimed terrified and all four of us immediately turned our heads around and saw the duck falling down towards the woods. He turned around in the air and hastily started flapping his wings.

I let out a sigh in relief when I watched him unharmed fly back up towards us, with a quite grumpy grin on his bill though.

"Ah, he's fine. He can fly", Peter said and waved nonchalant.

The wild drake came up and landed among us without saying a word.

"I'm very sorry, but I did tell you to stay away", I said.

Darren sighed.

"Yeahyeah, whatever. Let's just get back to work", he said annoyed.

"Fine!" I said and started swinging the hook again. I gazed up towards the edge of the cliff, and then threw the hook.

It came a little too high and hit the rock wall and bounced down on the other road. I carefully pulled the rope and hoped that the hook would find a place to get attached to. After a while, I felt something holding against. I pulled harder with all my power to make sure it really was stuck.

"There!" I said and stepped aside to make room for the others. "Who wants to go first?"

"I'll climb filst", Peter said (Why am I not surprised?) and immediately worked his way through the line towards the rope end and began tugging it.

"Yes, if it holds for you, we will know for sure that it will hold for the rest of us", Terry said.

Peter frowned a bit suspicious at the turtle as if he wondered if his words had been some kind of hint of an insult. Terry's serious and oblivious expression seemed to make the panda lower his guard though.

"Yeeaah… Well, see you soon!" Peter said and started pulling himself up.

We all followed him intently with our eyes and got ready to act in case he would fall again, like the time with the tree. He managed to get the whole way up without any trouble though. Then Terry began climbing.

Darren sighed bored by my side while waiting for the turtle to get up.

"You do realize that I simply just could've flown up and tied the rope?" he suddenly pointed out.

…

That had totally slipped my mind.

"Um… yeah… maybe, but… it's not like we always are going to have a flying guy on the team so it's better to already have practiced on using other methods", I made a pitiful attempt to defend myself.

"Yeah maybe", Darren sighed and shrugged.

I let Pinky get up first before I started climbing. Darren stayed behind below for a while until I was almost up, then he flew passed me. He managed to land on the road just a mare second before I grabbed the edge, which I couldn't resist but to, despite the unfair conditions, find slightely annoying.

We continued our journey by following the new path. The higher we got the more difficult it became to see the forest below. We had gotten to the level where our eyes couldn't penetrate through the massive fog anymore. Everything was completely white below and it was impossible to even estimate how high up we were. Not even the model could help us any longer since we had passed the bitten part. (Sigh!)

"Uh-oh!" Terry suddenly said and stopped.

"Can you, please, stop saying 'uh-oh' all the time?" Peter asked irritated. "It's so deplessing."

"What's wrong?" I asked the tortoise.

"Take a look at this!" he said and pointed down on the road we walked on. "Fissures, lots of them. And they are all over the place."

He pointed ahead of us in the direction we were going.

"And look at the wall", he said and pointed at the rock wall to the left. "This part here is jaggier and has a darker colour. That means blocks have come off just recently. The rock is more fragile around here, and with the water from the mist getting in through the cracks there is a big risk for rock avalanche."

I looked down at my own feet and noticed that I was standing on a fairly large crack. Cautiously, I stepped aside inwards to the rock wall.

"We have to walk very careful, and stay close to the wall", I said.

"I suggest that we tie ourselves together the four of us", Pinky said.

"Sounds good," Terry said and nodded.

I took out the rope again (you can never have too much rope with you) and tied one end around my waist. Then I handed over the rest to Pinky, who tied a piece around his before handing it to Terry.

When Peter also had tied the other end around his belly, we all leant our backs against the wall and slowly started walking sideways along the cracked road. I noticed that gravels sometimes came off when I moved my hand over the wall to easier maintain balance. Sometimes, we heard noise of pebbles rolling down the mountain far away. We had enabled our helmet shields in our agent hats just in case boulders would hit our heads.

Larger cracks appeared ahead the further we got, and one time we watched a large portion of the roadside come off and roll downwards.

"I'm usually not scared of heights, but right now I wish we were back on the ground", Pinky said anxious.

"You're not the only one", Darren said and looked over the edge after the gigantic falling boulder that just had been a part of the road.

"Alen't thele any safel load we can take?" Peter asked.

We could have checked that if it hadn't been because someone DESTROYED THE MODEL!

I bit my lower bill hard to prevent the words from leaving my beak.

"I can fly around now and check if you'd like?" Darren offered.

"That would be great. We go and find a relative safe place to take a rest at", Terry said. "It is too dangerous to continue."

"Alright, can anyone of you have his tracker turned on so that I can find my way back to you, in case I'd get lost in the fog?" the mallard asked.

"Yes, of course!" Terry said and began tinkering with his wrist communicator.

"Alright, see ya soon!"

With that said, the wild drake spread out his wings and flew away over the edge. I followed the frantically flapping bird with my eyes and watched him get swallowed up by the mist. The rest of us went back a few feet to a small cave-like inward curl in the mountain that we had passed by earlier. There, we sat down and took a snack while we waited.

I managed to finish my salad sandwich with caterpillars since long without any sign from the duck.

"Ugh, whele is that flying lat?" Peter wondered irritated.

Terry took a look at his wrist communicator.

"Right now, he is on the other side of the mountain", he informed.

Peter groaned loudly.

"Hey! Let's sing something!" Pinky suggested encouraging.

"But come on!" Peter complained negatively.

"We can play a game", I suggested.

"YEAH! That sounds fun!" Pinky cried enthusiastic. "Okay, I'm thinking of a person and you'll try to guess who. One clue, it's someone we all know."

"Man, you ale so juvenile", Peter said.

"Okay, I take the first question. Is it a male or a female?" Terry asked, without taking any notice to the panda's comment.

"You're only allowed to ask yes-or-no questions", Pinky pointed out.

"Oh, right! Well, is it a male?" Terry asked again.

"Yes", the dog revealed.

I thought for a moment about what I should ask.

"Hmm… Does he work for O.W.C.A.?"

"Yes, yes he does."

Everyone turned to Peter.

"You can count me out", he said sourly. "I don't want to play youl stupid game."

"Okay, then it is mine turn again", Terry said, not letting himself be discouraged by the grumpy bear. "Hm… Is he… a mammal?"

"Um…"

Pinky thought for a while.

"Yes… he's a mammal."

"Is it PERRY?" the turtle guessed hastily and pointed at me.

Pinky laughed out loud.

"Hahaha, no it's not Perry", he finally revealed.

"Hey! Now you asked two questions!" I remarked picky, but in a funny way. "Then I'll also get to ask twice now. Hm, let's see… Is he an agent?"

The puppy thought for a while again.

"Well… I'm not really sure of that…", he said hesitantly. "He is not being addressed as 'Agent something' at least."

"Then that means he must be one of the other employees, hmm…", I thought loud for myself. "Is he a human by the way?"

"Yes, yes he is."

"Is he an intern?" Terry asked, obviously having a certain person in mind.

"CARL!?" I exclaimed.

"No, he's not an intern, and no it's not Carl", Pinky said and laughed again.

"Hmm…", Terry pondered. "He does not happen to be any of the superiors?"

"As in matter of fact, he is", Pinky revealed and smiled secretively.

Wait! Could it be…?

"And he doesn't happen to have a monobrow and a white moustache?" I asked, even though I already had an idea of who it might be.

"He does!"

"MAJOR MONOGRAM!" both Terry and I cried at the same time.

"Correct!" Pinky declared exuberant.

"YAY! Okay, now it's my turn to come up with someone!" I said enthusiastically and began racking my brain. "Hm, let's see… hmm… Oh, I can't come up with anyone!"

"Seliously, how old ale you!?" Peter complained negative. "You'le acting like kids!"

Ugh, does he have to care!

"Um, we are just trying to elate the atmosphere to make the time fly", Terry said calm.

"Do you leally think it's applopliate to play games when we'le located thousand feet above the glound on a place that could collapse at any moment?"

Why can't he just be quiet!?

Terry turned on his head and looked around us.

"Um, I do not think we need to fear very much right here", he said.

"Well, you don't know fol sule!" the panda said snappish. "I thought you had mole in youl head than that."

"Well, at least we know better than destroying important items during a test."

"I BEG YOUL PALDON!?" Peter shouted indignant.

…

I said that out loud, didn't I…? Oh well!

"I said: AT LEAST WE KNOW BETTER THAN DESTROYING IMPORTANT ITEMS DURING A TEST!"

There! I said it!

All three stared astonished at me.

Peter sighed.

"Is this about that stupid model-thing again? Hey, I alleady said I was solly!" he said frustrated. "Do I have to pay fol that fol the lest of my life, ol what?"

"Actually, I consider that!" I said sincerely and walked up to him.

I've had enough now! I just couldn't act nice anymore!

"What is youl ploblem? Leally? You ale totally insane!" the annoying panda said to me.

"Well, is that surprisingly? I've had to listen to your constant whining during this whole trip."

"WHAT THE…!" the bear shouted furiously. He stood up and walked up to me. "HOW DAL…!?"

"NO! I don't want to hear any more words coming out of you!" I cried and pushed him backwards. "Ever since this test began you've done nothing but complaining! You always object on things we other say and you always has to speak your opinion. You don't care about what the rest of us think 'cause, nooo, everything has to be done your way. You've done nothing but causing us all trouble this whole day!"

"I HAVE NOT!"

"OH YEAH? WELL, PINKY ALMOST GOT BLOWN UP AT THE MINEFIELD BECAUSE OF YOUR THOUGHTLESSNESS!" I reminded him, without really thinking of that I was screaming, and pointed referring at the chihuahua. "DARREN AND I HAD TO RISK OUR LIVES BY THE ALLIGATOR LAKE JUST BECAUSE YOU "DON'T LIKE SWIMMING"!"

"Uh, Perry…", Terry made an attempt to cut in, but I just couldn't care any less about what he had to say.

"AND WHEN YOU FINALLY TRY TO DO SOMETHING USEFUL YOU JUST END UP ENDANGERING YOURSELF AND WE HAVE TO RUSH IN AND RESCUE YOU!"

I was so upset that I didn't even notice the flapping sound of wing-beats coming towards us until the mallard suddenly landed, a bit stumbling, next to us.

"Hey! Guys! I've got great news!" he cried mesmerised. "A bit further ahead, the road is divided into two paths whereof the left one is a lot wider and stabile. It's very steep though, but it's definitely much safer, and it leads all the way up to the top. And guess what, there is the CAPSULE!"

Darren suddenly noticed that no one seemed to be very excited but himself and that the atmosphere was quite tense.

"Um, is there something going on here?" he asked and looked a bit wondering at me and Peter.

I sighed and slowly turned back to the panda.

"Peter, I don't know if anybody have ever told you this, but… you are a selfish…"

I started untying the rope around my waist.

"…ungrateful…"

I managed to get up one half of the reef knot.

"…whiner!"

Finally, I threw away the rope behind me and began stomping in the direction to where Darren had told the intersection was.

I couldn't even look at the panda anymore! I was just so sick of him that even the thought of being tied to the same rope as him disgusted me.

Darren looked unbelievably stunned, yet pretty impressed, when I passed him.

"Whoa-oh-oh!" he uttered amazed. "Man, you sure put him in his place there…"

"Ah, shut it!" I snapped and pushed the wild drake over the edge.