"This sand. . . isn't very good. . . for rollerskating on," Echae grumbled as he struggled to make his way across the shore. All of the Zoombinis had gotten out of the boat as quickly as they could and were now exploring the land. There was nothing much to see; just a long, narrow stretch of shore that led up to a sheer cliff face stretching several hundred feet above their heads.
"Oh, Echae, it's not that bad," Saetwo said good-naturedly. "You should just be glad we're finally off that boat."
"I am glad! I've never been so happy in my whole life!"
To prove his point, Echae suddenly flopped over onto his back and started rolling around.
"I'm free! I'm free! I'm free of that awful boat forever!"
Saetwo found herself laughing uncontrollably at Echae's antics until he finally gave up the act and sat up again.
"That felt so good," he said.
"Well, now what do we do?" asked Touli, a Zoombini who sported a ponytail similar to Saetwo's . "We're not gonna live here, are we?"
"Of course not, stupid. Don't you remember?" Xekrai said impatiently. "We're supposed to travel inland and look for the nearest town. Then we're supposed to stay there until the adults get here."
"I didn't see any towns from out in the ocean," Echae remarked uneasily. "As a matter of fact, this place looked pretty empty."
The Zoombinis all started murmuring at this, with the exception of Xekrai, who sighed in exasperation.
"Look, Echae, we're talking about a whole continent here. It's thousands of miles across. Chances are there's somebody living here."
"Thousands of miles?" repeated Conneda, another Zoombini with sunglasses, sounding crestfallen. "We're gonna have to travel for thousands of miles?"
"In that case," Echae said with a deep yawn, "I think we should start in the morning. I have boatlag, if that even exists."
"Me too," agreed several of the others, displaying similar signs of exhaustion.
"Fine," Xekrai grumbled. "I guess we can wait for one night. But there had better not be any snorers here."
Relieved, the other Zoombinis collapsed onto the cool sandy beach and curled up, several of them falling asleep almost instantaneously. Saetwo, not knowing what else to do, lay down carefully next to Echae. But she didn't fall asleep. Her mind was too full with the events of that day. She found herself gazing up at the stars, daydreaming, worrying, wondering what strange adventures they would have in this new world.
"What 'cha thinking about, Sae?"
"Huh?" Saetwo turned over to see that Echae was still awake.
"Oh, nothing, really."
"You're worrying. I can tell," Echae said, giving her an encouraging wink. "Don't be afraid. We made it, Sae. The hard part's over. Whatever we do now, it'll be a cinch compared to what we've already been through."
"I sure hope you're right, Echae."
-----
"Hey, you were right, Echae. That was easy!"
"Shut up, Sae."
It was the next morning, and Saetwo was perched on the very top of the cliff face, looking down at the others. She, naturally, had been able to fly up the cliff with minimal effort, but she was the only one with a propeller, meaning the other fifteen had to struggle their way up a long, winding path carved into the cliff face.
"I don't believe this," Xekrai grumbled as he edged very, very cautiously along the narrow path. "We survive for more than a week in the middle of the ocean with almost no food. . . and now we die by falling off a cliff."
"Oh, you think you've got it hard, Xekrai?" Echae lamented, his wheels dangerously slipping and sliding all the way.
After a few more minutes, the group finally made it to the top of the cliff where Saetwo was waiting. Everyone staggered onto the ledge as quickly as they could before collapsing and and taking a few deep, relieved breaths.
"There," said Xekrai. "Now let us never speak of this again."
"Hey, this place actually looks pretty nice," Echae remarked.
Everyone looked. To their surprise, the cliff had led them up to a wide, grassy plain, dotted with a few trees and bushes, that extended off into the distance. There was no road to be seen, but it appeared to be easy traveling compared to what they had just been through.
"Well, let's not waste any time," Xekrai said dutifully as he leapt back to his feet. "We've gotta get going. Everybody follow me."
"Hey, wait a minute!" Saetwo objected. "Since when are you the leader?"
Xekrai turned back around to face her.
"You think you can do a better job, four-eyes?"
Saetwo was taken aback. "Well, no, but – "
"A little word to the wise. My dad was the mayor. Leadership is in my family. Your family, last time I checked, was a bunch of nobodies. The same goes for all of you." He swept his critical gaze over the entire group. "I'm the only one here who's even slightly qualified to be the leader. So everyone listen to me and do what I tell you, and we'll get through this with minimal suffering."
Nobody said anything. Most of them were staring awkwardly at the ground.
"Now let's go."
Xekrai stomped off, and the others all filed silently after him.
-----
"Xekrai sure knows how to get on somebody's nerves," Echae grumbled. They had been traveling for a few hours with no significant change in the scenery, and unbeknownst to Xekrai, the majority of the idle conversation during that time had been about him.
"Maybe so, but he is a good leader," said Conneda. "He's smart, and he knows what he's doing. I think we should listen to him."
"Oh, come on. He's got an ego bigger than Zoombini Isle."
"Leaders have to have self-confidence," said Touli. "Otherwise they're not good leaders."
"Am I seriously the only one here who doesn't like Xekrai?" Echae exclaimed. "Sae, back me up here."
Saetwo wasn't paying attention. She was looking at something up ahead.
"Sae?"
"I don't like the looks of those bridges. . . . "
Sure enough, the group was approaching a deep, wide chasm that cut through the meadow they were traveling through. Spanning across it were not one, but two rickety wooden bridges. They were supported by a rope that was looped around six metal pegs sticking out of the ground.
"Uh oh. . . . " said Echae. "How far down is it to the bottom?"
Saetwo flew up to the edge and peered down. The cliffs stretched down hundreds of feet – so far that she could barely see to the bottom, but probably to the same elevation as the beach. At the bottom, a small river ran through the ground between the cliff faces.
"Very, very far down," she concluded.
"So why are there two bridges?" wondered Touli.
"In case one breaks," Xekrai snorted. "Have a look at these things, will you? They're flimsy! They're not gonna support all of us!"
"We'll probably have to go across one at a time," Echae decided.
"Hey! Who's the leader here?" Xekrai snapped. "I make the decisions."
Echae rolled his eyes, making no attempt to hide it. "Fine, Xekrai. What do you think we should do?"
Xekrai pondered the situation for a long time, pacing back and forth in front of the bridges and occasionally stealing a glance over at the other side.
"I've got it!" he finally said. "We'll go across one at a time."
More than one person groaned loudly.
"And since I'm the leader," Xekrai went on, "I opt to go first."
With that, he turned back around and marched confidently across the left bridge, which swayed slightly but otherwise stayed where it was. Saetwo watched after him as he went, but in a moment her eyes were drawn to the cliffs on the other side.
Was she imagining things?
"Uh. . . do those cliffs look like they have faces?"
"No duh, Sae," said Echae. "All cliffs have faces."
"No, I mean actual faces! With eyes and mouths and – "
She fell silent at the sight of the cliffs in front of her. There were faces. Two of them, one next to the other. For a moment, she thought perhaps someone had just carved them there, for whatever reason. . . .
And then one of them blinked.
"AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" she shrieked, bolting behind Echae. "The cliffs are alive!! The cliffs are alive!!"
"Uh. . . Sae. . . are you sure you're not still a little loopy from the storm last night?"
"Echae, I think she's right," said Conneda, stepping forward to get a better look. "I do see faces. And I. . . think. . . they're watching us."
"Hey! What are you guys waiting for?" shouted Xekrai, who had safely reached the other side and was tapping his foot impatiently.
"Okay. . . let's not panic," said Echae. "So the cliffs are. . . uh. . . alive. But they can't exactly do anything to us, right? I mean, they can't move. And they left Xekrai alone. So maybe we're safe to go across."
"That sounds like volunteering to me," said Conneda, and he and the others all scrambled backward and cowered together.
"It's okay, Echae. I'll go," Saetwo sighed. She flew over to the left bridge and, trying to keep her eyes off of the large face in front of her, made her way across.
Suddenly, the face sniffed. Saetwo froze in panic. She realized what was happening. The cliff was about to sneeze.
"Ah. . . ah. . . ah. . . CHOO!!"
The force of the sneeze was tremendous. It sent Saetwo flying backwards and landing, very painfully, on the ground. The force of her impact was so great that it sent one of the supporting pegs flying out of its hole before falling into the deep crevice, never to be seen again.
"Bwa ha ha ha!" Xekrai laughed from the other side. "What was that, Saetwo? Forget how to fly?"
"Oh my gosh! Sae, are you all right?" Echae asked as he rushed over to her.
Saetwo sat up. "I think that cliff is allergic to me."
"Allergic? How can a cliff be – "
"I don't know," Saetwo said brusquely as she got back up. "But I'm getting across one way or another."
This time she flew over the right-hand bridge, and to her relief, this cliff did not respond to her at all.
"Well which one do the rest of us go across?" asked one of the others. "Are the cliffs gonna be allergic to us too?"
"I'm not setting foot on either one of those until we know it's safe," agreed someone else.
"Oh for crying out – I'll do it," Conneda grumbled, setting off across the right bridge. He had only gone a few feet, though, before the second cliff began to sniffle and twitch. Conneda didn't have time to react before a second powerful sneeze sent him tumbling backward, freeing another peg from its groove and sending it careening into the canyon.
"We have to be careful!" Echae exclaimed. "If we mess up too many times, all the pegs will fly out and the bridges will collapse!"
"No kidding," Conneda muttered before getting back up and gloomily skating across the left bridge, this time safely making it across.
Saetwo, thoroughly perplexed by this strange puzzle, pondered this for a moment. She knew they had to solve this mystery soon, or more than half of the group would be trapped on the other side, maybe forever. . . .
Suddenly her eyes lit up.
"Hey Touli," she called, "try to go across the left bridge, would you?"
Although her expression suggested she would have rather done anything besides that, Touli nervously nodded agreement, made her way toward the bridge, and started bouncing across it. . . only to be blown back by another sneeze an instant later. Everyone winced, looking horrified. Saetwo, in contrast, was delighted.
"It's our features!" she exclaimed. "They're allergic to certain features! See, Conneda's got sunglasses like Xekrai, and I'll bet the left cliff is allergic to both of them. Touli and I both have ponytails, and the right cliff is allergic to both of us! We just have to find out what makes each one sneeze, and we'll get everyone across!"
"Easier said than done," said Xekrai. "How do we get everybody across without messing up three more times?"
"We use logic," Saetwo declared.
-----
Several long minutes and many well-placed Zoombinis later, nearly the entire group had safely made it across the bridges. They had made one mistake and now only two pegs remained holding the bridges up, but Saetwo was confident that they had completely figured out the cliffs' certain allergies.
"Okay, you've both got rollerskates." Saetwo was addressing the only two Zoombinis who were still on the opposite side. "And we decided that the left cliff must be allergic to skates. That means both of you come over here on the right."
The first Zoombini did as she was told, skating over to the right bridge and beginning to make her way across. . . when much to Saetwo's shock, the cliff sneezed her back!
"What the – what happened?" Saetwo cried as the skating Zoombini dizzily stood up and, looking confused and embarrassed, dashed across the left-hand bridge. Saetwo was utterly baffled, and frightened. She had worked so long to figure this out – was she completely wrong?
"Hey! What gives?" cried Echae, who was now the only one who had yet to cross. "Why did the second bridge take her and the first one didn't? She's got skates!"
As Saetwo tried to think of what mistake she had made, she suddenly noticed something she hadn't before.
"But she also has an orange nose. . . . "
"Huh?"
"Echae, have a look. Everybody on the left side has either an orange nose or sunglasses. The only thing everybody on the right side has in common is that we don't have either of those things. The cliff on the left didn't sneeze me back because I have a ponytail! It sneezed me back because I don't have an orange nose or sunglasses! It's not allergic to what you do have; it's allergic to what you don't have!!"
Echae blinked several times. "Uh. . . what?"
"Okay, listen. The cliff on the right is allergic to anybody who's got either an orange nose or sunglasses. The one on the left is allergic to everybody who's got neither. That means you take the left bridge."
"Are you sure?"
"I got us this far, didn't I?"
Echae stood where he was for a long moment, obviously terrified. If Saetwo was wrong, the resulting sneeze would free the last peg, and he would never be able to get across.
"Please trust me, Echae," Saetwo pleaded. "I'm sure I'm right."
Echae took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and nodded. Wearing as brave an expression as he could, he crossed over to the left bridge, took one final pause, and began to skate over.
Absolutely nothing happened.
"We did it!" Saetwo cheered, spinning around and whooping for joy as everyone else did likewise. "We got everyone across!"
"What do you mean, 'we'?" Echae said with a smirk as he reached the other side of the bridge and skated over to her. "That was all you, Sae."
Saetwo found herself blushing a little. "Aw, it was no big deal. Really."
"Well, now that that nightmare is over," Xekrai grumbled once the cheering had died down, "I vote we keep going. We've got a town to find."
And he turned around and walked off. To Saetwo and Echae's surprise, everyone obediently followed after him, looking completely cheerful and willing to do exactly as he said.
"I don't believe it," said Echae. "Xekrai did absolutely nothing, and they're still listening to him?!"
"Oh, Echae, it doesn't matter. What matters is we're all still together. Now let's get going."
And the two of them set off, side by side, after the others.
"Well, that was interesting and all, but it was pretty scary," Echae remarked once they had gone a ways. "I sure hope none of the other rocks we run into have faces."
"Ah, don't worry, Echae," Saetwo said with the same wink Echae had given her the night before. "I'm sure they won't."
