Story in a nutshell: Isabel and Elena find a secret passage in the palace.

For LoveLikeElena who I hope likes this!

Six-year-old Isabel Castillo Flores was very much an indoor kid. She liked to read and make inventions sometimes by herself. In comparison to her sister, twelve-year-old Elena. Elena liked to run and go on adventures with her friends Esperanza Carrero and Lola Campos in the city. However, today Elena was at home with the rest of their family.

"Elena what are you doing?" asked the young girl as she saw her older sister pacing between the door and the window. Outside the rain was coming down in sheets as the thunder rolled.

"I want to go outside and play but it's raining so I'm waiting for it to stop."

Outside the weather seemed to be unforgiving about her plight as lightning struck across the sky. It didn't look like Elena was going to be going out today. Or maybe tomorrow if the weather stayed like this through the night.

"Maybe we could play an indoor game or read," suggested Isabel as she gestured to her book.

"What kind of indoor game?" she asked as it piqued her interest. Maybe there was some really fun ones that she missed out on. Isabel shrugged there were lots that they could play. "Oh, I know let's go look for hidden treasure."

"What kind of treasure?"

"Any kind. We could get mami or papi to hide something and then we have to search for it."

Isabel nodded like crazy wanting to do that. That would be so much fun and maybe papi could use clues. She loved a good puzzle and solving riddles. Together the sisters went to search for their father or mother. They passed the throne room where they saw her father dismissing some staff to do their duties. There was someone already as they rushed over to him after he was done. His eyes lit up as King Raul saw his two daughters come up to him.

Together both girls tried to explain what they wanted to do as Raul caught on.

"Maybe instead of a treasure hunt, why not a scavenger hunt? I'll give you a list of ten things to find and if you find all of it you'll get an extra piece of chocolate after dinner."

Both girls huddled together as if they were discussing it. Now that chocolate was on the line it didn't seem like a time for games. Pretending to mummer to each other they turned to look at their dad. Now Raul was an intimidating man sometimes but today neither girl seemed to care as he had a giant smile on his face wondering what the verdict was.

"Deal," said both girls together as Raul grabbed a paper. On it he wrote down ten things that they could find somewhere in the castle. His list consisted of: a handheld telescope, a pocket watch, a wine goblet, a hand fan, something green, a hair ribbon, a piece of jewelry, an instrument, a snack, and a letterhead.

Both girls grinned at each other knowing that this was going to be a piece of cake. Together they raced out of the room as Isabel grabbed a hair ribbon from her room. Elena grabbed her fan that she would use when she was younger. She then noted to take her bracelet off when she presented it to her father. Then ran down to the kitchen to grab the wine goblet. Papi had really made this rather easy for them. Probably because dinner was in about an hour but still.

Next all they had to do was find the telescope, pocket watch, something green, instrument, snack, and a letterhead.

On her way down to the music room, Isabel grabbed a snack from the kitchen. She just cradled a cupcake close to her chest.

"Got it," said Elena holding a zampona in the air.

"I think we can get the telescope, pocket watch, and a letterhead in papi's office," said Isabel looking up proudly at her sister. "My ribbon could double as something green."

"Perfect! We make a great team," said Elena proudly as she raced to grab the telescope from her father's office. Before she could walk off with the telescope she saw what looked like a switch hiding behind the curtain. If she hadn't brushed against the fabric to get the telescope Elena would have never seen it.

Curious she gestured for Isabel to come over to look at it. Shrugging both girls switched it as the bookshelf on the wall to their right opened.

"We are going down, right?" asked Elena with her mouth wide open. Wordlessly Isabel joined her as they made their way across the room and looked down. It looked like it was just steps as both girls tentatively went forward.

The stone steps seemed to spiral down as Elena kept her sister from slipping as they looked to be in a room.

"Elena, I think we found papi's secret room," said Isabel recovering from the shock. "He said that if we were ever invaded this is where we would have to go."

That made sense as Elena looked around and saw what looked like bunk beds enough for all of them. Maybe there were more ways to get to this room, she thought, trying to figure out where they might lead. One might even be in her room!

"This is really cool, I'm glad we found this together," said Isabel as she saw a couple of toys sitting in the corner. They could probably hide out in here for a while. She saw water and some dry products that they could eat.

"I'm glad we did too," said Elena as she gave her sister a side hug. She wondered why her father never told her much about these but then realized that he probably couldn't. They were secret for a reason. Plus, if they told who would really believe them? Although that never stopped her from thinking about other things. "Next rainy day or if we just want to do something together, we look for more. This castle is really old so we might be able to find most if not all of them."

"That's a great idea," said Isabel as she thought about it.

"You girls find everything?" boomed a voice from up the steps. Startled both girls turned to see their father smiling a little down at them. He didn't seem to care that they had found this room. Maybe he was going to tell them more about it sooner or later. "Come on up, dinner is almost ready."

Sharing a look, they started to go up the steps toward their dad. This was their little secret that nobody had to know about.