Chapter 4: The Best Scavenger Hunt – EVER! (Part 1)
They were getting closer to the edge of the festivities. Lucy noticed that things were becoming a bit quieter over in this area. This was good – although the activity was grand in scale, it was meant to be private. Just for Emmet.
"Where are we going, Lucy?" Emmet asked after a brief silence. He was curious why she was so eager in pulling in farther away from the crowds and all of the other events.
"I heard there's something special planned back here," she explained, out of breath. "I wanted to check it out and see if we could give it a try. Ah, here we are!"
Within sight, she spotted an enclosed dome, hidden by flora and vines. Her friends had done a very good job of keeping it hidden from curious eyes– now they could truly experience Emmet's surprise together, for the first time.
"All we have to do is enter, and we should be able to know where to go from there," Lucy explained to Emmet.
"But…what exactly is this place? What are we doing?"
"You mean you don't know? It's a scavenger hunt."
Emmet's eyes widened, much to Lucy's delight. "A scavenger hunt?" he repeated.
"Yup. We'll be searching for clues to be able to access the next area. We have to use our brains if we want to make it to the end…and reach the treasure." Emmet's mouth widened with awe at the prospect at what could be waiting for them to take at the end. Lucy stopped to look at him straight in the eye, a confident gaze plastered on her face. "You think you got what it takes…partner?" She held out a hand, signaling to Emmet that she was waiting for him to take this next step together with her.
Emmet returned her confident demeanor. "I've got what it takes, partner." He clasped her hand, matching Lucy's confidence. "Let's get in there and get us some treasure!"
Oh Emmet…I really hope that this is worth all the trouble. If this will help, even just a little. Lucy brushed aside her insecure thoughts and opened the door to the dome with her Special Best Friend, preparing to meet any challenge up ahead.
The dome was dark; aside from a few lights here and there, Lucy and Emmet were standing in virtual blindness together. The silence was eerie, adding to the growing feeling of unease as the two friends were unsure just what to expect.
Within the blink of an eye, the lights suddenly flashed on, causing Lucy and Emmet to wince in pain and surprise. Their eyes soon adjusted, but they soon jumped at the sound of a booming voice.
"GREETINGS CONTESTANTS! WELCOME TO SYSPOCALYPSESTAR'S FIRST ANNUAL EXTRAORDINARY SCAVENGER HUNT!" Canned applause echoed in the chamber. Lucy strained to listen carefully to the voice that was speaking – she was certain it sounded quite familiar to her, but she couldn't place who it was. "THOSE WHO PARTICIPATE IN THIS EXCITING EVENT WILL BE TASKED TO UNDERGO FOUR CHALLENGES, USING ALL THEIR WITS AND SKILLS! DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?!"
Well, too late to back out now… Lucy thought.
"Yes!" Emmet responded, hoping the announcer voice would hear him and be impressed by his resolve. Lucy smiled at him; it was nice seeing him engaged in the activity as he was.
"TO COMPLETE THE CHALLENGE, CONTESTANTS WILL BE GIVEN A RIDDLE TO READ AND DECIPHER! THE CLUES THAT LEAD TO THE ANSWER ARE LOCATED IN EACH RESPECTIVE AREA. CONTESTANTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO WORK TOGETHER TO FIND THE ITEM THAT MATCHES THE ANSWER, WHICH WILL UNLOCK THE DOOR TO THE NEXT AREA AND ITS RESPECTIVE CLUE! THE FINAL DOOR WILL REVEAL THE WAY TO THE TREASURE – WINNER TAKES ALL!"
"Well, that sounds easy enough," Emmet told Lucy, cheerfully.
"ONE MORE IMPORTANT NOTICE!" The voice boomed back on. "CONTESTANTS WILL ONLY HAVE A LIMITED NUMBER OF TIME TO SOLVE EACH PUZZLE! FAILURE TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN THE FAILURE OF THE CHALLENGE…AND THE CONTESTANTS WILL BE LOCKED IN INDEFINITELY!"
"WHAT?!" Emmet and Lucy screamed simultaneously, frozen in horror by this new piece of information.
"GOOD LUCK, CONTESTANTS!"
Guys…what are you doing?! Lucy screeched in her head. This is NOT what we planned out at all!
Her heart suddenly skipped a beat when she realized what happened. Batman… It was Batman, she was sure about it. He must have thought we were making it too easy for Emmet…so he just had to add a little bit of pressure to it. Just to spice things up.
She sighed. Oh well…it was nothing to worry about. Time limit or no, she and Emmet had the wits and gumption to solve each puzzle and reach the end, and she would succeed in her secret mission to help Emmet feel appreciated again. If that was worth all of this trouble…
"Well…there's no looking back," she said, regaining her composure. "Ready?"
Emmet paused before offering her a small smile "…When I'm with you, always," he replied, softly.
They clamped hands together and pushed forward the door into the first arena.
The area they entered was had a myriad of bright colors plastered on its four walls, giving it an atmosphere that was bright and welcoming. Glow-in-the-dark stars were planted on the ceiling, with models of planets and systems spread across, giving its visitors the feeling that they were gazing up at the night sky.
Lucy knew they didn't have much time to admire the workmanship her friends had built – they were on a time limit to solve the riddle, seek the correct object, and move on to the next room. "Any idea where we're supposed to look for first?" she asked Emmet. There was so much…stuff…for their eyes to unpack, it was difficult to know where they had to begin first.
"Lucy, in the corner there," Emmet caught her attention. "I think I see a note."
A note it was, indeed. A parchment planted on a small, stool table, with lovely penmanship delicately lined and sparkled. Sparkled. Lucy had a better idea now who had been behind the construction of this room.
This has Unikitty written all over it…
Emmet picked up the note and narrowed his eyes, scanning the fancy, cursive writing.
"What's it say, Em?" Lucy asked. They had better get started if they wanted to utilize all of the time that they had.
Emmet held his hand to his mouth and coughed several times, making a loud attempt to clear his throat. Or at least look like he was taking this entire thing as seriously as possible, Lucy thought.
"It says:
'Glitter and shine make everything bright
Answer this riddle and get everything right!
You see this object in the sky,
Although looking at it directly may make you cry! What am I?'"
"Okay, well…not the most original of ideas," Lucy muttered. To be fair, with everyone preparing everything in such short notice, it wasn't any wonder that the puzzles they crafted wouldn't be too incredibly difficult to figure out. That's probably why they had the idea of adding in the time limit, Lucy figured.
"So…do we just look around for what fits the riddle best? How do we solve it?" Emmet asked her.
"We could try going line by line, and break them down to see just what the whole thing boils down to?" Lucy suggested.
"That's a good idea, Lucy."
"Thanks. How much time did they say they'd give us?"
"Uh…I don't think they said. At least, I don't remember hearing a number…"
"They said we'd have a 'limited number of time,' I think. So, we've got to go through it quickly but carefully. What did the first line read, Em?"
"Uh…it said 'Glitter and shine make everything right.'
"Okay…so we're supposed to find something that's bright, or supposed to be bright. What's next?"
"'Answer this riddle and get everything right…You see this object in the sky, Although looking at it directly will make you cry.'"
"So, we're looking for something bright and shiny, and it's in the sky…"
"And it makes you cry when you look at it…" Emmet furrowed his brow. "So…does it make you sad…or hurt you…?"
A light bulb went off in Lucy's head. "Emmet!" she called out. "It's the sun! We're looking for the sun!"
"The sun? Here?" Emmet looked puzzled. "How are we supposed to find the sun and use it to unlock the next section?"
"Well, I don't think they literally mean we have to find the sun," Lucy explained. "Did you notice everything in this room from looking around? There are all kinds of models here."
"Kind of like a planetarium."
"Right. Somewhere here ought to be the sun. We find it, take it down, and show…whoever's running this thing that we have it so we can move on."
"Sounds good…only, where do we look first?"
Emmet had a good point – the room was small, but large enough to make looking for their prize quite the ordeal. There were numerous stars and models of planets and other representations of the star systems everywhere you could look…and no sign of a bright, yellow ball of burning gas.
"Um…Emmet, why don't you check out that section of the room there, and I'll look over here? We'll move up and down until we find it."
"Got it!"
Emmet and Lucy split down the middle of the room and began carefully investigating for the model of the sun they were hunting. Emmet came across Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn, whilst Lucy came across the Asteroid belt, Neptune, and Venus. A few moments of silence passed as the two friends scanned the walls and ceiling carefully, trying not to miss anything that seemed out of the ordinary. The sun wasn't going to be like anything else – it was bright, big, and gave a type of warmth compared to all of the other models – even if they were fake and made of soft material.
"A REMINDER FOR CONTESTANTS THAT THEY HAVE APPROXIMATELY TEN MINUTES LEFT TO SOLVE THE RIDDLE AND FIND THE KEY TO ENTER THE NEXT ROOM."
The booming voice startled Emmet and Lucy as it came out of nowhere. Lucy could feel herself slowly growing frustrated as she knew time was slipping away, when suddenly…
"Hey, Lucy?" Emmet's voice rang, casting Lucy out of the short stupor she had been in.
"Yeah, Emmet?"
"Is it just me…or is the sky moving?"
Lucy stopped where she was and looked up. Emmet was right – the planets were not where they had been originally when they had entered the room. Not only that, but she just now noticed that the lighting of the room was different too. Oh, these guys are good…Lucy thought, both out being impressed as well as frustrated.
"You're right, Emmet – the sky is moving…because the planet we're on moves, so the sky looks like it's moving too. That's the idea they came up with for this room. We have to use that fact to our advantage, and figure out just where the sun is going to be coming from."
"So, the sun isn't here then?"
"Well, not right now…it's like this room is supposed to show us how it is at night, right? So…I think we just have the wait for the sun to pop up, just like it does for us at dawn."
"That makes sense…but where we do we need to look for it when it comes out?"
"That's…a good point, actually. We don't have a lot of time left, so we really need to grab it the first chance that we can get so that we can move on, and we're not stuck here. Let's think a moment." Lucy tapped her claw at her mouth, deep in thought.
Emmet was much more reflective over what he knew, and what he just heard. He wasn't as stressed or as intense as Lucy was in solving the puzzle and moving on. Time limit excluded, this was a very fun excursion for him, and another way to spend more time with his Special Best Friend. So, it only made sense for Emmet to come up with the solution, in the way that only Emmet could…
"You know…" he began quietly, gently bringing Lucy out of her mind again. "When…when you guys were always out on patrol, during the war I mean, I always liked to wake up with the sun. It was always there, on time, everyday. I knew just where it would shine first from even before I opened my eyes."
"Really?"
"Yeah…" He gave her a sheepish smile. "Kind of silly right?"
Lucy grinned. "Not silly at all. Do you think you know where we should look?"
"I think so…" Emmet approached the right side of the room and studied the wall. "The sun always rises in the east of the sky…wouldn't this be like the east?"
"I think you're right, Emmet! So the sun will rise from here, and then we snatch it before it gets too high."
"A REMINDER FOR CONTESTANTS THAT THEY HAVE FIVE MINUTES LEFT TO SOLVE THE CHALLENGE!"
"Okay, already! We KNOW!" Lucy shouted back at the voice. It was grating and irritating, when not loud and bombastic…like a certain pirate captain she knew…
"Lucy, look! It's coming!" Emmet called out. He was right – the wall itself was becoming brighter, a sign that the symbolic burning star was about to enter their view.
"Okay, first sign of it that comes up…grab it," Lucy ordered. "No matter what, we have to get that model off the wall and get it to exit door."
Emmet didn't need to be told twice. His hand was out and at the ready. What seemed like an eternity later proved to be fruitful as the model entered into view, rising up from what looked like an area behind the wall, meant to serve as the skyline. As soon as his eyes spotted it, he sprang into action, leaping on the wall and grasping his hands around the glowing sun model. With a few tight tugs (as the sun was continuing its ordained orbit), Emmet was successful in pulling it off entirely. Pieces of plastic sprayed off of him and bounced off to the floor, as a result, but Emmet had no time to react now. He leaped off of the wall and ran to the exit door, just as Lucy had told him too. They both knew they had just enough time to spare.
Emmet grinned and held up the sun model with both hands. "The answer is the sun!" he said triumphantly. Lucy beamed proudly at him. True, it had been a simple puzzle and simple enough to retrieve it…but that wasn't the point of this entire ordeal. The point was to help Emmet feel good…to help him feel like he was appreciated. These little riddles and exercises were great baby steps in getting there.
The door hissed open, a sign that they had passed the first challenge.
"CONGRATULATIONS, CONTESTANTS!" The booming voice roared again. "YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY PASSED THE FIRST TRIAL! YOU HAVE THREE MORE CHALLENGES BEFORE YOU! SUCCEED IN THESE AS WELL, AND THE TREASURE IS YOURS!"
"We did it!" Emmet cheered enthusiastically to Lucy.
"We're one step closer now. Ready for the next one?"
"You don't even have to ask," Emmet answered back, dashing on ahead to the second chamber, leaving Lucy a split second behind before she knew what even happened.
Oh, you… she thought playfully to yourself. Just…don't get too full of yourself, Emmet.
Some time passed as Emmet and Lucy moved to the next chamber. They were ready to face the next challenge, whatever it may be. This last puzzle wasn't as tricky as they had anticipated – would the others be just as simple?
Lucy was both uneasy and excited to see just how elaborate their friends had made this entire game, just for Emmet, after completing the first room. It wasn't obvious to him that they had been behind its construction and development – they had done an amazing job leaving their own unique signatures, yet remain anonymous. Lucy made a mental note to thank each of them once this was all over. Even Batman, even though she had twisted his arm into helping out.
The upcoming room was washed with a spectrum of blue colors, and shapes resembling sea creatures, both those under the ocean, and those that flew above it. It was almost overwhelming how many creatures there were in this room. They were strung around with string, but elaborately could move. Some could even move their tails, giving the illusion of them all swimming together under the ocean. Sounds of the ocean echoed quietly in the room, relaxing the two puzzle-solvers. It was obvious that their next clue had something to do with the ocean.
"Wow…" Emmet gasped in awe. Lucy couldn't help but smile sweetly at how easily impressed he could be, overwhelmed by the simple beauty of things. It was the biggest thing that he had kept true to himself during the war, while the others and herself embraced hardening themselves in order to survive in the new world they lived in. Or so they thought…
"Where's the next clue?" he asked, stepping into the room, gazing up and down. His inquisitive nature took over, and Lucy followed his lead, looking at different parts of the room.
"Wait…Em, I see something shining. In that corner over there!" She pointed to the edge of the room. A small glass bottle lay hidden behind some larger rocks, but not enough to obscure the shimmer it had.
Emmet picked up the bottle and examined it carefully; a piece of paper sat folded inside. He carefully banged on the bottom of the glass so that the paper fell closer to the entrance, then gingerly pulled it on. He opened the paper, and motioned for Lucy to come closer to see.
It read:
"Large and wide I be.
My home is in the deep, blue sea
Listen to my gentle croon,
In the depths, I'll see you soon! What am I?"
"So…it sounds like it's something that sings. Or makes noises, at least," Lucy murmured.
"It also says it's large and wide…kind of like a boat!" Emmet added.
"Yes, but I think it's a sea creature…at least, from looking at what's around us." They peered around in awe again at the creative variety of sea life floated above and around them. If not for the time limit, Emmet felt that he would have enjoyed looking at the craftsmanship for each of the creatures up close. Time was not on their side right now, however.
"It says that 'in the depths, I'll see you soon'…what do you think that means?" Emmet asked.
"In the depths…deep in the sea…" Lucy murmured. She looked around, scanning for anything that seemed off or different. The illusion the room gave was that they were surrounded by fish and sea creatures of all shapes and sizes…but nothing that was obviously located in the depths of the sea.
"Lucy, look at our feet!" Emmet suddenly called out. Lucy did as he asked, her eyes widening by what she saw. There were larger shapes (shadows, really), etched into the bottom of the floor. Lucy leaped on the side of the wall to try to get a higher perspective. The sounds changed where she was; a deep, gentle moaning sound rang near where she was perched. "A gentle croon…" she murmured.
"What do you see?" Emmet called up to her.
"It looks like…it's got to be…" She scanned the outline of the shape Emmet was standing in. The crooning sound continued to hum nearby. "…A whale!"
"A whale?"
"Yes! It lives in the depths of the ocean, it's large and wide, and it croons, which is what that sound it's making." Lucy leapt back down to join her friend.
"I think you're right, Lucy…but how do we show…whoever's in charge of this thing the answer?"
Lucy faltered. That was a good question. They couldn't pull off the imprint like they could from the sun in the first room…could they? "W-What do you think we should do?" she asked Emmet, in a quiet voice.
"CONTESTANTS ARE REMINDED THAT THEY HAVE A LIMITED AMOUNT OF TIME TO COMPLETE THIS CHALLENGE!" The voice boomed suddenly, out of nowhere. Apparently, the watching party was getting a tad bit impatient that things were moving along as slowly as they were.
Emmet ignored the announcer voice, and looked back up where Lucy had leapt down from. "Did you see anything up there?"
"No, I just heard the whale sounds. Why?"
"…I'm going to go back up there and have a look." Immediately, Emmet started climbing up, struggling a bit here and there to reach the corner where Lucy had just been. He didn't have Lucy's acrobatic ease, but as a Master Builder, he did possess some power of movement now that had previously been inaccessible to him. It took a bit more time than Lucy, but eventually Emmet made it to the top. The crooning sounds were loud, poring into his eardrums.
The louder something is, Emmet thought to himself, the closer it is to you. It was this power of observation that he had developed and perfected as a construction worker. No level of detail had to be missed when following the instructions down to the letter. The detail that Lucy was missing, he realized, was that she was actually closer to their key out of there than she realized. Emmet stepped closer and closer to the source of the sound until he finally spotted it: a small radio, large enough to hold in one hand, but powerful enough to broadcast its sound across most of the room. Grasping it, he retraced his steps until he joined Lucy back in the trace of the whale. He grinned and faced the door to the next entry, holding up the radio. "The answer to the riddle is a whale!" he called out, hoping that they had met the time limit, and that this would suffice as an appropriate answer.
It soon seemed that it did; the door rumbled and opened, allowing the two Master Builders access to the third chamber.
Lucy grinned proudly at Emmet. "Okay…how did you know there was a radio up there?"
Emmet turned sheepish. "Well…the sound had to come from somewhere," he started to explain. "You seemed to hear them better from up there, which meant they weren't being broadcasted from somewhere else, but from in the room. You just had to go a bit further up, that's all."
"Wow, Em…I'm impressed!"
A slight blush washed over Emmet's face. "…Really?"
"Yeah! I mean, I don't think I wouldn't have thought of going further up, or that there was a radio up there."
"You would have. You're the smartest person I know."
Lucy's features softened. "Well, it's…it's nice of you to think so."
Emmet grabbed her hand. "I know so. Come on, let's go to the next one. There's only two more, right?"
Lucy tightened his clasp. "Right…only two more." And I hope you like it...all of this… she thought, as they stepped forward together and entered the next chamber.
A/N: Whoo! Next chapter's up! Guys, I am SO sorry about the long wait in-between - work has been a real slammer, and especially these next couple of weeks will be really busy for me...so, here's the next chapter before I'm swamped with that! Originally, I wanted to have all four challenges in this one chapter...and when I saw my page count number, I just decided to cut it in half. I'm not sure how many of you want to read THAT much at once (although it would be great if you did).
So...how did I do with the riddles? They're not the best thing I could come up with, but I think they could have been a whole lot worse as well. My excuse is that Finn and Bianca are the ones role-playing this together and that they came up with the riddles to use in this adventure.
Lucy's more tense when it comes to hoping everything goes without a hitch, whilst Emmet is more laid-back and go-with-the-flow kind of guy. I think this also transfers to the way they problem-solve too. But they compliment each other well. :)
Part two of this Scavenger hunt will wrap this up, and set the scene that will cause the story to take a dark turn...at least for Emmet. ;)
Feedback and comments are appreciated - thank you so much for reading so far!