To The Good Magician's Castle
Grundy stared at the girls. "You've got some questions to answer," he said.
"Shoot," said Mya.
Grundy looked confused. "Shoot what? We don't have any Mundane guns here in Xanth."
"Umm…sorry. I meant go ahead and ask your questions."
"Oh. Very well. First off, how are there two of you here? I was too dazed to ask when you first entered, but now that I think about it, there should only be one Companion. I think. I never really asked Professor Grossclout about that." Grundy took a deep breath.
"Well…I guess since you didn't know, and we didn't know, that it was just okay," Mya said, using her strange method of logic.
"Yeah, that makes sense!" Steph added. "If no one knows it's wrong, it's not really wrong, is it?"
Slowly Grundy smiled. "I guess that works! You two fish lips are smarter than you look. But that still doesn't explain how you got right into Xanth. You're not supposed to be able to do that until you believe fully in magic. And no Mundanes believe right away. So how'd you do it?"
Mya and Steph exchanged glances. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Mya asked Steph. Steph nodded. "I think so," she said.
"Well, Grundy, I'm guessing it's the same logic. We didn't know we had to believe in magic, and we really wanted to be in Xanth, so we just got in! Call it BLIND luck," Mya explained. She and Steph didn't want to betray their secret, at least not just yet.
Grundy looked skeptical. "Well, I guess that works." Apparently he'd decided to accept their story for now. "Ok, spoon faces, we should head towards the Good Magician's Castle now."
Steph and Mya looked at each other. "Grundy, could you excuse us for one minute?" they asked politely.
"What for?" Grundy asked, crude as always.
"Umm…nature is calling," Mya said quickly.
"Oh, sure," Grundy said, blushing. He walked a ways off and left the two alone.
Mya collapsed against a tree. "I can't believe we're actually back! This is great!" she said, breathing in the air.
"I know!" Steph said, doing likewise. She touched a new Monia flower, but didn't pick it, as she didn't want to get sick. "It's amazing here! But I know what you're thinking…what do we do now?"
"Yep. You're dead on. We managed not to tell Grundy that we're really Sorceresses, but what are we supposed to do now? Do we go with him to see Humfrey? Or try to ditch him and go on our own?"
"I don't know. We could go to our old village…but who knows what we'd find? We've been gone for 11 years. A lot can change in 11 years."
"You're right. Well, if anyone would know what we should do, it would be Humfrey. I vote we let Grundy play dumb, and go with him to Humfrey's castle. Let him think we're the innocent Mundane Companions he thinks we are," Mya said
"Ok," Steph agreed. "So it's on to the Good Magician's Castle!" She smiled. Mya smiled back.
"Grundy!" she called. "We're ready to go!"
"Ok!" Grundy called. "Hold your horse tails, I'm coming!" The two girls listened as Grundy scampered over to them. "Ready to go, then? We have to head towards the Gap…the Gap…the Gap something, to get to his Castle. Fortunately for you, we're really close to that. It should only be about half a days journey to get to his castle!"
"Great!" Mya and Steph said in unison. "Let's get going!"
Grundy nodded in agreement. "We can't use any Enchanted Paths…you're Players in the game, so you can't get help from them, it would be like cheating. So we'll have to rough it through the old fashioned way." He started forwards, and the two followed. They had no complaints about it…they were back in Xanth!
They followed Grundy as he trekked off-trail…it was quite a lot like Mundane hiking. Of course, in Mundania, they don't have tangle trees, and artis-trees, and all of the other wonderful Xanth things, but Mya and Steph were enjoying it all the more for that matter! They revealed in looking at all the strange vegetation, watching with keen interest as Grundy talked to trees and grass, and even spotted a few strange birds. Ah, to be back in the land of Xanth!
Suddenly, Grundy stopped walking. "Uh oh," he said.
"What's the matter?" Mya asked.
"See up ahead there?" he asked. "That's a basilisk. One look in the eye from that guy, and you'll be stoned for life."
Mya and Steph thought hard. They were sure they could get around the basilisk no problem if they used their talents. But they were trying to keep those secret, for now. So what should they do?
"Uhh…Grundy?" Mya asked. "We have to answer Nature again. Would you mind if we just went over there for a few moments?"
Grundy looked at them as if they'd grown two heads. They just went a few minutes ago! And there was a basilisk here! Talk about priorities! "Well, ok, if you absolutely have to," he said. "But make sure not to look at the basilisk! I'll wait for you right here."
"Ok," Mya agreed. "We'll be careful." Then she and Steph walked a bit backwards, and crouched behind a tree.
"What should we do?" Mya whispered to Steph.
Steph looked like she was deep in thought. "Mya," she said slowly, "why exactly ARE we hiding our talents?"
Mya looked a little shocked. "Well…I'm not sure, exactly. I guess it's so we can make our identity known when WE want to....not a moment before."
"Well, I think it may be time to make our identities known. I don't see any other way to get around this basilisk."
"But it's a game! Normal Mundanes who don't have talents are supposed to be able to get around it! There must be a way!" Mya argued.
Reluctantly, Steph agreed. "Ok. We'll go back out there, and look for a way, but if we can't find one, we're using our talents. Agreed?"
"Agreed," Mya said. Then they walked back over towards Grundy.
"Oh, I'm glad you're back!" Grundy said. "While you were gone, I questioned some of the plants in the area. It seems that the basilisk is standing on some sort of strange grass…as if it could open up, or something." Grundy couldn't help them any more than that. As a Companion, he could inform the players of the problem, but could not provide the solution. That was up to them.
"Well, let's look carefully around the area, and see if we can find anything that might help us," Mya suggested. The others nodded, and they all started walking around, inspecting trees and flowers. Mya found a group of tics. There were cri-tics, and fantas-tics, and cri-tics. But none of these would help. She looked on.
Meanwhile, Steph wasn't having much more luck. She was inspecting trees. There were some tall ones, some short ones, some blue ones, and some orange ones, but she didn't think any of those could help. But wait…what was that? A red flashing on the orange tree? It was very faint and hard to see- but yes! It was there.
"Mya, come over here!" Steph called. "I think I found something!" Mya came and joined her. "Look at this! I think it's a button!" Mya looked at the flashing light.
"I think you're right! Should we push it?" she asked.
"I guess so!" Steph said. And without another thought, she reached down and pushed the button.
There was a growl from the direction of the basilisk. Without thinking, Mya turned and looked. And looked again. Where had the basilisk gone?
"Grundy!" she called. "The basilisk isn't there anymore!"
"Why, you're right! What happened?" he asked.
"Well, I pushed this button, and then he was gone!" Steph said.
Mya had walked over to the area the basilisk was in. "Guys, look at this! I think it was a trap door! When you pushed the button, the basilisk fell into this hole!"
"Why would you want to trap King Dor?" Grundy asked, walking over. Steph was coming, too.
"Not trap King Dor. It trapped the basilisk! See, there he is, at the bottom of this hole." Steph and Mya leaned over to look in. Just then, the basilisk started to look up. Grundy pulled them both back.
"I think we should get going," he said quickly. The two girls' consented, and they continued on their trek.
Soon enough they reached the Gap Chasm. "So that's what it's called!" Grundy exclaimed. "Usually I can remember! See, Dor put a forget spell on it, and now it's hard to remember about it."
"That's interesting," Mya said. "But how do we get around it?"
"Well," Grundy answered, "there's an invisible path going over it that we should be able to pass on."
"Great!" said Mya. She walked bravely forward to the area that Grundy had indicated. Unknown to Grundy and Mya, the path had been recently used to go towards the Good Magician's Castle, and thus would not work right now. If a person walked over the path one way, it would switch sides so they could come back. But never both ways at once. However, due to a little intervention by Steph, there was a path there, and they were able to cross.
"Hey, that was good luck!" Grundy said. "Sometimes the path doesn't work! Well, all you have now is the Good Magician's tree challenges…and then you're in."
"Excellent," Mya said. "Let's get going!" Luckily for the two anxious girls, the challenges were set up for Mundanes, and were not too hard to pass, this time.
They approached the moat. There was no moat monster there. In fact, the water looked quite calm.
"What's going on?" Mya inquired. "I thought there was supposed to be a challenge?" She stepped into the water, and immediately jumped back out. "Ack!! It's freezing! No way we can go through that! We'll turn into popsicles!"
"You mean Tsoda Popka? How could it turn into a sickle?" Grundy asked. He was perplexed by the odd terms the Mundane's kept using.
"Uhh..never mind!" Steph said quickly. But look! There's a boat. Maybe we could use that to get across the moat!"
All three agreed. They climbed into the boat, and started rowing. All was going well, until they realized…they were back on the first bank! What had happened?
"Ok, Mya, your rowing must not be adequate. Let me try," Steph said, grabbing the ores. Shrugging, Mya gave them to her, and let her row. The same problem happened.
"Here, Grundy, you try!" Steph said, throwing the ores to the little man. Grundy took them, and with some difficulty, began rowing. When he stopped, the three found themselves at the original side again.
"Hmmm…" Mya said. "I've been thinking. Maybe it's not WHO's rowing, but HOW you row. Let's try doing it backwards." Steph and Grundy looked dubious…wouldn't rowing backwards just take them towards where they came from? But they relented the ores and let Mya try, anyway.
To their great surprise, they ended up on the other side! "Mya, how did you do that?" Steph asked.
"Well, when I figured out it didn't matter who was rowing, I thought maybe we were going the wrong way. It's a hot day…so the moat water should be warm, too. But it's not. It's cold. This is reverse water!" she exclaimed.
"Oh, I get it!" Steph said, smiling. "We had to row backwards, thus rowing forwards! It all makes sense now."
It didn't make so much sense to Grundy, but he just smiled and agreed. "Let's continue on," he said.
They walked towards the hill. Grundy started up it, and Mya and Steph followed behind. As they walked up the hill, they realized they weren't really walking UP the hill, but DOWN it.
"I got this one!" Mya said. "We just have to turn around and walk backwards! Like the last challenge!"
"I don't know," Grundy said. "Why would the Magician Humfrey make two challenges the same?"
"They're not the same. That was water, this is hill," Mya explained, having figure this out already. Shrugging, Grundy turned around, and tried to walk up the hill. Mya and followed suit.
Unfortunately, it didn't work. When the stopped walking, they were still at the bottom on the hill.
"Uh…" Mya said dumbly. She thought she'd had it!
Luckily, Steph came to her rescue. "I got it!" she said. "It's so obvious! It's the reverse of the other challenge! It's not HOW we walk, but WHO we walk!" She seemed to have it, but Mya and Grundy were a little confused.
Steph explained further. "Ok, it's not walking forwards, and it's not walking backwards. So it must be the order the people who are walking up the hill are in. We already tried Grundy, Mya, Steph, and that was wrong. So let's try Grundy, Steph, Mya." The logic made a little more sense when she put it that way. They tried climbing the hill. And failed.
"Hmm…there must be more logic to it. Let's see…Grundy is the shortest, and Mya is the tallest. So maybe Mya has to go first, and then me, and then Grundy. Tallest to shortest." The others nodded in agreement, not knowing what else to do. Mya got in front of the line, and led the others up the hill.
She led the others up the hill! It had worked! "Good job, Steph!" she exclaimed happily! "Only one challenge left!" In their ecstatic mood, the girls ran on ahead. Grundy had to hurry to keep up.
He reached the two. There was a wall. Seemingly, they couldn't get around it. It was tall, and wide, and didn't seem to have any doors.
"Maybe we have to say a secret word," Mya said. "OPEN SESAME!" she yelled. Nothing happened.
"Maybe we have to hit a secret brick," Steph suggested. She set about touching different bricks, but nothing happened.
The girls sat down, each thinking. Grundy just watched them. He didn't really have any good ideas, anyway. And he wasn't supposed to help them too much, regardless. So he sat down too, and let them think.
Suddenly, lightbulbs appeared on top of Mya and Steph's heads. "That's it!" they said in unison. "I solved the first challenge…" Mya said.
"And I solved the second…" Steph said.
"So we have to solve the third together!" they said at the same time. They grinned. Grundy didn't really understand, but who really understands women?
"Ok, so when I solved the first challenge, we had to do it backwards. So let's all stand backwards," she said. Standing up, everyone did so.
"And my challenge was solved when we got in a certain order. So Mya, you go over there, and I'll stand beside you. Grundy, you stand besides me." They got in the proper order.
"Now, let's say the password, and touch the wall!" the girls said together. Backing towards the wall, the three yelled, "OPEN SESAME!" and touched their hands to the wall. Unknown to them, all they had to do was figure out the proper WHO and HOW, but the little extra bit never hurt anyone.
As they touched the wall, they felt it dissolve under their fingers. Well, it felt like it was dissolving. Really it was them who were de-materializing. They passed right through the wall, and ended up on the other side.
"We're in!" Mya said, smiling stupidly, and doing a little dance.
"Rock on, we rule!" Steph said, smiling similarly. They gave each other a high five. Of course, Grundy didn't really know what a high five was, but he supposed that was one.
"Let's get going!" Mya said excitedly. "We're so close!!" Affected by her excitement, the others ran towards the door. Steph reached up to knock. They were here! They made it to the Castle!
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Grundy stared at the girls. "You've got some questions to answer," he said.
"Shoot," said Mya.
Grundy looked confused. "Shoot what? We don't have any Mundane guns here in Xanth."
"Umm…sorry. I meant go ahead and ask your questions."
"Oh. Very well. First off, how are there two of you here? I was too dazed to ask when you first entered, but now that I think about it, there should only be one Companion. I think. I never really asked Professor Grossclout about that." Grundy took a deep breath.
"Well…I guess since you didn't know, and we didn't know, that it was just okay," Mya said, using her strange method of logic.
"Yeah, that makes sense!" Steph added. "If no one knows it's wrong, it's not really wrong, is it?"
Slowly Grundy smiled. "I guess that works! You two fish lips are smarter than you look. But that still doesn't explain how you got right into Xanth. You're not supposed to be able to do that until you believe fully in magic. And no Mundanes believe right away. So how'd you do it?"
Mya and Steph exchanged glances. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Mya asked Steph. Steph nodded. "I think so," she said.
"Well, Grundy, I'm guessing it's the same logic. We didn't know we had to believe in magic, and we really wanted to be in Xanth, so we just got in! Call it BLIND luck," Mya explained. She and Steph didn't want to betray their secret, at least not just yet.
Grundy looked skeptical. "Well, I guess that works." Apparently he'd decided to accept their story for now. "Ok, spoon faces, we should head towards the Good Magician's Castle now."
Steph and Mya looked at each other. "Grundy, could you excuse us for one minute?" they asked politely.
"What for?" Grundy asked, crude as always.
"Umm…nature is calling," Mya said quickly.
"Oh, sure," Grundy said, blushing. He walked a ways off and left the two alone.
Mya collapsed against a tree. "I can't believe we're actually back! This is great!" she said, breathing in the air.
"I know!" Steph said, doing likewise. She touched a new Monia flower, but didn't pick it, as she didn't want to get sick. "It's amazing here! But I know what you're thinking…what do we do now?"
"Yep. You're dead on. We managed not to tell Grundy that we're really Sorceresses, but what are we supposed to do now? Do we go with him to see Humfrey? Or try to ditch him and go on our own?"
"I don't know. We could go to our old village…but who knows what we'd find? We've been gone for 11 years. A lot can change in 11 years."
"You're right. Well, if anyone would know what we should do, it would be Humfrey. I vote we let Grundy play dumb, and go with him to Humfrey's castle. Let him think we're the innocent Mundane Companions he thinks we are," Mya said
"Ok," Steph agreed. "So it's on to the Good Magician's Castle!" She smiled. Mya smiled back.
"Grundy!" she called. "We're ready to go!"
"Ok!" Grundy called. "Hold your horse tails, I'm coming!" The two girls listened as Grundy scampered over to them. "Ready to go, then? We have to head towards the Gap…the Gap…the Gap something, to get to his Castle. Fortunately for you, we're really close to that. It should only be about half a days journey to get to his castle!"
"Great!" Mya and Steph said in unison. "Let's get going!"
Grundy nodded in agreement. "We can't use any Enchanted Paths…you're Players in the game, so you can't get help from them, it would be like cheating. So we'll have to rough it through the old fashioned way." He started forwards, and the two followed. They had no complaints about it…they were back in Xanth!
They followed Grundy as he trekked off-trail…it was quite a lot like Mundane hiking. Of course, in Mundania, they don't have tangle trees, and artis-trees, and all of the other wonderful Xanth things, but Mya and Steph were enjoying it all the more for that matter! They revealed in looking at all the strange vegetation, watching with keen interest as Grundy talked to trees and grass, and even spotted a few strange birds. Ah, to be back in the land of Xanth!
Suddenly, Grundy stopped walking. "Uh oh," he said.
"What's the matter?" Mya asked.
"See up ahead there?" he asked. "That's a basilisk. One look in the eye from that guy, and you'll be stoned for life."
Mya and Steph thought hard. They were sure they could get around the basilisk no problem if they used their talents. But they were trying to keep those secret, for now. So what should they do?
"Uhh…Grundy?" Mya asked. "We have to answer Nature again. Would you mind if we just went over there for a few moments?"
Grundy looked at them as if they'd grown two heads. They just went a few minutes ago! And there was a basilisk here! Talk about priorities! "Well, ok, if you absolutely have to," he said. "But make sure not to look at the basilisk! I'll wait for you right here."
"Ok," Mya agreed. "We'll be careful." Then she and Steph walked a bit backwards, and crouched behind a tree.
"What should we do?" Mya whispered to Steph.
Steph looked like she was deep in thought. "Mya," she said slowly, "why exactly ARE we hiding our talents?"
Mya looked a little shocked. "Well…I'm not sure, exactly. I guess it's so we can make our identity known when WE want to....not a moment before."
"Well, I think it may be time to make our identities known. I don't see any other way to get around this basilisk."
"But it's a game! Normal Mundanes who don't have talents are supposed to be able to get around it! There must be a way!" Mya argued.
Reluctantly, Steph agreed. "Ok. We'll go back out there, and look for a way, but if we can't find one, we're using our talents. Agreed?"
"Agreed," Mya said. Then they walked back over towards Grundy.
"Oh, I'm glad you're back!" Grundy said. "While you were gone, I questioned some of the plants in the area. It seems that the basilisk is standing on some sort of strange grass…as if it could open up, or something." Grundy couldn't help them any more than that. As a Companion, he could inform the players of the problem, but could not provide the solution. That was up to them.
"Well, let's look carefully around the area, and see if we can find anything that might help us," Mya suggested. The others nodded, and they all started walking around, inspecting trees and flowers. Mya found a group of tics. There were cri-tics, and fantas-tics, and cri-tics. But none of these would help. She looked on.
Meanwhile, Steph wasn't having much more luck. She was inspecting trees. There were some tall ones, some short ones, some blue ones, and some orange ones, but she didn't think any of those could help. But wait…what was that? A red flashing on the orange tree? It was very faint and hard to see- but yes! It was there.
"Mya, come over here!" Steph called. "I think I found something!" Mya came and joined her. "Look at this! I think it's a button!" Mya looked at the flashing light.
"I think you're right! Should we push it?" she asked.
"I guess so!" Steph said. And without another thought, she reached down and pushed the button.
There was a growl from the direction of the basilisk. Without thinking, Mya turned and looked. And looked again. Where had the basilisk gone?
"Grundy!" she called. "The basilisk isn't there anymore!"
"Why, you're right! What happened?" he asked.
"Well, I pushed this button, and then he was gone!" Steph said.
Mya had walked over to the area the basilisk was in. "Guys, look at this! I think it was a trap door! When you pushed the button, the basilisk fell into this hole!"
"Why would you want to trap King Dor?" Grundy asked, walking over. Steph was coming, too.
"Not trap King Dor. It trapped the basilisk! See, there he is, at the bottom of this hole." Steph and Mya leaned over to look in. Just then, the basilisk started to look up. Grundy pulled them both back.
"I think we should get going," he said quickly. The two girls' consented, and they continued on their trek.
Soon enough they reached the Gap Chasm. "So that's what it's called!" Grundy exclaimed. "Usually I can remember! See, Dor put a forget spell on it, and now it's hard to remember about it."
"That's interesting," Mya said. "But how do we get around it?"
"Well," Grundy answered, "there's an invisible path going over it that we should be able to pass on."
"Great!" said Mya. She walked bravely forward to the area that Grundy had indicated. Unknown to Grundy and Mya, the path had been recently used to go towards the Good Magician's Castle, and thus would not work right now. If a person walked over the path one way, it would switch sides so they could come back. But never both ways at once. However, due to a little intervention by Steph, there was a path there, and they were able to cross.
"Hey, that was good luck!" Grundy said. "Sometimes the path doesn't work! Well, all you have now is the Good Magician's tree challenges…and then you're in."
"Excellent," Mya said. "Let's get going!" Luckily for the two anxious girls, the challenges were set up for Mundanes, and were not too hard to pass, this time.
They approached the moat. There was no moat monster there. In fact, the water looked quite calm.
"What's going on?" Mya inquired. "I thought there was supposed to be a challenge?" She stepped into the water, and immediately jumped back out. "Ack!! It's freezing! No way we can go through that! We'll turn into popsicles!"
"You mean Tsoda Popka? How could it turn into a sickle?" Grundy asked. He was perplexed by the odd terms the Mundane's kept using.
"Uhh..never mind!" Steph said quickly. But look! There's a boat. Maybe we could use that to get across the moat!"
All three agreed. They climbed into the boat, and started rowing. All was going well, until they realized…they were back on the first bank! What had happened?
"Ok, Mya, your rowing must not be adequate. Let me try," Steph said, grabbing the ores. Shrugging, Mya gave them to her, and let her row. The same problem happened.
"Here, Grundy, you try!" Steph said, throwing the ores to the little man. Grundy took them, and with some difficulty, began rowing. When he stopped, the three found themselves at the original side again.
"Hmmm…" Mya said. "I've been thinking. Maybe it's not WHO's rowing, but HOW you row. Let's try doing it backwards." Steph and Grundy looked dubious…wouldn't rowing backwards just take them towards where they came from? But they relented the ores and let Mya try, anyway.
To their great surprise, they ended up on the other side! "Mya, how did you do that?" Steph asked.
"Well, when I figured out it didn't matter who was rowing, I thought maybe we were going the wrong way. It's a hot day…so the moat water should be warm, too. But it's not. It's cold. This is reverse water!" she exclaimed.
"Oh, I get it!" Steph said, smiling. "We had to row backwards, thus rowing forwards! It all makes sense now."
It didn't make so much sense to Grundy, but he just smiled and agreed. "Let's continue on," he said.
They walked towards the hill. Grundy started up it, and Mya and Steph followed behind. As they walked up the hill, they realized they weren't really walking UP the hill, but DOWN it.
"I got this one!" Mya said. "We just have to turn around and walk backwards! Like the last challenge!"
"I don't know," Grundy said. "Why would the Magician Humfrey make two challenges the same?"
"They're not the same. That was water, this is hill," Mya explained, having figure this out already. Shrugging, Grundy turned around, and tried to walk up the hill. Mya and followed suit.
Unfortunately, it didn't work. When the stopped walking, they were still at the bottom on the hill.
"Uh…" Mya said dumbly. She thought she'd had it!
Luckily, Steph came to her rescue. "I got it!" she said. "It's so obvious! It's the reverse of the other challenge! It's not HOW we walk, but WHO we walk!" She seemed to have it, but Mya and Grundy were a little confused.
Steph explained further. "Ok, it's not walking forwards, and it's not walking backwards. So it must be the order the people who are walking up the hill are in. We already tried Grundy, Mya, Steph, and that was wrong. So let's try Grundy, Steph, Mya." The logic made a little more sense when she put it that way. They tried climbing the hill. And failed.
"Hmm…there must be more logic to it. Let's see…Grundy is the shortest, and Mya is the tallest. So maybe Mya has to go first, and then me, and then Grundy. Tallest to shortest." The others nodded in agreement, not knowing what else to do. Mya got in front of the line, and led the others up the hill.
She led the others up the hill! It had worked! "Good job, Steph!" she exclaimed happily! "Only one challenge left!" In their ecstatic mood, the girls ran on ahead. Grundy had to hurry to keep up.
He reached the two. There was a wall. Seemingly, they couldn't get around it. It was tall, and wide, and didn't seem to have any doors.
"Maybe we have to say a secret word," Mya said. "OPEN SESAME!" she yelled. Nothing happened.
"Maybe we have to hit a secret brick," Steph suggested. She set about touching different bricks, but nothing happened.
The girls sat down, each thinking. Grundy just watched them. He didn't really have any good ideas, anyway. And he wasn't supposed to help them too much, regardless. So he sat down too, and let them think.
Suddenly, lightbulbs appeared on top of Mya and Steph's heads. "That's it!" they said in unison. "I solved the first challenge…" Mya said.
"And I solved the second…" Steph said.
"So we have to solve the third together!" they said at the same time. They grinned. Grundy didn't really understand, but who really understands women?
"Ok, so when I solved the first challenge, we had to do it backwards. So let's all stand backwards," she said. Standing up, everyone did so.
"And my challenge was solved when we got in a certain order. So Mya, you go over there, and I'll stand beside you. Grundy, you stand besides me." They got in the proper order.
"Now, let's say the password, and touch the wall!" the girls said together. Backing towards the wall, the three yelled, "OPEN SESAME!" and touched their hands to the wall. Unknown to them, all they had to do was figure out the proper WHO and HOW, but the little extra bit never hurt anyone.
As they touched the wall, they felt it dissolve under their fingers. Well, it felt like it was dissolving. Really it was them who were de-materializing. They passed right through the wall, and ended up on the other side.
"We're in!" Mya said, smiling stupidly, and doing a little dance.
"Rock on, we rule!" Steph said, smiling similarly. They gave each other a high five. Of course, Grundy didn't really know what a high five was, but he supposed that was one.
"Let's get going!" Mya said excitedly. "We're so close!!" Affected by her excitement, the others ran towards the door. Steph reached up to knock. They were here! They made it to the Castle!
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