Princess Aravo Part 1

11

She looked again inside the last arch. There was nothing except the sky and clouds. Where could there be the key? The sight was very beautiful but if you had acrophobia, I wouldn't recommend you to look down... And yet Irbis needed this key and walked ahead looking around for it. And, of course, what would she have done without them? There appeared different flying monsters. Then it annoyed her more than frightened. They locked her in a ring and started making tornado around her. The girl had been standing thus for a while and then thought: "Oh, no... Forgive me, but I can't waste my time on everyone."

She ran to another spot and continued seeking the key. The monsters were darting here and there. Irbis suddenly noticed a little cloud further overhead with something dark on it. She went to it and felt if she could find something to get upwards. There was nothing... Good, and now she should look for the puzzle, which wasn't there! And quite suitably all these things were flying around... What could have been said? Let's seek.

Griffons, Greek-like sphinxes, Harpies, strange bats and birds-mutants strove to make the girl lose herself among them. But she was persistently not going to get frightened by them. Irbis thought only about the key and how to get it. Suddenly after she had waved away a three-headed toothy white swan with red eyes she noticed that it flew by a strange cloud. She went to it and there was the puzzle!

It contained of a big square with lots of little ones with letters on them. She needed to release the bar from the little squares. To remove them she had to make words out of these letters, only which were close to each other. The girl began solving it. She made such words as "sun", "cloud", "wind", dawn", "climate", "radiation", "aurora", "shining", "albedo" and so on. Sometimes words came to her themselves and sometimes she had to think. Once even one monster helped her to make a word. She had several letters and she was thinking what could she have done out of them. Then a thing rushed over her, the girl looked at it and made up "typhoon".

Soon the bar was free and a button came out of a small hole. Irbis pressed it and a ladder appeared leading to the key. The girl ran to it and started getting upwards. There! The key was at last in her hand! But suddenly a Harpy flew swiftly beside her and by such unexpectedness she dropped the key. She heard how it fell. At the ladders foot there was a cloud, into which some of white bats with big ears entered. The key was somewhere there. Again...

Irbis came down of the ladder and began looking for it in that little but thick white mist. The bats were constantly bothering her and would always stand on her way. Sometimes while she was seeking, the fog dispersed a bit in the bottom and a landscape somewhere very very low was showed. It was rather creepy to look at it... And yet her aim was the key. Having crawled on all four through the entire cloud and waving away a few bats, she eventually found the key at last! She dashed to the exit but suddenly noticed one thing.

Over the doorway there was a lever. She tried it and big square stones flew upwards and made a sort of a path leading to the puzzle and then to the ladder. The girl wanted to burst with laughter. It must have been so easy and she was looking for all this for so much time! But oops! One flying stone accidentally hit one griffon. Tough luck... Forgive me...

Who knows, maybe in the underground world there was something to fight back the insects on the panel but Irbis didn't actually want to return there. Here the last key was on its place. A plate was revealed saying that the door to the labyrinth would be opened only when all circles with images were alight. For one image to burn she should turn the keys in a special order which she should have figured out herself. In fact it would be quite easy as if the right key was turned, it would sit still but return to the first position after turning the wrong key next.

But one more thing happened... Irbis heard something behind her and saw that all monsters came out of their worlds and were looking at her... At least it wasn't boring. She repeated for the umpteenth time to herself that they all didn't really exist and started quickly turning the keys. The girl saw that colours started playing on the wall in front of her as if in a kaleidoscope and different noises accompanied them. She again was turning the keys as fast as ever. Very soon the four images were alight, a path leading somewhere aside appeared and a sound of the opening door was heard. Irbis ran quicker than quick along this winding way waving away all those monsters around her. At last she was in the labyrinth and sighed with relief... At last the second room was over and she could get some rest of all these monsters.

The girl found the eating room and the water closet where they should have been. She supported herself with a delicious diner and again sat for a while before passing the third room. What terrible things were there? It should have been the most difficult stage and, who knows, maybe there was something more awful than all those beasts put together. And yet she had already passed through too much to surrender so soon. Come on! She went to the third room...