Fly me to the moon

Fly me to the moon 9

Darcy,

1."It was the best of times,
   It was the worst of times."

Read the first clue. "history? really? i thought it was supposed to be english." whined mike. of course he was whining. what did i expect him to do? help us? foolish of me, truly. exasperated, i sighed and said "history has english mike." i said while the riddle was knawing at me. i knew the answer but i couldn't get from where exactly i knew it from. i look at krisha to find her chewing on her lip with a furrow on her brow. she looks up as if she could sense my stare and stares back at me,

"come with me for a moment." she says, her voice husky as if she hadn't used it in days even though she was just laughing with us a few minutes ago.

"Anything?" i ask, coming to her side as she leads us into the campus. "i think so, but i'm not sure."

"what is it, krisha?" ella asks.

"i just don't want to jinx it."krisha claims and continues walking in silence as ella and mike bikker behind us.

krisha leads us into the library, of course! the first clue is in the library. but where? krisha after walking for a while finally comes to a stop. i look up to find us in the literature section. this feels kind of mocking, to keep the first clue of a literature treasure hunt in the literature section of the library. krisha finally comes to stop in the last column of the literature section, the literary fiction section and then it hits me. "of course! shit!" i swear and ella startles right behind me only to give me a reprimanding look but mike asks "What is it?"

i turn towards krisha who was furiously searching the shelves for that particular book, so i turn towards our friends and offer "it was the best of times, it was the worst of time; is," "got it!" krisha's voice exclaims. "the opening lines of Mr Dickens' famous 'A tale of two cities'" i complete.

"genius!" "nerds!"Mike and ella exclaim at the same time, the latter of course grinning from ear to ear. i lean in to see the next riddle in krisha's hands. noting my struggle, krisha hands paper over to me and we all mull over the next clue.

2."This thing all things devours;
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats mountain down."

"i give up." ella admits and steps back while i find krisha looking at me in question. "time" i answer her questioned. the thing that devours everything, anything and everything is a victim of time. it was a easy one, the minute my eyes found the words 'devours everything' it was clear the answer was one of the life constants- change, growth, life, death and time. from there it was just one way, time, the thief which kills flora and fauna, destroys even non living things, witnessing the downfall of monarchy and the rise of modernisation.
krisha's eyes widen for a minute in surprise and i shrug it off. "clock?" mike asks.

"probably, but which one?" krisha asks. there are too many clocks in the library, each present separately for every section. "divide and conquer." i say finding ella's eyes and nod, both sharing the same memory of two seniors, who usually bicker and banter finding themselves doing amazing team work, one startegizing and the other implementing it.

all of us go our separate ways, each taking two sections to search the clocks in them. i soon find myself in the geology sections. i pick up the clock present at the very last of the section's shelves from the wall and flip it to find nothing. i open its battery holder to end up with nothing. i move on to the history section which has two clocks due to its larger size. after five minutes i'm still left with nothing. i move to our designated meeting place that we all agreed to meet upon after searching our allotted spots. soon i find myself with a ella and mike, all three empty handed.
so it's krisha, then. it must be her or else?....