Stories from Paxsalam: The Orb of Wishes

Chapter 16: Now What? Mr. Prince?

"Two... Four... Six... Eight... Ten... Twelve..."

Felix started counting the tiles of the corridor that we need to pass, which one of the tiles just broke for the first row, and there's still more rows that we need to cross.

 "Alright guys!" Felix made an announcement to our group. "There's a total of twenty rows that we need to cover." Felix told us. "Twenty?!" A guy exclaimed, which I did recognize it from somewhere before. "What you're saying is," I heard another voice spoke, which is sounds similar to the first one, "That we need to make it through this corridor," A third one said, "With the risks of falling through like what happened just now?" They spoke together in unison.

I immediately recognized them as that pair of triplets that I had seen when we are on the way to register ourselves, and I will never forget that they are one of those fellows who ignored my offers to sign their autographs.

"Yes." Felix answered, it went silent for a moment, with the only sounds being the timer ticking. "Oh man, oh man," The second fellow said, "I have a dark thought here, I think one of us needs to sacrifice themselves to reveal the correct tile." He buried his face into his palms. "I don't want to sacrifice anyone here man." 

"Don't say that, Jeffery." The first fella comforted the one named Jeffery, "We can probably figure this out. Right, guys?" The rest gave the triplets looks of hopelessness, the triplets sighed with despair in response.

But he's right, I thought. There must be a difference between the 'nice' tile and the 'not so nice' tile.

Now that we are now a group, I don't want their hopes to get crushed. I need to do something, something that definitely won't involve sacrifice and sadistic choices.

"Okay ladies and gents." I announced, and the others turned their attention to me. "I'll go first, and I'll try to find the differences." "Edward?" Aisha asked, "Wait, y-" "I'll go first," I repeated before she could finish her sentence. "And there's only two tiles for each row, so we have to go one by one." The others stood there, making no responses at all. 

Did I mess up? Do these guys trust me? I hope I can lead these guys out of here, I'm a prince after all, a prince who could be the ruler of Paxsalam eventually... But first, I need to encourage everyone to put their trust in me.

I cleared my throat, and began to make a motivational speech. "Guys, I know that I messed up before; I led you all to many dead ends, which wasted our time. Now, let me try to redeem myself in this one. I'll go ahead and try to find any hints and differences for faulty tiles. I'll let you know if it's safe."

The others turned to each other, giving looks of concern (a natural reaction when a thirteen year old prince is about to do something that could get him eliminated from a tournament), and relief (probably because someone finally came up with a idea). Felix and Aisha looked worried, but eventually they manage to say. "Good luck, Edward." "Don't stress it, dude." The triplets said in a comforting tone.

I took the first step, the one next to the tile where Aisha had stepped on. One down, nineteen more to go. I looked forward, to the two tiles laying ahead of me, one of them is the one that can't be broken, and the other is the one that can collapse under a single step... I thought for a moment, and remembered the hole traps during my trainings in the good old days. I raised my staff, and tapped the tile on the left.

Creak. Creak. Creak.

The sweet sound of wooden floor echoed the area as I tapped on it. I turned to the one on the right and did the same thing. Creak. Creak. Creak. Wait... I raised my staff, and tapped on the tiles again. The same sound emitted from its. Damn it, I silently cursed, not only do they look similar, they sound similar too. What now? What else can I do?