The Mystery of the Missing Platform 4

The Mystery of the Missing Platform - Chapter 6 - Ciphers, Witches, Progress

Summary from Chapter 5: Iris and W-Sam encountered a magician, Eruqhir, who gave them a book of spells and warned them that they would be facing dangerous creatures on their quest.

Iris was flipping through the pages of the Book of Spells. She heard a pant, which came from W-Sam behind her.

'Wait up!' he called. He rested his arms on his knees. 'My knees are killing me,' he moaned.'

'Where do you think we should start?' Iris mumbled, pretending not to hear her brother as he whined. Soon, she was on the last page of the book. 'All spells,' she announced. 

W-Sam squatted on the ground. 'What now?' he said, a mere whisper.

'Well,' Iris said, glancing down at the book. 'I don't see why we shouldn't try a non-killing knee spell, on you, W-Sam. Besides, you look like you need it.' W-Sam groaned. 'After all, groaning and whining doesn't help, so -'

She peered at the book, bringing it closer to her face. W-Sam was scrutinizing her warily. 'What?'

'What is this?' Iris murmured, tracing her finger along capital bold words.

.SNIAMER RUOF MROFTALP FO YRETSYM EHT AHTRO ROF KEES

W-Sam got up reluctantly. 'What's what?' he said, looking at the page. 'Sniamer roo-of, mroftalp fo ... what is this?'

'Wait,' Iris said, eyes widened, all her focus given to the book. 'A dot behind the first word ... a full stop! No, wait! A cipher! It's a cipher! A word cipher! We try the words backwards,' she squinted at the words, 'Sniamer ... R-E-M-I-A-N-S ... What's that? Remains! That's remains! And then ...'

W-Sam fumbled in his pocket. 'Do you have a pen or something?' he asked desperately.

'No! You remember the words and I'll unscramble them. Remains ... four ... pla ... plat ... platform! Do you think it's about Platform 4?'

After a few minutes of unscrambling, this was what they got:

.remains four platform of mystery the ortha for seek

'Why is the full stop at the front?' Iris said, bewildered.

'Oh! Try turning the whole sentence backwards!' almost shouted W-Sam, exhilarated. Iris read the sentence backwards. 'Seek ... for ... ortha ... the ... mystery ... of ... platform 4 remains!'

The both of them were speechless for a second. 

'Ortha is a name,' W-Sam breathed.

'We're supposed to find her,' Iris said. 'Who left this clue? Was it Eruqhir?'

W-Sam grabbed the book from her and he started flipping to the front page. 'Ha!' he exclamed triumphantly after a minute or two. 'See what we've got.'

Iris peered at the words. It was a rather short paragraph with rhyming words. 'It's a riddle,' she said.

AS SHE AND THE TWO ATE APPLES ON THE TREE,

THEY DECIDED THEY'VE GOT  TO FLEE

THEY TURNED BACKWARDS 

AND HURRIED AWAY ON THEIR FEET

W-Sam winced. 'A ... badly written poem, I would say,' he said.

'Very,' Iris agreed, nodding slightly. 'But what does it mean? Telling us to eat apples? Running away from apples? Are apples monsters? Is it a dimension to another world? Is it a dimension to where Becky is held in? Are apples disguises? Is Ortha disguised as an apple?'

'Damn, you're deep, I'm having a mental breakdown!' cried W-Sam, clutching his hair.

'Sorry,' Iris said, not sounding sorry. 'We're supposed to think what it means.'

'To think, yes, not to overthink.'

Iris read the first phrase again. 'As she and the two ate apples on the tree...' she breathed. 'Apples on the tree ... two ate ... she and the two ate ... two ate ... two ate. Wait. two ate, two ate ... twenty-eight!'

Before W-Sam could bombard her questions on what was happening, she moved to the next phrase as fast as lightning. 'They decided they've got to flee ... what about we try it back - Backwards!' she screamed, deafening W-Sam as she read out the third phrase. 'They turned backwards! Backwards! The poem is telling us to try the words backwards!'

'Well, which word should we turn backwards?' W-Sam demanded. 'Flee backwards is EELF. To is OT. Got is TOG. This doesn't make sense, Iris, and -'

'Well, we try the words until one of them makes sense!' Iris shrieked. 'They've backwards is ... is ... Ev'yeht. Well, that doesn't make sense, so ... decided backwards is DEDICED. Dediced. Is dediced a word?' she whispered to W-Sam, who was now squatting on the ground.

'I'm not an Oxford English Dictionary,' he said comfortably.

'Be one!' hissed Iris.

'Dediced is not a word, but dead and iced are,' W-Sam said promptly. 'Which I can really relate to write now. I wish I was dead. My ankles are sore.'

'Dead is not a word in dediced,' Iris said, carefully scanning the words. 'But iced is! So that's one word ... and then they backwards is yhet.'

'Okay, you know what we're gonna do?' W-Sam said, peering at the ground. 'You're gonna continue looking for words turned backwards and I'm just gonna sit down here on this .. ground.'

He sat down on the brick ground. 'Ah, this is so much better,' he said, sighing happily. 'I just hope I don't get rammed over by a car.'

Iris screamed, startling W-Sam.

'For goodness's sake, stop screaming!' he wheezed.

'The third phrase!' she squeaked. 'They turned backwards! It's telling us to turn they backwards too! So ... We've got 28, iced, and yeht. What do you think it means?'

'I think it means trash.'

'28 Iced Yeht,' Iris said, her heart thumping loudly in her rib she felt painful. 'It's an address! We're supposed to visit Ortha in 28 Iced Yeht! She lives in 28 Iced Yeht!'

'Who the hell even is Ortha?' W-Sam commanded.

'I don't know. We just have to ask for directions I guess. She might know something.'

'You know what she sounds like? A witch.'

'Don't be stupid,' Iris said, dragging W-Sam to his feet. He adjusted his jacket and sighed heavily. 'Whoever she, or he, is, they might tell us something useful. You know what this means?'

'Yes.'

'What?'

'It means gibberish.'

'Ugh, no. It means we're making progress.'