The Iron Crown |Shadowhunters|

9 - Riddles

"Eat a live frog first thing in the morning
and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day."
-Mark Twain

Lisa woke up by the soft buzz of her alarm clock. Anna was still lying on her bed and she had fallen asleep in her beanbag, causing her neck to hurt. The buzz got louder, Lisa got up and turned off the alarm. She tried to do it as quietly as possible, even though she knew that it wouldn't wake Anna up.

She quickly got dressed in her bathroom. When she was finished, she saw that a little sun was shining through the window. Which made the Institute look even more rustic. Anna was laying on her stomach on Lisa's bed. Her mouth was a little bit open and some saliva ran out.

"My brand new pillow," she silently grumbled. They had talked all evening and Lisa couldn't remember what time it was when they had fallen asleep.
She was just considering waking Anna up, when someone knocked on the door. Lisa frowned and walked to the door.

Arthur stood in front of her, with only a bath towel wrapped around his waist. Lisa was surprised and held her hand in front of her mouth, she couldn't restrain herself to laugh. Arthur didn't seem to notice it.

"Can I ask where the showers are?" Lisa didn't know what to say.

"There is one in your room," she said confused. Arthur looked at her as if he didn't know what she was talking about. She sighed and walked past Arthur to his room. His backpack was on his bed and there were hanging clothes on the chairs and in the open closet. She recognized some T-shirts: a black and yellow one, with Star Wars on it and one with a blue-white-red shield on it. Max had the same T-shirts, Lisa realized. He probably even had them in the same size. She also noticed a black, rectangular object on his bed. Lisa couldn't believe her eyes. She picked it up in disbelief.

"Have you really smuggled this into the Institute?" Arthur frowned.

"It's a laptop?" Lisa impatiently put it back on his bed.

"And those are forbidden here." Arthur frowned his eyebrows again, as if he didn't know that rule.

"Why?" Lisa opened her mouth and closed it again.

"Because it is in the Law," she said after a while. Arthur sadly looked at his laptop, it had something puppy-like.

Lisa had no idea why mundanes were obsessed with those smartphones and computers. She had a cell phone from the prehistory, they never really needed it. In Idris, there even was no service. Lisa had always been interested in the things that the mundanes do. So she also felt a curiosity about the laptop.

"You are allowed to keep it, but make sure Marianne and Richard don't find out, okay?" Arthur nodded slowly. Lisa realised he was quite uncomfortable. She pointed to a door.
"Here is the bathroom." Arthur seemed to finally understand it. 

"Ah, I thought it was the door to another bedroom." Lisa looked at him in confusement. She stared at Arthur, even though she didn't want to. The only boy she had ever seen without shirt – to draw runes – was Jonathan. Jonathan was muscular, like almost every shadowhunter, because of the daily workouts. Arthur, on the other hand, was not muscular at all and Lisa wondered how much they had to train at the academy.

Arthur walked to the bathroom, he seemed to approve it.

"Nice here." She also heard him mumble something like: old-fashioned shadowhunters, who know nothing about technology. Lisa left his room, shaking her head and walked to the kitchen.

It's going to be quite funny here, she thought. With a smile, she walked into the kitchen. She wanted to tell Jonathan what just happened, but for the first time, he didn't seem to be there.