The Road to Newtopia (The Calamity Girls Book 2)

The First Temple

As we stepped foot into the temple, lights went on to light up the inside. "Did I learn an entire dead language just for today? You better believe I did!" Marcy cheered. "Now, let's see, Keeper of the box, one strong of mind, three trials await that will return the stone's shine, looks like there's three trials, guys." The doors for the trial opened. "A dead end, well, we tried our best, and that's what counts." Sprig said sarcastically. "Hey, c'mon, there's a puzzle here somewhere, everyone look for clues." Marcy instructed. We looked around, until Anne finds a puzzle cube on the ground. "Hey, guess who found the puzzle?" Anne shouted as a green orb lifted her up with the puzzle cube. "Frog, help us, a cursed cube possessed by evil magic!" Hop Pop panicked. "No, it's the puzzle, also I'm pretty sure that's a magnetic field holding her up." Marcy explains. "Isn't that what I said?" Hop Pop asked. "Well, whatever it is, all yours, Marbles!" Anne exclaimed as she tossed the cube to Marcy and I caught her before she could crush the Plantars, but then she landed on top of me. "Whoa, this thing's got like a zillion permutations." Marcy said as she's lifted up. "If this temple thinks it can beat me, it's got another thing coming." As Marcy started the puzzle, the ground started shaking and shifted to the side. "Anyone else tasting chocopede pancakes right now?" Sprig asked. "Yup." I gagged. "Marcy, can you at least let us know what you're gonna move before you move it?!" Anne asked, but Marcy didn't respond and she focused on the puzzle. "Oh my frog, she's in the zone!" I panicked. After a few minutes of near death experiences, Marcy finally finished the puzzle. "We did it, one down, two to go, how fun is this?!" She exclaimed, running through the door, forgetting us. "Wow, Rowena, you and Anne weren't kidding about her being in the zone." Polly said. "Not to mention she's a tad overconfident." Hop Pop added. "Hard to argue with the results, though." Sprig comments.

As we walked in the next room, we found a blue, pink, and green tiled floor. "Oh, hey, a dance floor!" Anne exclaimed. "Not quite, watch." Marcy explains, tossing a stone on a pink tile, which caught on fire, and a blue tile, which triggered some spikes. "Whoa, not getting good vibes from this room." Sprig said. "Well, time to turn back, thanks for playing, everyone!" Polly shouts. "Hold on, gang, look." Hop Pop explains as a code appears in front of us. "A dangerous room, what to do, don't be jealous of my hue." Marcy translates. "Who's Hugh?" Sprig asked. "Okay, so, pink is death by flame, blue is death by crushing, so we either have a choice between frog abuse and frog abuse." I said. "I'm still not following..." Anne said as Marcy ran pass us. "Marcy." Marcy used her crossbow to go across the floor to a green spot, which didn't kill her when she pressed it. "Solved it, okay, guys, green is the safe color, get it?" Marcy asked. "Don't be jealous of my hue, it's a reference to green, the color of envy." "I have a lot of green friends that would find that offensive." Hop Pop replied. "But, why hasn't the door opened yet?" Polly asked. "Looks like this is a three person job, two of you stand on one of the tiles." Marcy replied. "MarMar, are you sure?" Anne asked. "Yeah, how do we know that one isn't some sort of trap door?" Sprig added. "Guys, I've done the research, plus, it's me, remember, I said that I won't let you down and I meant it." Marcy explains. "I'll do the first one." I said, jumping on one tile. "I'll do the next one!" Hop Pop and Anne exclaimed. "Anne, no, I'll do it, the whole point of this is to get you girls home alive." Hop Pop explains. "I already had a good life." "No, Hop Pop, I'll step on the tile, this is my quest, it's my responsibility, your responsibility is keeping your family safe, not me and Rowena!" Anne argued. "I care about you and Rowena, too, Anne." Hop Pop said. "I mean, to an extent, right, you kind of proved that when you buried the music box." "Someone just step on the frog dang tile!" I shouted as they continued arguing. Anne jumped on the other tile, although she lost her balance, she managed to avoid death and all the tiles turned green. "Woo! What'd I tell you, this temple is toast, consider the stone charged, baby!" Marcy cheered. "Dang, girl." I commented. "I think I lost an eyebrow." Anne said. "Cool!" Polly exclaimed.