Princess Aravo Part 1

10

Irbis looked around her. She saw a cave and decided to try it. Suddenly she saw a little crab going with its side forward and backward. It seemed that with each its "swing" it became bigger and bigger. The girl understood that there must be nasty things too. She came up to the cave but unexpectedly the sand in front of it moved and a scate almost as big as a manta-ray appeared blocking with its body the way. It had a lot of spots on it like a leopard and a long thin needle glistened at the end of its tail.

Irbis heard behind her noises. "Again..." she sighed. She looked around and before her she saw different monsters: a great octopus, various creatures with skeletons and without skeletons, with tails, tentacles and other quite unintelligible body parts... Besides here also was our little crab! Only since we had left it, it added 1000 kilos in weight... Plus some strange ugly half-humanoids half-different-dwellers-of-a-sea were present there too. Oh, yeah... Artists wouldn't dream of such mermaids... To say it short, there gathered a very pleasant company.

The girl only seemed to get very bored. She looked at all this fraternity and started:

"And what is all this?" she said. "Sheer childishness only... Nothing of interest is here. Listen, your all respectable I-don't-know-how-to-call-you, let me inform you that our cooperation is impossible so would you be so kind not to trouble yourselves with vain labour. And you please go away!" she addresses the scate. "Go away and don't make me show off before you. Go! Go!"

The scate made a lamenting cry that was very like the one of a whale. Funny...

"Don't try to appeal to my compassion. It doesn't spread on such creatures as you."

The scate all frustrated and offended swam away... It wasn't warned that it would have to deal with such difficult character. That was enough of it. There it would cry a bit, drink two little bottles of a sedative and resign. Resign! For good! It got tired of this all. Got tired!

Well, we cannot think about the scate's tragedy for all the time, my dear reader, so let's better return to the girl. She entered the cave, on walls of which strange and ugly creatures were creeping. The merry company followed her. Why, they needed to cause her some unpleasant things at least. But as she warned them it was absolutely all the same to her. In the end of the cave there was a spot lighted by the hole in the ceiling. There was a stand with seven big scallops about a foot in diameter and a plate with inscription on it:

"Here in these seashells you may find either an underwater animal or a key. Among animals there are a piranha, a sea-urchin, a little ray, a blue-ringed octopus, a lionfish and a sea wasp."

As Irbis was a little bit educated in biology she knew well enough that all these animals except the piranha were venomous. But the meeting with that fish too would hardly be desirable. She continued reading.

"Solve the riddle and find the key. Good luck to you!"

And there was the problem specification:

1. The sea-urchin is not in the second seashell.

2. The piranha is somewhere after the sea wasp and somewhere before the ray.

3. The lionfish is somewhere before the key.

4. There are two seashells between the sea-urchin and the ray.

5. The octopus is penultimate.

6. The sea wasp is at once after the lionfish.

7. The key is somewhere before the piranha.

The girl started working with her brains and the company behind started "supporting" her with loud noise and play of colours. Well, the sixth shell could have been left in peace for sure. Suddenly two molluscs crossed their ways in front of her leaving trails of coloured ink behind them. Irbis waved her hands to disperse that fog and continued pondering. She figured the second half of the shells and was pondering over the first. A little "mermaid" swam before her. "Get out of here!" the girl said and waved it away with her hand. It screamed.

"Oh, please. Only without dramatizing...Be so kind..."

She stretched her hand to the second shell. Stop! Wait! The sea wasp is at once after the lionfish... So the third! The third shell! The girl opened it and from there the key hopped out, which she caught. I wonder, what would have been if that had been the piranha or the sea wasp from the second shell?

She easily left the underwater world without paying attention to any horrors there. Irbis put the second key into the hole and headed to the underground world. It was like a tunnel dug in the ground and there was very dark. She went in hoping not to see vile things there. There were sounds of digging and the ones which insects usually make... At the end there was one more lighted spot where the next puzzle should have been. And do you know, my dear reader, what a dirty trick was she played this time? The panel was covered with big, nasty, disgustful and revolting insects. The girl distorted her face in loathing.

"These don't exist... don't exist..." she was repeating to herself continuously. Irbis closed her eyes and filled the panel. That puzzle was of the sort where you should move a horizontal brick from one end to other after removing other bricks from its way. There were plenty of them and the girl operated blindly. Also there were those nasty noises... She tried as hard as she could to work with her fingers and brain. The atmosphere was very uncomfortable...There she seemed to be at the end... No, one more brick was left and blocked with others. She was getting it free while the noise became more and more unpleasant. And here we go! The brick was in the right end and the panel opened. Still blindly Irbis felt with her hand and took the key. Then like a bullet she ran out of that world and dared to open her eyes only when she was outside. The girl put the last but one key into its hole. The fourth world was left...