The Earth's Seismic Faults

The Fluorine Hunt

     "OK, anyone have any ideas, and I mean any, on what the answer to this riddle is?" asked Jay, with his usual tone. "Maybe the answer's right under our noses!"

     "I have never been so good with riddles," said Cole. "Kai was the one who got the Sphinx's riddle the last time."

     "So, tell me, Kai, what's the answer?" 

     Kai gave a shrug and said, "Look, Jay, why don't you stop talking and just continue thinking about this riddle? That would be good."

     Cole turned his focus back on the riddle again. It had made no sense at all. What could speak without a mouth and hear without ears and have no body, but could come alive with the wind? Could it be a ghost?

      "Is it a ghost?" asked Cole. "A ghost has no body, but it would come alive with the wind. Ah, but it has a mouth and ears."

      "Come on!" said Jay, angrily. "WHAT IS THE ANSWER TO THAT HORRIBLE RIDDLE?!"

      With this, a loud echo filled the room. It had exactly repeated Jay's latest complain, and it now rang throughout the chamber. It was amazing on how the echo repeated everything without a mouth and without ears. This gave Cole an idea.

      "The answer's an echo," said Cole. "You have no mouth, no ears, and no body. Yet, you come alive by the wind! The answer to the riddle's an echo!"

      As Cole said the answer, the wall in front of everyone slid open, revealing an entry way to a long tunnel. But if one could look at it more clearly, there seemed to be some illustrations and symbols written on the beautifully carved screens. 

      "What are these?" asked Kai, as he slowly walked towards the tunnel, feeling the walls around it. "Who would've made an underground chamber like this one?"

      "There is no record of these kinds of illustrations in my database," said Zane, who was also very interested in the drawings. "But, there seems to be symbols in the bottom that can help us identify what these pictures mean. The symbols are also written in Latin."

       "Whoever made this secret underground room must've been a Latin," concluded Jay. "I mean, I don't think anyone in this time and day would write things in Latin. Most of them would write it in proper English."

        Cole peered into the drawings even closer. Underneath the drawings, however, stood Latin words that Cole could not make out. The words had said, 'Si infirmitatem invenire volueris, propius quaere et invenies.'

        "These words would seem to be very helpful in our situation right now," said Zane. "It means, 'If you wish to find the weakness, look for it closer and you will find." by 'weakness', I think it means the fluorine needed to defeat the Lion's Statue."

        "Look for it closer and you will find?" repeated Lloyd, whom Cole forgot was there. "Maybe these pictures can help us find the fluorine!"

        The pictures illustrated a bunch of people in the same tunnel as the Ninjas were in now, yet, the only difference was, there were a bunch of greenish yellow rocks and gemstone gleaming all around them. 

        "How come there's rocks around those people?" asked Vania. "And there's nothing around us."

        "What if there are rocks around us?" said Skylor. "Didn't the captions say that if you look for it closer, you will find?"

        Each of the Ninjas spun around and tried examining the tunnel, from every point of view, if there were any gemstones around them. There was no light, so looking for small gemstones could be a bit of a hassle.

         After ten full minutes of searching, and finding nothing at all, the Ninjas thought that they should take a break. And definitely not quit! 

         But as Cole was about to sit down on one edge of the secluded space, he felt something rocky touch him. It was not the painful type of rocky, it was the kind of smooth, glassy stones. Gemstones.

         Cole was about to pick it up, until he remembered that they were toxic, which made him thankful for wearing clothes, and he shouted to the others, "You guys! I think I found some fluorine!"

         All of the other Ninja immediately ran towards the direction of Cole, and saw that he was standing in front of shining gemstones.

         "But, the problem is, I don't know how to get the stones without getting poisoned," said Cole. 

         "How about your gloves?" suggested Kai. "They could keep your hands safe while holding the gemstones for a while."

         "That could work, but what if the toxic melts the gloves' material?" 

         "Here, put it, all of it, inside this bag," said Lloyd, walking in with a large brown sack. "This is made out of durable material that can withstand any type of toxic inside of it." Lloyd quickly added, after Kai quickly dumped all of the stones inside the sack.

         Lloyd secured the sack with a rope and tied it around, making sure nothing can break it. 

         "OK, so we worked out the fluorine problem," said Kai, rubbing his hands together. "New problem, though, how do we get out and defeat that Lion's Statue?"

         "We have two methods of getting out," said Zane, scanning the tunnels. "The first is, to go up the way we started. And the other is to get out in the other end."

          "So, you're telling me to either get barfed out or go out the-" began Jay, but Nya put a hand to his mouth.

          "We know, Jay, we know," said Cole, hotly. "It's impossible to go back the way we started. So, we'll just have to go through the other end."

          All of the other Ninjas groaned. They had walked for so long, and now, they were back to walking.

        "We'd better get going now," said Lloyd.