Casa Christmas

7. Riddles and Games in Marco's Room

Wrapping paper and ribbons flew into the air as the children opened their gifts. And wide smiles soon warmed their faces as they beheld their treasures.

Ambrosio got a lovely ludo game, and it made him grin from ear to ear. As with all games, it came with a typical set of instructions. But there were unexpected instructions too. The paper said that he could make the board as big as a rug by saying "Bigness."

It also added that if he said, "Free movement," before starting a game, the dice would roll when he or other players say "Roll," which would make the pieces move on their own accordingly.

Ambrosio said, "Cool," after reading that part.

Olivia and Marco hurried to see what drew that word from their brother's lips.

But Ambrosio was left scratching his head upon reading the instructions on the back. They said to flip the board over to see a model of the house. When he did that, his eyes went wide as soup bowls.

Tiny blocks began to assemble on the back of the game board, which had transformed from wood to paper. And soon, a life-like model of Casa Christmas rose up on the back!

The front of the house was missing, allowing him to see different rooms in the house. The views were not detailed, however. Instead, the rooms looked more like blueprint depictions with the names of the rooms also floating inside them in a bouncy way.

Ambrosio's eyes were immediately drawn to the basement because, in his experience, that was the darkest place in a house. Thus, he wanted to avoid it at all costs. Curiously, there seemed to be a path or a tunnel, he was not sure, that went too low to see where it led.

I wonder where that goes, Ambrosio thought. But he was in no rush to go see for himself.

He could not be certain, but there was also a narrow path that led out of the tower on the house they saw when they first arrived in Orienterra. However, when Ambrosio blinked, it was gone.

That's strange, he thought.

"Did you guys see that?" Ambrosio asked his siblings.

"See what?" they replied.

"There was a little tunnel that seemed to go through the wall of the upstairs part of the tower, but now it's gone." Ambrosio strained his eyes to see if he could find it again. But no dice. It was not there anymore.

"No," Olivia said.

"I didn't see it," Marco shrugged.

"Must have been my imagination," Ambrosio muttered to himself.

The instructions further explained that if he and others that he gave matching pieces to all had them in their possession, they would appear inside the model of Casa Christmas. And sure enough, when Ambrosio gave Olivia and Marco a red piece, like the one he was holding, the pieces appeared inside the model. They showed them in Marco's room with each of their names hovering above game pieces.

Additionally, the instructions added that all other creatures or beings that moved would appear as grey game pieces with question marks over them. But when the grey pieces were getting too close to one of the siblings, the question mark would become a red exclamation point.

And it concluded with this:

You to whom this present has been granted,

Listen to hear and learn this lesson well,

And you will have quite the story to tell;

Those who share piece, colour, and goal with you