Evolution Trials

The Mind Trial

~Espeon, the Sun Pokemon. It unleashes psychic power from the orb on its forehead. When its power is exhausted, the orb grows dull and dark~

The next floor surprised the remaining five. It was something resembling a simple playroom with different objects scattered about the floor. Upon venturing to the locked door, there were three sheets of paper attached to it. Each one with some kind of note written on it.

Maple read aloud the first note. "What has words but never speaks?" she tilted her head in confusion. "That's uh...kind of confusing."

"That doesn't make any sense at all," Xander said. "What are we supposed to do in here anyway?"

"Maybe we're supposed to find whatever the notes are talking about," Ellie suggested. "I mean, that would explain why there's just a bunch of stuff just laying around here."

Artemis hummed in thought, replaying the words that Maple read in her head and combining it with Ellie's theory. "Finding something that has words but never speaks...I wonder." She looked around the objects around the room, her eyes then focusing on a book. Her eyes then lit up in realization as she went towards the book. Opening it, she found a piece that looked like part of a key. "I got it!"

At her sudden outburst, the others snapped their attention to Artemis, who showed them what she had found.

"We're supposed to find the different parts of the key hidden in this room," she explained. "Those notes on the door are riddles leading us to where the key parts are hidden."

"No wonder all this junk is just laying around here," Hailey commented.

"Leave it to Artemis to figure out riddles and puzzles!" Ellie cheered.

Artemis smiled and then looked towards Maple. "Alright, read the next one."

Maple nodded and went back to the locked door, reading aloud the second riddle. "What has hands but can't clap?"

Artemis walked aimlessly around the room, repeating the riddle to herself, trying to look for something to help her connect the dots.

"Did you figure it out yet?" Xander asked.

Artemis shook her head. "No, not yet. I was hoping like with the book I would just see it and then it would come to me...but so far I'm not seeing anything. But I guess just wandering around here until we find something kinda defeats the purpose of the riddles."

"Plus searching for tiny key parts in a messy room like this would be nearly impossible," Hailey added. "Too many little things to go through."

Artemis nodded in agreement sighing as she continued to scan the area for anything that could relate to the riddle.

"I wonder how much time has passed since we started these trials." Ellie pondered aloud, after about a minute of silence. "I hope we're not keeping our parents and everyone else waiting for long."

"Wait a minute El, say that first part of what you just said again." Artemis requested.

"What? 'I wonder how much time has passed since we started these trials'? Did I suddenly make you homesick or something?"

She shook her head, instead wondered for a bit why that little statement seemed to have rung a bell.

'Was it when she said time? Maybe that's it...you tell time with a clock and a clock has...that's it!'

Artemis ran towards a broken clock that she had passed earlier. Right behind the hour hand was the second key part they were looking for. She placed it with the first key part that she had found and they came together with a click.