Quest for the Arcane Crown Yajat Sharma (most popular ebook readers .txt) 📖

I am the guardian of the Tiger’s Hide

Only those can enter, who have courage and might

Swerve to your right, then to your left,

Rather doing this, I must be at rest.

Instead of explaining all this, I will cut it short,

Solve the riddle, don’t take help of any sort.

I won’t tolerate cheating, and that is my word,

I am a fair guardian, I won’t spare a nerd.

The riddle is about, figuring out the code,

Listen!

The code is Dinf het melon Etrov!

The voice stopped.

“Dinf het melon Etrov... what does that mean?” The Scavenger sighed.

“Find the melon trove,” James said at once. Everyone looked at him incredulously. “How?”

“It couldn’t be simpler. Just unscramble the words.”

The others tried and discovered that James was right.

Everyone started searching the area for a melon trove.

Matt wandered into the bushes. He used the Power of Wind and bent all the trees within the radius of one mile. He was quick to spot some yellow fruits.

“I found something,” he exclaimed, running towards it as the others soon joined him.

“Wait! Those are lemons, not melons,” James said.

“Well, we forgot to unscramble melon. It will become lemon!” Matt said, grinning.

“Bingo! Look, they are bunched. We need to separate them,” the Scavenger said.

As they separated the lemons, a black hole revealed. The Scavenger gestured for the children to follow him as he jumped down the black hole.

Matt followed him into the darkness and landed on a soft cushion the Scavenger had created.

Matt got up with the rest and looked around an underground cave where torches blazing with fire lined the wall. Shards hung from the ceiling, and Matt had an eerie feeling that disturbing or shaking the wall could crush the shards.

The children followed the Scavenger deeper inside the cave.

Spiders were crawling on the walls, making Matt shudder. He just hated spiders.

“How’s this cave holding up?” Matt asked, looking at the huge shards. “With so many hefty shards like that… it’s impossible the roofs could hold up.”

The Scavenger smiled. “That’s the handiwork of the greatest builders of all time – the Anvil Heroes. No cave they have made is known to collapse.”

A howl suddenly came echoing inside the cave.

“What was that?” Archer asked, shuddering.

The Scavenger replied grimly, “Tigers that protect the Tiger’s Hide.”

“Tigers that howl?” James asked. “Strange.”

The Scavenger put a finger to his lips. “Don’t talk. We need to take the tigers by surprise. It will be tough to get the hide otherwise. The tigers love human meat.”

Matt quivered, “This is going to be tough.”

“Yes, but anyone who wears the Tiger’s Hide can command them. So one of us just needs to wear it, and then it’s a cakewalk.”

The Scavenger walked forward with light footsteps, examining the thick air cautiously.

A howl echoed inside the cave again, making the Scavenger pause.

The scent of tiger hair drifted around, and Matt looked at Daniel in alarm, for he knew Daniel to be allergic to tiger hair. He remembered them going once to a zoo together. Daniel had almost sneezed his head off.

Archer and James were looking at Daniel too, watching as his nostrils flared.

Matt leapt to cover Daniel’s nose, but he was too late. Daniel sneezed hard. “ACCCHHOOOOOOOOOO!”

The howling stopped.

The Scavenger swung around. “Are you mad? Who sneezes like that? You must have alerted the whole Dark World with that sneeze!”

The Scavenger took a deep breath and waited, but nothing happened. More silence followed.

“There’s nothing,” Matt whispered.

But the Scavenger looked scared. The tigers had surely heard it, that’s why they were quiet. The sneeze had done the damage.

“What is it?” Daniel asked. “There’s no more howling.”

“That’s what I am worried about, fool,” the Scavenger said, shushing him.

The Scavenger waited some more. But there was silence.

“Okay, that’s it,” Matt said, “I am done.”

Matt moved forward and took the turn ahead and let out a loud gasp.

“Look at this,” he called out, as his voice echoed.

The others came around behind him and gasped too. Far behind, at the wall, there stood a raised block of stone on which lay, gleaming brightly, the Tiger’s Hide, yellow with stripes of white on it.

Matt took a step forward, but the Scavenger pulled him back.

The Scavenger whispered to him, “The tigers will attack you as soon as you go near the hide. Think of another way.”

“There is no other way! Besides, we should snatch it while the tigers are not here,” Matt reasoned.

The Scavenger released him and pulled out his sword. “Then go. I will guard you.”

There was an eerie silence all around. Matt stepped forward. As he neared the hide, nothing seemed to happen.

Matt grinned and stepped forward to snatch the hide.

That’s when tigers pounced at him from both sides.

Matt was prepared and, summoning the power of wind, he blasted air around, throwing the tigers helter-skelter.

But more came, and Matt found himself being surrounded by them.

His friends sprang into action and charged boldly.

As most of the tigers turned towards his friends, Matt seized the opportunity. He created a miniature tornado that spun and struck a tiger head-on, whirling it and slamming it to the wall. Matt shot more tornadoes, smashing and striking the tigers, wreaking mayhem.

Yet more tigers appeared. Matt realized they were swarming all over; there was just one way to defeat them – by taking the hide.

“Daniel!” the Scavenger shouted, “You can control the Earth. Do something!”

Daniel tried in vain and cried, “There is no vegetation here at all and no trees to summon. I can’t do anything.”

The tigers starting to surround Daniel.

Matt glanced at the hide that lay glistening there. His face lit up as he saw Archer sneaking up to it, but before Archer could even touch it, a tiger came from behind and sent him flying.

Matt closed his eyes, raised his hands and roared. The air in the cave seemed to enter into his hand, and Matt focused its power. He funnelled the air as he let it go, creating a massive tornado.

Matt couldn’t see his creation’s effects, because the effort had taken a major toll on him. He slumped to the ground, all his