Chapter 22: Is this a scavenger hunt!?

“Hello everyone and welcome to the scavenger hunt that was set up by the headmaster of this school! I will now be announcing the prize for the first group of each section to finish the scavenger hunt!” The announcer was standing on top of a podium yelling to the lines of people standing and waiting for the hunt to start. “Ah, never mind, it will be a ‘Surprise’! All of you participating were given an envelope with a single sheet of paper on the inside! That is your first clue! Some of you will be given different clues, as to avoid overcrowding! Those with different clues have a different coloured envelopes! Those with Red, please come over here…” The man continued until he listed all the colours that had been handed out.

Claire and I were on a two person team, with a green envelope.

“Green group!” The man on the podium looks to the group Claire and I were standing with. “Pull out your first clue and GO!!”

A large amount of people started shouting following this sudden start. I quickly opened the envelope and looked at the clue with Claire.

‘Beneath the sky of fantasy, lies the symbol of royalty.’

Wow… this is going to be quite a challenging scavenger hunt…

“Logan… ‘symbol of royalty’, what do you think that means?” Claire looks at me and frowns, she looks just about as stumped as I am.

“Okay, um… I will just think out loud now. ‘symbol of royalty’ might refer to some sort of object that only royalty would have, but wouldn’t be a family crest, as that is too specific to be ‘Royalty’ in general. So it has to be a physical item as well… a sceptre… maybe a crown?” I throw out some reasoning and a couple ideas.

“Then… ‘Beneath the sky of fantasy’. Is there anyone that is doing a fantasy type show?” I shake my head at Claire’s suggestion.

“There is not, but one thing I did notice was the theatrical club was not working together with any of the stalls… is the first clue really that easy!?” Claire looks at me with a complicated expression.

“Who else took the time to memorize everything going on in the entire festival? In fact, who would even bother?” Claire grabs my arm and pulls me in the direction of the arts building.

“Well… who knows if we are even going to the right place? Also, we turn left here for quick access one of the larger stalls was place in front of the arts building on the main path to encourage people to continue going through festival instead of entering the school.”

Claire turns when I tell her, and we quickly arrive in front of the Arts building. Not sure if this was said, but this school is massive. The buildings are separated from each other so students who are enrolled in similar programs don’t have to run around a huge building… but that doesn’t help students who take diverse courses. There are five buildings of various sizes surrounding one large building that was the centre of the school, and on the main building was a large lookout point, which is the same roof I went up to not too long ago.

“Claire, do you know which room the theatrical club would be in?”

“Yeah, it’s on the second floor.”

Claire and I quickly go to the room. I’m not quite sure why we are going so quickly, but I am a competitive person, I would enjoy winning this.

“Welcome back, Young Lord.” A young man dressed up as a fantasy wizard greeted us as we entered the large double doors to the theatrical club’s room.

“Why thank you my respectable court mage, you may now rest at ease, for I shall conquer all under the sky!” I quickly get into the role as Claire searches the room.

“I support you the entire way, Young Lord!” The fantasy wizard bows slightly to me as we both get into the role.

“No! I should thank you for saving my time and getting distracted!” I smile to him as Claire looks behind a cloud prop on the ground suspiciously placed in the corner.

His jaw drops slightly as I high five Claire who came back with a green coloured piece of paper, and a red paper crown on her head.

“There was a stack of paper crowns hidden behind the cloud, anyways here is the next clue… they were stacked and I think we should only take one to be fair.” I nod at Claire as she starts to read the note.

‘Take thy position as the ruler of the tower where you can gaze upon the kingdom.’

“I think the important parts this time are, ‘Ruler of the tower’ and ‘Gaze upon the kingdom’.” I say this to Claire and she instantly agrees with me.

“Ruler of the tower… does this school even have a tower anywhere?” Claire looks around as we both look slightly confused.

“It may be the observation deck on top of the main building… it is the tallest building in the school… how many floors is it actually?”

“I think it is seven floors up from ground level.”

“Would that not be classified as tower height in fantasy worlds? I can say I have read a few fantasy stories and rarely if ever do buildings reach more than 3 floors at most. Seven floors would be able to look out over everything within the kingdom.”

“That’s sounds correct! Let’s go!” Claire starts to run but I grab her to stop her.

“Let’s not rush into this. I have a method to make sure that it is there.” I quickly pull out my phone to stop Claire from asking questions.

I go to the camera and zoom in as far as I can on the observation area. I see some people dressed in knight outfits on top of the roof, and one of them is holding a stack of green pieces of paper.

“We were right Claire, I see what we need! Let’s go!” I grab Claire’s hand and start to lightly jog at her pace towards the main building.

After a short amount of stair climbing, Claire was out of breath.

“Go… on… with… out… me…” Claire said that through intense breathing. I feel a bit bad for her… maybe we could work on some sort of fitness plan… just a lot of running and some stairs… okay never mind, being out of breath at this point is probably normal, but I refuse to give up!

“Hold on tight!” I pick Claire up and help her get on my back so I can continue up the stairs. And sadly… there is no elevator to go to the roof, or any floor for that matter… don’t schools have to be wheelchair accessible?

After a longer amount of time we make it to the door to the roof with the number lock on it. Attached to the door was a piece of paper that read, ‘This is the password that an idiot would have on their luggage.’

“Logan?” Claire looks at me with a confused expression.

“12345. Don’t think too hard about it. I solved this a while ago, this just confirms that it is the same as it was.” I quickly put the code into the door and open it.

We are greeted by several knights who bow slightly as we enter the roof and close the door behind us.

“We welcome the Young Queen, and her acquaintance!”

“Ah,” I raise my arms up to distract them while did her thing talking to the other knight that had the green paper, “I am but an acquaintance in the eyes of my kingdom! We are both ruler but sadly because my wife wears the crown, I have been mistaken as a mere acquaintance!” I fall to my hands and knees in front of the knights.

A few of the knights getting into the performance got onto one knee and bowed as far as they could.

“I apologize on behalf of all the knights and wish the new King the best!”

“I wish that you royal guards continue to work hard to please me in the future! Alas! My reign is not for long and I must move on! I would like an item to remind myself of the great knights that once bowed their heads to me!” I notice that the item to carry off this time was a wooden sword. Quite the large amount was stacked behind the knights.

“Of course, my King!”

One of the other knights brings me the sword while laughing. As I take the sword I raise it into the air.

“Before I fall I shall conquer all that is beneath this blade!”

“Hoorah!” The knights all shout and then laugh shortly afterwards.

The knights get back into position to wait for the next people, while I walk over to Claire who had already started on the next clue.

‘Gaze upon the kingdom that you rule. Follow your eyes on the ground, for where the kingdom began, is where your quest shall end.’

“Um… this one is a bit trickier I would say…” Claire looks at the clue, completely stumped.

“I can’t say I understand this at all… I mean, we could try looking out over the festival maybe we will see something that I didn’t notice while memorizing everything.” I walk with Claire to the edge of the observation area and we look out over the festival.

I notice a large amount of people running around on the ground, looking for various things… I’m glad we guessed right two times in a row. It would be unfortunate if people didn’t solve the clues at all.

“So… Claire. You notice anything?”

“Colours? Do the colours mean anything?” Claire offers a suggestion as she looks at the festival from above.

I look at all the tents and look at the colours of the tents… nothing really stands out. They are all random, I was actually one of the people in charge of it…

“Wait! Claire! Maybe… the only other building I can see here is that one!” I point to one of the buildings on the school grounds that was slightly smaller than the rest of the buildings, at only 3 floors.

“The clue said that we need to find where the kingdom began. I don’t know which building that is… but it might have been the first constructed… We can’t tell from here.” Claire looks back towards the stairs as I smile.

“If you get tired again, I will gladly carry you for as long as I possibly can.” I smile as we start to make our way towards the building that we saw from the observation area.

We make our way down the stairs and through the fastest routes in the festival grounds with the layout that was decided.

We arrive in front of the building and I notice that Claire was still wearing the crown on her head. I ready the sword in my hand as we enter the building.

“Let’s do this!”

Claire and I enter into the building and no one was in the main entrance…

“Logan… maybe we need the first classroom constructed.”

“Yeah… that makes sense.” I nod as Claire and I start to walk around with her checking all the classes on the ground floor… it makes sense they would finish the ones on the bottom first.

After walking around for five minute I see people in a classroom dressed in fantasy gear.

“Claire… time to get to work.” I grab her hand as we walk

She nods as we enter the classroom. AS soon as we enter I raise the sword as Claire stands behind me.

“To all of those in the premise! If you are a supporter of the King, do not resist! For I have come to the roots of the kingdom!”

A few people in the room start clapping.

“Congratulations on being the first group of the green section to finish the scavenger hunt! We will now show you your prize!”

A few people bring over a small card…

“Five thousand dollar shopping card valid in any store in the nearby shopping district!”

Claire and I gladly accept the prize.

What to do with it?

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Hello everyone!

Another day, another chapter. I'm oddly tired today, so I may not respond to comments in a timely manner (not like I did anyways).

As usual, have a great day/night!