ferhoodle
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The ancient hallway was filled with dust. The tiny particles danced in the electric lights that were carefully strung along the ceiling. Cracked and faded murals lined the walls, telling spotty and incomplete stories about the people who built
the place in ages past. The hall ended in a massive circular door, lined with intricate carvings. Oddly, it had weathered the ages far better than the rest of the temple, and the words carved on its surface were still clearly visible, even if there were few who could read it.
Two of those few stood in front of it now. Both men regarded the door with a sense of awe, wondering what might be beyond it.
“Honestly, some of the men were thinking about just knocking it down.” Said the older of the two. “Can you believe that? They have no sense of propriety.”
“You can hardly blame them. Most of them are American. They see an obstacle, their first thought is to knock it down. I’d say the fact that they haven’t brought out the dynamite already is a sign of their restraint.”
“Even so. You’d think they’d have more respect for the past. Speaking of, what do you make of it, Charles?”
“Tricky. Very tricky. I take you’ve tried to solve the riddle?”
“Several times, yes. It hasn’t worked yet. That’s why we’ve called you in. Hopefully you can see something I haven’t.”
“Let me see your notes. I’ll see if I can’t find something.”
The older man presented Charles with a stack of paper. The young expert looked them over, pouring over them and then turning to the door and examining it carefully.
“Ah, I see the problem. Look here, Vic, you’ve got the translation wrong. You confused these two characters and mixed up these three.” Charles said, pointing to various places on the papers. “Don’t worry, my friend, they’re all very similar looking. It’s all a very easy mistake to make.”
“What? Let me see that.” Vic took the papers and looked over them carefully. “Why, so I have. I can’t imagine what came over me.”
“Probably worn out after the long journey. Like I said, the mix up is quite understandable. Anyway, now that we’ve got that out of the way, we can set about actually getting this door open.”
The two men went to work. With the new translation in place, the actual riddle was made apparent. That did not mean the answer was obvious though. It took almost an hour before Charles finally pieced it together.
“Why, the door’s been all mixed up. That’s the riddle. See the images? The order’s been all jumbled up.”
“Charles, do you mean to tell me that this door was closed by one of those computer game puzzles? That can’t be right.”
“Can you come up with a better explanation? I know it seems wrong, but it’s also the only thing that fits.”
Vic looked at the door and sighed. “Very well. It irks me that something so important is hidden by something so childish, but if that’s what it takes, let’s see what we can do.”
The old stone was difficult to move at first, but once it got going, the different parts of the door slid around each other remarkably smoothly. It only took a few minutes to solve the puzzle, especially with both men working together. And soon they heard the sound of stone grinding against stone hidden in the walls. Loud thunks and rumbles shook dust from the walls and floor and whatever mechanism kept the door shut now caused it to open. It moved slowly, rolling away into a hidden recess in the wall. And beyond it was the room that the two men had worked to get into.
“Come on, Vic. Let’s see if this was all worth it.”
Charles did not hesitate as he entered the room, with Vic close behind.
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The idea of an ancient civilization hiding stuff behind a video game type puzzle is pretty funny to think about, isn't it? Who knows, maybe they were and all the puzzles have just broken down because of the effects of time.
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