Read Bobby Braw Fire and Ice :: Watch Your Step

After a short humid night, the sun rose once again. The black sky turned into a bright shade of cyan blue, and the sand became even hotter. Inside the base, Bobby, Hannah, Edward and Beth were tranced in a deep sleep by the fan. Eventually, the sunshine broke them out of it. Bobby got up and decided to walk around. He noticed some food inside one of the bags, which inspired him to make something for breakfast. He wanted to make a smoothie after seeing some berries and oats, but he ditched that plan due to the lack of a blender. So he decided to make cereal with them instead. Hannah, Edward and Beth joined him at the table shortly after. They all grabbed something else from one of the bags. Within a short period of time, the morning feed was over.

"When do you want to go out?" asked Beth. "It's nine o'clock now, so how about nine thirty," recommended Bobby. "Sounds good, let's start preparing," replied Beth. During the next half hour, everyone rummaged through the bags, trying to find all of the right equipment. Just before the walk started, Beth asked a series of questions. "Are your water bottles full?". "Yes," replied Hannah. "Do you have mosquito repellent?". "Yes," replied Edward. "Do you have your weapons?". "Yes," replied Bobby. "Did you put on lots of sunscreen?". "Yes," replied Hannah. "Do you have the rest of it?". "Yes," replied Edward. "Do you have the compass?". "Yes," replied Bobby. "Okay, looks like we're all good to go," announced Beth.

Without hesitation, everyone hopped out of the base. It felt as if they were garments, inches away from an iron. Burning and dehydration were not things to worry about due to their supplies. After locking the base, everyone walked away, leaving deep shoe prints in the sand. Five minutes later, a question came to Edward's mind. "Why aren't we just driving to the castle?". "Because we don't know where we are in The Sunlands, we might already be near the castle." "If we can't find it within a half hour walking distance, I'll drive around and look for a crater," explained Beth. "Besides, it's good exercise to walk around," she added.

For the next twenty minutes, Bobby, Hannah, Edward and Beth wandered across the desert. As they saw more sand dunes, they took more sips of chilled water. "Do you think we're close?" asked Hannah without much breath. "I'm not sure, I don't see a crater anywhere," puffed Bobby. Just then, a dangerous pest encountered them. It was a long curvy black snake. Edward noticed it and tried to get it to move away, but that didn't solve anything. The snake lunged towards him, hoping to get a bite of him. Edward deflected it with his gauntlet. Soon enough, it chose Hannah as its next victim and slithered near her. She slammed her hammer into various spots, trying to defeat the fast-moving pest. The snake managed to coil itself around her arm, thankfully, she was able to throw it off before it could bite her. Bobby became the next target, as the snake moved its way towards him. He tried to keep it away, by extending his spear as far out as possible.

"Everyone, stop panicking," ordered Beth. "If we move back and stay perfectly still, the snake will leave us," she explained. Just then, she, along with Bobby, Hannah and Edward, walked a short distance away from the snake. After some time, it grew bored of investigating four static organisms and slithered away. "Hannah, do you have any bites?" asked Beth. "I have my first aid kit, I should be able to treat them,". "I don't think so," answered Hannah while looking at her unbitten arm. "Are you all ready to go?" asked Beth to the whole group. "Yes," replied Bobby, Hannah and Edward simultaneously.

When they resumed their walk, they went back to seeing the same stuff pass by. The wide blue horizon with a bright speck of heat hovering above, Tangerine coloured sand dunes of various sizes, and a trail of footprints that were being left behind. For a while, it seemed as if this was all The Sunlands had to offer. But after ten minutes, that changed.

Everyone was still walking across a sheet of sand. However, it didn't feel like terrain, but rather a thin layer resting upon something else. It had also transitioned into an earthy shade of yellow and there wasn't enough of it to fully cover the surface below. From what everyone could see, it was some kind of brick contraption integrated into the ground. "Is this it?" asked Bobby. "I doubt it," replied Edward. "The news report said the castle was inside a crater, maybe this is some kind of lid to hide it," suggested Bobby. "It's worth looking into," he added.

At that moment, Bobby, Hannah, Edward and Beth started to investigate the surface below. They pushed the sand away with their feet, revealing some interesting mechanisms. There were four straight bars etched into the surface, lined up side by side. Each one held a tile with an arrow-like symbol painted on it. "Oh cool, it's like a little puzzle," stated Hannah. She approached one of the bars and tried to move the tile. She couldn't pick it up, but she could slide it across the crevasse. "I wouldn't solve the puzzle if I were you," commented Beth. "You don't know what it leads to, it could be a deadly trap," she explained. "Only one way to find out," replied Hannah. Beth wasn't on board with the idea. But she knew what she was getting herself into before leaving Fluvaria. So, she decided not to intervene.

Meanwhile, Bobby was searching the area, hoping to find instructions for the puzzle. He couldn't find anything in the sand, so he approached a collection of boulders near the brick contraption. Most of them were ordinary, however, one stood out among the rest. It was hidden behind a taller rock and had a bunch of symbols scratched onto it. They looked similar to the ones on the tiles. Bobby paid attention to the directions and positions of the arrows. The first one was at the bottom and pointed left. The next two were in the middle, one faced up and the other faced down. The last one was all the way at the top and projected its arrow to the right. Once he locked all the information into his mind, he approached his friends.

"I know what to do," announced Bobby. He approached the first bar and slid the tile to the end facing the boulders. "There was a rock with some vague instructions on it." "If we follow them, we should be able to open this thing," he explained while moving the second tile to the middle. "Where does this one go?" asked Hannah, referring to the third tile. "Right where the second one is," answered Bobby. She walked over to the tile and pushed it until it was lined up with the previous one. Unlike the second tile, the arrow was pointing straight towards the boulders. "What about the last one?" asked Edward. "Move it to the side away from the rocks," answered Bobby. Once Edward shifted the tile, the arrangement looked exactly like the one Bobby memorized.

Just then, something unusual happened. Everyone felt the ground sink by a tiny measure. "What have we done?" asked Bobby. "I'm not sure, we need to get off this platform befo..," replied Beth. She wasn't able to complete her sentence, because the entire floor retracted. Nobody was near a ledge, so everyone fell into the area below. Once they hit the ground, they immediately started looking for a way to get out. However, the stone ceiling decided to close back up three seconds after the fall. What little light the Braw Agents had was taken away from them, leaving them in a strange mysterious dark place.