Chapter 31: Logical

~ Jaden swam groggily upwards. Somewhere in the distance someone was calling his name. He broke the surface and his eyes flew open. Takyle stood over him nudging him with a foot.

"Jaden, the ropes are almost done burning. Get up." To his right he felt Andrew rise and followed suite. He shook his arm vigorously, trying to relieve the numbness gained from inadvertently sleeping on it.

"Nothing's happened yet?" asked Andrew, stretching.

"No. It's just been burning away. There's probably five or ten minutes left to go I imagine."

Jaden stepped up on the platform to look at the rope. There was nothing left but some ash and a small piece, not more than four inches in length, burning slowly.

"Wonder what's going to happen when it's finished?" he said.

"I don't know," said Andrew. "But I don't think that this could possibly be all of the task."

"Yeah," Jaden replied. "I suppose not."

"Everybody just be on your toes," chimed in Takyle. For the remaining couple of minutes Jaden and Andrew joked about crouching alertly until the last of the rope fizzled out and they all got very quiet and serious.

Nothing happened.

Andrew cleared his throat.

"Well...Huh...We're still alive!"

"That you are," said a voice from behind them. They all jumped and spun, only to find that no one was there. Jaden turned back to where the pedestal was supposed to be and found it inexplicably absent. In it's place on the same low stone platform stood a gigantic slab of the white marble, taller than a man, elaborate script decorating its face.

"Whoa, hey guys, check it out."

Andrew glanced back over his shoulder then returned his gaze to the edge of the trees.

"That's very cheeky V ol' buddy, very cheeky. Good to know that you're still with us in one form or another."

Takyle slowly approached the monument and reached up to run a hand over the carved lettering.

"What's it say?" Jaden asked her.

"I have no idea," she murmured. Andrew shot a look at her back.

"I thought that you speak like 14 languages there Ta."

"12, but this doesn't seem to be any one language Andrew." He walked over to join her beside the stone.

"Yeah, so?"

"So it's not so simple as all that! I have no references with me, there's no linguistic context. There's no place to start."

Jaden touched Takyle's arm.

"It has to be translated Takyle, or we won't complete the task," he said.

"I know...I'll try." ~