The valley of secrets

Puzzles...good for challenging the mind, passing the time, and confusing a great many people. Coming in all shapes and sizes, puzzles have been around for centuries. What if I were to tell you...there was a type of puzzle that had never been seen before? What if there was a type of puzzle that left you wondering both what you were doing and where you were going. This puzzle...is called the valley of secrets

This puzzle takes many forms, with levels almost like a video game. Each set of puzzles are  different from the ones before. When going into the valley, you never know what puzzle you’re going to encounter nor do you know what each level will contain. Each run will be different, so prepare your mind.

Our first story, the first of two, starts with three young teens laying unconscious in a concrete cell. The cell was bare, apart from a single book in the center, sitting upon a wooden pedestal. The room was lit by a single light hanging from the ceiling. Every now and then it would flicker, as if going dead, or drawing power from an unstable source. This is what caused our first hero to wake.

Waking up with a groggy head, Samuel pressed his palms against his forehead, hoping to stop the pounding headache he was experiencing. After a few minutes, the headache subsided. His eyes opened, revealing a concrete ceiling and flickering light bulb. With worry now rushing through his mind, he sat up and looked around at his confines.

The room was entirely concrete, with no clear entrance or exit. How he had been put in there, he had no clue. He looked around again, only to make sure he hadn’t missed a window or a door within the concrete walls, but there was nothing. One thing did catch his eye. There were multiple people in the concrete cell with him, two more to be exact. 

The two other individuals that shared the space looked to be around his age. One was a girl with medium length black hair, tipped with dark blue streaks. The other was a boy with freckles and fiery red hair. Each looked to be unconscious. 

Samuel looked around again before making his way to the girl laying supine on the concrete floor. With a gentle tap on the shoulder, he called out to her “Hey...are you alright?” she didn’t wake immediately. He gave her a gentle shake, speaking louder. “Are you ok?” 

The girl gasped awake, the face of Samuel the first thing she saw. She scooted away from him, looking around their current environment. “W-who...who are you?! Where am i?” She said with a voice of fear from waking up in unfamiliar surroundings and an unfamiliar figure kneeling beside her.

“It's alright...i'm not going to hurt you...i woke up here too.” He said, sitting back on his knees. He sighed and brushed a few stray strands of black hair from his face. The girl looked around, trying to process what was going on and where she was. “Where...are we?”

Samuel shrugged, having no idea. “No clue. Wherever it is….there’s no way out. I checked.” He looked around once more, just in case he had missed something in his previous sweeps of the room. Once more...there was nothing, save a flickering light bulb and lectern holding a book. “I have no clue where we are…”

“Who are you then?” The girl asked samuel. He took a minute to think. It was strange, having to think about his own name, but nothing came to his mind. “I...I don’t know...I can’t remember.”

“How can you not remember your own name?” She asked in disbelief. When Samuel asked her what her name was, she went to answer, but paused just like him. There was nothing...not even a semblance of an idea as to what her name was. “What is going on?!” She holds her head as a sudden fear overtakes her. 

From behind them, a high pitched voice calls out in fear. “Hey! Who are you people?! Where am i?” The other boy in the room had woken up and was now looking for a way out while keeping an eye on the two across the cell. Samuel sighed and looked at him “Those are the top two questions right now.”

He sighed yet again and out of frustration, shoved his hands in his pockets. He pulled his left hand out when he felt a small slip of paper. On it was a singular name in big letters. samuel. he showed it to the girl. “Is...is this my name? Check your pockets” He looked at the small slip of paper to try and see if there was anything else on it. Besides the name, it was blank. 

From the pocket of her jeans, the girl drew a similar slip of paper with a name in big lettering. jessica. “I think this is my name.” She showed him the slip, which was also blank beside the bold lettering.

The red haired boy pulled out a similar slip of paper “Mine says ryan. Do I look like a ryan?” He asked curiously as he ran his fingers over his features as if trying to get a feeling for what he looked like. Samuel sighed and walked to the only other thing in the room. The lectern in the middle held a large book, bound with leather. there was lettering along the cover, golden lettering in an unknown language. 

“What’s with the book?” Jessica asked as she walked up to Samuel and looked at the lectern. “Looks pretty old” She looked at the golden lettering “wonder what that says...maybe there’s a clue somewhere…” She began looking around the lectern as if there were a puzzle to solve. 

The red haired boy, indicated as Ryan by his slip of paper, walked over to the other two and looked at the book. “Book of many puzzles...wonder what it means by that?” The other two look at him with curiosity. He looked back, confused at their looks. “What?”

“How do you know that?” Samuel asked, looking back towards the book. Ryan shrugged his shoulders and looked to the book again. “It's right there, clear as day. book of many puzzles. I think it's latin. Liber multorum sollicitat.”  

Jessica and Samuel look at each other before looking to ryan. “So...are you some kind of linguist or something? Neither of us can read it.” They look towards the book for a third time. Again, the words printed along the cover meant nothing to them. 

Ryan shrugged his shoulders again and opened the book cover. He began reading the passage easily, as if it were in english. “If you find yourself stuck with no means of escape, let this book help you get out of your scrape. Should you find yourself wanting to yelp, use the passages within to give you some help.” He read before looking up at the pair “Wow, this book sure likes to rhyme.”

Jessica looked around the room. “I think we definitely need some help escaping.” She began pacing around the room, trying to find anything that might signal an exit, similar to what Samuel did multiple times earlier.

“I'm on it!” Ryan called out and began leafing through the book. As he does, a small vent in the floor opened up and from it spilt a blue, misty gas. Engrossed with the book, he didn’t notice it until Samuel called out that he needed to pick it up. “I'm almost there!” He passed the C’s, the D’s then flipped through the E’s as he tried to find something that would help them escape. “I got it! From this room, you want to leave, a simple door you must achieve. But beware, it may be easier than you first perceive. Wonder what that means?”

Jessica, who had been looking around the room as she listened to Ryan speak, called out when she found a small piece of chalk. “I think I know how to leave!” she ran to the others, coughing slightly at the blue gas as it filled the room. “We need to make a door, but it's simpler than that.” She began drawing a door on the wall. she coughed furiously as she pushed on it. “Come help me!”

The other two spring into action, understanding the puzzle. They coughed violently as they heaved the concrete door open. The trio tumbled onto the ground on the other side. ”Quick! we need to close it!” Jessica began shoving the door closed, the other two joining in to help her. As it closed, the door seemed to vanish into thin air, as if it never existed. The blue gas dissipated, leaving the small group coughing alone in a dark forest. 

When he was able to speak, Ryan was the first one to voice the question that was surely on everyone’s mind.  “Uh...guys? where are we now?”