Chapter 27
The Tiger Trap
After passing through a big iron gate that appeared out of nowhere, a plush toy suddenly came falling from the sky into Lily's arms. The plush toy was a tiger. But since it looked more like a kitty cat, Lily had an easier time keeping her cool.
She and Oliver looked around the science building for a bit, but after finding nothing except for the plush toy, they decided to regroup with the others who also got tiger plush toys after overcoming an obstacle.
"I knew it!" exclaimed Oliver. "These plush toys must be a clue. They may hold a hint to where Tanja is being held prisoner."
"But what kind of hint?" asked Erin. "I looked ours over, but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Do we need to gut these tigers open?"
"Phrasing, Erin," said Hassan.
Melody offered, "Want me to go get my sewing shears to disembowel them?"
"Seriously, Melody?" Hassan moaned in dismay.
"I think a nail filer would be enough to tear open their stomachs," said Lily.
"You girls are just brutal!"
"Ahem!" Oliver cut in with a cough. "There's no need to dissect those dolls. I already have a pretty good idea where we need to go next. Follow me!"
He took everyone back into the Castle. As soon as he started going up the stairs, Lily realized where they were headed. It should have been obvious. These dolls were tiger dolls. And what was one place in this school that definitely had a tiger?
That was, of course, the section between floors where there was a painting of a tiger eternally frozen in a fierce roar.
Looking at the painting sent a shiver down Lily's spine. But sure enough, as soon as she laid eyes on it, she spotted a change to the painting. A small, but really noticeable one that stuck out to her. At the top, left hand corner behind the roaring beast was a blue birdcage. In that birdcage was a girl.
Viv gasped. "It's Tanja! And she's moving! She's moving inside that painting!"
Indeed, in what should be a still painting, the caged girl was frantically waving her hands and soundlessly screamed as if she could see the viewers outside and was calling out to them.
"Does that mean what I think that means?" said Eddie.
"I believe it does," said Oliver. "Tanja's been trapped inside that painting."
I was afraid he was going to say that, Lily thought glumly to herself. But, well, at least we found her. And she looks like she's still okay, albeit trapped in a cage with a tiger roaming outside it.
"How do we get her out?" she asked.
Oliver asked back, "Can the bracelet do something about it?"
"Let me check." Lily held the bracelet up to the painting and light flashed from its jewels. But nothing else happened. "That would be a no."
She had hoped the bracelet could just pull Tanja out of the cage and painting altogether, but it was no surprise it was not going to be that easy.
"So, now what do we do?" asked George.
"We'll have to go into the painting to get her out, I guess," said Melody.
"But how do we do that?"
A voice suddenly cut in and replied, "That is easy."
Everyone whirled around to see a big, blue parrot perched on the railing. It looked at them with its beak upturned in a clear show of contempt.
Lily cried out in surprise, "What are you doing here?"
The parrot haughtily went, "Hmph! I thought that you lot wouldn't have the brains to figure out something so simple, so I decided to kindly save you all some time and give you the answer. Simply touch the painting to enter it and rescue that captured child."
Lily gave the painting a glance and felt another shiver down her spine before returning her gaze to the parrot.
"So I just have to touch it? That's it?"
The parrot nodded.
"Hold up, Lily," Melody cut in. "It could be a trick. There's no way we can trust that face-stealing rat with wings."
She threw the parrot a hateful gaze. The parrot met it with a cool and indifferent gaze of his own.
"Your bitter and long-lived grudge is misdirected," it said. "I was not the one who made that book steal your face."
Melody argued back, "But you're on the same side as the guy who did!"
"Be that as it may, you have no choice but to listen to me," said the parrot. It pointed its beak to a big antique clock hanging on the wall. "You're running out of time."
"It's right," said Lily. "You guys stay here. I'll be right back."
Oliver frowned in dismay. "Come on, Lily!" he said. "We've come this far together. We're not about to back down and let you handle everything by yourself now. Especially when there's a high chance you'll have to deal with that tiger."
"What's the tiger got to do with it?" asked Lily.
Viv snorted. "It's pretty obvious that you have a problem with tigers, Lily. Just seeing pictures of them got you acting weird ever since that time with the bronze tiger."
"I thought I was the only one who noticed," said Oliver.
"We all noticed it," said Hassan.
"Well this is embarrassing," Lily grumbled. Her cheeks flushed red.
Melody overheard and could not help but chime in. "No it's not," she said. "Look at me. I'm a library helper, but I can't help but get nervous around books. Every time, I need to poke them with a long stick to check if they're alive before I touch them because I'm afraid they might pounce on my face."
The parrot cut in again with a loud, "Ahem!" When all eyes returned to it, the bird said, "This display of friendship is nice and all, but need I remind you again that your time, and the captured girl's time is limited? I highly suggest you get on with it."
Its remarks earned the blue bird scornful looks, but it didn't care and simply sniffed before flying away.
Lily greatly disliked that parrot, but she had to admit that it was right. There was no time to waste.
She took a deep breath and steeled her nerves. And then she turned to face the tiger painting. Reluctantly, she held her right hand out to the beast while standing on her tippy-toes. Viv held Lily's free hand with on of her own while the other held Eddie's. Eddie held Oliver's, and Oliver held Melody's. One by one, the Sapphire Society made a chain of held hands. And then, as soon as Lily's fingertips brushed against the tiger's black snout, bright blue light flashed from the painting's brass frame. The jewels on her bracelet flashed its own light in response.
Lily felt a pull on her arm as her fingers sunk into the painting as its surface rippled around her hand like a pool of water.
"Whoa!" Before she even had a chance to fight back, she flew into the painting the blink of an eye, pulling the others in with her and was flung onto a patch of grass before being dogpiled by the rest of the gang. "Ow! Can't . . . breathe!"
"Sorry! Sorry!"
Everyone quickly scrambled off the pile as fast as they could and then helped Lily up to her feet. All around them were tall, twisting trees and bushes with large, dark green leaves. From beyond the jungle plants came bird shrieks and monkey howls.
"You okay?" asked Eddie.
Before Lily could answer after getting air back into her lungs, a loud roar made everyone jump and turn to see a huge tiger crouched down before them, teeth bared in an angry snarl while a low growl rumbled out from its throat. No one dared to take their eyes off the beast. Lily, especially, was frozen with her mind gone blank in fright.
But then a cry snapped her out of her stupor and she looked past the tiger to the half-oval cage behind it that contained the young girl.
"Guys!" cried Tanja. "You're here!"
"Alright, what's the plan Oliver?" asked Viv.
Oliver replied decisively, "Us Sapphire Society will deal with the tiger. Lily, you just focus on getting Tanja out of that cage."
"What? No! I should be the one to -!"
Oliver cut Lily off and said, "If this challenge is anything like the last couple of challenges we've faced, you're probably the only one who can open that cage. The rest of us are much better suited to making sure nothing gets in your way."
"But-!"
Lily tried to protest some more, but then, this time, Hassan cut in and shouted, "No time to argue, guys! Here it comes!"
The tiger pounced.
Lily was instantly pulled away as everyone dove out of the huge beast's path.
Viv gave Lily a literal push and shouted, "Go!" And then she turned to face the tiger which was wrestling with Oliver who had suddenly grown three times his original size.
Everyone else screamed at Lily, "GO!"
Left with no other choice, Lily ran to the cage, leaving her friends behind to deal with the tiger so that she could liberate Tanja from her prison. She could hear them shout and scream over the tiger's roars. But she did not look back and kept on running, pushing her muscles to pick up the pace.
After throwing herself against the cage, she grabbed the metal bars and pulled with all her might. The bracelet's jewels lit up in response to her wishes and granted her the super strength to pull the door off its hinges and throw it aside with a scream of effort.
"Come on!' she shouted, reaching her hand out.
Tanja took it and allowed herself to be pulled out of the cage.
With a grateful smile, she said to Lily, "Thanks."
Lily answered with just a nod before turning around and shouted, "Okay! I got Tanja! Game's over! We won! Stop the tiger!"
"That won't be necessary, as you can see," said Oliver. He was sitting on top of the tiger, pinning it flat on the ground with his bottom.
"Well, that was quick," Eddie said with a smug smile. "See, Lily? We can handle ourselves just fine on our own."
"What are you acting all proud about?" Viv asked. "You didn't even do anything."
"Hey, I did plenty," Eddie said. "We got through all those obstacles and the tiger easy-peasy. Right guys?"
The rest of the Sapphire Society cheered, "Yeah!"
All of them, except for Oliver who wore a frown on his face.
"That was easy," he said softly. "A little TOO easy."
With how ferocious the tiger looked and despite his new giant size, the detective thought he'd at least get a scratch or two, but the tiger's punches didn't even hurt. In fact, they felt soft and ticklish.
Speaking of that tiger, Oliver peeked down and then his eyes lit up in a panic.
He jumped up and cried out, "It's a trap! Everyone, get away!"
But it was too late. The tiger's body swelled up like a balloon and then went -
POP!
A cloud of blue smoke exploded out, stopping short of Lily and Tanja before disappearing. It all happened so fast, Lily didn't even have time to blink. And it unfortunately did not end there.
Lily gasped in horror. "Guys! No!"
Before her very eyes, stone took over the gang, spreading from the bottom of their shoes all the way to the top of their heads, freezing them in place. Some of them saw what was happening to them and reached out to Lily before turning completely. Others were still looking down at themselves when petrified.
Lily rushed over to them, screaming, "Guys! GUYS! Viv! Eddie! Oliver! Please! Say something!"
No matter how much she pleaded, her friends would not answer back. They no longer had the ability to, now that they were statues.
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