Line of The Third Island
It took about a week of sailing for Polly to near The Third Island, and it was a week of being extremely curious about the contents of the letter she was entrusted with but having too strong of a moral code to open it. It was also a week of extreme tanning (despite Polly slathering herself with sunscreen like she was a piece of toast and the sunscreen was butter) because it was awfully sunny and sailing a ship required a good deal of Polly standing on deck.
Having been so preoccupied with her mission and manning The Birbalinda, Polly hadn’t had much time to glance over her encyclopedia to see what The Third Island had to offer. She was at the point in life where she figured she’d just wing it like eyeliner.
The bronzed Polly gazed at the landmass she was approaching, a rather small one just as the figure had said it would be. Yet for some reason, there seemed to be something of a line extending from it. Upon drawing closer, Polly noticed that not only was it a line, it was a line of boats.
“What’s up with that?”
“Ah, I never thought I would chance upon seeing it in my lifetime,” nodded Fethar sagely.
“You have a lifespan?”
“Actually, I’m not sure if I do, but I would like to think so. But to return to the subject at hand, that is the renowned Line of The Third Island.”
“Getting awfully creative with naming here I see.”
“It was named before The Third Island had completely adopted Mimglish, therefore their Mimglish vocabulary was sparse. I’m sure its name in Tresois, The Third Island’s official language in case you were unaware, has a nicer ring to it.”
“Interesting, interesting. So what about this line? What does it do?”
“It seems you are unaware of the nature of The Third Island, but that is nothing new. The Third Island is an island where intelligence reigns supreme and all is decided through games, riddles, and the like. Indeed, to even enter the island you must answer a riddle to prove your merit.”
“Yikes, I don’t know if I have it in me. You and I both know I have a single tiny and smooth pebble for a brain.”
“Perhaps not in you, but on you. There is nothing forbidding assistance, which is my field of expertise.”
“Can’t believe I’d almost forgotten you have almost all the knowledge in the world except the information I actually need,” remarked Polly in a tone that was quite the opposite of her words.
“Touche. Well now that you’ve made your grand statement there is not much left to do besides get in line, no?”
“It’s not like there’s any other way into The Third Island, is there?”
“Unfortunately not that I am aware of.”
“Hopefully we get lucky and get an easy riddle or one that one of us has heard of before. I think I know a few. Yup, I remember hearing a riddle or two from back during my days on Sea Island 7 when I was doing part time work at a tavern to save up money for a ship.”
“A tavern seems like an excellent place for scouting information. It certainly seems like a better place to be than on a painting in the underground secret hideout of three rebels.”
“Wait if the location you’re in affects how much you know, then how do you know anything?”
“Us hats come with certain base knowledge, much like how vehicles--ships for example--have a certain set of base functions, but being in environments where knowledge is actively spread allows us to gather more information much like how modifications can be made to a ship to improve its overall functions.”
“That sounds very technical,” nodded Polly, as if by moving her head she would help what she had just learned settle in her brain.
As the two spoke, Polly maneuvered The Birbalinda behind the last boat in the line, and the two were steadily moving forward as the wind and currents pushed them along, coincidentally (or not) in the direction of The Third Island.
“Do you think they give second chances?” asked Polly, who had just thought of this very important question. She didn’t know how she’d be able to face the figure if she wasn’t able to deliver the letter because she and her partner couldn’t get past a riddle.
“I believe so. To my knowledge challengers are given three chances to answer a riddle and if they are unable to come up with a satisfactory answer even after those attempts, they may return and try again after two days.”
“So they’re actually kinda easy going huh.”
“Well if their restrictions were too harsh they would not be able to trade, and considering their island is pretty small, they simply cannot have the same amount of resources as a larger one.”
“Then why even do this riddle business in the first place?”
“Know the answer to that, I do not.”
After enough time had passed for the wind to blow the clouds in the sky away to reveal a marvelously blue sky, The Birbalinda had progressed to near the front of the line. Polly could vaguely make out what looked like a fire engine red tollbooth floating on water thanks to a hot pink flamingo pool float it sat on.
“Is that it?”
“It appears to be so?”
“What’s stopping the sailors from just sailing right past the booth?”
“Some questions are best left unanswered,” replied Fethar grimly.
Polly had no idea why she would not want to know information that would prevent her from breaking an island’s rules, but if Fethar said so then Fethar said so. It wasn’t like she would be able to find out the information on her own anyways. If she had a magical rectangle able to draw upon nearly infinite collections of knowledge in a heartbeat due to the mysterious power of an intangible connection maybe she could have, but she didn’t have anything of that sort.
The breeze grew colder and The Birbalinda grew closer. Clearly the sailors manning the ships in front of The Birbalinda were all smart folks for they weren’t pausing long before continuing to progress toward the island. Before Polly knew it, they were at the booth. She made her way to The Birbalinda’s edge so she could actually see and hear the riddler. Polly sure hoped it wouldn’t be a mythical creature with the head of a human and the body of a lion with the wings of a falcon.
The window of the garish tollbooth was rolled down and inside sitting on a plush, pale brown leather couch, much to Polly’s dismay, was a mythical creature with the head of a sheep and the body of a lion with the wings of a falcon. Sure it wasn’t the exact kind of sphinx she had been dreading to see, but it was still a sphinx.
“Hello,” said the sphinx who Polly noticed wore a pair of cat-eye glasses bedazzled with magenta rhinestones. “Is this your first time here?”
“Sure is,” answered Polly whose palms were sweaty and legs feeling spaghetti.
“I see. Are you familiar with the rules of the island?”
“I don’t think so? I might be, but I don’t know.”
“That’s fine, I’ll get a copy of them for you.”
The sphinx leaped off its perch on the couch and trotted over to a short wooden desk where a stack of laminated papers rested. Standing on its hind legs, it picked up the stack and tapped them against the table so the papers were aligned, then walked over to the window with them.
Polly stretched herself out as far as she could, though she was no human rubber band, so that she could reach the papers. As luck would have it her arms were barely just long enough for her to get a hold of them.
The document was typed in a relatively large sans serif font and was split into numerous, digestible paragraphs. Key words and phrases were even highlighted. It was almost as if the author of the sheets anticipated there would be visitors who were simply unable to read massive chunks of fine print text, like Polly.
“Let me know when you’ve finished reading,” said the sphinx in a tone that seemed to be asking Polly to hurry up as politely as possible. “You’ll be able to find a copy of this on the island at most important buildings, like town centers, but it’s important that you’re at least familiar with these rules before entering the island to limit any possible trouble.”
“Right, right,” replied Polly who had not at all heard what the sphinx just said because she was too busy trying to skim through the papers so she wouldn’t hold up the line of ships behind her anymore than she already had.
“Did you get any of that?” Polly asked Fethar, because as far as she knew Fethar had no eyes to see with.
“I did, actually,” replied the hat. “I took care to scan the pages as you went through them so we can have them on hand for future reference.”
“Oh that’s cool, I didn’t know that you could do that.”
Polly stuck about half her body off The Birbalinda again so she could return to the papers back to the sphinx.
“Great,” smiled the sphinx, flashing teeth that were eerily similar to a human’s. Polly would have quite preferred a sphinx with the head of a human if she was going to see a smile with human-like teeth. “Are you ready for your riddle?”
Polly took a deep breath in and out. “I think so.”
“Wonderful. Now for your riddle. Are you smart?”
“Nod,” instructed Fethar.
Polly nodded.
The sphinx smiled a toothy smile yet again.
“Spell it.”
“I know this one,” declared Fethar triumphantly. “I-T.”
“Information technology?” answered Polly.
“Not quite. You have two tries left.”
“You absolute buffoon,” frowned Fethar. “I-T,” Fethar repeated, taking care to enunciate each letter.
“Eye tea?”
“Close. You have one try left.”
“The letters,” cried Fethar who was conveying its determination to not have to wait two whole days for entry onto an island because of failing a test with an obvious answer as desperately as possible.
“I-t?” tried Polly, pronouncing the letters I and T respectively.
“Correct. You may pass.”
An extra strong gust of wind helped push The Birbalinda forward as Polly lifted the sails she had lowered. Polly just knew that if Fethar had functioning tear ducts it would be crying tears of joy.
“I mean that could’ve gone worse,” said Polly.
“I feared it would. How you have managed to survive so long in the world being the way that you are is absolutely beyond me.”
“Why you gotta be so rude? Don’t you know I’m human too?”
“A 2014 pop song is not going to lessen the extreme distress I felt knowing there was a very real possibility of you failing to answer the riddle despite me providing you with the answer.”
“Fine, be like that then,” huffed Polly. “Well now you’ve gotta put those thinking skills of yours that got an answer to that riddle to help find the Naru fella that the robed figure was talking about.”
“I will, thank you very much. I have been nothing if not dependable, and I don’t intend to stop now.”
“Alright then, I’ll be counting on you.”