[https://img.wattpad.com/story_parts/1370815430/images/1779329e88e959a5759445736255.png]

"Are you always just throwing yourself after falling people, Sophie?" said a voice behind Sophie. Elva appeared next to her, casually glancing down at Trom as he dangled in the air.

"We'd better pull him up before you fall in with him [https://img.wattpad.com/0bc1a4172fa94868276f7feeb8d2873e0b072aad/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f77487546585a4f424d477a566f413d3d2d313337303831353433302e313737393332643161646634343561613234373532303632383831342e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]

"We'd better pull him up before you fall in with him. We wouldn't want a repeat of last time." Together with Sophie, she grabbed onto Trom's tail, and they started to pull him up.

Once Trom was safely back inside the Dimension Room, he quickly shut the door behind him. "I'm never going back in there!"

Sophie was happy to see that Trom was still holding onto the ice bird. "It was really cool how you figured out the thing with the steps and the bird, Trom," she said encouragingly. She was still a bit disappointed that she hadn't figured it out herself, but she did her best to hide it.

Trom seemed to grow half an inch taller. "It just seemed like an easier way to do it," he smiled proudly. Then he looked around the room. "Where's everybody else?"

"There's no one here but me. So if you know where they are, I'd very much appreciate an explanation," Elva replied.

Trom stared at Elva in shock. "Do you mean that YOU'RE the third most creative person in the whole class!?"

Elva wrinkled her nose at that. "I have no idea what you're talking about, but I severely doubt that I'd be third in anything. I would be much better than that!"

Trom just stared at Elva like her very existence made no sense to him. "Y'know, it almost seemed like you were gonna change when Sophie joined the class, but nah – you're just as self-involved as you've always been!"

"Self-involved! How dare you? I certainly don't need to hear that from a lazy slob like you!" Elva raged. "And I've changed plenty! Just look at my clothes!"

"Getting a make-over doesn't mean you've changed your personality!"

Trom and Elva kept arguing. Sophie wished that Mek had been there. She'd have been able to stop them right away. Sophie didn't quite know if it was Mek's sometimes stern tone or the hissing snakes in her hair that made everyone listen to her, but it certainly worked. And right now, Sophie just wanted to move on.

Looking over at her quarrelling friends, she spotted the bird figure still poking out of Trom's hoodie [https://img.wattpad.com/4062b94dedb29e586964333cdaee780ffd154ab4/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f7166494f70736a673765745351773d3d2d313337303831353433302e313737393332653663323034376635383939393330393037353036342e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Looking over at her quarrelling friends, she spotted the bird figure still poking out of Trom's hoodie. She looked up at the lantern, which was still floating in the middle of the room, then glanced around the room, looking for a certain book.

"THE BIRD HASN'T FLOATED UP TO THE LANTERN!" Sophie yelled as loud as she could to make sure that she could be heard over Trom and Elva's bickering. They both stopped and looked at her with confusion.

Just as she'd expected, the flying book appeared, ready to answer her statement with a statement. "The object found behind door number two has the power to make other items float. With creative thinking, anyone should be able to deduce how to place it with the other objects."

Sophie looked at the bird. How were they going to make it use its power, though?

"When you unfold the bird's wings, all the stuff it made float stops floating," Trom said. Sophie thought she sensed some uncertainty in his voice, but the book accepted it as a statement.

"While the wings are unfolded, the user may choose which objects should float and where they should be placed. When the wings are then folded together, no more objects may be added, but those already floating will stay in place until the wings are again unfolded. In order to choose an object to levitate, one needs only place the bird on top of it."

Elva looked up towards the lantern. "But it's not like we can put the bird on top of itself. So how are we going to get it up there?"

Sophie's mind started racing through the possibilities. They could stack pieces of furniture on top of each other, or they could try to find a rope, or maybe they could even make themselves float. She already had lots of ideas bouncing around her head, but before she could decide on which one was best, Trom walked over to one of the bookshelves and picked out a book.

"I guess we can just do what they must've done behind the door." Trom pulled out the bird and cautiously unfolded its wings. Getting down on one knee, he held the book out so that it was lying flat on his palm a few feet above the ground, and placed the bird on top of it.

Trom hesitated for a moment and then let go of the book. The book stayed floating in the air. Trom tried to step on it, and it carried his weight without even wobbling. He beamed with pride and started pulling out a whole bunch of books. One by one, he placed them in the air, forming a new staircase leading up to where the lantern was floating. Finally, he placed the final book so that it floated in the air next to the lantern and put the ice bird figure on top of it.

"Nice, Trom! You really do have good ideas!" Sophie said encouragingly.

Trom practically danced down the floating book staircase. "Bet the elders in the Swirling Valley would be shocked if they could see me now."

"I guess that was a pretty decent idea..." Elva admitted reluctantly. "But what have I missed since the last time I saw you?"

Sophie didn't know how much Elva would have figured out about the doors and the challenges, so she told Elva everything that had happened to her and Trom, just in case. Elva listened intently. At some point during the retelling, she also told them that she'd discovered that some of the symbols floating above them looked like Elven letters, though she couldn't explain what that would mean. And when she realized what Trom had meant about her being the third most creative, she took it rather personally.

"Do you seriously mean that TROM beat the first challenge before me!? That's just humiliating."

Trom just stood there with a big, smug grin.

"We'd better head through the next door," Sophie said, opening door number 3. This one had a picture of a padlock without a keyhole on it. Elva and Trom headed first through the door, both of them refusing to even look at each other as they walked past Sophie.

How are we ever gonna make this work? Sophie wondered uneasily, closing the door behind her.

How are we ever gonna make this work? Sophie wondered uneasily, closing the door behind her [https://img.wattpad.com/e73760b43efcfcb29662243d2ddca5992f352da3/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f43483568726a45527855753735413d3d2d313337303831353433302e313737393332393035343234316130623137353339363537333030342e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]