Uro{ Petrovi}

Riddle Tales

Book one

Il lu stra ted byIlija Melentijevi}

Original title

Zagonetne pri~eKnjiga prva

Uro{ Petrovi}

Copyright © 2006 by Uro{ Petrovi}Copyright © 2007 by LAGUNA Publishing HouseCover Art Copyright © 2006 by Ilija MelentijevicIllustration Copyright © 2006 by Ilija Melentijevic

– 3 –– 3 –

You ha ve in your hands a bo ok of rid dle ta les.

They ha ve been cre a ted to of fer you many mo ments of re flec­tion and de lightful dif fi culty as well as sa tis fac tion af ter ha ving suc cessfully sol ved them.

No te: You won’t be able to sol ve many of the se all by your­self. They we re tho ught up to be sol ved with the aid of your pa rents and even so me of your ol der fri ends. They’re espe ci­ally su i ta ble for put ting be fo re your en ti re class at school. Re­mem ber, many he ads are bet ter than one!

Sug ge sti ons for sol ving: You can use the ru le whe reby the rid dler an swers only by YES or NO. Anot her ru le if the re are se­ve ral players: Each sol ver has the right to ask qu e sti ons un til he gets an af fir ma ti ve an swer. Al so, you can li mit the num ber of qu e sti ons asked.

The aut hors advi ses and to a cer tain ex tent tho ught up the se ta les with the in ten tion that you ne ver un der any con di tion read the so lu tion be fo re you’ve tried re ally hard to sol ve the rid dle.

The so lu ti ons re qu i re a lit tle ge ne ral know led ge of Na tu re and its laws ina smuch as the se sto ri es are for the most part lo gi­cal brain­te a sers.

Alt ho ugh the se rid dle ta les are set in the myste ri o us world of a trap per set tle ment, all of them can be sol ved wit ho ut the use of ma gic, po wer ful sha mans’ po ti ons or know led ge of old trap per le gends.

One thing is for su re: by go ing thro ugh the se ta les you’ll le arn and al ways re mem ber a gre at num ber of use ful things.

In the long run, that’s why the se ta les we re writ ten…

– 4 –

LE VEL OF DIF FI CULTY

The le vel of dif fi culty of the se ta les is in di ca ted by the num­ber of ginkgo le a ves.

One ginkgo le af: easyTwo ginkgo le a ves: fa irly easyThree ginkgo le a ves: a lit tle har derFo ur ginkgo le a ves: hardFi ve ginkgo le a ves: re ally hardSix ginkgo le a ves: frig hte ningly hardMo re than six ginkgo le a ves: mis sion im pos si ble

It’s not by chan ce that the ginkgo le af was cho sen as an in di ca tor of dif fi culty. This tree, which has exi sted for over 150,000,000 years, is a symbol of wis dom. Tea ma de from its unu sual le a ves en han ces con cen tra tion and cla rity of the mind. It’s no won der that the ginkgo (Gink go Bi lo ba) is a much re spec ted tree in the trap per set tle ment whe re the se ta les un wind…

The aut hor

– 5 –– 5 –

TABLE OF CONTENTSTABLE OF CONTENTSIN TRO DUC TION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4THE RA CE ON GOF’S FI ELD . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6THE PANT HER AND THE HE A VENLY AR ROW . . . . 8THE MUL TI CO LO RED VI PER . . . . . . . . . . . . 10THE NE A REST STAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12THE MIS SING CO LOR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14GOF’S RID DLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16TE AR FUL ATILYA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18PU NIS HMENT FOR TRO U BLE MA KERS. . . . . . . 20KA LUK’S SACKS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22ATILYA’S FLO WER. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24ORAN’S CA NOE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26THE CAP TI VE NIG HTIN GA LE . . . . . . . . . . . . 28THE MIS SING MUS HRO OMS . . . . . . . . . . . . 30THE AR CHERY TO UR NA MENT . . . . . . . . . . . 32THE HUNT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34THE TRAP PER SYMBOL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36BO KO’S RID DLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38THE VAST ME A DOWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40THREE THO U SAND SNA ILS . . . . . . . . . . . . 42BOYS IN THE DE SERT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44ATILYA’S RID DLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46THE LLA MA RA CE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48THE WA TER LILY POND. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50THE OVER TUR NED POT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52PUFT’S JO UR NEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54THE ENIG MA TIC FARM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56THE FO REST SEN TRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58BLACK ELAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60HOW OLD IS BLACK ELAS? . . . . . . . . . . . . 62THE FI VE CHA INS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64SO LU TI ONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

– 6 –

THE RACE ON GOF’S FIELDTHE RACE ON GOF’S FIELD

Le vel of dif fi culty: 3 ginkgo le a ves

– 7 –

Bo ko and Oran we re ex cep ti o nally fast boys. Qu ar rels abo ut which one of them was fa ster wo uld go on for days. So it happe ned that one day they in vi ted the ir fri end Atilya to co me along with them and went to ra ce on Gof’s fi eld.

“You stand in one cor ner of the fi eld and I’ll stand in the ot her. Let Atilya stand whe re she is right now. We’ll ra ce over to her!” pro po sed blond­ha i red Bo ko.

“All right, ex cept that I’ll be a bit bo red wa i ting for you when I re ach her,” re plied Oran de fi antly.

“You wish! We’ll start when Atilya gi ves the sign!” said Bo ko calmly.

“I don’t think this ra ce is fa ir,” the ir fri end cri ti ci zed.

“Bo ko’s the one who set the con di ti ons!” said Oran.

Atilya shrug ged, and then be gan to co unt off.

They both ran equ ally fast.

The first one to re ach Atilya was …Bo ko!

How?

– 8 –

THE PANT HER AND THE HE A VENLY AR ROWTHE PANT HER AND THE HE A VENLY AR ROW

Le vel of dif fi culty: 3 ginkgo le a ves

– 9 –

Long ago when the events in this rid dle ta le un fol ded, a whi te co met cut ac ross the he a vens every fo ur years on the sa me day. It was a bre at hta king, he a venly dis play to which mi ra cu lo­us po wers we re at tri bu ted. Pe o ple cal led it the He a venly Ar row and it ador ned the sky both day and night.

A pant her na med Kin was born on the sa me day as the first sha man, Kor.

Exactly fo ur years af ter the ir birth, the He a venly Ar row il lu mi­na ted the sky abo ve them.

The sa me co met was seen the day af ter Kin’s de ath, as if it wan ted to il lu mi na te the pla ce whe re the re now ned pant her had died. He had li ved exactly twenty years.

How many days in his li fe was the pant her able to see the Hea ven ly Ar row?