Maat’s TRAVELS AND THE MAGIC BOX OF MATHEMATICS

 

               No one could foretell what would happen from that moment on. Maat had started, without knowing it, what would undoubtedly be the most wonderful experience of her life, an adventure she would not have even dared to dream of. It was her fourteenth birthday that day. By the time school was over, she was completely excited. She knew her mother was waiting for her and that she would give him the gift that she had awaited for years. Her grandfather, an old crackpot scientist -as Maat's mother called him, left her this mysterious present before leaving nobody knows where to. "No one can open it, except Maat" – he had told his mother-. "Wait until she turns 14, then she will be ready to open it". Nobody, not even Maat herself, could imagine the magnitude of the events that would unfold from that moment on and that would change her life forever.

The girl came home and her mother handed her the gift. She opened it with an intrigued look on her face that turned gradually into euphoria. It was the box of mathematics that had belonged to her grandfather! She rewrapped quickly and ran to her room. Her mother knew it was best not to bother her for a while. she wanted to be alone with her grandfather’s gift, open it and enjoy it without any distraction. She closed her bedroom door, and lay in bed while she completely unwrapped the gift. When she was removing the paper a note fell off. Maat expected it. She would not have ever gone without saying anything. She picked up the note and began to read. The note read:

 

Dear Maat,

Remember well what I'm going to tell you because we do not have much time. You have in your possession the magic box of mathematics and you are its only keeper from now on. You must protect if from disappearing or falling into the wrong hands. This could mean the disappearance of mathematics and, consequently, the end of the world as we know it. Guard it with your life if necessary.

Your mission, apparently simple, will be to deposit the box in the Palace of Numbers, the only place where it will be safe and should have never left. Do not wait any longer, say goodbye to your mother and start your journey. The box you see before you is a map, a puzzle that works like a Rubik's cube. Three pieces are missing and you must recover them along your trip. Nobody can help you do it. Only if you solve the challenges set by your opponents, you will recover them and you will be able to continue with your trip. Move the different pieces in the box until you get all parts to fit together and you will find the map that leads to the first world, The World of Fire. But be careful! When you move the pieces in your box you will alert your enemies, who will be waiting to take it away from you. Remember that there are many who want to possess it.

You will need the help of my interdimensional time machine and the old compass that our friend The Wizard gave you. It does not work in this world, but you will soon discover that there are many other worlds where it does work. Go up the stairs to the attic. Enter the coordinates 00º 00 '00''N 00º 00' 00''E and activate the lever to travel to the World of Fire. It all depends on you. Good luck!

 

Maat ran up the stairs, found the machine, sat in it, introduced the coordinates and activated the lever. This sentence blinked on the front screen of the interdimensional machine:

THE GAME STARTS. GOOD LUCK IN THE WORLD OF FIRE.

 

When she woke up she did not remember well what had happened. She felt disoriented. She looked out the window of the machine and felt even more bewildered. She could see that she was in the middle of a great orange forest -which meant that it was autumn, but that made no sense because they were in winter. There was not a house in sight. There was no sign of civilization, only trees and more trees and what looked like a path. She looked up to make sure he was not mistaken and heard something outside the machine.

-Are you looking for something, something?- A voice repeated insistently from the outside, as if there was an echo.

 Maat jumped in fright, got off the machine, he looked around and saw no one.

-Hello?- He heard the voice.

 He turned on his heels and nothing ... then he looked down and there it was. Face to face with the icy eyes of a dwarf who looked rather angry and defiant.

- Have I left you without words, words? - the dwarf teased him with a wink of his eye-. Scared? – he carried on.

Clasping his palms he exclaimed:

 -I know! Has the cat got your tongue?

 

 -No-she finally said-. I can speak -she grumbled-. The cat hasn’t got my tongue, I just don’t want to talk to you. -She retorted trying to keep him quiet.

  -Then it was me, I left you speechless, speechless. I can not help it, I'm dazzling, dazzling - he said smiling amusedly.

 -You're creepy - she replied with irritation. -What is your name? -He changed the topic.

- You can call me Fifi. I know that you have started your journey and I welcome you to the World of Fire, Fire. There you have the sign, sign. You're in my world and you have agreed to play, play. We have been waiting for you for years, years. You are going to the Palace to deposit the box, but if you fail to solve the three challenges, the box will remain in this world forever, forever. If you pass all the tests you get one of the missing pieces, pieces. Only then, the coordinates to the World of Earth will be revealed, revealed.

 

First Test: Maat in the well

After a moment of uncertainty and before Maat could react, Fifi was gone. There was only the echo of his last words, and then silence. Maat wrapped herself in a raincoat, which she had found on one of the hangers of the machine, took his compass, his box and walked out the door. It was cloudy, but it was not raining yet. she started walking eastward, toward the forest - in the time machine there was no food, so he thought she should find a stream and something to eat. She had slight notions of the trees around him. A few drops of water fell from the canopy of branches above him, but she was not sure whether it was starting to rain or it was the remains of the accumulated rainfall on the upper leaf surface, that were dripping down slowly on the ground. She came to a creek as it started to rain and drank greedily letting the water cool her throat on its way down, and filled her water bottle. Maat was already getting used to the idea that she was lost. She sat and saw in amazement in front of him a strawberry the size of a watermelon. It was hanging from the branch of a tree in a strange way, as if out of place, waiting for him. She got closer and right under the strawberry he discovered a well. She threw a stone, but did not hear it hit bottom. On a rock next to the well he found a note. The letters that filled the paper were written by hand and composed the following text:

 A snail is trapped inside the well, which is 12 metres deep. Every day the snail climbs up 3 metres, but every night it slips back down the well 2 metres. If it starts going up today, March 8, 2016, when will it get out of the well?

 -How easy!- Maat exclaimed joyfully. Suddenly, she began to hear a tic tac coming from his jacket. She reached into her pocket, pulled out her compass and watched closely until he heard a click. She had opened a compartment Maat did not even know existed. She quickly introduced the date March 20, 2016 and the compartment was closed. The compass needles began to spin until they were fixed in a northerly direction. Maat knew his way to the next test and there was no time to lose. She took a deep breath and started walking without wasting another second. She knew there was a lot to do and that the next challenge would not be so easy.

 

Second Test: Maat and the dragon eggs

After hours of walking she found a small stream of clear water that meandered among the trees of the forest. On the other side she noticed an old cottage that seemed as if it was waiting for her. She dodged the waters jumping from stone to stone across the river and in no time she found herself pushing the door wide open. Everything inside was tousled and messy. she looked around. On the opposite wall there was a fireplace with a smouldering fire. The floor creaked underfoot. An old rocking chair occupied the opposite right corner of the fireplace and next to it on the table there was a note. Nothing could astonish her anymore. The note read:

This is your second test. Under your feet you have 9 dragon eggs. I have borrowed them and the mother did not look amused, so I advise you to solve the puzzle quickly. Then run and do not look back. The mother is not far behind.

How will you put the nine eggs in four boxes so that each box has an odd number of eggs, different from the number of eggs in the other boxes?

 She peered at the eggs, looked carefully at the boxes. Reproduced the image of the eggs and the boxes again and again. Then she started playing with them looking for a logical solution. She left the cabin to get some fresh air and the roar of a dragon made the sky tremble. she got back in, feeling rather scared. She picked up one of the boxes and then he saw it clearly. She put 4 eggs in the extra-large box, 2 eggs in the large box, 2 more in the middle box and 1 egg in the small box. And now -she thought- I have an egg in the small box. I put the small box into the middle box so that the middle box has 3 eggs. In the same way, I put the middle box inside the larger one, so that there are 5 eggs in it. And finally, I put the three boxes containing a total of 5 eggs inside the extra-large box, which had 4 eggs, and we have 9. Done! Maat was about to take a leap of joy when a light lit up the sky. she pulled out his compass and the needles were spinning at breakneck speed. The roof of the hut burnt. She took the bike on the porch of the cabin and pedaled as fast as she could. The dragon’s silhouette was outlined against the moonlight. A flash of fire completely burnt the cabin and she felt the breath of the dragon chasing him and getting closer. She ran toward the river, jumped in and was carried away by the current. She saw the dragon lurking at the cabin from the air, flying round in circles trying to find Maat’s trail again, but she was already out of reach. She got hold of a rock and got out of the river, dried herself up, looked at her compass and she started hastily in the indicated direction. It was the final test and she could not give up now.

 

Final Test: Maat and the bags full of gold

She walked for hours until she felt that the forest was closing in and growing thicker. She turned around several times, spinning upon herself three hundred and sixty degrees again and again, until she felt the murmur of ice bells tinkling among the trees due to the wind, producing a cheerful jingle. The pleasant music spread through the air, invading the whole forest, infecting it with a peaceful state. All of a sudden, very thin snowflakes started to fall from the treetops, brightly illuminated by light beams that crossed the thick forest canopy. A white piece of folded paper fell slowly swaying between the flakes. The note fell exactly on Maat's hands. He took the paper and appreciated the same neat handwriting on the previous notes.

This is your last test and it is also the most complicated. Turn around, around.

Maat was standing again before Fifi. The dwarf looked at her with a smile on his face and apparently quiet. Beside him, the dragon that had recently haunted him fiercely, rested placidly. It seemed a different one. It lay peacefully as if this story had nothing to do with it. Cube looked at Maat with a defiant look in his eyes and said:

Hello again, Maat ! Finally, I have prepared a conundrum you can not overcome. It is a long-held tradition to reward the winner with gold coins and magical strawberries. Strawberries provide energy to travel to other worlds and coins are used to buy all sorts of gadgets and tools to overcome trials. In many worlds they are necessary. As you can see, here I have 5 bags full of gold coins, one of which contains false coins. Each real gold coin weighs 2 grams and each fake gold coin weighs 1 gram. Here you have some weighing scales, which can only be used once. Tell me, in which bag are the fake coins?

Maat did not really know where to look. She was astonished. How? she wondered again and again, trying to find an answer before the mischievous stare of Loki, who was really enjoying the game. Then she remembered his friend The Wizard. She used to challenge her with this kind of puzzles. she unconsciously touched the compass when she remembered her friend and suddenly it started to vibrate heavily. Maat heard a small explosion, she blinked and all of a sudden a cloud of smoke and dust gathered before his eyes, stopping her from seeing clearly.

-Hello, Maat! -said a hoarse voice from behind the smoke-.

Maat looked stunned at the scene. If he was not mistaken, that was the voice of her good friend The Wizard, who was beginning to shake his arms around him, trying to get out of the cloud that surrounded him. Maat ran, jumped on him and hugged him.

-Maat! -Said the Wizard-. Now you know some of the magical properties of the compass I gave you, my friend. Use it wisely and only if necessary. Its use requires a lot of energy. I'll be direct,Maat , I have only minute and I can only give you a clue. If you want to solve the challenge remember that riddle about apples you solved when you were younger. That will help you...

 

The Wizard disappeared when the minute was over, as he had said. Maat  had no time for anything, not even to thank him, but the Wizard’s words made him think. He remembered the riddle of the apples, it was not exactly the same, but it would work. Her face lit up. She looked proudly at Loki and answered:

-Take 1 coin from the first bag, 2 coins from the second one, 3 from the third bag, 4 from the fourth and 5 from the fifth bag. Weigh them.

-Are you sure, sure? Remember you can only use the weighing scales once, once.

-Do it!

Loki did what Maat said. He put the coins on the scales. The weight was 25 grams.

-The full weight of all the coins if they were all real would be 30 grams. If the weight is 25 grams, the bag containing the fake coins has to be the fifth one, because it is missing 5 coins weighing 1 gram each.

 

-Well done Maat Maat. We had underestimated you -he admitted, a bit crestfallen, almost tearfully. You have passed all three tests, tests. Here is the piece of your Mathematics Box, as agreed, agreed. Remember that to get the other two pieces you will have to overcome many other challenges in other worlds, worlds. Here you have it. And good luck girl, girl.

-Thank you! Maat said without much energy.

Maat went toward him to thank him for his help and leave, but then disappeared without a trace. In his place stood a bag full of strawberries and coins as he had promised. He tried one of the strawberries and felt with surprise as if he was recovering all his energy. He felt suddenly full of vitality. She put the new piece into the fitting space in the box and a huge door opened in front of him. The dragon, that had not moved one centimetre, stared at her, smiled and said:

-Get on! I'll take you to the World of Earth!

 Maat could not believe her eyes. She climbed up onto the dragon and it started to rise with great skill. They flew out the door and saw a new world taking shape in the distance.