I became nervous at the thought of King John's three trials. Would they be dangerous? Would I survive? Would I even complete them? I thought. 

    After a moment, the king said, "follow me." 

    He led me to the back of his throne. At first I was confused. There was nothing back here. Then, he showed me a hidden button on the back of his throne, camouflaged by the color of the throne. He pressed the button, and all of a sudden, the floor opened up beneath us. 

    Before I had time to think, I was falling. I had no idea where I was falling to, but I knew I was falling. Soon, I fell into a pool of nice, relaxing, cold water. I swam to the surface of the water quickly, then looked around. I spotted King John swimming to the side of the pool. I quickly did the same, reaching the side of the pool soon after the king did. 

    After we climbed out of the pool, King John explained what was going on. 

    "What I've shown you is a secret known only to me and a few others," he explained. 

    I looked up and noticed that there was only a brick ceiling above us. What about the hole we had fallen through? 

    "Pistons," the king said, almost as if he had read my mind. 

"When I pressed the button, it caused the pistons in the walls to temporarily retract, allowing us to fall safely into this room below," he informed me. 
I had no idea what pistons were to begin with, so I was completely confused about what he was talking about. All I knew was that we fell through a hole in the ceiling that wasn't there any more.

   Then King John grew serious. "Now you must begin the first trial." 

    He brought me to a door at the side of the room. Then, he explained the first trial, "this first room will test your parkour skills." 

    As soon as I opened the door, I gasped. The room was filled with a mix floating blocks, ladders and... ice? Below all of the floating blocks was a large pool of lava. 

   I turned to look at King John, but he wasn't behind me anymore. I looked back into the original room, but he had completely disappeared. 

    Nervous and scared, I looked at the parkour course. If I were to fail, it could mean death. I sat down at the beginning of the parkour course. I thought about my family and friends back home. If I didn't try the parkour course, then I didn't get to go home anyway. 

    A tear dripped down my face as I considered the the thought of returning back home. I jumped to my feet. If I didn't try to complete the parkour course, then I wouldn't be able to go home anyway. I leaped onto the stone blocks and grabbed the ladders. When I first landed on one of the ice blocks, I was shocked by how slippery it was. After steadying myself, I jumped to the next block. Soon, I had completed the course.

    "Nice job." I heard a voice say. 

    I looked up. It was King John! 

    "Where did you go?!" I asked. 

    "I just snuck around to the end of course," he replied. 

    "Humph," I said. 

   Oh well, it didn't matter anyway. It wasn't like he had to complete all three trials as well.