The Treasure

      It was cold, there were giant clumps of snow in my fur, it had gotten very dark very fast, and I was totally lost. I had simply gone to see if the Garage Sale was still open when I suddenly found myself surrounded by inky blackness.

      I had lost sight of Hollis a while ago, and for a brief moment I thought I heard her calling me, but my answer was lost in the howling wind and swirling snow.

      As I groped around in the dark, I suddenly ran smack dab into something hard. Really hard. It seemed to be something small, too, and before I knew it, I stumbled head over paws.

      "AAARRRGGGGHHHH!!" I yelped.

      Desperately I began to feel around, hoping to find the thing I tripped over. It had to be close by…. Found it!

      I ran my paw over it, trying to get the basic shape of what it was. It seemed to be shaped like a bottle, and when I rapped my claws on it I heard a hollow tink, tink, tink. Glass, maybe?

      The only thing I knew was that somebody would find me, and if not, in the morning I'll probably be able to find myself. So I waited, and waited, and waited.

      My paws felt very heavy. It was hard to move from cold. I felt my eyelids slowly move down. At first they moved so slow I hardly noticed. Then, they shut all the way.

      I couldn't tell darkness from darkness. It didn't matter whether my eyes were open or closed. It all looked the same. I didn't know if I had gone to sleep or was still awake. The only thing that mattered was that I held on to that bottle thing.

      Eventually, sleep came without me noticing.

      I slowly, painstakingly opened my eyes. There was white everywhere. Bright white. So bright I had to close my eyes for a minute so I could figure out where I was. Then I remembered.

      I looked down at my right paw and saw the bottle thingy. I had been right, it was a glass bottle. There was something inside.

      I picked it up slowly, for my muscles ached from walking around in the cold dark for so long last night. I turned the bottle upside-down and plop! An envelope with something kind of heavy inside fell out. I opened the envelope and this is what the note inside said :

      Dear Reader,

      If you are laying your eyes upon this scrap of paper, you are hereby entitled to my entire fortune. But you have to find it first. There are but two clues, counting the one down here. They will each lead you closer to the treasure, but it won't be easy to decipher them. In fact, finding this clue was part of the first challenge.

      Clue 1 - Sand (Hint : Lost)

      Look in the old hut with the coconut shells nailed to the left of door, and a sun and a moon on the right. There is something else that makes it different from all the others around it.

      Get to looking.

      Silas M. Morgan

      I was really confused. "Silas M. Morgan? Who is that?" I asked that same question over and over again in my head as I looked around me.

      I suddenly realized where I was. I was barely two hundred yards from the Ice Caves! I felt stupid, but, hey, I couldn't see my own paw if it was pressed flat against my nose, so tell my how I was supposed to see the Ice Caves?

      I gingerly got to my paws, the pads prickling with pain. Picking the bottle up in my mouth, I trotted toward the Ice Caves.

      "Venus! Venus, where are you?" I whipped around to see Hollis calling my name out into the snowy terrain.

      I raced over to her, the bottle threatening to slide out of my mouth at any moment.

      I skidded to a halt, throwing snow everywhere.

      Hollis threw her arms around my neck and sobbed, "Venus, there you are!! I thought you fell off the mountain, or got trapped somewhere in the snow, and I would never see you again!!" Gee, owners are such worry warts.

      I nuzzled Hollis' dark brown hair with my freezing nose and said through a mouthful of bottle, "It's all wight, Howwis. I'm cwold, but all wight."

      Hollis looked at me with stormy gray eyes that were clouded with worry, and smiled. "I'm glad you're all right. Now, what's in your mouth?"

      She took the bottle from me and slowly read the note. "Treasure, eh? Now, where are there huts?" she mumbled to nobody in particular.

      It hit me like a brick wall. "Mystery Island!" I cried, the numbness in my paws forgotten. Hollis smiled and replied, "You won't be cold much longer."

      We stood on the sandy beach of Mystery Island, carefully studying the collection of huts.

      "None of these are old," Hollis observed, staring at a freshly painted stripe on one nearby hut.

      I registered what she was saying by looking a little kougra painting a bright green zigzags on a brand-new hut.

      "Plus, the hint says 'Lost'. What part of Mystery Island is lost?" I said, looking at the clue.

      We looked at each other and said in unison, "The Lost City of Geraptiku."

      Hollis and I slowly walked around the small Geraptiku clearing, looking at all the huts.

      "Here!" I yelled, spotting a hut with three coconuts nailed to the left of the door and a sun and a moon on the right.

      Hollis hurried over and, looking over the hut said, "This isn't the one."

      "WHAT?! What do you mean it's not the right one?!" I cried, staring disbelievingly at her.

      "This isn't the right one. I found one that looks exactly like this, and I was about to call you when you yelled out," she said, trying to see through the darkness in the tiny hut.

      I suddenly thought of something. "The clue said there was something different than all the others." I walked over the hut Hollis had mentioned, and immediately saw the difference. The door was rounded at the top, not square like the others.

      Hollis rushed over, and together we slowly shuffled into the hut. Along one side were rows of little clay pots containing different colored powders of who-knows-what. There was a small bed laying next to it, and on the bed….

      "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Hollis shrieked and I howled as we raced out of the hut as fast as our legs would carry us.

      We finally stopped, panting, at a hut on the other side of the village. "That must have been the medicine pet's hut," Hollis huffed, leaning against the hut wall for support. I nodded in agreement.

      Finally I said, "Do you think we should go back? I mean, the next clue is in there." Hollis pondered a minute, then gave a slow, grim nod.

      We cautiously went back into the hut, looking around carefully.

      Suddenly, Hollis pointed a trembling finger in the direction of the bed. My head slowly turned to follow her gaze and I nearly collapsed.

      On the bed was a skeleton of a kougra, or some pet resembling one. Clutched in now bone paw of the skeleton was a scroll of paper.

      I turned to look at Hollis for reassurance, only to find her sunken to the ground in a dead faint.

      Gulping, I slowly padded over to the skeleton and, my knees buckling and paws shaking, gently pried the scroll out of the bone paw. Once I had the scroll out, I quickly dropped the bone paw back onto the ground and turned Hollis.

      A tear of relief rolled down my muzzle as Hollis slowly sat up and stared at the scroll clenched in my paw. We smiled at each other, and slowly unrolled the scroll.

      Dear Reader,

      Congratulations. You found the second and last clue. Here you go.

      Clue 2 - Gebmids (Hint ; Coltzan)

      The treasure is buried in a place near one of the most respected structures in the land. To find the treasure's exact location, go three hundred yards east of the structure, and what you are searching for will be under the fourth tree to the right.

           Good luck and enjoy the treasure, if you find it.

      Silas M. Morgan

      We gave each other a look that clearly said, The Lost Desert.

      Hollis and I stood three hundred yards east of Sakhmet Palace, but there were no trees around. "Maybe this isn't the right structure," Hollis suggested, making me think.

      We couldn't think of any other place to look.

      As Hollis and I started to sulk off, I looked over at Coltzan's Shrine. I stopped dead. "Hollis, the shrine!!"

      We raced to the shrine and then three hundred yards to the east, where we found five tall, skinny trees in a straight line. Going under the fourth tree to the right, we began to dig furiously, me being more sufficient with my four paws.

      Suddenly we hit something hard. A trunk!! We pulled the heavy chest out of the hole and set it on hard ground. On the lid were the initials SMM. Silas M. Morgan.

      Together Hollis and I slowly lifted up the heavy trunk lid. I gave an outraged gasp. Hollis looked ready to laugh and scream at the same time.

      THE TREASURE WAS ROCK CANDY!!!!!

The End