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Treasure Your Dreams

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Treasure Your Dreams Empty Treasure Your Dreams

Post by Blacksatin773 Mon Apr 09, 2012 3:49 pm

I wrote this story for school. The prompt was "Write a story about two people, with dialogue, who find an abandoned gold mine." It's one of my favorite short stories, and I absolutely love Jared. Very Happy

Treasure Your Dreams

“It’s hot!” complained Jared, “You sure ya’ packed enough water?”
“Yes.” I said in an exasperated tone. I mean, he must have asked me that twenty-five times by now! “We have at least ten bottles between us. Now stop flippin’ out, we only got a couple miles left.”
He was quiet for a few minutes, giving me time to think.
We had to be back at the hotel before dark. My ma had said something about, “Creepy crawlies and bitter cold, Lucas. You better remember that.”
I’m not sure what she had been going on about, though. It’s hot as Hades out here and I haven’t seen a living thing besides the cacti for miles. I still don’t know why she decided to come to Nevada for a vacation. The only place farther would have been Alaska, and at least they have whales up th-
“What’s that?” Jared yelled. I looked at him, his brown hair was long and mussed.
“It’s just a scorpion, Jared. Simmer down ‘fore you wake the dead.”
“Just a scorpion? That thing’s as big as my hand! Whatcha talkin’ ‘bout ‘just a scorpion’, Lucas?” The more upset he got, the more pronounced his accent became. You could here the southern in him down to the bones. People always say I have an accent too, but I don’t hear it.
“Calm down. My sister wouldn’t even scream as loud as you did, and you know how Isabelle hates bugs.”
I started walking again, my boots making little clouds of dust puff up with every step. Jared started walking too, coming up on my left.
I pulled out the old map, paper yellow and crisp, brown spots flaking off as I unfolded it. We still had about a mile to go before we reached our destination, but I could already see the large boulder, so close, yet so far away.
“What do ya’ think we’ll find?” Jared asked quietly, his head tilted a little to the side.
“I don’t know. It only says treasure. Who woulda’ left treasure in the middle of a desert?”
“Probably pirates.”
I looked at him to see if he was joking, but he was looking straightforward with a serious expression. Sometimes I was just amazed at how oblivious he could be.
“Yeah,” I said slowly, “maybe.”
We had found the map in an old building across the street from the hotel. The building was halfway burnt down, so I was surprised the map had survived.
A few minutes later we reached the boulder. It was about ten feet tall and looked totally out of place. It was gray and huge in a place of golden yellow sand dunes; weird.
“I don’t see anything interesting or treasure-like.” I told Jared.
We started to walk around the rough surface to see if there was something on the other side.
“What’s that?” Jared said from a little ways ahead of me.
“Did you find another scorpion? Or is it a snake this time?”
“No.” He said carefully, “It’s a tunnel.”
I ran forward and sure enough, there it was, carved into the boulder, leading deeper and deeper until there was only blackness.
“How much you wanna’ bet this leads to the treasure?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “Nothin’. I think it does too.” Then he assumed an odd expression. “But I thought pirates usually just marked the ground with an X.”

We found three torches hanging on the wall, never used.
“I got a lighter.” Jared answered the question I hadn’t asked.
“Why would you have a lighter?”
“I used to be a Boy Scout. ‘Be prepared’ was the motto.” He shrugged.
I shrugged back and lit a torch, handing it off to Jared, and then lit another one for myself. I knew Jared wouldn’t go in first, so I started in, going down dry stone steps. I heard Jared walking behind me, very close.
“Please, don’t set my hat on fire.” I told him. My hair was short and blonde and covered by my cowboy hat. I paid good money for the hat and really didn’t want it to have burn marks.
“I won’t.” He replied in an offended tone.
A little ways down, the steps turned from stone to wood. Since it wasn’t very humid here, I wasn’t worried that the wood was rotten, but I still walked a little more cautiously. As we got even deeper, the entrance long behind us, the steps again turned to stone. The steps began to get a quite slippery, as they were green with algae. I put a hand on the wall to keep from falling, but it didn’t help any. The walls were covered in drops of water, so many that the wall looked as though it were draped in strands of glass beads. Jared’s hand snaked out and grabbed me before I could tumble down into the dark.
“Thanks.”
“Not a problem.” He responded easily.
We kept walking, the water droplets reflecting the firelight like stars at midnight. Then, finally, the steps ended, and I stepped onto a flat piece of stone. It looked like a hallway, with wooden beams in the middle of it every few yards.
“Where are we? What is this place?” I said to no one in particular.
“I ain’t really sure, but I don’t think the pirates created it.”
I laughed despite myself.
“Which way? I asked Jared.
“Left.” He said it with such absolute firmness that I had to ask, “Why?”
“I like that way better. It’s my favorite direction.”
“But no matter which way you face, there’s always a left. It’s not…” I just left off. You can’t explain something like that to Jared. I know. I’ve tried.
“Well come on.” I ordered him, and started to the left.
We walked like that for a long time, Jared behind me and to the left, nearer the wall. There was nothing interesting to see. Just damp stone and wooden columns, a couple of them broken or rotted through. I had lost track of the time so I pulled my phone out of my pocket to check it. “No service” was written at the top of the screen, meaning no clock, and no communication. I slid it back in my pocket and kept walking.
Eventually, I saw something gleaming on the other side of the wooden beams.
“Come on.” I said to Jared and walked towards the far wall. I just had time to see veins of gold running through some quartz before I fell flat on my face.
“Lucas?” I heard Jared’s frantic question.
I peeled my face off the stone. “Just a bloody nose. I’m fine.” My torch had skidded out of my hand and rolled across the floor. It hadn’t gone out and Jared picked it up for me. I was pulling a handkerchief out of my pocket to stop the blood when Jared said, “They look like tiny train tracks.”
“Have you finally lost it?” I inquired, picking myself up off the ground and taking the proffered torch.
“No.” He looked at me, annoyed. “Look.” He pointed to the ground where I had tripped and sure enough, there were tiny train tracks.
“I wonder what they’re for.” I said after looking at them for a moment.
“Don’t know.”
“Well lets keep goin’.”
We headed off again, staying on the side of the tracks this time. I had completely forgot about the gold and quartz until I saw another sparkle on the wall. I found the gold about the same time Jared found the cart.
“Look!” We said at the same time, and then looked at each other and started laughing.
“That looks an old mining cart.” I told him.
“And that looks like gold!”
Surprisingly, Jared put it together before I did.
“We’re in an abandoned gold mine!” He yelled.
“Your right.” I agreed, looking back and forth between the cart and the gold. “Awesome!” We said at the same time again.
“We’re gonna’ be rich!” He said.
“We’re gonna be famous!” I said back. “You know, I bet there’s another way out of here, where the carts reach the surface.”
“Yeah.” He agreed. “Hey, Lucas. There’s gold in here!”
He was looking into the cart so I walked over and looked in too. There were small piles of gold covering the bottom of the cart.
“This must be worth a fortune.” My voice was filled with wonder.
Jared picked up quite a large piece and put it in his pocket.
“Grab one. We need proof that we found a gold mine.”
“True.” I said, also sliding a chunk into my pocket. “Okay. Lets go back to the hotel. We can tell my ma, then the news and everyone else!”
We headed back the way we came from, practically running. We headed up the stairs, feet moving fast and the fire from the torches blowing back. Then a bright light took over my vision and-
-I sat straight up, my blanket sliding down to my waist.
“Get up, Lucas! Your ma has breakfast, I’m starvin’ and we got a long day ahead of us!”
“I’m up.” I said groggily. “I was just dreamin’ and-” I stopped suddenly, trying to remember what my dream had been about. “Weird. Alright, let’s eat.”
“You still got the map, right?” He asked excitedly.
“Yeah, I still have it.”
“Good. What do ya’ think we’ll find?” Jared asked, his head tilted a little to the side.
“I don’t know.” I replied, with an odd felling of Déjà vu. “It only said treasure. Who woulda’ left treasure in the middle of a desert?”
“Probably pirates.”

Blacksatin773
Blacksatin773

Posts : 13
Join date : 2011-11-23
Age : 27
Location : Florida

http://www.velvetandlayce.blogspot.com

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