Treasure Hunt

It was a new and pleasant morning but the buzzing of kids in the park had just started.

"Ready?", Charlie asked his friends eagerly. They were all, by now, extremely tired of playing hide and seek over and over again. But quite fortunately, they'd invented a new game lately. It was called, 'Treasure Hunt'. One of them was supposed to hide Charlie's white badge and others had to find it. This time, Charlie was going to hide it.

Her friend Rhea replied, "Yes, we're all ready and set, but I don't want to play in this park. Let's play somewhere else. Perhaps the Alanbuck Grounds!?!?"

All of them grinned. The Alanbuck grounds were a really beautiful place but it also had some rumours about it. It had pillars, fountains and some statues, all carved in pure white marble. When it came to greenery, greenery was something you could feel in there!

When all the friends readily agreed, the gang set off to the Alanbuck grounds, which was just a mile away. After they had all appreciated the beauty of that place, they began their game. Charlie searched around to see where he could hide the badge. It did take him a minute or two, but Charlie was satisfied when he had hidden it below one of the fountains. When he gave a signal to his friends, they all rushed and spread all over the garden. Many of his friends examined the fountain but failed to notice the badge, Finally, after a long time, a tomboy named Audrey spotted the badge and snatched it with all her might that the fountain uprooted from its place and fell on the other side.

It was not the broken fountain that had left the friends astonished, but a little twinkling golden chest that was revealed at the spot. Audrey, Charlie and a boy called Greg kneeled down and wiped away the dust on it with their hands. Charlie opened it with utmost care and was extremely startled to see just mud balls in it. They kept on removing the mud with the hope of seeing something else, perhaps a treasure. As wished, something really did come out of the chest. It was torn, brown and dusty paper. Audrey unfolded it and read out the text which was written in the most incredible handwriting-

Dive into your deepest desires,

And there you would find the truth

Truth leads to wonder

And today, wonder to treasure

Everyone was confused, but Charlie was more than any of them and began asking himself and others, "What is our deepest desire. And who's desire? What kind of desire?". Greg replied calmly, "Something we all desire. Friends? Fun? Adventure? What?"

Amazed and Excited Rhea jumped and exclaimed loudly, "Adventure! Rumours! This place! The treasure is right in here!!". All the friends searched around with complete enthusiasm but when Greg accidentally fell over the mud balls that were scattered around, all their hard work gave them success, the mud rubbed out and they could see a plethora of diamonds shimmering in the sun. Had their journey ended, or, just started?