Treasure Of The Secret Mount

Chapter One:

“The Sapphire City”

Living in ‘The Sapphire City’, Alyssa and Blake were two friends who showed a lot of interest in investigating things and finding out the real stuff behind complicated matters. But we have absolutely no reason to blame them; everyone loves discovering things (unless they are too lazy for these!) but these friends were some different story. They had participated in many real-life mysteries, and, had some-what helped in solving things too! You can say that Alyssa and Blake were close friends, as their parents were good friends. And also, these two had been living in Sapphire City since they’d learn to talk. They only had each other till they entered high school where they solved the case of the missing Sapphire (no wonder it’s called the ‘Sapphire City’). And that was when they became the city famous “Adventure Maniacs”. The day after, all the students in school began crowding around them, asking them questions as if they returned alive from a battle; some even started taking their autographs! That was a rewarding moment of their adventure!

Chapter Two:

“Summer Vacay”

It was a hot summer day. The month of May had just begun. Their summer vacations started exactly two days before and these children were already getting bored. Alyssa at her house, she’s getting bored. Blake at his house, he’s getting bored. What to do, none of them are aware. “Even if I would die now, that would be because of the boredom!” Blake squealed and crashed onto his bed. “Blake Alvarez! Who in the world asked you to scream that bad?” his mother called out from the home library. “I’m getting boooorrred, Mom!” Blake called at the top of his voice.

“Why don’t you and Alyssa go in search of some mystery, Eh?”

“Good idea, but I’m too lazy to get the phone and call her, could you maybe do that for me?”

“Go call her, you lazy bum.” His mom chuckled.

“Alright, I’ll go, just don’t call me THAT.”

Blake mumbled and left the room to get his phone.

“Hey Alyssa, umm…….could you get here in 10 minutes? I’m getting bored; bored as in extreme level type bored.” Blake asked on the phone.

“Hey Lazy Bum! Did you call her?” his mom teased, purposefully, knowing that her son was talking on the mobile phone.

“Mom! I asked you to stop calling me that!” Blake shouted, clearly embarrassed.

“Sure, I’ll come you lazy bum.” Alyssa ridiculed, and burst into laughter.

“Yeah yeah, whatever.” He responded with an annoyed face and cut the call.

As soon as Alyssa came, they decided to go for some refreshments, which is, the well-known cafeteria: ‘Sapphire Cafe’. On reaching, they ordered chocolate milkshakes for themselves. While waiting, they heard the newsboy shout, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” They recognized the voice, called the newsboy, and bought the paper from him. They read the newspaper in hope of finding some juicy stuff; which, unfortunately couldn’t be found until they read the last article. Their hopes just rose from a zero to a ninety percent.

Chapter Three

“Hint?”

Reading the last news left them thinking about that article. Blake picked the paper and both of them rushed to their ‘Investigation Office’, completely ignoring the waiter who stood there to serve drinks to the children, with a smiley face.

This 'Investigation Office' of them was nothing but a spare room at Alyssa's house.

Blake switched on the light as they both rushed in. The article was kept on the table, with these two youngsters continuously scanning the article’s interesting part.

What was the 'Interesting Part' you ask?

Here is it:

 “What’s this?” asked Alyssa.

“It’s a map of a treasure in words” answered Blake.

“What? A map of words, did you say?”

“A map which is written and not drawn is called a map of words. Now stop questioning will you? Let’s eat and pack everything we need for our next adventure." Blake explained calmly.

"Shouldn't we be asking our parents about this? " Alyssa Questions, again.

"What did I say about no more questions? And the answer to your question is yes, we will ask our parents first. Now, NO MORE QUESTIONS PLEASE!" Blake announced.

Alyssa didn't want to anger Blake, so she did as she was told. The teenagers went to Alyssa's parents first, as they were at her house.

Chapter four:

“Why’d you laugh?”

Mr. and Mrs. Williams were sitting in front of the television, watching their favourite show; Lucifer.

"Hey Mom, Dad?" Alyssa speaks in the most polite tone she could ever speak.

"Yes darling, you want something?" Her Dad responded tactfully. Alyssa's father, Mr. Alex Williams was the most sensible person Blake had ever seen. He was tall, had a broad chest with a flat stomach, his hair rested on his forehead, giving his face a boy band look. This man's smile, with the perfect set of teeth, and attitude was on point; anyone could be fooled or flattered. They say that looks could be deceiving, and he was an exact human version of that phrase. His eyes were deep blue in colour, which had the ability to make anyone get lost in them. Mr. Williams gave the best witty answers to comments or questions, to make the mood lighter.

"Earlier today, Blake and I had bought an article from the newsboy, hoping to discover the occurrence of some theft or mystery so that we could help in solving it. We found something, here." She hands the article to her father. He reads it, smiles, whispers something in Mrs. Williams ear, she too, smiles, then she passes on the paper to Alyssa. This reaction of Alyssa's parents confused the children quite a bit.

Blake decides to speak up, "If you could please allow-"

"Sure dearies! We would love to send you to this wonderful adventure! But be sure to be safe kids!" Mrs. Laura Williams blurted out, cutting off Blake's sentence. She was one enthusiastic soul; her perfect smile had such a spark in it that it made the entire room go all blaze-y and smiley. Her gray eyes lit up every time she gets all smiles; they were mesmerizing. That straight nose of hers matched flawlessly with her straight shades-of-blue hair. She wasn't as tall as Mr. Williams, but she was blessed with a short and cute body. By looking at her, she didn't seem to be a person who can be rude with people and boss around, she was a very down-to-earth and humble lady, yet knew how to get her work done neatly. You would see her in public and she'd seem as if she was an actress or some model.

Blake didn't seem to mind that his sentence was cut off by Mrs. Williams after hearing what she had to say in nothing but total excitement. "Blake, why don't you and Alyssa go to your office and plan about your adventure while Alex can call your father and convince him to send you for the adventure? But I'd recommend you talk to your parents later on before the adventure." Mrs. Laura beamed once again with her eyes twinkling.

"That's great, Mom! Now we shall leave to discuss." Alyssa informs her mother, and goes back to the office along with Blake.

Chapter Five:

“The Research”

“Where do you think is secret mount?" Alyssa starts questioning, again.

“I too don’t have an idea about that. Let’s look it up,” The Mastermind replied."Wait, pass the article?"

Alyssa picks the piece of paper and gives it to Blake. He takes a look at the 'Interesting Part' of the newspaper and the text at the corner catches his eye.

“Oh, it seems this little hint here didn’t manage to attract our attention,” Blake observed, carefully. "It says, 'Albert Square'."

"Isn't that some street in this city? Our parents took us to the fair over there, remember?"

"Yes Alyssa, I do. We'll take a cab to go there tomorrow, let's start packing." Blake commands and the two start packing.

Meanwhile, Mr. Williams, Alyssa's father, calls Mr. Alvarez, Blake's father, to convince him to let the kids go have fun. Mr. Alvarez wasn't that strict as a father, he let his son do anything; secretly making sure it wasn't that dangerous for kids to do.

"Howdy, old friend! All good?" Alex greets Mr. Alvarez, Daniel. (Alex is the name of Alyssa’s Father)

"Me all good, what about you?" Daniel replies.

"I'm always well, brother. Any chance you're free, maybe?"

"Yaa sure"

“Our little 'Adventure Maniacs’ decide to go on another one of their 'adventure', kindly allow Blake to set off to it, maybe? The truth is ..........” Alex continues to tell Daniel about how his daughter and the boy came to take permission for going to the adventure, he also tells him what he saw in the newspaper, which made him smile.

Chapter Six:

“The Leave for Adventure”

"So now we know our address- Albert Square. Let’s move from this mount thingy and jump to the skull,” said Blake, carrying Alyssa’s heavy backpack. “What do you-”

“THE SKULL MIGHT BE A SKULL IN SECRET ­­­­­­­MOUNT!” Alyssa hollered out, taking a slight pause in her work. She was carrying some of the things which can be used for their ‘adventure’.

“Yes Alyssa, that could be possible but why are you SHOUTING?” said Blake, keeping down the stuff in his hands. “Never mind, we’ll sleep this night and get to the mount tomorrow morning, early. You give these backpacks and I’ll be down checking with your parents about the eating stuff. Also, let me call my parents; they may need to have a talk with me.” Blake informs and leaves the ‘office’. He checks with the lunch for tomorrow with Alyssa’s parents, calls his father and they discuss about the ‘Adventure’.

Soon, it’s dinner time, and Mrs. Williams gives a call to the children, informing them that the dinner is ready. They come downstairs, silently eat their food, and leave to get rest. Since Blake and Alyssa have been good friends from their childhood, their parents had special rooms for the other kid to stay. The next day, these youngsters sit to discuss about where they had to go. They discuss for nearly an hour.

“Have fun on your adventure you two! Don’t forget to keep it all safe! And do not get involved in danger!” Mrs. Williams said cheerfully as the maniacs left for the adventure. They dropped by Blake’s house to say proper goodbye to his parents, then, they left; they left for their treasure hunt. Their adventure starts.......

Little do they know, what Alyssa’s parents were laughing at....

Chapter Seven:

“Huh? What monster?”

They didn’t take much time to reach to ‘The Mount’ by taking a cab. As soon as they set foot on the area of the mount, they warmed up for a bit and set off for climbing.

If you believe in logic, you might be wondering how the parents of these little kids allowed them to go off somewhere so dangerous? I can say, if thought that, you actually use the brain given to you by God.

About the answer, continue to read on why they were sent by their parents at such ease.

It was getting dark, fortunately they find a cave. Since these two are the ‘Adventure Maniacs’, the fear of dark never stopped them from exploring spooky places or even things. Instead of sleeping, they kept walking; not very soon, they reach the peak and take a pause when the moon starts to rise. On the peak at night, they saw the moon shining and some rocks piled on one another and a deep hole in front of that. It made them curious, so Blake peeks into the hole; he sees a skull’s shadow.

“Alyssa! You cannot just miss this scene! Make a run, quick!”

 He calls Alyssa and shows her the shadow. After sometime, the shadow disappears. That shadow and its disappearing left them both in confusion. So, they kept thinking of it, ate their food and then slept. The next morning, they had their breakfast then having an idea, Alyssa said “Hey! It could be the shadow of the stones piled on one another!”

 “Yes it could be.” said Blake, calmly while he took the torch, a big rock and a rope from his bag. He tied some part of the rope to the rock, and asked Alyssa to stand on it. He switched on the torch, checked if the rope could hold the weight or not. When they were about to climb, a three-eyed monster appeared which made Alyssa leave the rope. Both of them got terribly scared; fortunately Blake caught Alyssa and slid down to the cave.

The three-eyed creature was green and had long, thick, furry hands with long-blue nails attached to the fingers of the monsters. It had a large face, big mouth, big feet, big toes, big legs, big Big BIG everything! It looked deadly; like, very deadly. Main point: It smelled REALLY bad.

“Such a dirty smell!” Alyssa exclaims in fear; yes, she did get scared. But Blake seemed to be a bit reasonable; according to him, three-eyed monsters didn’t exist! “Close your nose then!” he shouts. They close their nose, and surprise! The monster disappears! When they opened their nose it appeared! “How strange!” Alyssa shrieks in disgust. “I know this it’s a spell it cannot harm us but scare us, so close your nose so that you don’t get scared!” Blake tries to explain the extremely scared Alyssa. They close their nose, switch on the torch, and go inside the dark cave. They are in astonishment when they see the view in front of them. There, lay down a huge, most beautiful golden treasure chest they’d ever seen in their life! Plus point? It was open! They unfasten the already-unlocked chest and find some sapphires arranged neatly to make the word ‘Sapphires of the city’! There also lied a piece of paper which said:

‘Congratulations dear winner! Thank you very much for participating! Your prize is in the chest!’

Chapter Eight:

“Competition?!?!”

“Participating in what?!” cried both of them. They got so confused that they wanted to sleep right away. The next day, Blake gathers the prize, the note, packs it in his backpack and snaps enough pictures of the cave and the chest. They take a cab once again, and reach to their own houses eventually. On reaching home, they find their own new treasure-

Alyssa sees her teddy and Blake enjoys his own new encyclopedia.

Happy ending!

Wait! Why did Mr. Williams smile?

When they reach home, their parents explain to them that above the hint of the treasure, was given a paragraph about the competition, which they did not even look at. When Alyssa hands the newspaper to her father, he reads the above part first to understand what’s going on. He reads that the following is a treasure hunt, only for children and therefore allows the

‘Maniacs’ to leave for their ‘Adventure’.

If the ‘Adventure Maniacs’ ever plan to go to an adventure, the better learn to read and understand the whole situation first!

Now,

Happy ending!