Treasure Hunt

A sunny day in July, four boys: Firaz, Sandy, Malik, Toni; and two girls: Anna and Nina sat in a round in the attic of their grandparent’s house. Their eyes led to the rolled old paper which Firaz brought. He opened the paper in front of them. It was a map. There was sketch that symbolized the forest and mountain with some path as a link. In the middle of that map there was a big red X mark. An old map with red X mark meant that it was a treasure map.

Several hours before, Firaz was being caught by his aunt because he was about to steal some croissant that would be served in his cousin’s wedding party on that night. He run off and hid himself in the old warehouse near his grandparent’s house. While he was hiding, his eyes caught an interesting antique box on the corner of that room, on the top of a big shelf. He climbed the shelf with little cough because of the dust. It looked so old and dusty. Carefully, he opened the box. He found some handwriting on the old paper with the letter that he didn’t know. There was an antique compass and pocket watch. The last thing he found was a rolled old treasure map.

“Let’s do treasure hunt!” Firaz’s eyes were sparkling.

“Are you sure it is a real treasure map?” Toni spoke with a frown.

“I’m sure this is the real thing. Look! This is our village.” Firaz pointed the houses on the map. “And this is Jambul forest. This mountain looks like Samalas mountain. We must follow the dashed line on this map to get to the X mark.”

“Do you mean we must get through Jambul forest?” Nina questioned Firaz with raising her eyebrows.

“Of course. We cannot get to the X mark without passing Jambul forest. There’s no other way beside that.”

“But the villager said that Jambul forest is haunted.” Anna replied with small voice.

“Yeah, our Grandma said that there is a big monster that eats children.” Malik said.

“Is that just a myth that there’s a monster? My father said that there was no monster nor ghost. Grandma just didn’t want us to enter Jambul forest.”

“Yeah, just like Sandy said, there’s no monster there. My father said that too. Come on, brace yourself and let’s do this.” Firaz was trying to persuade his cousins.

“What’s your plan?” Toni looked so serious.

“Okay, I’ll tell you. So, we have to move tomorrow morning. Around 6.00 a.m. Bring some snacks and water, first aid kit, and jacket. Don’t let the villager know that we go to enter Jambul forest, especially our grandparents.” Firaz explained his plan.

“6.00 a.m.? It is too early.” Anna said.

“We must move early, Anna. We don’t know how far our journey is. So, earlier is better.” Firaz said carefully to Anna.

“So, deal everyone?” Sandy asked them. They nodded their head. “Okay. We gather behind the old warehouse on 6 o’clock!” Sandy said again.

In early morning they gathered behind old warehouse. Firaz led the way to enter Jambul forest. Toni held her little sister hand, Anna, who’s still six years old. Nina walked beside Anna. Sandy and Malik walked behind Toni.

They succeeded to enter Jambul forest. It had big and tall trees. There was many vegetation like various wild flower or mushroom. It was like the forest wasn't touch by human yet.  

“Firaz?” Sandy was walking, but his eyes looked down.

“What?”

“Is this stone looked like path way?”

“What do you mean?” Firaz followed Sandy’s gaze.

“I think it is a path way. But whose make this path?” Toni Said.

“Wow this is wonderful! Let’s follow this path so, we can get back easily too.” Firaz said with exciting voice.

They began to follow that path.

“Look, there’s no monster.” Firaz told Anna.

“Yeah, I didn’t see it. But how far we must walk?” Anna asked Firaz. Her face looked tired. They already walked around 45 minutes.

“Are you tired Anna? Do you want a back ride?” Toni offered while he patted his back. Anna nodded her head.

After one hour, they saw the bright light in front of them. It was the end of Jambul forest. There was a wide savannah. Their eyes were sparkle, their jaw was like falling. This was their first time they saw this kind view.

“Is this still our world?” Malik was amazed.

“Are you okay Nina?” Toni asked his cousin who looked tired.

“Yeah, I am tired. But I think my energy’s back because this kind of view. This is beautiful.” She said with looking around.

“Let’s walk a little bit more, then we rest a bit.” Sandy said.

They continued their journey with following the stone path across the savannah. Their eyes were still amazed. They were wondering, why there was a beautiful view inside of haunted forest and why the villager said that Jambul forest was haunted.

“Hey, that is the bridge. It looks so old.” Sandy’s voice full of excitement.

“Can we pass it? It looks old. I think that it is no longer used by human. What if the bridge is too fragile to be passed.” Nina said.

“Calm down. I will try to pass it.” Firaz pull out the rope from his bag.

“What? You bring that?” Toni said.

“Yeah, I found it in the warehouse.”

“You sure prepare it well.” Toni smiled to Firaz. Firaz gave the smile back to him.

Firaz tied the rope to his body. He gave tip of the rope to Toni. He said to Toni to held it tightly. Toni griped the rope tightly. Firaz started to pass the bridge carefully.

“I think this is fine. The wood still strong.” Firaz said.

They passed the bridge one by one to prevent the bridge from fall in. They were exhaling sigh relief after everyone succeeded to pass the bridge. After they were checking that everyone was fine, they continued to walk a little bit more till the big oak tree being seen. They decided to rest under that tree.

They continued their journey, but finally, the stone path way was come an end. They think the end of the path way was where the treasure buried, but there was no X mark.

Firaz put out some small shovels from his bag. He started to dig the ground. Toni, Sandy, and Malik followed his action. Nina had a task to watch Anna.

After 30 minutes digging, they felt a hard stuff that stuck in the ground. Carefully they tried to get out that stuff. It was a big aluminum box.

“We succeed!” Firaz were screaming. Toni was smiling. Sandy and Malik were clapping their hand.

“Common, open it!” Nina said it with curious look.

They carefully opened the box. It was so hard to open, but they managed to open it. There was so many stuff in that box.

“What is it? Old toys?” Malik was frowning.

“Hey there’s some photos.” Toni took some photos from the box. His face looked surprised. “Is this father when he was young?”

“What? Ah. There was my father too. And Firaz’s parents. Uncle Sam too. Look Nina, your father is in this photo. This is the same photo that displayed in our grandparent’s living room.” Sandy looked surprised.

“What?” Malik looked curious so he looked to that photo.

“So, this means that this is our parents treasure?” Firaz dumbfounded. He thought that he would get some valued items.

“Don’t be so depressed, Firaz. This is a fun journey. We discovered the beautiful view here, and wonderful Oak tree. We don’t know that if you didn’t ask us to do treasure hunt.” Toni laughed.

“I think you’re right Toni.” Firaz nodded.

“Let’s go home, before the sun set.” Toni said with holding Anna’s hand. “We can ask our parent about this. But don’t tell other people yet.

They walked home with smile. Anna slept in Toni’s back. Firaz face look so satisfied. They thought that this vacation was the best vacation that they ever had.