The Treasures of Time

By Landon Hess
Chapter 1: An Answer

On the edge, by the ocean, I was lying in the sand. Letting the current run past my body,

on a warm summer day. My name is Sean Everest, son of Finn Everest, a glory-seeking treasure-

hunter who was looking for the stone of Venterite, an ancient stone, worth billions. However, my

father mysteriously vanished on the sinking of the ship Tragosvitch, in the Atlantic.

“Heads up!” yelled Shira as she punted a beachball at my head.

“Hey, what’s going on Shira? Have you seen Orwin? I haven't seen him since we hung

out with Mitch and Sylv last night,” I sighed in exasperation.

“Yep, laying in his hammock at his place. Apparently got into a nasty fight with his dad

again. Needed a break. Best to leave him be for now,” Shira sighed as she answered my question.

I lay there for a minute, face in the summer breeze, rustling my hair, the sunrise in shades

of the coral found in the seas of Azuet, our ocean-side town. But with the sound of an abrupt

scream, I snapped out of my daydream in less than a second.

“Was that Orwin?” I sprung to my feet and started running with Shira to his dad’s place.

We arrived outside his house, and there he was, a beaten, run down Orwin lying on the

ground, groaning with pain.

I rushed over, “Are you okay?” I asked alarmed checking on my bruised and unwell

friend. “Who did this to you? I swear I’m going to-”

 “Stop- its fine, it was my dad, he was drunk, and had one of his fits again, really I’m

okay.” Orwin tried to mumble as he shifted his body upwards slowly. “Please, just help me up.”

Orwin’s father tends to have his moments. For a moment he and Orwin would be chilling

on the Sofa and watching T-V, but the other- well, you get the just- well look around.

“Can we go get Sylv and Mitchell, and just hang around at your place Sean?” Orwin

asked in a completely different tone and mood, disregarding what had just happened to him.

“Well- I- Uhm was going to look into my father’s maps and artifacts from his on-going

hunts for clues and to see if-” I replied hesitantly, as I was cut off.

“Your dad is gone Sean. You must accept it. Tragosvich is gone, sunk, never to be found.

It isn't worth your-”

“Stop!” I cut off Shira. “He’s out there, he’s somewhere, I- I know he is. Come with me,

or don’t, I couldn't care less. I will carry on his legacy.”

“Fine. We’ll go with you Sean. Help you find some clues.” Sighed Shira.

“Thank you,” I embraced her on the verge of tears. “Let’s go, follow me, let’s see what

we can find.”

We followed the unpaved roads. All there was mint-green, dull grass that seeped through

the cracks of the chipped fifty-sum-year-old road of Azuet. There were more important

prerogatives to this society here than perfect houses, and perfect parks and luxurious restaurants.

Life in the bay of Azuet was all we cared for, the people around us, our bond was forever

growing. Orwin’s house was not but just three blocks away from mine. I was determined to find

this treasure, to make my father proud.

 We arrived at my house. “So where would your father had kept his clues, and information

about the treasure?” Shira inquired.

“I know just the place!” I exclaimed jolting from the front door to my father’s old office.

“My father never allowed me in here... told me that it was off-limits.” I tried the knob- locked.

“How am I going to get in here?” I stalled in exasperation, as my friends caught up to me.

“Let me give it a shot,” Orwin insisted, grabbing the knob and turning it in different

directions; up, down, left right, in all sorts of crazy patterns.

“What are you doing?” I asked curiously. “What is moving a rusty, and tacky knob going

to do to open a locked door?”

“My dad has one of these knobs. It’s a Frukian Knob, A coded knob. You move it in a

three wayed pattern, and it unlocks. Used to keep people out of seemed to be locked places.”

“Genius!” I exclaimed. “Wait- Let me give it a shot. I think I may know the code.”

“Alrighty then,” Orwin stated as he stepped away from the door.

I started trying all the combinations; Diagonalized directions, horizontal, verticalized, but

nothing worked.

“This is frustrating! Can’t I just kick this door down-” But then, I heard a click. The code

I most recently used worked, the door was unlocked!

“Ready to go in?” Shira asked as we prepared to enter the dusty office. “There could be

nothing in there Sean, and if there isn’t, please promise that you won’t get-”

“I promise,” I sighed as I accepted that there may be nothing, no clues, no artifacts, no

maps, nothing at all.”

 I opened the door. I gasped in surprise and astonishment. There were maps galore,

hundreds of artifact sketches, but there was one sketch lying there that shunned me still for a

moment.

“Is that the-” Orwin stuttered.

“The stone of Venterite... yes.” The stone with a swirl of purple jade in the center of the

sketch, surrounding the swirl was hundreds and hundreds of small gems mixed in assortments of

diamonds, amethysts, emeralds, opals, and gemstones galore. However, this was not what

shocked us the most, because there was not but a diary and manuscript dated back to ancient

times laying adjacent to the sketch.”

“What language is that?” Orwin asked, confused by the Cyrillic-like letters that covered

the pages of the diary, with sketches, and clues in this foreign language.

Shira trotted over to the desk towards us and blurted, analyzing the language, "It's in

Hebrew! I can understand it somewhat. The alphabet, language, and grammar are a bit outdated,

but I can try to translate it.”

There was a portrait of a woman named Fiera Yerimine. The diary seemed to be over one

thousand years old, but no more than 400 pages. The first page read:

For the treasure of the stone of Venterite lies in the palace of Guarnmitz. A keyhole, the

size of an elephant shall lead you inside. The colossal wall will collapse if you proclaim the

words, “The boulder covers-” The line was cut off by a tear in the withered page.