Patrick
looked up from the map that he had made of the tunnels. “Hey, Dwayne! Have you
broken through yet?”
“Almost,”
came Dwayne’s voice from farther down the tunnel.
Patrick
walked down to see the progress Dwayne had made. They had been exploring the
tunnels under Paris for weeks. Patrick had hoped to find Pierre’s ancient lost
treasure down here. Legend had it that Pierre the Explorer had hidden a
dangerous treasure deep in the tunnels beyond the catacombs. The stories said
that Pierre had meant to go back to retrieve the treasure, but he had been
mysteriously killed.
Patrick was
only interested in the historical significance of the treasure. He didn’t need
any money because he had a large family inheritance. He had convinced his best
friend, Dwayne, to go on this adventure with him. They had hired a crew to help
with the excavations. Today, they were digging out the side of a tunnel wall
that appeared to have been another tunnel at one time, but had later been
sealed off. Patrick whistled when he saw how far they had gotten. Nearly half
of the opening had been uncovered, and there seemed to be a large space beyond.
Patrick lifted
his lantern toward the opening. The air smelled stale here. “Could this be it, do
you think?” he asked Dwayne.
“I dunno.
We won’t be able to shine a light far enough inside until we clear the rest of
this area, but it shouldn’t take too much longer.” Dwayne put a reassuring hand
on Patrick’s shoulder. “We’ll be able to see in a few minutes.”
Twenty
minutes later, the last of the debris had been cleared, and Patrick anxiously
led the way inside. It was the darkest tunnel that they had yet explored. Their
lanterns couldn’t completely chase away the darkness.
The farther
they walked down the tunnel, the more excited Patrick became. “There’s got to
be something down here,” he said, slightly out of breath. The tunnel twisted
and turned, and then it ended abruptly. Patrick and the others were lost for
words as they gazed into the magnificent cavern.
The cavern,
at least 50 feet wide, was dominated by a large pool that seemed to shine from
deep within. A bluish light illuminated the entire cavern. A path lined the
edge and Patrick led the way along it. Precious gems peeked out from the rock
walls.
“I think we
found the treasure,” Dwayne said in awe.
“It would
seem so,” Patrick said slowly. “But why was this tunnel sealed off? There are
enough gems in here for a king’s ransom. Why would anyone just leave it?” He
continued walking along the path until he reached the very back of the cavern. “Here
we go,” he said with satisfaction.
A large
chest was set with a lock and was inscribed with the words “Pierre the Explorer.”
Patrick held his hand out to Dwayne who handed him a shovel. With a few good
whacks, the lock broke open and Patrick carefully lifted the lid.
The entire
crew was gathered around Patrick as he looked inside. They all sighed in
disappointment when they saw the contents. Three oval rocks sat on a black
velvet cloth inside.
“Is that
it?” Dwayne asked in a worried voice.
“Let’s see
if there’s anything else in here.” Patrick carefully lifted out the rocks one
by one and set them on the ground. He took out the black velvet cloth and laid
it on top of the rocks. “Nothing else,” he said with a sigh.
Suddenly,
Patrick stood up and bumped into Dwayne who had been leaning over him to get a
better look. Dwayne dropped the lantern in his hand. It fell on top of the
velvet and broke. Flames erupted on the fabric, which quickly disintegrated,
revealing the oval rocks beneath. Instead of dying down, the fire seemed to
find fuel in the rocky material.
No one said
anything as the fire continued to blaze. Patrick expected the fire to burn
itself out, but it only grew hotter and then started changing colors. First, a
bright yellow turned into green, followed by blue which moved into a deep
purple.
One of the
crewmen thought to fill a bucket with water, but he stood transfixed by the
colorful flames. Finally, the fire turned a brilliant white and then suddenly
went out. The cavern, which had seemed brightly lit before the fire started,
now seemed very dim.
Patrick
blinked the spots from his vision while Dwayne said, “What on Earth was that?”
When he was
able to see again, Patrick leaned down to investigate the remains of the fire. “Did
these rocks always look like this?” He studied the rocks which were now a shiny
black with veins of different colors running all along them.
“I thought
they were just chunks of gray rock before,” Dwayne answered uncertainly. “I
think I would have paid more attention to them if they looked like this – magic
rocks. Don’t touch them!”
Patrick had
laid a hand carefully on one of the rocks. “It’s cold,” he said, surprised. He
went back to check the chest again, which had somehow escaped the flames. He
ran his hand around inside, looking for anything he might have missed before.
He stopped when he felt his hand brush against something attached to the inside
of the lid. Pulling it out, he saw that it was an envelope.
The paper
was nearly disintegrating with age as Patrick carefully opened the envelope and
pulled out a note inside. He brought it closer to another lantern, so he could
see it clearly. He read it out loud:
To
whoever finds this treasure chest,
These
are the last dragon eggs in existence. The leadership is planning to obliterate
all memory that dragons ever existed. We were able to rescue
these three eggs from the worldwide purge of dragons. Dragons and humans once
worked together, but the war between us has brought us to this. We couldn’t bear
to completely erase an intelligent species.
If you’ve
found this, you have a chance to correct the mistakes of the past. Dragons and
humans can be friends again. It’s up to you. All you need to do is bathe the
eggs in fire. Once they hatch, they will need someone to care for them.
Please
don’t make our same choices. It’s up to you.
Signed,
Pierre the Explorer
Silence
followed the reading of the letter. All eyes were on the dragon eggs. The men shifted
uncomfortably and Dwayne finally voiced what they were all thinking. “Are we
really going to believe that letter?”
“You saw
the fire,” Patrick said solemnly. “I, for one, intend to see this through. Do
you know what an amazing discovery this is? If nothing else we’ll be able to study
something that no one else has seen for centuries. No wonder the stories about
Pierre are all so mysterious.”
“Well, we’ll
leave that to you, then.” Dwayne turned back to the cave walls. “I think we should
get a bunch of these gems to take back with us.”
The crew
eagerly started to mine the exposed gems. Patrick, however, stayed to look
after the eggs. He lined the box with a few shirts to cushion the eggs. Reaching
down, he went to pick one of them up.
A loud
CRACK rang out through the cavern. Everyone’s attention was immediately drawn
to the eggs as more CRACKs rang out, louder than the first.
Patrick
watched as one of the eggs exploded open, and a small blue dragon stretched and
unfurled its wings.
“I can’t
believe it,” Dwayne said breathlessly.
Two more
dragons exploded out of their eggs, and Patrick thought he had never seen
anything so beautiful. He looked up at the men around him with a grin and said,
“We are the first to witness a dragon hatch in centuries. Let’s make better
decisions about them than those who came before us.”
From that
moment, Patrick became an advocate for dragons. Many resisted the idea of
dragons at first, but Patrick used his wealth and influence to protect and
raise the dragons. They had harvested so many gems, that Patrick had no lack of
funds. He went down in history as the man who reintroduced dragons to our
world.
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