THE MYSTERIOUS CAVES (PART 1): THE GEMSTONE CAVE.
adventure stories for kids, adventure, thriller, fiction, magic ,
The sky was covered with low, gray
clouds. Elara was coming home, tired and dirty from having worked all day
in the rain showers deep in the woods with her dad.
Ten years old, she lives in a large forest, a two-hour walk from the
village. She doesn't go to school. She studies at home with her
mother.
Sometimes, like today, she helps her father, a lumberjack,
by lining up the logs he is cutting along the path, or by loading them on a
trailer, which he will then bring home with the tractor, for his customers. .
This work is heavy and hard, the logs often dirty and heavy. We splinter
our fingers when handling them. But she likes helping her dad and working
with him in the forest. She understands at her age that they are not very
rich at home. A worker is expensive, too expensive for their
purse. So she participates on certain days.
She was coming back very tired and dirty that day when she saw a boy sitting on
the swing his father had built for him near the shed where he stored his wood,
to the left of the house.
She approached surprised and curious. His hunger and
fatigue disappeared as if by magic. She never meets anyone on the paths of
this forest, well, almost never…
-Hello, said the boy.
"Hello," answered Elara. What are you doing here?
- I am accompanying my father. I believe he is waiting for you. What's your name?
- My name is Christina. I live here, and you?
-I'm Matthew.
At that moment, the door of the girl's house opened and the two children were
invited to enter. Elara walked into the living room with her new
boyfriend. Standing near the large fireplace, Mathieu's father was
chatting with our friend's parents.
-Hello, Christina. You seem very young to me…Yet your father told me that
you could take me to a region located at the exit of your forest. It is
called the high rocks. Would you like it?
-I'm willing, answered the little girl, if my parents ask me. What are you going to do there?
"I'm a geologist and a university professor,"
replied Mathieu's dad. Do you know what that means?
-You study the grounds and the stones...
-Bravo. Exactly. I am looking for a cave that would contain precious
stones. I could start shipping next week. I will take two of my
students. My son, Mathieu, on vacation will accompany us. You accept?
- Willingly, said Elara, who was already looking forward to spending a few days on the adventure with this boy who looked nice.
- So, see you very soon and thank you already for your help.
The following Monday, our friend woke up quite early, hearing the sound of an
engine approaching her house. She took off her pyjamas, put on her old,
well-worn denim overalls, but which she really likes, her t-shirt and her not
very white canvas sandals. She redid her two long brown braids and went
downstairs to lunch.
Mathieu's father came into the living room at the same time. He was
accompanied by his son, whom Elara had met on the swing the other day, and by
two students.
-Hi, Christina. In shape?
-In shape, confirmed the little girl. And ready in a moment.
She drank a glass of milk and grabbed a slice of bread as well as a small picnic prepared the day before, then slipped her penknife, companion of all her adventures, into the pocket of her overalls. She joined the others in the all-terrain vehicle. They set off.
-We won't be able to drive very far on this track, affirmed our friend on the way. At the crossroads of the three roads, it becomes impassable paths by car.
"Well, we'll continue on foot," replied Mathieu's dad. We follow you, you guide us.
About an hour later, when they reached the crossroads of the three roads, they
left the vehicles and loaded themselves with large backpacks. Everyone
wore what they could.
Elara led them to a dry valley in which they followed a steep path for several
hours. She led them to a stream that ran through the area of large
rocks.
These vast, rocky lands are cut by deep canyons with vertical walls, which look like high cliffs. An ancient volcanic region, very rich in fauna and flora. Our friend knows these narrow valleys. She sometimes wades there with her feet in the cold water, on an adventure, alongside her father.
Regularly, the teacher and his students bent down to pick up
or observe one or another pebble. They often made glowing but rather
technical comments that the two children did not always understand.
They arrived in the evening at a place that Elara and her father call paradise.
It is the place of confluence of this dry valley, on the one hand, and that where flows a fairly wide torrent. At the edge of this river, at the place of junction, is a high dune of salmon-pink sand.
While Mathieu's dad and his students were setting up the tents and lighting the fire to cook the evening meal, the little girl led her boyfriend to the top of the pink dune. On the right, the torrent passed between increasingly sheer and tighter rock walls, where they would go tomorrow.
-Here, explained the little girl, taking off her t-shirt and
tennis shoes and lying down on the ground, you can do cumulets in the sand.
She rolled full length to the bottom of the dune and landed in the water of the
river. What happiness, after this grueling walk in the heat! She
encouraged her friend to do the same.
Mathieu, taking off his t-shirt and sneakers, kept only his
jeans and tumbled into the water. Then they played at watering each other
and started their game over several times, cumulating and diving into the cold
water.
During one of the descents, Elara misplaced her arm and was blocked in her
run. She stopped on her back. Mathieu, who was driving just behind
her, came face to face with his friend and in the process came to place his
face against hers.
They both blushed. The boy thought of his classmates, fortunately absent, otherwise, what jealous or mocking comments he would have heard!
They collected their clothes and headed to the campfire as they were called.
After the evening meal, Mathieu's father asked the two children names and
colors of precious stones.
-The ruby, red in color, launched the boy.
-The white diamond and the green emerald, said Elara.
"The sapphire, dark blue," added Mathieu.
-There are three left that you know less, said the dad. Opal, midnight blue, sky blue turquoise, and yellow topaz.
Then he explained to the children that a very long time ago,
hundreds of thousands of years no doubt, perhaps millions, volcanoes located
almost everywhere in this region that Elara calls the high rocks, spat their
lava, a pasty liquid like hot, red cream.
-At that distant time, a meteorite fell not far from here, he said. If
this stone from space had ended its fall by sinking into the water, it would
have disappeared, causing a tidal wave. On the other hand, by crashing on
a hard surface, like stone, it would have burst and left a crater. By
falling into pasty lava, it cushions its fall and then encloses it in a gangue,
like a pebble that you throw into the mud. Our meteorite does not look
like the others, continued Mathieu's father. It looks hollow. And in
this cavity would be precious stones. We will try to find them tomorrow.
Elara asked how we knew the presence of this meteorite.
The geology professor replied that around the 1930s, an
adventurous explorer visiting the region, spotted the thing. He reached
the cave and was able to enter it.
-Then, something that we don't know must have happened because when he came
back, he wasn't talking anymore. He was constantly humming a simple little
melody, a little annoying. He ends his days in an insane asylum.
"Ten years later, a second explorer named Peter Anderson went in search of
the Gemstone Cave. He spotted the location of the cavern, but according to his
notes, he couldn't get to it because he had to climb a sheer wall more than
eighty meters high and was unable to do so.
"He decided to try his luck by returning another time with tools, to carve
a path in the rock wall. Because of the war, and his poor health, he could not
return to the scene until well years later. It seems that he reached the cave,
but he never came back...
-That's scary, Mathieu thought aloud. The first explorer came back mad and the
second disappeared forever...
-And the following? Elara asked.
-The next ones are us. My students accompanying us, during their research, discovered notes concerning the first traveler and the return project of Peter Anderson. Aerial photos and satellite readings seem to confirm the presence of something deep in a cave or a frozen fissure in the cooled and hardened lava. The images evoke the presence of a round, spherical mass. It appears to be made of an unknown metal on earth.
"You say," exclaimed our friend with a touch of worry in her voice, "that the first came back mad, that the second disappeared and that we are the third...
-Exactly. It will be necessary to explore the place
with great caution, says Mathieu's father. We have absolutely no idea
where we are headed. And let's not forget that this thing is from outer
space.
Tents were waiting, pitched for the night. The sun had just disappeared behind
the high cliffs of the canyon. It was time to go to sleep.
The students slipped under their canvas. Mathieu's dad came into his and called his son. The boy asked if he could sleep under the same roof as Elara. The two children lay side by side in their sleeping bags. They chatted for a while, almost in silence.
The next day, they packed up their bags and left the place called
paradise. Then, following the river, they headed for the gemstone cave.
They progressed slowly between the walls of the canyon. We
often had to wade through the water and sometimes it came up to their knees or
even their waists. Two or three passages forced them to swim in this
really cold water.
The more they advanced, the more the scoop, the canyon, tightened. Barely
a few meters separated the two cliffs, each higher than a skyscraper and as if
cut with a knife. The sun did not enter or little at the bottom of this
impressive abyss.
Several times they had to step over a fallen tree trunk or climb a
waterfall. The wind was blowing quite hard in the valley, making them
shiver in their wet clothes. They continued their progress for several
hours, led by Elara who seemed tireless and whose energy and bravery aroused
the admiration of everyone and especially that of Mathieu.
Finally, they came to a place where the steep-sided valley split in
two. One of the forks turned out to be particularly narrow. You could
put your hands on both sides of the wall at the same time. Rose quartz
littered the floor, washed away by the current.
-We are going in the right direction, encouraged the boy's dad. Let's go
on. I think we're pretty close to the cave we're looking for.
Alas, after having covered a hundred meters in the narrow trench, they had to
stop, blocked by a gigantic rock which seemed detached and fallen from the top
of the valley. It blocked it almost completely. Impossible to go over
or around it.
The canyon was closed, but a gentle stream of water passed
underneath. Mathieu's dad tried to slip in, but the passage proved too
narrow for his build, as for that of the students. Elara, very slender,
seemed to be able to sneak in and her boyfriend too, on condition of crawling
ten meters in the water and in the mud.
The teacher, very disappointed, brought the two children before him.
-You volunteer to risk slipping through this narrow passage, this
bottleneck. Cheer! But on the other side is the unknown. I ask
you to be extremely careful. The first who once crossed this passage came
back mad. The second never came back. Turn around at the slightest
difficulty. Just take a few pictures with this digital camera.
"I have to," said the little girl. I guide the expedition.
-You have largely demonstrated your courage by leading us
here, but I relieve you of all your obligations. If you have any apprehension
to cross to the other side, do not go there.
Elara was shivering as much from the cold in her wet clothes as from fear.
"I'm going," she said.
"I'm going with her," declared Mathieu.
Both slipped under the enormous block of very impressive rock. The passage
turned out to be very thin. The little girl, like her friend, was crawling
in the water. Their backs continually rubbed against the rough wall above
them. They were only able to recover after about ten meters of exhausting
gymnastics.
Here the canyon was even narrower. In the bed of the
river, not very deep, pretty pink quartz was outcropping.
Among these, Elara noticed one with a strange shape. He looked like a
fish, transparent as glass. A real rock crystal. She showed it to
Mathieu, then slipped it into the pocket of her overalls, next to her penknife.
The valley ended in a cul-de-sac a hundred meters further on. There was a
waterfall of a dizzying height, about eighty meters. The water seemed to
come out of a cave. Maybe the one they were looking for. They found
no other. They took some pictures.
It seemed possible to climb up there, by a very narrow path,
carved into the rock, but particularly dangerous and quite frightening, because
it constantly overlooks the steep valley.
They photographed the whole thing, without undertaking the climb, then turned
back. They came back to the geologist and the two students who were
waiting for them impatiently.
Everyone looked at the photographs. Elara showed the stone she had just
picked up. The fish shape, cut in a rock crystal of great purity, seemed
to be the work of an unknown sculptor. Nice find!
- Now, said Mathieu's dad, night is falling. We are going to camp
here. Tomorrow morning, if you dare, you will resume your new occupation
as explorers.
After the meal around the fire, everyone retired to their tent. Mathieu
unrolled his sleeping bag next to his friend's.
-I am happy to live this adventure with you, whispered the boy. I didn't
know there were girls as saucy as you. It seems like nothing is stopping
you. Next to you, the girls in my class seem like cowards to me.
Our friend blushed with pleasure.
-I believe that all girls are as daring as me, but they don't always have the
opportunity to show it. I find you very nice. For once I meet a boy
in my forest, I come across one who is not afraid to get wet or crawl in the
mud. I want us to stay friends forever.
They turned towards each other and gave each other a very emotional tender kiss
before plunging into the night which covered the valley with the light of its
stars.
In the morning, Mathieu's dad spoke. Elara was finishing redoing one of
her braids and her boyfriend was finishing lunch.
-I accept that you try to climb this narrow path cut in the rock. Be
careful not to slip or fall. Don't forget that in the event of a fall,
none of us three will be able to come to your aid. Up there, if you enter
the cave, be extremely careful. Again, we cannot help you if something bad
happens to you.
The professor proposed something very serious to them, but as a geologist, his need to discover these precious stones made him forget certain rules of caution!
"I'm going," decided our friend. Something bad happens to you.
"Me too," added Mathieu.
The two children resumed their journey without
waiting. They squeezed through the mud of the tight pass and stopped at
the foot of the steep path. They climbed, their torsos glued to the rock
wall, holding each other's hands at the slightest bump and sliding sideways
step by step. They hardly dared to look down, it was so dizzying.
They finally reached the top of the cliff, eighty meters high. They were
at the edge of the torrent which, following tortuous cracks, leaps and swirls
in a deafening crash. They set foot at the entrance to a gallery the size
of a subway tunnel.
A ray of sunlight slanted through the darkness, making her recoil around
corners like a malevolent beast.
The two friends came forward slowly, holding hands. The
tunnel, dripping with cold droplets, formed a bend. Arrived at this angle,
they saw, with horror, on their right, a skeleton seated on the ground and
whose hand rested on a notebook blackened by time.
"Peter Anderson," murmured Mathieu.
-I think so too, confirmed Elara. Look at. He holds a notebook in his hand.
-Yes, answered the boy, but the bones of his fingers cover him. I take a picture of it.
-I have seen animal skeletons in the forest. I believe,
continued the little girl, that I would dare to take her notebook. Either
way, he can't hurt us.
Elara knelt down and held out a trembling hand for the notebook. She was
still not too reassured. She slid it towards her. The skeleton's hand
detached itself from the body and accompanied the notebook. They both let
out a cry.
Our friend shook the notebook to rid it of the dead man's bones, then she sat
up.
At the far end of the cave, on the other side, was a kind of closed door. Perfectly round, it seemed to be made of a rather hard and gray material, which looked like steel. The children photographed it then went back down along the waterfall and found Mathieu's dad and his two students.
They gave all the explanations, and commented on the
pictures.
The midday picnic attracted neither Elara nor Mathieu, both too
impressed. They didn't eat much. The sight of the skeleton had taken
their appetite away.
After this semblance of a meal, everyone sat down in a circle on the sand, near
the torrent, and opened the famous notebook. Our friend started reading
it.
My name is Peter Anderson. Explorer, archaeologist,
adventurer. One day I met the man who discovered a cave containing, it
seemed, precious stones.
This unfortunate man, who had returned mad from his solitary expedition, was unable to provide the slightest description of the places or the circumstances of the tragedy he had experienced. He lived in an asylum. He constantly mumbled a simple, strange little melody, which he repeated tirelessly.
I had the intuition that this music was the key to his adventure. I visited him several times. He had just lived through terrifying moments, perhaps abominable, which he constantly replayed in his sick mind, like a nightmare that we remember when we wake up and then haunt us in the morning.
I had the idea of bringing him paper and pencils. And while sitting at his table, I accompanied him in his mysterious song, he began to draw. I understood that he was telling me details concerning the access to this cave. But nothing, no clue about the horror he had experienced there.
I went to the valley for the first time. But I was
unable to climb the rock wall located next to the waterfall. I returned a
few years later with tools that allowed me to carve a path in the rock to reach
the cave.
-The one we followed for the climb next to the waterfall, commented Mathieu.
"Indeed," added Elara. Peter Anderson dug it into the wall.
-Let's read more, proposed one of the very impatient students.
I discovered at the bottom of a slippery gallery a round door which seemed
to be made of steel. I soon realized that no tool could cut into this
unknown, mysterious metal, incredibly resistant to my hammer
blows. However, my predecessor had managed to open and enter.
I noticed in the center of this door, a fairly thin,
narrow slot, like the one where you slip a credit card at the bank. I
suddenly remembered that the mad man had entrusted me with a rock crystal in
the shape of a fish, a key, of sorts.
-The stone that is in my pocket, exclaimed Elara, raising her eyes to those who
were listening.
I introduced this key into the slot seen in the round door. It opened
slowly. I was finally able to enter the gemstone cave.
A sight of hallucinating beauty appeared to me. The cave was in the shape of a large half-sphere. The vault, supported by six columns two to three meters high and fifty centimeters wide, shone with a thousand lights. These columns, all of a different color, each appeared cut from a different gem. It ranged from midnight blue of opal to dark blue of sapphire and scarlet red of ruby. Next to them was an emerald green column, and when I turned around, I saw another sky blue one, turquoise, and a yellow one, topaz.
Near the entrance stood a giant rock crystal one meter high. A strange gold device was placed right next to it. A funny machine resembling the coffee grinders of yesteryear. A base, provided with a kind of drawer, half-open, was surmounted by a large cup or chalice, also in fine gold, and in which a series of engraved lines drew an incredible labyrinth.
As I watched these things, the door closed behind
me. I realized, with horror, that on my side, no crack appeared. So
how was I going to open that door and get out of the gem cave?
"He must have been very scared," remarked Mathieu.
Exploring the area to look for the exit, I discovered six large marbles on
the ground, each a different color and the size of a tennis ball. Very
carefully cut gemstones of hundreds of facets. Just one of them would have
been enough to make me a rich man.
But what were they for?
It occurred to me to slip these round gems into the golden cup in an attempt to open the door. I tried the ruby. It rolled along the carved lines of the chalice's maze. I perceived a strange sound, a little crystalline, created by this movement.
I then put the topaz at the entrance of the same route. The sound broke. I understood then that it was necessary to slide the six precious stones in a precise order to succeed in creating a melody which would undoubtedly allow me to leave the cave. This musical phrase reminded me of the one hummed by my predecessor, the explorer gone mad...
Probably locked up too, he groped for hours, days,
nights, the solution of musical continuity to get out, until he became mad with
impatience and terror.
- Me too, locked in there, I would have gone mad, confessed Elara.
A quick calculation allowed me to estimate that these six different stones
offered me forty-six thousand six hundred and fifty-six
combinations. Working day and night, it would take me a month to try them
all. But I had with me in this cave neither food nor drink.
I got to work straight away, but I couldn't find the right sequence. I started sometimes with the opal, sometimes with the ruby, convinced that the sound produced by these gems corresponded to the beginning of the song of the mad man. Then the sapphire was to follow. Failure. Failure. Failure.
I tried and tried again, patiently at first, then furiously. I was going crazy hearing those cursed sounds.
Sometimes, exhausted, I fell asleep. Then I woke up with a start, thinking I was coming out of a dream that obsessed me, a dream in which I saw my predecessor, wand in hand, trying to teach me the melody. Yes, I was going crazy myself.
I was starving. Thirst tortured me. I was going
to die there, in front of all these riches which looked at me, indifferent to
my cries and my despair. Sometimes I sat against one of the columns, a
marble in each hand. I was singing loudly. Yes, I was going crazy.
"It's terrible," murmured Mathieu.
By dint of trial and error, I succeeded, after an incredible amount of time,
in discovering the exact sequence: opal, sapphire, ruby, emerald, turquoise,
topaz. Finally!
Having made it by placing the six balls one behind the other, and in the right order, the machine brought out of its entrails a diamond similar to the other precious stones. A brilliant white-blue the size of a tennis ball! This stone was worth a fortune. Its height exceeded the famous Cullinans which adorn the scepter and the crown of the Queen of England.
I took it and put it in turn in the big gold cup. The music that was emitted at that time was incredibly beautiful, but it lasted only a short time. The time of the opening of the exit. I rushed outside and the door closed immediately behind me.
I threw myself on my shopping bag to drink and to eat. Outside, it was raining heavily. A terrible storm. I was safe at the entrance to the cave.
Suddenly a blinding flash streaked the sky followed by an incredibly violent thunderclap. Not far from me. Then I heard a deafening roar. A mass of stones detached by lightning, slid into the canyon.
When the storm subsided, I descended into the valley. I realized with horror that I was unable to get out of it. I was the prisoner of a gigantic rock which now obstructed it. Only a thin child would manage to slip under and pass. I tried, but in vain, to widen the passage with my tools.
Someone will discover one day, I hope, this notebook to
which I entrust my last moments of life.
The text stopped there. Our friends were silent for a moment.
-Now we know how to get in and out of the gemstone cave, concludes Mathieu's
dad. It was necessary to think of placing the famous marbles in order of
color, from the darkest to the lightest. From opal to yellow
topaz. Can you reproduce this, children?
-I think so, said Elara, not too reassured.
"Me too," adds Mathieu. I accompany my friend. We will bring you photos and precious stones.
-Be careful, children.
While reading the text, Roland, one of the students, had tied two pieces of
wood with a rope to make a cross. He proposed to the two friends to place
it on the bones of Peter Anderson.
Elara and Mathieu therefore left in the direction of the cave. Once again
they passed through the very narrow and muddy passage, climbed the vertiginous
staircase carved into the hillside by their predecessor and arrived at the
entrance to the cavern.
The bones of the unlucky explorer awaited them on the right. They placed the cross there.
Then, turning around, our friend approached the door of the
room with precious stones, the famous round gate. She gave the fish key to
Mathieu. The boy slipped it into the slot provided and the door
opened. He retrieved the key and the two friends entered the wondrous
cave.
Right in front of them was a large rock crystal stalagmite. One meter
high, fifty centimeters wide. A splendor! Mathieu put the fish key on
it. Then, open-mouthed before such beauty, they observed the six columns
of precious stones which started from the ground and seemed to touch the vault.
A play of lights, coming from who knows where, deployed a
kaleidoscope of hues of incredible magnificence, like in the heart of a
rainbow. They observed the gold machine, near the topaz column.
Mathieu took a few photos while Elara gathered the six round gemstones that Peter
Anderson mentioned in his memoirs. She couldn't find the big diamond.
The door had meanwhile closed behind them.
Each holding three stones, and their hearts pounding, they approached the golden device and especially the great chalice engraved with the labyrinth.
They slipped the opal into it and heard a sound rising gradually, a fine music, like that which one draws from a crystal by rubbing it. Then they slipped in the sapphire and the ruby. From sequence to sequence, the singing continued. The order turned out to be correct.
They then placed the emerald, but then made a mistake, as they reversed turquoise and topaz. They heard a creak and the music stopped. They were very afraid. Would they, in turn, stay locked up in there? They had to recover the stones and start all over again.
This time, they made no mistakes, finishing in order with emerald, then
turquoise, and finally, topaz. The chalice turned a little on itself and
revealed through the opening thus obtained, a diamond of extreme beauty.
The size of this brilliant made it probably the largest in
the world. You couldn't lock it in the palm of your hand. It shone
brightly.
For a moment, only for a moment, Elara thought that if she had such a diamond,
her parents could live on a vast property in the village, a house with a
swimming pool in the garden. She could go to school with the other
children and make lots of friends. Daddy shouldn't work in the woods
anymore, and neither should she. But didn't her dad call his daughter
"his treasure"? No doubt he would rather have his child than the
precious stone...
Mathieu imagined for a moment, only for a moment, that with a brilliant of this
value, his father could acquire all the expensive devices he dreams of having
in his laboratory at university. His life would be changed. They
would all benefit. But ever since Mathieu was little, his dad called him
“his little diamond”. He certainly prefers to find his son in good health,
rather than see him disappear or return mad, the diamond in his hands.
The two children jingled the wonder in the golden chalice of the strange
machine. The music that came out was of such beauty that it remains
indescribable. She made them hesitate for a moment, but the heavy door was
already closing.
"We'll be back," said the boy.
They rushed outside.
They passed the bones of Peter Anderson, then descended the narrow path, along the rock face. They crossed the narrow gully and found the father and the two students. They showed the photos and gave all the explanations.
The professor and his team immediately decided to return with equipment and
qualified workers to be able to widen the narrow rocky passage and allow them
to enter the cave from space.
At this moment, a shiver made the two children tremble. Mathieu had placed
the fish key on the rock crystal stalagmite on entering and had forgotten to
take it back on leaving. Elara, in her haste, hadn't thought of that
either.
The door of an unknown metal, coming from the interstellar spaces was
hermetically and definitively closed. No one could open it without this
key. Never!
The gemstone cave therefore keeps its treasure, and no one was able to enter it again. No tool cuts into the mysterious metal.
Elara and Mathieu, confused, didn't say a word. They were hardly reproached. They had just risked their lives to approach and enter this place.
All returned to our friend's house. When getting into his father's car, Mathieu kissed his friend. They swore to meet again soon.
