The Lost Treasure

The Forest

  I had never explored a forest before, heck I had never ever seen a forest in person so I was just blown away by what I saw.

  The outside rim of the forest was just like the wrapping of a birthday present, appealing yet hiding something even greater inside. There were not too many trees here, but it was still beautiful. The trunks of the trees were a delicious chocolate brown with each one having a different pattern of lines on it. The leaves could have been made from gemstones, they were a beautiful shade of green and they shone so brightly as the sunlight bounced off their reflective surfaces.

  The ground was barely visible beneath the soft thick bushes. Each bush was at least a foot high and a few were even taller. Underneath those bushes was soft green grass which just complimented the area even more.

  Young trees grew out of the ground in little patches, and soon, in a few years, they would grow to be as tall and strong as the surroundings trees. It really was something you wouldn't see every day, or any day for that matter.

"This is beautiful" said Ben.

"No doubt, let's take a walk in there" suggested Ronan.

"Good idea, let's go" I agreed.

  We let the beauty of the forest engulf us as we walked forwards. I couldn't help but look around in complete awe at the magnificence of mother nature. I had never seen anything so beautiful before.

  I was so caught up in all the beauty that I didn't notice a tree right up ahead. I crashed right in to it with a thud and fell to the ground.

"Ahh" I whispered, rubbing my head. I had to be more careful of where I was walking.

"Hey man, you ok?" asked Charlie, pulling me to my feet.

  I nodded and wiped the grass off of my clothes. "Yeah, sorry, I should have been paying more attention to my surroundings."

"It's fine Ibrahim, be careful next time. We don't want you getting a concussion yet" said Ronan.

***

  "Let's sit down and have our lunch here" suggested Ben, sitting down on a fallen log. "I'm famished."

"I could totally go for a couple of sandwiches" piped in Ronan, sitting down next to Ben.

"It's settled then, who's carrying the lunch backpacks?"

***

  We sat in a circle around a tree stump which served as our table. David's mom had packed quite the feast for us. She had prepared everything we could have asked for, she really was a mom like no other.

  Cakes, sandwiches, burgers, oh, how delicious they were. I simply couldn't imagine how anyone could make something so...heavenly.

  We didn't even communicate with each other or talk about what we thought of the forest, we were too busy wolfing down the heavenly delicacies. They..were..so..good

  The food was so good, it was so good, it made my eyes water in happiness thinking about how good it was. I was blessed to know David's mom, she was the world's best cook in my opinion.

  I was in complete bliss. My mouth could not even seem to produce enough saliva to break down the food, and when I swallowed I wished I had savored the food a moment longer.

  Slowly the sandwiches, the burgers, the cakes, decreased in quantity. Slowly, and slowly, until there was nothing left.

  We washed down the food with some iced water and mango juice. The cool liquid running down our parched throats brought sighs of relief and happiness all around.

  "That..was amazing" sighed Ben as he rolled off the log on to the long soft grass below. "I don't think I'll ever have a meal as good as that, ever."

"Agreed Ben" I said. "I don't think I can't move, I ate so much."

"You're not the only one man" spoke David, "The food was just so impossibly good."

  We just lay on the soft grass, gazing up above at the sea blue sky. The clouds shifted positions slowly, travelling dozens of kilometers in mere seconds, yet it seemed so slow to the eye. The breeze shifted, so that the wind gently pulled apart strands of my hair and made them flutter apart from the rest. I sighed contentedly.

  After about half an hour, we sat up. Putting my back against the log, I cleaned up our paper plates and utensils and put them back in the lunch backpack.

"Let's do some more exploring, shall we?" I said.

***

  The forest seemed to go on forever, but that was good. I would have been disappointed if we had finished exploring everything within a few hours. As we went deeper and deeper in to it, the grass thickened and lengthened, the tree trunks grew wider and sturdier, and the ground sloped upwards and downwards.

  "This reminds me of Uncharted 4" remarked Charlie. "I feel as if I'm Nathan Drake searching for the clues to the lost treasure of Henry Avery."

  "Yeah, and any moment now those Shoreline men will come and try to blow our heads off" added David.

"Wish we could have such an adventure" said David sadly.

  "Cheer up man!" Ronan clapped David on the back, "You never know what can come your way, maybe we will have an adventure soon!"

"I'd love that so much" I thought looking to the ground.

  My friends and me continued forward and soon a thicket of bushes and trees blocked us from going any further. They formed a natural wall against trespassers which seemed impenetrable.

  Deciding to go around, we kept close to the edge of the wall until we had come back all the way around.

"Huh, guess there is no way inside" I remarked

"Let's look again" suggested Ronan. "We might just find an entrance."

"Alright" agreed Charlie. " Everybody keep your eyes peeled!"

  A couple of minutes of intense searching passed, we left no stone unturned in trying to find an entry point.

I was ready to give up when Ben suddenly exclaimed, "Here! I found something!"