Unexpected Treasure

Part 5

Eventually we both settled down our overloaded excitement and started towards the forest. Well, to me, it was actually a jungle. It was somewhere you would never dream of going to, it looked so not like a forest in the bright daylight. There were overly huge plants; although they didn’t look like the ones we usually saw in our world, they were supposed to be shorter and smaller than a person if you ask me. But there they were, totally shadowing over me. I guess most of them were at least three meters tall.
We just stood there at the edge of the jungle, staring up at those green plants, not sure of what to do next.
“I suppose we should walk towards the tree. The book says the tree indicates the location of the treasure,” Edward said, although he looked unsure.
“Sure, or else we’d just be standing here until the sun sets. Let’s go,” I squeezed Edward’s hand, and started going forward.
We walked into the jungle for like twenty meters or so, pushing the plants out of our ways, not knowing the direction. I started to get a bit uneasy, as the tree was blocked by the big plants.
Suddenly we reached an opening. I gasped. Right in front of us was something like a small meadow, with colorful flowers that I had never seen in my life lying everywhere. I let go of Edward’s hand, and flopped down on the grass. Warm sunlight kissed my exposed skin, and it was nearly as good as being in Edward’s arms.
“Wow, I’ve never imagined something like this in the middle of this jungle,” I said, closing my eyes, “It’s beautiful.”
I heard Edward sit next to me, “Yeah…” then I heard him muttered, “With you here, how can it not be beautiful?”
“What?” I thought I heard him wrong.
“Umm nothing important,” he replied. I opened my eye, and saw him blushing. I definitely heard him right.
I sat up, “Really?” I raised my eyebrow questioningly.
“You wouldn’t want to know about it,” he looked me in the eyes, “Okay this is so much better than our previous resting place!” and he flopped down on the grass, spreading his arms out.
I lied down on his arm, and snuggled into his chest. He hugged me tight, and I asked him, “Can we stay here for a little bit more before we continue our journey?”
“Sure, as long as you like actually,” he replied. We stayed in this position, and it was very peaceful, listening to Edward’s heartbeat. It was like music to my ears – so slow, so steady.
Finally I sighed, “I guess we should get going. I don’t want to walk in that jungle when it becomes dark – God knows how long it will take to get to the tree!”
So we walked to the other side of the meadow. On the way, Edward picked some flowers with different colors, “These are for you, (yn),” he made them into a bundle and handed them to me, “Thank you for everything. For being my best friend, supporting me through everything, with you being there means a lot to me. Thank you for being my everything.”
“Well, Edward…” I was left speechless by his speech. My eyes seemed to well up with tears. Tears of happiness.
“Why are you crying?” Edward asked worriedly, wiping away a tear as it rolled down my cheek.
I smiled, “I’m just happy. Edward, thank you for being my everything too. You know how I didn’t have any friends, and you’re always there for me,” I took the bundle, and hugged him tight.
“Best friends forever?”
“Best friends forever,” I echoed.
At last we picked up our journey again. We made sure we were heading in the correct direction before stepping into the jungle again, as we could see the tree clearly when we were still in the meadow. We travelled deeper and deeper into the jungle, and it seemed to get darker and darker. Not that it was late; it was just that the plants seemed to get taller and taller. A few minutes later, it became really dark. I could only see shadows with the dim light. I gripped Edward’s hand tighter, leaning on his arms.
“It’s okay, I’m here,” Edward said soothingly, knowing that I was scared. I was always not a big fan of the dark.
Suddenly, I saw some dim light coming from ahead of us. Edward also noticed that, and increased our speed. We walked towards the light, and we reached another opening. It was smaller than the meadow, but much prettier. It was breathtaking.
“Wow…” I began, “I thought that meadow was beautiful, but look at this!”
We had definitely arrived at the big tree. It was so big that its lower branches had covered all the space above our head, forming a canopy. On the branches there were dots of colorful lights lighting up the space, and when I looked closer, they were some kind of flowers. The tree was standing on a huge rock that had an opening wide enough to let a person in. The rock had climbers growing everywhere.
I tried to get on my tiptoes to pick a flower emitting blue light, but I was not tall enough. Edward chuckled, grabbed my waist and lifted me up. I quickly grabbed the flower, and laughed. But Edward still wouldn’t put me down; he only lowered me to level with him. I secured my legs around his waist, and hit him on the shoulder with my free hand, “Hey, put me down!”
“No way!” and he tightened his grip on me. I was holding the flower with both hands in front of my chest, and his action just nearly squashed the flower – and made our faces just inches apart. I could feel his warm breath on my lips.
This was getting awkward. I knew there was something more between us than him being my best friend, but I didn’t want to ruin our relationship by taking it to the next level. I had never had a boyfriend and I was scared. I was unsure.
“Uh, Edward – you’re ruining the flower,” I finally said. He looked down at the flower, and loosened his grip a little bit, but he still wouldn’t let me down.
“It’s beautiful,” he said, staring at the flower, “I wonder what makes it emit light?”
“This is somewhere magical, I think everything happens here without a reason, but yes it’s so pretty,”
“Not as pretty as you,” he breathed on my face.
I blushed, “Yeah, whatever – can you put me down now?”
And so we went around this magical place exploring everything. Other than the flowers, there was nothing really interesting.
“So that leaves us that hole in the rock,” Edward finally said.
Although it did not look inviting at all, we still decided to explore inside the rock as it was the only choice.
We squeezed in the hole, and inside was not entirely dark. There were a couple of those flowers like the ones we saw outside on the wall, and I still had that blue flower with me; I had got it attached to my wristband.
We went deeper into the cave, and the path went spiral down deeper into the ground. Along the way there were some flowers on the wall lighting the place up. We followed the path, with me clutching to Edward’s arm, and it was a long way. I wonder how deep we were under the ground now.
Finally the path ended. We had arrived at a huge cave. And the scene before me made me froze.