Unexpected Treasure

Part 11

This scene before me was the most overwhelming out of all the ones I had seen on this island – it was another one of the big caves, but this cave looked very different. The caves I had seen all had almost-bare walls, where you could see the rock. But here, every inch of the wall were covered with plants – climbers, flowers, or some other plants that I had never ever seen in my life, looking strange but beautiful. There were plants with different sizes scattered in front of me, and further away was a sea of tall grass that was taller than a person. This cave was filled with different colors, but this was not the main reason that made this room so fascinating – it was the butterflies, and a huge, graceful tree beyond the grass.
And talking about the butterflies, they were no ordinary butterflies. There were at least a thousand of them flying high above us, covering almost the whole ceiling. And they were the source of light. Each of them was surrounded by a soft glow of white light, even though they had different colors initially.
And the tree – it was massive, and looked grand. It reminded me of an old wise man, with the rough trunk, and just look at the way it twisted towards the ceiling! It was like it had a soul.
It was practically like heaven here – and Edward was with me, our hands in each other’s.
“W-O-W,” Edward said, extending each syllable.
“I know, it’s so… Heavenly here,” I nearly could not come into terms.
“I can feel it… The treasure must be close,” Edward said after a while, “This room being so extraordinary… Not that the previous ones aren’t, but this stands out from them all, and outshines them all.”
“Totally – look at all those butterflies! I wish I could get some of them in my room and pretend that I have real ‘fairy’ lights!” I said, and then paused, hanging my head down. Thinking of my room… Made me miss my home.
“What’s wrong?” Edward said, tilting my chin to face him with his free hand.
“I… Miss my home,” I confessed, “So much.”
Edward looked at me with sympathy, “I do, too,” he said, looking up towards the tree, “But we’re not far away from the treasure. Our wish will be going home, right?”
“Yeah,” I managed a weak smile, “That’s what I want the most now.” Besides being with Edward forever and ever.
As we started to advance in the direction of the tree, a low growl raised from behind us. I flinched from the sound, and Edward quickly turned around to see what it was.
Before I knew what was happening, Edward pushed me behind him, and I peeked from behind his shoulder. My eyes became wide open with fright.
A huge lion-like monster stood before us. But instead of fur, it had rock-hard shells all over its body. Even its mane looked like sharp needles, but it still moved with the movements of the creature when it was breathing.
Another hiss escaped from the monster’s throat, and it suddenly threw itself in the air, aiming to land on us. Edward quickly ran with me, as my hand was still linked with his. We ran as fast as we could, through the bushes of grass, towards the welcoming tree. But the cave did not seem welcoming and heavenly anymore; it was like hell. It was like we had fallen from heaven to hell. In a matter of seconds. All I heard was our ragged breathing, and the monster’s paws hitting the ground.
At last we reached the tree. I did not have time to observe anything, but I could see the tree was much more graceful up close. It had this magical power luring you towards it. The tree was surrounded with a sea of colorful flowers, but I did not have time to appreciate the beautiful scene in front of me. Edward pushed me to the other side of the tree trunk, trying to make me stay there when he dealt with that monster. I tried to protest, but I then yelped in pain – I hit my wounded leg on the trunk when I tried to stand up.
Then it was no use struggling. My leg hurt so much that my mind went blank for a couple of seconds and I could not stand up. Edward wheeled around, walking back towards the bush, ready to face the monster.
“NO! EDWARD! COME BACK!” I shouted desperately, clutching my head, and trying to look around the trunk. I tried to crawl, but failed. The pain was too much. So I sat there, defeated, only being able to watch with tears streaming down my face, blurring out my vision, and screaming like mad when the monster came into view, roaring loudly, as I heard Edward shouting something at me, but again, his voice was muted by the sound of the monster. With my blurry vision, I could just make out Edward fishing out something from behind him.
I quickly wiped away my tears, in time to saw that Edward was trying to shoot the monster with his gun. But the monster was so quick that it jumped onto Edward, and the gun flew out from his hand, into the grass.
“EDWARD!” I screamed on top of my lungs, watching Edward struggling to get the monster off him. I could see the monster bearing its teeth in Edward’s face, and I watched with horror as the monster collapsed onto Edward – no, it could not have bitten his neck, NO!
“EDWARD!” I screamed again once more, tears streaming down my face uncontrollably. I did not care if the monster would come after me, I just wanted Edward back! It was all my fault, if I had not hurt my leg, if I had not banged my leg again – and if I had not agreed to coming from the very beginning, he would not have been dead, it was all because of me, and I still had not told him that, that I loved him, more than a best friend—
Then I saw the monster moved, raising its big head. I froze.