The Way We Fall

Epilogue

"Careful!" a voice cut through the stillness of the empty seaside town. Juniper glanced at the other students at her side, her cheeks flooding with embarrassing heat as their professor lunged to catch the equipment she'd nearly dropped.

"Sorry," she mumbled, kicking pale sand from her shoes. She paused for a moment before she was unable to keep her question to herself any longer. "Are we nearly there?"

"Almost," the professor sighed, having answered the question twice already from the two other students at his side, "Do you three really hate the beach that much?"

At Juniper's side, Owen scowled. "I hate the beach when we've been combing it for days with no sign of anything. I'm starting to think that this was a fool's mission."

"But the locals said that there was plenty of stuff around here for us to find!" Rory, a bookish girl with ginger hair and a thin smattering of freckles pointed out. Juniper watched her glance at her notebook, scratching at her cheek as she squinted at the many maps she'd taped to her pages.

"Have some faith," their professor chided, a wiry old man dressed in shorts and a loose t-shirt. He peered out at the beach with rheumy eyes. "The locals haven't lied. I've found many notable artifacts at this sight."

"Really? Then where are they?" Owen asked disbelievingly. As if in answer, there was a large groan in the distance followed by a thud. Juniper barely jumped at the sound. She'd heard it in the three days they'd been scouring the beach for the supposed gem of an archaeological find. It was the sound of the dilapidated castle at the other end of the beach crumbling, large chunks of stone falling away. It had clearly been a magnificent architectural wonder once, but it had been long abandoned. It was still a mystery as to who had inhabited the broken down castle and the sprawling lands surrounding it. The lands had been filled by many, quiet fishing families who enjoyed the coast, their families having resided here for centuries.

Whatever historical artifacts may exist in this sleepy town were buried deep beneath the sprawling green hills, thick forest, and pale beach.

"Just think of it as a vacation. I certainly am." their professor muttered as they reached the end of the beach. He frowned at the treeline. "Here it is. The locals say that they've seen someone lurking around here. They suspect that illegal digging has been going on."

Juniper squinted, her eyes widening as they caught an irregularity in the landscape.

"There!" Rory exclaimed, "The dirt is freshly churned."

They all scrambled closer. The professor carefully laid out his tools, beckoning his students closer.

"What do you notice?" he asked, impatience colouring his tone. They were all eager to begin digging, but alas, the professor had to indulge their curious, studious minds first.

"The ground is fresh and wet," Owen noted, "Whoever dug here did so recently."

"And they did it carefully," Rory added, pointing at the ground with her pen, "They weren't hasty. And there aren't any marks suggesting that anything was dragged away."

Juniper's heart fluttered with excitement. "So maybe they took nothing away!" she exclaimed.

The professor frowned then, leaning back to inspect the grounds. "Odd," he murmured, "Do any of you see any footsteps moving away from this location?"

Juniper scoured the ground. She didn't see anything of the like.

"Curious," their professor murmured, hoisting his tools, "Well, let's see what we've found, then."

The dig took hours. It helped that the ground was soft and their tools were advanced, but it was still grueling work. Juniper was sweating and panting when her instrument struck something hard.