The Adventures Of Benjamin Drexler

The Secret Dairy

The secret

The diary had only six pages. I flip through it and wondered how much secrets could be hidden in just six pages. I was a bit disappointed but yet, my curiosity was in the upper level and I couldn't quench it. My dad started,

page 1.

"Well done son, you've done pretty well to have figured out the puzzle.

I wrote this because I'd wanted to tell u something very crucial. Everything I've written is all about your future. You knew the father before your great-grandfather, and the father before your grandfather and the father before you as they were all simple but famous archeologists. Your family's legacy goes beyond that. From generations, we've been linked to a more than 2000 year old buried treasure. Your great-great-grandfather tried discovering it but he only found very few traces and passed on his findings to your great-grandfather who also discovered tiny further pieces of the traces. Your grandfather inherited the pieces and continued with the search but only left pieces also. I took it from there and all our lives, your mom and I, we've only searched for the remaining clues. Then your mother died and I took on the search alone. After 50 years of search, I happened to find the buried treasure atlas but there are villains who have clung to it. They want it for themselves. I had no other option than to hide the map to the hidden treasure into codes and puzzles. I want you to find it and share it to the benefit of all your country men".

I slammed the book closed and thought; why would my father ask such a thing from me? I can't burden myself with the family's curse of 'legacy', I just- simply- can't. What my father was asking from me was absolutely impossible. I wasn't as good as him or as my great-grandfather Drexler and he wanted me to shoulder such a huge burden and later in the future, ignore my children as he ignored me; he was never at home during my birthdays, he was never there on my first day at kindergarten, he was never there when I needed scoldings, none of them were there, my dad and mom, except my nanny. They were both busy digging down the earth for their so called relics and antiques. I never wanted to be as such a parent like all my predecessors. I threw the book away after just this one page. I wasn't interested again; I made myself believe it.

The next day, i came home with Shene, my best friend; we've known each other since we were toddlers, our families have had this real cordial relationship and she's been like a sister to me, we've shared rooms for a couple of years before, the thing is we quarrel a lot, but, we're always together and like that, we came to meet my home in a haphazard. "Someone broke into this house...Your step mom is in Switzerland to visit her mom" Shene pointed out but I was rather concerned with what was gone, everything seemed to be there- the flat screen TV, the sofa, the expensive artifacts, the antiques, they all were there but just some few pots have been broken and have been scattered on the floor. I rushed upstairs to my dad's room and it was really in a mess. But the monies were all on the floor and nothing important was gone either. I went to my room and it was the same thing but nothing was lost. "What did they want then, if not money or your parents' antiques and jewelries?" Shene asked again.I was perplexed as well. "What could they have wanted?" I wondered as I helped Shene to arrange the stuffs to their original places and clean up the broken pieces. Shene picked something up beneath the sofa "Why's this here...... a dairy?" She asked and tried to open it. I snatched it away from her grip without hesitation and in a hurry. "What do you want to look at? Why do you poke your nose into peoples' privacy?" I yelled in a stern voice. She was startled but just said in a low voice, "I'm sorry" and glared at me. I glared back at her as I walked away to my room and she left too. "Could they have come for this?" I wasn't sure but I had a prompting instinct to look at what my father had gone through pains to give to me even at the cost of his last breath. I had to read it to the latter in order to really know his wishes.

Page 2

Once very long a time ago, even before the birth of nine tribes, about 2000 yrs ago, there lived three different tribes on the land first known as Xhamia, the three natives inhabited the land and lived peacefully as one kingdom under the leadership of the great Oodah, the most powerful fetish priest. One afternoon on the day of the Khail, the day of purity and sacrifice, a recalcitrant teenager from the youngest and feeble clan among the three tribes, flouted the law of the Khail and went to the forbidden territories of the sacred land and discovered the most beautiful god of all. Its glitches enthralled him so much; its beauty was incomparable to anything he has ever seen. He couldn't hide his joy. Though, he knew blabbing about it could cost him his life but he took the risk and announce what he had discovered to the people. One by one the people gathered to see the new god as claimed by the discoverer. It was a large place of gold deposit; a mine and they named the place Sar-Mha, meaning the god of beauty and mysteries.

Years passed and they mined the gold and forged it into a 10 feet goddess called Sar-Mhaian. But something unexpectedly happened. The Sar-Mha created chaos among the three tribes. Hanra tribe claimed to be the custodians of the Sar-Mha since it was their tribe member who found it. Wiensa tribe claimed to have all rights of the Sar-Mha since from their tribe every great fetish priest emerges from. Akimsa tribe claimed to be dominant and the strongest among the three tribes thus, should have all rights to own and guard the Sar-Mha. Joy turned to arguments, arguments turned to greed, greed turned into rage and raged turned to war. Lives perished and the land was defiled with innocent blood. The great Ooda was dumbfounded and could only wish for peace and that the Sar-Mha was not found. In order to make his wishes come true, he cursed the tribes and banished them from the land and buried the Sar-Mha in the deep mountains of the sacred forest and sealed its gates. Now its story was buried along it. The great Oodah only told of the story to a wretched farmer before he died an the farmer told the story to his son and that to transcended into the generations beneath him.

1000s of years passed, the stories of reality turned into a simple and a bed time story and the relics of the Sar-Mhaian were washed away by floods to the far southern part of the land but left only few traces so its life will not be hidden forever. Different tribes started migrating into the bare and deserted lands but none knew the mysteries around it. Then came the whites and discovered its relics at far south near the coast and name the entire land as Gold Coast; But the most ambitious and curious fellows wanted more and started hunting for more. That's where your great-great-great-great grandfather Drexler comes to play. He was the first man among his tribe to learn the foreigners' language and became their first interpreter to the chiefs and the people. They taught how to read and write and sent him abroad to learn more.