Beauty with Thorns

Accelarating downhill

A young man named Matthew has been assigned with leading his men on a research mission to a remote village in Europe where as it has been told lies a cave full of treasure.

Year: 2011
Date: 25th of March
Journal entry:
11:15 pm
Today was unsuccessful, our research team hasn't found the cave yet but looking at the map we must have passed it. We found a village 3 miles away from the mapped cave. The villagers welcomed us but seemed to became extremely wary once asked about the cave. Which made us all uneasy. Locals had pointed us towards a small shack where a woman lived. As we were leaving I looked back and saw them conversing and throwing dirty looks at us, however they did point us towards a witch who could lend us a hand, unfortunately, the woman wasn't cooperating and some of the research team members started yelling and offending her. She told us to get out, and once we had been thrown out we headed back to the camp...the air felt heavy the entire way there. It was almost charged. It's now 11:34 pm, journal entry has taken quite a while today, something doesn't sit right with me- I am hearing voices and feeling cold. This day has truly exhausted me so I am about to head to bed.

Year:2011
Date: 26th of March
Journal entry:
10:50 pm
Our research team has found some leads today but some of the members are demonstrating unusual behavior, my left hand man looks like he is in a trance, he almost ate the poisonous berries we have prepared to ward off animals and such. Otherwise we are optimistic about the outcome at this moment. The team, for the most part, has been all smiles! I did meet the witch, (no the woman) again, she looked puzzled upon seeing me but after striking up a conversation she shared some information, I found out that there is a reason why nobody has been able to find the cave. The is an ancient legend states that only the child of the moon shall open the cave and, to quote, "shall they be consumed by it if they dare bring anyone unworthy of such revelation into it.". I am not a superstitious man but something in the way the woman told me the legend and the way she did it in almost a whisper while her eyes darted around from side to side made something within me quiver with fear. After I returned to our camp my team members reported that some of my men have gone missing, they had been extremely tense and scared of the smallest of noises and a while back they all had left telling others that they have to check something out. We searched for them but the footprints stopped at the edge of the forest before a plain that we had never passed before. (I'm pretty sure it wasn't there before) We will search again tomorrow when the sunlight will be able to show us all the details the moon can't. For now that is all. I am going to rest, I feel extremely exhausted. These past days have been nothing least than stressful. End of entry 11:05 pm

Year: 2011
Date: 29th of March
Journal entry:
9:54 pm
We have been busy searching the forest. I have been so exhausted that upon entering my tent I passed out, my team said I was snoring as well. We haven't found the members and I don't think we will. We searched the plain but there were no footprints anymore, one of the members had proposed an idea that they might have been ruined by the strong wind or other animals, but the plain itself was so wide and even if you walked through the long grass and looked back nothing would have changed, the grass would be standing untouched only being disturbed by the breeze, which is odd. Us being unable to even eat from exhaustion is the reason I'm writing this entry only now because only now have I found the strength in myself to lift the pen and explain what is happening.It feels like time has stopped, we might have to stop searching for the members and resume the cave search. I will have to talk about it with the team tomorrow morning. I will update later... hopefully. End of entry 10:10

Year: 2011
Date: 30th of March
Journal entry:
11:58 pm
This entry is late today again, I met the woman in the morning. Well... after I had gotten into an argument with my team. I had told them that we need to stop the search party for our team members since we had no leads but they started thrashing and screaming so I stormed off towards the sea shore. Now thinking about it we hadn't visited the sea, I am the only one who has seen it now. It's so fresh in my mind! As I descended from the dunes towards the shore the scenery changed so much one would think that the forest and the sea shore were in different countries! That's when I saw the woman, she seemed bewildered to see me and picked up what seemed to be 2 decent sized jars, one filled with, what I could presume, was sand and the other one - water. Before I had the chance to inquire about the use for these jars the woman had stood up and in a hurried step left towards the dunes. So I was left there alone to breathe the fresh breeze of the wind. It almost seemed surreal. The wind was pleasant, a little bit chilly but on the pleasant side. After maybe 20 minutes of me just standing there wondering what had just happened one of my team members emerged from the dunes and jogged towards me requesting that I return to the camp at once, after returning back to the camp all of my team apologized for their behavior earlier, it was a relief to hear that there would be no uncomfortable tension between us. Soon after we sat around the bonfire and ate our simple dinner, which consisted of potatoes that we bought from the village as well as some local vegetables and some wild boar meat that some of my members had hunted the previous day. It was a simple meal but tasted a thousand times better than any other day, that could probably be credited to the light mood that enveloped us. After  dinner we all excused ourselves to our tents. I have been sitting in here for the last hour trying to fall asleep, something is keeping me up, it's making me shiver, it sounds like an injured animal or something like that. We will check it out tomorrow... if it doesn't come by in the night.
End of entry 12:30 am