The Explorer's Quest

The Village

Johnny, Grant and Hugo walked up the wooden stairs that led inside to a small house. They knocked on the wooden door and it was opened by a Asian man that was about as tall as Hugo.

"Come in, come in," said the man. The group walked into the house and the man closed the door behind them. He quickly walked over to a table in the corner and poured a hot liquid into four cups. He handed one cup to each person and then sat down on a wooden chair.

Johnny took a sip of the hot liquid, and the man started to talk. "I believe you three are the men looking for a guide?"

"Yes," said Johnny.

"Tell me again, where you plan on going."

Grant and Johnny both looked at Hugo. Hugo sat up and said, "We need a guide to take us up to Mount Everest."

The man's eyes widened. He put his cup onto the table and spoke in a frightened sort of tone. "Oh, you must not go up there! It's too dangerous!"

"Well, we have had a bit of experience with this stuff, so it can't be too bad," said Johnny.

"No, no. Not even the most experienced person on this planet could survive up there. The conditions are too harsh."

"But," began Johnny, and he stopped to think about how he would phrase his next words without being rude, "we need to go up there. It's very, very important."

Grant decided to make his way into the conversation. "This is a life or death situation," he said, exaggerating a little with his words, as it wasn't really a life or death situation.

The Asian man stomped his foot and shouted, "You go up there, you will die!"

Awkward silence filled the room. The man looked at Grant, who looked down at the floor to avoid making eye contact with the man. No one dared to speak and disturb the sound of the wind blowing snow outside. Hugo even tried to keep from chattering his teeth as the cold air made him shiver.

"I am," the man started, "sorry. I did not mean to frighten you." He said the words so calmly that he sounded like a completely different man from when he was shouting. "It is dangerous up there. I cannot allow you to go up there, you will surely die."

Johnny sat up. "Listen, we need to go up there. We have very important things to accomplish and there is a group that will get there before us if we don't-"

"What is the name of this group?" asked the man.

"CLOVER. Why, do you know of them?"

"This information changes everything. I take back everything I said earlier, you must go up the mountain! You must find the key before they do!"

Hugo looked at Johnny and then turned to the man saying, "Hold on, how do you know about the key? And why are you suddenly worried now that you know CLOVER is involved? Should we be worried?" He sounded very concerned when he said his last sentence. This sudden change of heart was startling to all three of the other men. One minute this guy was shouting at them to stay away from the mountain, the next he was urging them to go on as soon as possible.

"Do you not know the evil intentions that CLOVER has?"

Now Johnny thought that he was missing something. CLOVER did sound familiar to him, although he had no idea where he would have heard about them. And why was this man making such a big deal about them?

"Uh... no," said Hugo.

The man walked over to a dresser and opened the top drawer. He pulled out a photograph and walked over to Hugo and said, "CLOVER is a large group of evil men who search for ancient artifacts that are said to have immense power. Their goal is to become the strongest empire in the world and they try to achieve their power by using these artifacts. I was a part of their first expedition up Mount Everest, searching for the temple that is said to be at the top. We didn't make it all the way. I was one of the few members that survived, and I didn't want to be a part of CLOVER anymore when I realized how dangerous it was to work for them. I never learned what they were up to, you see, they don't tell their soldiers what their goal is, so that their secrets aren't told."