The Explorer's Quest

Flight of the Empress

The group ventured on through the cave. By now everyone was determined to get to the treasure. Brutus thought about how he could almost feel the power of the Stone in his hands. Most of the mercenaries were just thinking about all the gold they would bring back, making them rich. Grant just wanted the journey to be finished so he could enjoy the peace and quiet of his own, safe home.

"Everyone stop," said Brutus. The group came to a halt. "Shh, does anyone hear that?"

They all stood still and listened quietly for any noises or sounds. At first, Johnny couldn't hear anything. But then he listened harder. He thought heard the sound of water. Close by too. There was somewhere nearby that had a body of water, and it was making everyone who heard it too thirsty.

Brutus led them through the cave to where the water was, bringing them all the a dock. Tied to the dock was a ship. On the side of the ship, painted in gold lettering, were the words: The Empress. They admired the beauty of the ship, the sheer size of, the red and black color of it, the two large sails with green dragons painted on them.

"On the ship." Brutus commanded.

"But we don't even know if it'll hold all of us!" said Johnny.

Brutus turned to Johnny and said, "Did I ask you for your opinion, Johnny? No, I don't think I did! Besides, it must have some importance or it wouldn't even be here."

Vanessa walked over to Johnny and told him, "Johnny, remember the map saying something about following the Large River to get to the gold? I think this might be how we do that."

Johnny sighed and said, "I guess that makes sense."

"Good. Now that we're all on the same page here, everyone get on the ship!" said Brutus. Johnny's hatred for him began to grow a little larger and burn bigger.

It took them awhile, but the whole group eventually boarded the ship and exited the cave. The sun was just starting to rise above the horizon as they left the cave behind to begin their sail to the fortress. Brutus stood up at the front of the ship while his mercenaries worked the sails and all the other stuff needed to sail a ship.

Johnny and Grant stood next to each other behind the rails, looking over the water and admiring the calmness. Grant began to feel hungry, and he said to Johnny, "Hey, you think there might be some food down below?"

Johnny shook his head and said, "This ship is eight hundred years old, any food left down below would definitely be gone by now." Now that Grant had mentioned it, he had found himself to be hungry also. In fact, he couldn't even remember when the last time he did eat something was.

"It's worth a shot to go and look," said Grant.

"Then go look if you so wish to find something! I'm certain you will find nothing."

Grant went down below the ship's deck to look for food, while Johnny walked over and sat next to Hugo. "Hello," said Hugo.

"Hey Hugo, how've you been doing?" said Johnny.

"Fine," Hugo replied. "I'm getting tired now that the chaos has gone away for a bit, and I'm a little sore from all the climbing and running, but aside from that I'm just fine."

Johnny nodded. Hugo's face lit up. "Oh, here's your gun back." he reached into his satchel and pulled out Johnny's revolver, handing it over to him. Johnny thanked Hugo and grabbed the revolver.

"You're doing good Hugo, for someone who's never done anything like this before, you sure are handling it pretty well."

"You mean it?"

"Yeah. My first impression of you wasn't the greatest but you've proven yourself to be more than what you seem."

"Thanks Johnny. That really means a lot coming from you."

Grant raced up the stairs and over to where Johnny and him were originally standing, then turned around once he noticed Johnny wasn't standing there anymore. "Johnny!" he called out. He ran up to them, holding a bright red apple in his hand. "You've gotta come see this, right now!" he said.

"There was actually food down there?" Johnny asked.

"Never mind that, this is more important!"

Johnny and Hugo stood up and followed Grant back down below the ship's deck. Grant showed them a small cluster of four barrels. One was opened and full of apples. Hugo opened another one and revealed some dried mutton. "How is all this food still fresh?" asked Hugo.

"I don't know, but come over here," said Grant. He led them over to a corner filled with crates. He opened one and showed Hugo and Johnny. The crate was filled with golden coins. Johnny grabbed one and examined it. The coin was definitely of Byzantine origin.

"Grant," Johnny said, "do you realize you just found the treasure?"

"Yes! Yes I found the treasure!" he exclaimed.

Hugo grabbed a coin to see it for himself and he began to cheer as well. "How many boxes are there?" he asked.

"I counted five all together," said Grant. "I don't think this is all of it though."

Johnny said, "Well I'm sure you could probably fit four thousand of these in five boxes."

"That's being generous. I'd say that this is maybe more around fifteen hundred to two thousand. These boxes aren't all that big."

"Does anyone else know about this?" asked Hugo.

"Only us. But do you guys realize what this means?" said Grant. Johnny shook his head and Hugo stared blankly at him. "Marco and his crew never actually had their gold stolen. They just left it here, the Turks never stole it. It must've been a lie that he wrote to make people believe that there was no chance of finding it, because the Turks would've definitely used it all up."

Johnny thought about it for a minute. "It all makes sense, except for one part: why would he just leave all this gold behind? And go to the extent of hiding two keys to make it harder to find it?"

Grant and Johnny have many similarities such as they both love adventure, have trust issues, and neither of them like turkey. They also have many differences that set them apart from each other such as their profession (Johnny worked as an engineer and Grant was a doctor), what day they were born, and how they thought. Johnny was a more down-to-earth person, he thought logically and more realistically. Grant was more imaginative, he wasn't afraid to believe the most unrealistic conclusion.

"It's cursed," said Grant flatly. Hugo immediately dropped the gold coin back into the box.

"It is not cursed. Most likely they just couldn't find a way to transport it back to Italy so they just decided to leave it behind," Johnny assured.

"What about all the dead people inside the temple on Mt. Everest?" Hugo asked. "If they were traveling with Marco, couldn't they have helped?"

"That's why I think they purposely didn't want to bring it all home with them! And if the Chintimanni Stone is actually here, then it all lines up!"

Johnny crossed his arms and said, "I don't believe that the gold is cursed, nor do I believe this mythological stone gives anyone any sort of power or wisdom. It's all fake!"

"We've already came across multiple things that can only be explained with the supernatural. Yetis were only a myth until just a little while ago, and what even was that thing that just chased us down a corridor?"

They stood in silence for a minute before someone called everybody to go above deck. The trio rushed upstairs after Hugo stuffed a couple handfuls of coins in his satchel. They were surprised to see that it was now foggy outside, giving them all eerie vibes.

"Look across the waters, up there," Brutus said. They looked, squinting to see through the thick fog, and saw a small boat port. The port led to a set of stairs, which led up to a monastery.