Stolen Treasure

by Winter Morgan

  The next morning felt like it arrived in seconds. Edison jumped out of bed to find the sun shining. He had pulled an apple from his inventory and was taking a large bite when there was a knock on the door.

  “Come in, Billy,” Edison said as he wiped a piece of apple from his lips.

  The door opened, but it wasn’t Billy. Peyton was in tears. “I need your help.”

  “What’s wrong?” asked Edison.

  “There have been more robberies around town this morning.” She sniffled and wiped tears from her eyes as she said, “Someone stole all of our wheat and the sheep from the farm.”

  “The farm?” Edison couldn’t believe it. The shared farm provided all of the townspeople with food and wool—who would steal the sheep and the wheat? Edison rushed outside to the farm.

  Most of the townspeople stood by the farm, staring at the field where the sheep lived, which was now emptied.

  “Did you see the wheat is all gone?” asked Omar.

  Billy sprinted over when he saw the crowd by the farm. “What happened?”

  “Look!” Peyton pointed to the area where they housed the sheep. “Someone stole our sheep and the wheat!”

  “It’s amazing they were able to take so much, yet nobody heard them,” said Erin.

  Edison knew the person who was behind these robberies was quite skilled. He could assume this wasn’t their first string of robberies. This made him think that maybe Anna wasn’t behind the robberies. Perhaps there was someone else who was lurking between the neighborhoods and stealing all of their precious goods.

  Billy was annoyed. Although he was upset they were robbed, he really didn’t want to help his friends. He wanted to go on the treasure hunt of a lifetime. He had stayed up all night preparing for the trip. He studied the map for hours. This was the moment he had dreamed about for years, and now his trip was sidetracked because the town was in trouble. He knew he had to help out, but he was annoyed it would impact his plans.

  “We have to find out who is behind all of this,” Peyton suggested. “Maybe we can organize a committee.”

  Edison announced, “I’ve been doing some amateur sleuthing.”

  “Wow,” Omar exclaimed. “That’s fantastic news. Have you found out anything that would help us?”

  “I know that Verdant Valley is dealing with some robberies. I don’t think it’s to the same extent as it is with our situation, but I have a friend there who is working on trying to solve the crimes in Verdant Valley.”

  “What else?” Peyton asked.

  “I’m afraid that’s all I have,” Edison said softly. He was embarrassed he didn’t have more information. He wanted to tell everyone about the old man, but he wasn’t sure what the old man told him was true. He had to figure that out on his own.

  Omar said, “I think we should all do some sleuthing. It’s the only way we can solve this crime.”

  “I agree,” Peyton said. “If we work together, we’ll solve this much faster.”

  Even Edison agreed. He knew he wasn’t a master detective, but he was learning, and he needed help.

  Billy asked the group, “I know that we’re in the middle of a major situation in town, but I was wondering if anyone would mind if I went on a treasure hunt with Edison.”

  “Now?” Peyton raised her arms in the air.

  “I obtained a rare map to the Roofed Forest Biome. The cartographer claims that we will certainly find a woodland mansion. If we do, we will be able to get gunpowder, and Edison can make fireworks with it so we can have our celebration.”

  “That would be helpful, but I think it might be better if you were here,” said Peyton.

  Omar asked, “Why? They won’t be gone long, right?”

  “Hopefully the trip will be less than five days. That is, if everything goes according to the schedule I made,” said Edison.

  “I think that sounds fine. Why should you wait around here for something bad to happen?” asked Erin.

  Edison and Billy said their goodbyes to the group. The townspeople wished them luck on their adventure. As the duo walked to Verdant Valley, Edison asked Billy questions about the trip.

  “How long will it take to travel there?”

  Billy took out the map. “I believe it will take two days.”

  Edison stared at the map. He could see the numerous biomes they’d be traveling through and took a deep breath; he knew this trip wouldn’t be an easy one.

  “Edison! Billy!” a high-pitched voice called out.

  Edison looked up from the map and saw Anna rushing down their sandy street toward them.

  “I thought we were going to pick you up from your house.” Billy was confused.

  “I’ve been robbed,” she called out. Her eyes were swollen with tears. “I have nothing. I can’t go with you.”

  “What happened?” asked Edison.

  “Last night I put all of the items I’d need for the treasure hunt into a big chest beside my bed. It was filled with my best enchanted diamond sword, my diamond armor, potions...” Anna listed all of the items as she wiped the tears from her cheeks. “And when I woke up, it was empty.”

  Edison was shocked. “That’s awful.”

  “Our town was also robbed last night. Someone took our sheep and all of the wheat from the Farmer’s Bay farm,” said Billy.

  Edison realized that these crimes couldn’t possibly be the work of one person. Nobody would be able to steal all of the sheep and wheat from their farm while also looting a chest in the neighboring town. There had to be at least two people behind these crimes. Yet he still had no leads.

  10

  A CLUE IN THE MINE

  Billy suggested, “I have some extra armor and a diamond sword. Would you like to borrow it for the treasure hunt?”

  “That would be fantastic.” Anna smiled. “I didn’t want to miss out on this treasure hunt because all of my stuff was looted.”

  Billy looked at Edison. “Do you have any potions or other supplies you could lend Anna? I bet if we pooled all of our belongings, we’d have enough for all of us.”

  Even though Anna was robbed, Edison didn’t completely trust her, and he didn’t want to lend her anything. Truthfully, he wanted Anna to go back home, and he was actually relieved when she had told them that she couldn’t go. He didn’t mention any of these thoughts, but replayed the words from the old man in his head.

  The only way you can succeed is through friendship.

  He pulled all of the extra items from his inventory and handed them to Anna.

  “Thank you guys.” Anna was beaming as she said, “If it weren’t for the both of you, I’d never be able to go on this adventure.”

  Billy focused his attention to the map. “We have to walk through Verdant Valley and toward the hilly biome.”

  “Let’s go!” Anna said as her inventory overflowed with items from Edison and Billy.

  The trio walked through Verdant Valley. Edison wanted to stop by the library to see if any books had been stolen. He thought if he suggested it to Billy and Anna they would be annoyed, but he was surprised when he asked, “Can we make a quick side trip to the library?” and both replied, “Of course.”

  Edison walked down an aisle lined with books until he found the white-robed librarian standing by a shelf of books. He asked her if there had been any books stolen from the library.

  “No,” she replied. “Why do you ask?”

  “The library in Farmer’s Bay had books taken from the shelves and I know there have been similar issues with thievery in this town,” said Edison.

  The librarian had a blank expression. “I never heard of any robberies in our town.”

  A man dressed in a purple sweatshirt and jeans overheard the conversation. “Who was robbed?”

  “I don’t know,” Edison replied. “My friend who lives in the town told me about them. Last night, she had a chest emptied in the middle of night.”

  “Wow!” he exclaimed. “I have to ask around. Thanks for letting me know.”
The man called out to a woman who was standing further down the aisle and asked her if she had heard about the local robberies. She hadn’t.

  As Edison exited the library, he wondered if Anna had been making up stories about robberies in Verdant Valley. Could her story about having her chest emptied while she slept be a lie? He spotted Billy and Anna standing in front of the blacksmith’s shop.

  “Billy is so sweet. He got me a new pickaxe because mine was stolen and you guys didn’t have an extra one.” Anna showed off the new pickaxe.

  Billy studied the map. “We have to get to the Hills Biome before midday if we want to stay on schedule.”

  Neither asked about Edison’s trip to the library. He wanted to confront Anna and tell her that nobody had heard about the robberies, but again he remained silent. Although for the entirety of the walk to the hills, Edison wanted to take Billy aside and tell him what had happened.

  “Look,” Billy exclaimed as he raced over to a small opening on the side of a large hill. “I thought it looked like there might be an abandoned cave on the map, but I wasn’t sure.”

  “Do we have time to mine?” asked Edison. “I know you have a very strict schedule.”

  “Don’t be silly,” said Anna. “There’s always time to mine, right?”

  Billy pulled out his mining equipment. “Yes.”

  “Now I can break in the new pickaxe.” Anna clutched the pickaxe and adjusted her yellow helmet with her other hand.

  Billy and Anna rushed into the cave without looking back for Edison. He followed them into the dark cave but didn’t see his friends. Using the light from his torch to see in the musty cave, he still couldn’t find anybody there.

  “Billy? Anna?”

  There was silence. As Edison walked further into the abandoned cave, two red eyes peered at him from the corner of the dark cave. Edison quickly traded his pickaxe in for a diamond sword and slammed the blade into the pesky spider, but the spider was stronger than he imagined. Edison jumped back as the spider crawled toward him.

  “Watch out!” a voice called out.

  Edison turned around to find two spiders crawling behind him. He was cornered.

  Billy and Anna rushed to Edison’s side. Anna pierced the weakened spider that was in front of Edison and Billy helped Edison obliterate the two spiders that crawled behind him.

  “Thank you, guys,” Edison said.

  “We found a great place to mine,” Billy told Edison.

  “I’m convinced there’s going to be a lot of diamonds there,” said Anna as she raced down a dirt path in the dark cave.

  Edison followed closely behind her and marveled when he saw the large hole in the ground. It looked as if someone had started mining here and left before they grabbed all the loot. He knew Anna was right; this was the type of cave where you’d find diamonds.

  “We have to start here.” Anna banged her pickaxe into the blocky ground.

  Edison and Billy joined Anna as they slowly broke away a layer of blocks to unearth the treasures that lay beneath it.

  “I see blue!” Anna exclaimed.

  Edison looked up as something caught his eye. “What’s that?”

  “I told you, it’s blue. I bet we’re going to find diamonds,” said Anna.

  “No, what’s over there?” Edison walked over to a chest that was in the corner of the cave.

  Anna and Billy followed Edison over to the corner. All three used their torches to see. The three torches provided enough light to see a line of chests.

  Billy walked over to the first chest and looked in, “It’s empty.”

  Anna and Edison looked through the next few chests.

  “This one isn’t!” Anna called out.

  They looked inside the chest filled with diamonds and iron ingots sprinkled with Nether wart. “Oh my!” Billy exclaimed. “This my chest!”

  Anna peeked in the remaining chests. “This one is filled with potions and this one has fireworks.” She stopped at the final chest. “And this one is mine!”

  Billy stood next to Anna. As he held his torch, he could see a door next to Anna’s chest.

  “Is that a stronghold?” asked Billy.

  “There’s only one way we could find out,” Anna said as she opened the door.

  11

  I CAN’T SEE YOU

  Anna slowly opened the door as Billy called out, “We can’t just leave the looted treasure here. We should take it.”

  “No,” said Edison. “We don’t want the thief to know we were here.”

  “Stop trying to play detective, Edison. This is my stuff, and I want to take it back.”

  Anna agreed with Edison. “We have to surprise him. Just leave the treasure there,” she said in a hushed whisper. “We will find the thief and capture him and then everyone can get their treasure back.”

  Billy didn’t care about the plan. He wanted his diamonds and iron ingots back. He had been robbed and his treasure had been found, and he wasn’t going to wait around until they captured the thief. This plan didn’t make sense to him at all, and he decided to do what he wanted. He picked up the loot and placed it in his inventory.

  “What are you doing? You can’t do that!” Anna was furious.

  Edison couldn’t believe there was a period of time when he didn’t trust Anna. He looked over at Billy in disbelief. “Put the items back,” he instructed Billy.

  “No,” Billy said as he picked up the final iron ingot. “You guys are acting crazy. Truthfully, I don’t care if the thief gets caught or not, I just want my stuff back. If you don’t want me to carry them in my inventory because you’re afraid I’ll lose it again if I’m destroyed, I saw a llama outside and I can tame it and have it transport all of our stuff.”

  “That isn’t why we don’t want you to take your treasures back. We don’t want to leave a sign for the thief,” said Edison, although he felt like he was repeating himself.

  “I don’t care about the thief. I only care about getting my stuff back,” Billy said a bit too loudly.

  “That’s awful,” said Anna. “My stuff is also there, but you didn’t see me take it. I want to solve this crime so it doesn’t happen again.”

  Billy stood by the empty chest as Anna tried to reason with him. After a few minutes, he slowly placed his items back in the chest, but he wasn’t happy about it. He wore a dour expression as he put all of the items into the chest.

  “I wonder who is behind all of this,” said Edison.

  “I’m sure we’ll find out soon.” Anna opened the door and walked into the stronghold. She barely made it inside the stronghold when there was a loud explosion. Kaboom!

  “Are you okay?” Billy screamed.

  “Creepers!” Edison called out.

  “Anna!” Billy cried.

  “I’m here,” said Anna. “I was able to jump away from the creeper, but we have to be careful.”

  “Look down!” Edison warned them.

  Silverfish crawled all over the dirt. The gang jabbed their diamond swords at the pesky insects, but there were so many of them, the act seemed pointless.

  “Shh!” Edison put his finger to his lips.

  The gang stood in silence as they heard voices from the other side of the stronghold.

  “Does everyone have enough potions?” Edison asked as he readjusted his armor. Edison led them down the stairs and into a large library. The voices grew louder.

  The trio walked toward the sound of the voices, but suddenly the voices stopped. They stood for a few moments, but there was only silence until Anna cried out in pain.

  Billy turned around to see an arrow sticking out of Anna’s unarmored arm.

  “It hurts!” she wailed.

  Edison pulled the arrow out of Anna’s skin as Billy investigated where the arrow had come from. But there was nobody in sight.

  “Behind you!” Edison warned his friend.

  “Skeletons!” Anna could barely say the word as an army of armed skeletons marched through the narrow hallway.
r />   The skeletons eyed the trio and unleashed an inescapable sea of arrows.

  “We have to duck!” ordered Edison, but it was too late.

  Edison awoke in his bed. Had they really found the treasure in the stronghold? He looked out the window, and it was light out. Maybe it was all a dream, he said to himself. Edison was brought back to reality when Billy raced inside his house.

  “We have to find Anna and get back to the stronghold,” Billy said as he took a sip from a bottle filled with a potion of Healing.

  “Is she home?” he asked.

  “I’m here.” She stood in the doorway. “I TPed to you guys.”

  “We have to get back to the stronghold.” Billy raced out the door.

  Peyton walked down the sandy block between Billy’s and Edison’s homes and called to them, “You guys are back?”

  “Yes,” Billy blurted out, “and we found the fireworks.”

  “I know,” she said.

  “What?” Edison was confused.

  “Someone returned them to the town,” said Peyton. “They left all of the stolen goods in the town hall last night, and a few minutes ago someone told me all of the sheep have returned. The wheat is still missing though.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Billy said. “We found all of the stuff in a stronghold. It can’t be.”

  “I don’t understand either. How could you have all of the fireworks here when we found them in a stronghold in the hills?” asked Edison.

  Peyton seemed irritated. “What are you guys talking about? I thought you were on a treasure hunt.”

  “We were, but we were destroyed by a skeleton army,” said Edison.

  “If you’re not going on the treasure hunt, now that we have the fireworks back, we’re going to have another meeting about Founder’s Day this afternoon and you should come,” said Peyton.

  “We have to finish the treasure hunt,” said Billy. “We haven’t even begun.”

  “But first we have to go back to the stronghold,” said Anna. “We have to see what’s there. We weren’t imagining it.”