Chapter 14
Jasmine gasped in wonder at the sight revealed before her. In front of them was a huge room, one which seemed to stretch on forever. And covering the floor were mounds and mounds of treasure. However right in front of them sat a ship. A ship made of solid gold. The three teens walked forward in a daze, circling the ship.
"It's beautiful…" Jasmine whispered
"It's going to make us richer than kings!" Taver exclaimed as he climbed up onto the deck of the ship. "Look! The wheel is covered in rubies!" Charlie scrambled up as well, admiring the diamond door handles and the way the mast was covered in gems of every color.
Jasmine however stayed on the floor. She felt like something was wrong, something was supposed to happen. She had no idea what, but a terrible feeling of dread filled her mind. She could only guess that when Flint forced the curse to be made and the location was pulled from his mind by magic, maybe something else had been pulled away as well. If he had thought fleetingly of a trap or something…then that thought was now in her mind. And she was certain that something was wrong. That something was going to happen.
"Um…guys? I don't like this…" she muttered, then repeated it louder.
"What's not to like?" Charlie pointed out. "We're rich enough to buy entire planets!" Jasmine shook her head and climbed up onto the ship.
"Flint would never leave such treasure unguarded."
"Sure he would, he never expected it to be found." Taver sad, spinning the wheel wildly.
"Flint was anything but stupid, he knows it would be found eventually. And he wouldn't want anyone else to have it." She pointed out. Charlie leaned thoughtfully against the railing of the ship.
"She's right...when my parents found the Loot of a Thousand Worlds, the whole planet exploded." He told them. Jasmine's eyes widened.
"The whole planet? But…there are people here!" she exclaimed in horror. The three of them looked around in tense silence and finally Taver sighed.
"Nothing is happening. If there was a trap, it would have gone off by now." He said reasonably. He set off to explore the ship, opening the heavy solid gold door to the captain's stateroom. As he disappeared Charlie gave Jasmine a shrug. The gypsy girl looked unconvinced however.
"Guys! Guys, come look at this!" Taver shouted, excitement lacing his voice. Jasmine hurried over and Charlie pulled her up over the side of the ship and they hurried inside.
Taver stood by a pedestal, on top of it sat a chunk of rock. "What is it?" the boy asked. Jasmine came over and bent to look closer, and touched it with a graceful finger. She pulled back with a gasp when the spot she touched flared brightly, settling to a soft blue glow which slowly faded. Charlie's jaw dropped.
"Ravite." He breathed, touching another spot. It flared and shone as bright as the first before fading.
"Ravite? What's that?" Jasmine asked and Charlie grinned.
"Ravite is a very mysterious and very rare substance. It was used by the ancients who first discovered space travel. This rock could power an entire fleet of starships, or an entire moon or small planet by itself, it's huge compared to what we find nowadays!"
"You mean…this is more powerful than solar power?" Taver asked in disbelief, gaping when Charlie nodded.
"With a stone this size, you could buy a fifth of the galaxy." Jasmine looked at the odd stone in shock.
"Where did Flint get it?"
"He must have it recorded somewhere." Charlie said thoughtfully. "All captains keep logs, don't they?" he turned and started searching the room, but Jasmine inspected the stone itself and realized there was something written on it in a different language. It wasn't one she recognized.
"Hey, look!" Charlie said, opening a notebook. "Flint writes 'I have found the source. The source of the mysterious power of the ancients. They have an entire city carved from it. To walk through it is to leave trails of glowing footprints. Everything that is touched glows. The city appears to have been abandoned, but it seems as if it was yesterday. Food sits untouched at tables, looking fresh and ripe. It is still edible, and the flavor is rich. No dust has collected, but there is no evidence of anyone living here.'"
Charlie took a deep breath and continued. "'I suspect that the Ravite somehow preserves the city itself. There is evidence of a battle, a large portion of the city is collapsed completely. Despite my efforts, my men have yet to dig through. If it was a cave in, the area on the other side is well protected.
"'I wonder if this stone somehow…preserves life. The piece I have carried with me on my travels seems to keep the food on the ship fresher. No one has gotten sick for weeks, even the scientist I captured who tends to get terribly space-sick. I am working on translating the symbols on the stone. It was everywhere in the city. I have written down every written word in this notebook in the hopes that I can somehow translate it. I feel if I can find the key to their language, I can discover what happened to these once great people.' It goes on, but it's mostly notes on grammar and stuff." Charlie said, flipping through the notebook.
Taver went to the rock and grabbed it. "We should take these along with some treasure. Just in case we can't get back here for some reason." Jasmine was about to agree when Taver lifted the stone from its place. And suddenly, the floor was rumbling. The gypsy groaned softly.
"I told you I didn't like this!" she exclaimed. She turned and hurried out the door and the boys followed. "We have to get out of here. Hurry!" she ran from the ship, the boys hot on her heels. They turned at the door to see the gold actually melting. In the few places they could see the floor, they could see that it was cheery red, hotter than a fire could generally get. They hurried backwards as the melting gold melted to a golden lake, the jewels and other treasures floating in it like colorful leaves. The golden ship was melting from the bottom and Taver sighed sadly as it sunk slowly.
Suddenly, a rush of sound was heard, and slots in the wall opened to let in large amounts of cold water. The water flowed through the room, hissing as it came in contact with molten gold. The room filled with steam and the trio stood in place, squinting to see as the hot steam dampened their clothes and hair. Slowly, everything cooled off and the steam cleared, revealing the room once again.
The gold had cooled solid once more in a giant solid slab, like a gold ocean frozen in time. The ship hadn't entirely melted, but the bow stuck up in the air as if it was in the process of going under.
"Well…we can't get any treasure." Jasmine said softly. Taver sighed and looked at the rock he still carried.
"And we can't just sell this…it needs to be studied, not sold." Charlie grinned, the book tucked under his arm.
"I think Dr. Doppler is going to be very pleased with this find." Jasmine giggled at him.
"And Silver will be anything but happy about it." Charlie smiled, deciding not to show her the diamond door handle he had in his pocket, nor the handful of coins from the floor in the other. He'd enjoy surprising her later.
Before anyone could say anything more though, the rush of water was heard again. The trio gasped as the water started pouring again, rising swiftly to their toes.
"Time to go!" Taver said, turning and running back up the tunnel. Jasmine and Charlie followed hand in hand, trying to outrun the swiftly flowing water. Taver led the way, following the lights which were once again leading the way out.
The trip to the exit was much quicker than the walk down, but they were all exhausted by the time they reached the brick wall. The water stopped just short of it, seeming to hiss angrily at them. Jasmine gave it a salute.
"And good riddance to you too." She said, climbing back onto the street.
By the time they'd made it back to the café, Jasmine was practically sleepwalking and Taver was complaining about the heavy stone. It was small, but much heavier than one would expect by looking at it. He finally dropped it on the coffee table in the living room, the loud thump waking up Silver who was asleep in the large armchair there.
"What? What is it?" he asked in a panic, his cyborg arm spinning to a gun.
"There's your treasure." Taver said with a sigh. "I'm going to bed." He turned to leave and Jasmine sighed, Silver just stared at the rock in confusion.
"That's Flint's secret treasure? A rock?"
"Well, there was a lot more, but…you know Flint." Charlie pointed out as he sat down. Silver sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Aye, that I do. A trap I'm guessing?"
"Yes…but we got the most valuable thing in his secret trove." Jasmine said, looking pointedly at the rock.
"You're kidding." Silver said bluntly, watching as Charlie set the notebook down as well. "A rock and book?" Charlie smiled softly.
"No…the largest piece of Ravite currently known to man, and all of Flint's information on where he found it."
Silver's eyes lit up and he sat back in wonder. "Oh glory…" he breathed. "I'd have to say that's a perfectly good substitute."
"This may be the ending of one adventure…but it's the beginning of another." Lady said as she came into the room. She brushed a wrinkled finger along the rock, smiling as it lit up. "This is about to change everything."
She glanced at the two teens and chuckled, seeing they were both fast asleep in each other's arms.
"Though maybe for another day."
Silver looked at her curiously. "Do you know something about this?" Lady only smiled mysteriously.
"Let's just say…it's a whole other story."
That's it! The end! Woohoo!! It only took me what, 2 years to get this thing up? ^^;
Well, in case you didn't notice, this whole Ravite thing is setting up for a whole new story. A story i'm already well into and working on as I type! Or will be once this is posted ^^
Don't worry, I will post a note on this story to let you know about part 3! I'm really excited about it, it's soo much more exciting than this story!! Though just so you know for now, the next part is called 'Earth Tones' and features Taver as the main character :)
Please review, and thanks for reading this whole thing!!
Your Humble Authoress,
Whisperwings