"All right, you guys stay here, I'm going to go in first to check things out."
Ace disappeared behind the water, but not before Melody yelled after him to be careful. The rest of us stood around waiting, and I turned my gaze on the waterfall. It was about ten feet high, so it wasn't all that scary or powerful, but it was rather wide and I had to admit that it did hide the entrance to the cave perfectly. After another minute of waiting around Ace popped back out from behind the water, grinning excitedly.
"All right, it's safe enough for exploration, so come on!" Ace held out his hand for Melody to take, and in a second the pair had disappeared behind the water. Teddy went next, leading Bon Bon, which left me and Patch. I couldn't help myself.
"Hold on, Patch," I grabbed her arm, stopping her.
"What?" She looked at me with a slightly confused expression, and suddenly I felt bad for bringing it up.
"How did you and Ace get all that stuff before?" I knew I shouldn't ask, I didn't want Patch to think I was some boring lame ass either. But my conscience was getting the better of me.
Patch rolled her eyes and shook her head before answering me. "We bought it from the guy who runs the store. Ace and I go out to see him every few days. We arranged for him to prepare some stuff for our trip tonight," she paused, frowning slightly when she realized what I had thought. "We didn't steal it, Lancer. I can't believe you'd think that." She pulled her arm free and turned away, heading for the opening.
"I didn't think that!" I blurted out, not really sure what else I was going to say. "Or at least, I didn't want to think that. You guys were just so secretive, that's all. I'm sorry."
Patch turned around again, a smile on her face now. "Oh Lancer! You need to quit being so paranoid around your friends." She reached out and patted my arm, and I was sure she'd keep my question to herself. "Now come on, we have some exploration to do!"
With that said she disappeared behind the water and I was alone. I always ended up being alone.
Walking behind the water to get into the cave had been pretty awesome – I think I'd stood there for a minute, just looking out through the mist at the moonlight. I really wanted to paint this for Sweetheart, she'd love it. Once I got my fill of gorgeous scenery I made my way into the cave, which was almost too dark to see in. I really hoped Patch had a flashlight or two in that bag of hers.
I didn't want to ask, though, so instead I just waited, hoping the others hadn't gone on without me. But I could hear someone breathing not too far away, and suddenly I heard Melody giggle the way she did whenever Ace did something she thought was romantic. The last thing I wanted to think about was Ace and Melody, kissing in the darkness.
At that moment a flare of light appeared and there on the far side of the cave was Patch, shining a flashlight. She pointed it into the corner where Melody's voice had come from and we all saw her standing there with her back against the wall, Ace in front of her. She had the decency to blush a little when everyone's attention was on her – but Ace wasn't bothered at all.
"Here, Romeo, at least take your flashlight so Juliette doesn't break her ankle," Patch tossed a flashlight to Ace, who caught it one handed before moving away from the wall.
"All right, so as you can all see," he pointed the flashlight into the darkest corner of the cave, "there is the opening to the rest of the cave. We'll all go together, so keep your eyes peeled for any good hiding places for treasures," he gestured for Melody to join him, then led her into the dark mouth of the deeper cave. Patch gave Teddy a flashlight and told him to follow Ace, which left me and Patch to bring up the rear. I was hoping she'd have a fourth flashlight for me, but I didn't want to ask.
"Ready to go exploring, Lancer?" She asked, looking slightly wild in the shadowy enclosure. I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into, but I was here, so I had to go.
"I guess so," I said, trying to look more excited than I felt. I followed her in the direction that the others had taken, hoping that the only thing we'd find would be treasure – and not a family of bears.
I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't scared while we were exploring - because I was. It was dark, the kind of dark that suddenly makes you realize that if the batteries in your flashlight die, you are totally screwed and you'll probably die before finding your way back out. It was the kind of dark that made you hear noises and feel someone breathing down your neck, even when there was no one behind you. I couldn't believe that I was the only one who seemed to be afraid, the others just followed the path eagerly, eyes roaming over the walls, looking for cracks and crevices.
It was just after we'd stopped for a moment and were about to start going again when I noticed something that immediately set my nerves on edge. "Uh, Patch, can you hand me the flashlight?"
"What's the problem?" she asked, coming to stand beside me and passing me the source of light. I thought I'd feel better with it in my hand, but I didn't.
"There," I said, pointing with my hand that held the flashlight. "There are footprints in the dirt."
Everyone stopped talking when they heard me speak and the next thing I knew I was being pushed aside, Ace and Patch kneeling down to examine what I'd seen. "You're right, Lancer," Ace said, turning his head to look up at me, "it seems we're not alone down here."
I hated the way his voice made me feel. I wasn't sure if he was mocking me or being sincerely wary, but from the way his lips curved up just slightly I couldn't help but feel like this was all some big joke everyone was playing on me.
"I wonder how old they are," Patch interrupted, still kneeling. "It's not like anything gets into the cave to disturb the ground. They could be fresh, or they could be old."
"Well at least we know there aren't any bears in here now," Teddy said, looking at me and winking.
"Yeah, small comfort, Teddy," I replied, before looking back at Ace. "So do we keep going? What if someone else had the same idea as you two, and already found the treasure?"
Ace stood up and shrugged, not looking too concerned. "We'll never know unless we keep looking, right? You're not losing your nerve, are you?" There it was again, the tone of voice he was using to goad me into doing something I didn't want to do. I wanted to turn around and walk back out of the cave, my gut was telling me to get out. What if there was someone else in the cave right now? What if that person was not friendly?
I swallowed my nerves and looked him in the eyes, trying not to show any fear. "Of course not," I said, "I just think we should be careful. Anyone could be here."
He laughed and shook his head, turning around and continuing down the path. "A little excitement will do you some good, Lancer. Come on guys, we have ground to cover." He walked further down the path and rounded a corner before the rest of us left to follow after him. Bon Bon joined me at my side, leaning closer to me and speaking low.
"I kind of feel a little uneasy too now that we saw those footprints. I hope we're alone."
I was torn between feeling happy that I wasn't the only one worried and feeling nervous that I wasn't the only one worried. I just couldn't help but be concerned by the set of footprints. How long ago had they been made? I guess only time would tell.
"Whoa, look at this, you guys!" Patch called out from the other side of the large cavern. I was closest and came to stand beside her, my breath catching in my throat. There were paintings there on the walls, old paintings. It looked like a cross between Egyptian hieroglyphics and Native artwork. There were a lot of animals, and a lot of nature symbols. I wondered what they meant.
"I've never seen this sort of stuff mentioned in any history textbooks," Melody said, reaching out with her fingers to trace over the paint. "I wonder what it means."
"I've seen some of these symbols before, just earlier this week when we were researching," Ace said, standing with his arms crossed, his gaze riveted to the wall. "It was in that book on the religious rites of the slaves we were looking at, Patch," he tore his eyes away from the wall to look at her, and I tried to gauge what his reaction was. "You remember much of that?"
Patch nodded, glancing back at him. "I do. That one there," she pointed to a depiction of what looked like some animal being held up to the sky, "wasn't that some sort of ritual marking or something?"
He nodded, "it was a sacrifice for sure, to the god of the sun, looks like. They usually only made reference to them in art form when it was an important sacrifice."
The rest of us were quiet, waiting for he or Patch to continue. They didn't, though, and I wondered if that was because they didn't want to say what the rest of it meant. I scanned over the rest of the art, finding it fascinating. We were looking at a true piece of history, stuff that wasn't even really documented all that well. For the first time I wondered if maybe there truly was some sort of treasure hidden in here.
"Hey, Patch," Ace spoke again, turning to flash his light on the rest of the open space, "I just had a thought. Do you think this might have been where they held the sacrifices? Their church?"
Patch turned and walked out into the centre of the room, her eyes scanning over the size of the place. "I think you might have the right idea, Ace. It is big enough, and look, over there," she pointed her flashlight at an upright chunk of rock that looked an awful lot like a stalagmite, despite its being the only one in the room, "do you think that could have been the altar where they performed the rituals?"
She walked closer to it and Ace followed, leaving the rest of us staring after them in a mixture of disbelief and distress. We were standing in an old cave church? Where they had performed animal sacrifices?
"Okay this is creepy," Melody said, walking over to Ace and Patch. "I don't exactly feel comfortable hanging around knowing they performed animal sacrifices in here."
"Yeah I agree," Bon Bon said, still look at the art. "My skin is crawling just thinking about it."
"Oh come on, guys," Patch said, "that sort of thing was normal back in the old days. There's nothing creepy about it."
"They butchered animals, Patch! That's creepy, and disgusting," Melody retreated near the entrance of the cavern, standing as far from the mound of rock Ace and Patch were examining.
"Typical girls," Teddy said, walking over to join Ace and Patch.
"Excuse me?" Patch shot back at him, narrowing her eyes.
Teddy patted her on the shoulder, "Sorry, I meant, typical girls who aren't cool." He laughed and it appeared to appease Patch, who shook her head. Teddy reached out to touch the stone, his fingers running over the top. "So, like, they'd actually kill the animals here?"
"Can we please leave?" Melody practically yelled, not the least bit interested.
"This is a historical artifact, Mel," Ace said, not appearing to be the least bit concerned over his girlfriend's bad feelings. "We just want to examine it, that's all. It could be vital in charting the history of this area."
"Yeah well, it just gives me a bad feeling." She stayed by the entrance and I walked over to stand next to her, as I happened to agree with her. The thought of animals being killed in here gave me the creeps.
"How long are you guys going to be?" I asked, hoping they wouldn't be too long in their examination.
"Why don't you take the girls back out to the path, Lancer? Since the three of you seem to be freaked out staying in here," Ace suggested, once again fixing me with an amused stare.
I probably would have let him goad me into staying, had it not been for Melody tugging on my arm. "Oh please, let's get out of here. Come on Lance." I let her pull me away from the opening, looking back to make sure Bon Bon was coming behind us.
"Hey, do you guys feel like something is not quite right down here? I just have such a bad feeling," Melody started, looking around and crossing her arms over her chest.
"Definitely," Bon Bon agreed, adopting a similar stance.
"Isn't it kind of weird, too, how Ace and Patch seem to know so much about all of this? Why isn't any of it in our history textbooks?" I couldn't help but voice something that had been nagging at me for a while. I considered myself fairly well read on local history. Why had I never seen anything about this?
"Maybe historians didn't want to write about it," Bon Bon said, "I sure wouldn't want to have to learn about it."
"But you can't pick and choose history," I replied. "Think of what would happen if all the bad things in history weren't reported and we didn't learn about them? Historians want the world to remember everything, not forget it." I would know, because I wanted to study history in university. It had always been my favourite subject.
"That's true," Melody said, "but maybe historians at the time weren't so keen on keeping records of things, and then nothing ever got passed down about the slaves."
"But then where did those two find all of their info?" I wasn't about to let this go now that I'd brought it up.
"I don't know, Lance. Maybe it's some local book written by someone who wanted to find out more, so they studied on their own." Melody shrugged and started pacing a little. "What's taking them so long?"
We all looked back towards the opening of the large cavern, wondering if we should go and inquire after the other three. Part of me was tempted to ask the girls if they just wanted to go back the way we'd come in. But then I thought of those footsteps. What would happen if we encountered someone, just the three of us? Could I protect the girls by myself, with only a flashlight? No, it wasn't safe. I needed Ace and Teddy for that. Even Patch would be a better fighter than me.
"Why don't we go back and find out how long they'll be?" I asked. "Maybe they found the jewels?"
"I guess we could," Bon Bon said, starting back down the way we'd just come. "I hope they found them, so we can leave."
I followed behind her, flashing the light on the path ahead of us. I needed to ask Ace and Patch about where they'd found all of this information, but I wasn't sure if I should ask in front of everyone. What if they did have a legit source? They'd make me look stupid. Then again, I couldn't shake the feeling that maybe they didn't, and maybe this was all just some big joke they'd dreamed up. I wouldn't be surprised.
Just as we made it back to the opening of the cavern, we heard Patch yell. "Hey guys, over here! I think I found something!" I looked at Melody and Bon Bon, and together we seemed to decide to rejoin the group for the time being, lured in by Patch's shout.
"What is it?" Ace asked, coming up behind her.
"A secret tunnel," she answered, "I moved this rock and found a big hole in the wall. I think it's big enough for me to slip through."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Melody spoke up, and the pair turned to glance back at us.
"Oh, you came back?" Ace looked amused. "Just in time for some potential excitement!"
"Yeah, don't worry Mel. I'll be fine!" Patch grinned at us before turning back to the hole. "All right, I'm going in. Wish me luck!" She winked at Ace before sliding into the hole, and I couldn't help but find myself curious again. Were they planning something? Why did she wink at him?
We stood around waiting for her to report back. Teddy, who'd been over studying the art again, had come back over to join us. "What's going on?" He asked, and I filled him in. To my dismay he seemed to think the secret hole in the wall was awesome and in need of exploration. "Patch, did you find anything yet?"
There was silence for a few moments and I couldn't help but worry. What if Patch hadn't found something, but someone? There was nothing to do but wait.