Your prompts continue to mystify me; you surrendered to the demands for a pet from your family, perhaps? In which I'm guessing it's not a night bird, but a puppy :)
Surrendered The cave did not look inviting and as I stared at it I wondered how Jimmy had even managed to spot it. The entrance was low, long and shallow; we would have to lie down and shimmy under the ledge and hope that the cave opened up inside; already I could see that we were going to need light of some kind. Bushes grew around it, though there was a worn patch through them; not enough to attract attention from someone out for a stroll perhaps, but definitely something that would catch a hunter's eye. Whether that hunter was human or not. Ben crouched down and peered under the rock lip of the entrance. "Looks smooth," he said. "I'd say whatever was using it hasn't used it recently." "That's good news," I said. "If we go in there anything inside is going to have the advantage on us." "We can keep looking," said Ben. "There might be more than one way into the caves here. Wouldn't make sense to use the back door unless we have to." He winked, and I convulsed in a fit of laughter. Jimmy, who hadn't seen the wink, looked confused. "We're over halfway up the mountain," he said, looking back the way we came. "I reckon if we go higher we're mostly likely to find we need rope to climb back down." When I'd finished laughing I crouched down, and peered under the rock lip myself. Ben was right, the ground was sandy and smooth, and disappeared into darkness. Out of curiosity I stretched my arm inside and waved it around, feeling for anything on the ground -- and dreading that I might touch something warm. A rock rattled under my fingers, and for want of proving I was acting sensibly, I pulled it out. "Well look at that," said Ben. He whistled, a long, low sound. "That looks like gold to me." "It's heavy enough," I said, staring at it as well. It was roughly cylindrical but tapered from one end to the other, and had grooves incised into it at the fatter end. It looked like it fit in the top of a bottle or a small jar, the kind they use for perfumes. I bounced it in my hand, considering the weight carefully. It was definitely too heavy to just be painted gold unless it was made of lead or something similar. "So," said Jimmy slowly. We both looked at him. "Lost, or... bait?"
"Lost," said Ben, but he took his time, rubbing his finger under his nose and tugging on his left ear as he always does when he's thinking hard. "Bait... it's in the wrong place and it's too hard to find. Red got lucky; if you wanted to bait it you'd put three or four down, and you'd scatter them in the bushes. But if you were sliding under that rock to get out, then you might easily let something roll free from your bag." I nodded. "Makes sense," I said. "And it could only be bait for humans; the chupacapra ain't gonna eat no gold." "If it does it might be worth taking it alive," said Ben, interrupting. "And they've already sent us out looking for a monster; why not tell us where the cave is and save themselves the trouble of setting out bait? If they're going to kill us, maybe feed us to this chupacapra, then why not do it a couple of days after we get here and say the chupacapra did it?" I sighed. "I think it's lost. And that means there really could be a city of gold around here. But... we figured they'd move the gold by boat, right? Why is someone using this cave then?" "Thieves?" Jimmy shrugged. "Devil's britches," I said, spitting on the ground. Ben frowned. "Don't you see? If they've got a problem with thieves, telling us there's a chupacapra gets us sniffing around the places the thieves don't want us to find. They're setting us up to find the thieves, who will then be blamed as pretending to be the chupacapra, or for the thieves to find us and give themselves away." "That's not a bad explanation," said Ben nodding. "So... how do we get away with the gold without finding the thieves then?"
[I didn't actually fit the word 'surrender' in here, but the idea is that the gold they've found is sort of surrendered by the thieves/locals as bait]
3 comments:
Your prompts continue to mystify me; you surrendered to the demands for a pet from your family, perhaps? In which I'm guessing it's not a night bird, but a puppy :)
Surrendered
The cave did not look inviting and as I stared at it I wondered how Jimmy had even managed to spot it. The entrance was low, long and shallow; we would have to lie down and shimmy under the ledge and hope that the cave opened up inside; already I could see that we were going to need light of some kind. Bushes grew around it, though there was a worn patch through them; not enough to attract attention from someone out for a stroll perhaps, but definitely something that would catch a hunter's eye. Whether that hunter was human or not. Ben crouched down and peered under the rock lip of the entrance.
"Looks smooth," he said. "I'd say whatever was using it hasn't used it recently."
"That's good news," I said. "If we go in there anything inside is going to have the advantage on us."
"We can keep looking," said Ben. "There might be more than one way into the caves here. Wouldn't make sense to use the back door unless we have to." He winked, and I convulsed in a fit of laughter. Jimmy, who hadn't seen the wink, looked confused.
"We're over halfway up the mountain," he said, looking back the way we came. "I reckon if we go higher we're mostly likely to find we need rope to climb back down."
When I'd finished laughing I crouched down, and peered under the rock lip myself. Ben was right, the ground was sandy and smooth, and disappeared into darkness. Out of curiosity I stretched my arm inside and waved it around, feeling for anything on the ground -- and dreading that I might touch something warm. A rock rattled under my fingers, and for want of proving I was acting sensibly, I pulled it out.
"Well look at that," said Ben. He whistled, a long, low sound. "That looks like gold to me."
"It's heavy enough," I said, staring at it as well. It was roughly cylindrical but tapered from one end to the other, and had grooves incised into it at the fatter end. It looked like it fit in the top of a bottle or a small jar, the kind they use for perfumes. I bounced it in my hand, considering the weight carefully. It was definitely too heavy to just be painted gold unless it was made of lead or something similar.
"So," said Jimmy slowly. We both looked at him. "Lost, or... bait?"
"Lost," said Ben, but he took his time, rubbing his finger under his nose and tugging on his left ear as he always does when he's thinking hard. "Bait... it's in the wrong place and it's too hard to find. Red got lucky; if you wanted to bait it you'd put three or four down, and you'd scatter them in the bushes. But if you were sliding under that rock to get out, then you might easily let something roll free from your bag."
I nodded. "Makes sense," I said. "And it could only be bait for humans; the chupacapra ain't gonna eat no gold."
"If it does it might be worth taking it alive," said Ben, interrupting.
"And they've already sent us out looking for a monster; why not tell us where the cave is and save themselves the trouble of setting out bait? If they're going to kill us, maybe feed us to this chupacapra, then why not do it a couple of days after we get here and say the chupacapra did it?" I sighed. "I think it's lost. And that means there really could be a city of gold around here. But... we figured they'd move the gold by boat, right? Why is someone using this cave then?"
"Thieves?" Jimmy shrugged.
"Devil's britches," I said, spitting on the ground. Ben frowned. "Don't you see? If they've got a problem with thieves, telling us there's a chupacapra gets us sniffing around the places the thieves don't want us to find. They're setting us up to find the thieves, who will then be blamed as pretending to be the chupacapra, or for the thieves to find us and give themselves away."
"That's not a bad explanation," said Ben nodding. "So... how do we get away with the gold without finding the thieves then?"
[I didn't actually fit the word 'surrender' in here, but the idea is that the gold they've found is sort of surrendered by the thieves/locals as bait]
Greg - I think we're headed towards a bunny, actually, but not quite yet.
Ooh, intriguing developments here. And a rather reasonable (potentially at least) explanation for the chupacapra to boot!
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