• The Artifact
    By: Brendan Furman
    10,000 years ago...that was the day when all the earth stood still and watched to their horror as they thought the end of the world was coming. A meteor, 5 times bigger than our sun seemed to be heading at earth. We all could see it. But astoundingly, it passed and only a minuscule fragment, the size of today Texas, hit the earth. Which is now located in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle.Everyone went to the crash site and looked at the what was left of the rock that hit the earth. A boy crumbled away from the rock, and he carried with him, a gold, football sized, pyramid. He lifted It and it shined, then in a flash, him, the rock, and the pyramid dissipated...No one knows where it is-------------- "WE do." Fred chuckled. "Haven't I told you to stop reading over my shoulder? A: its annoying B: It's creepy and C: your breath smells." with the last remark I looked back at the book. Fred frowned, breathed into his hand, smelt it and then went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Fred is a college of mine, so is Ana, who is at the time driving. She doesn't trust us when it comes to driving off road. I don't blame her. I flipped The Trailer three times, and Fred...well we lost count. So it was declared, as a safety issue, that Ana drives. " About 5 more miles and we should be there!" Ana called to us. The wind mangled her hair so now it looked like a birds nest. I laughed and said " You look better today than you have ever." "Thing is, you've always been ugly!" she shot back. We were on our way to the checkpoint to the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. In 5 more miles, we'd have to travel by sea...And I'm not a fan of the sea..After several hours we stopped and set up camp at the checkpoint. It was too late to travel by sea. At night wicked storms blew far out in the sea. We would have to make the trip in one day. Now, you've met Fred and Ana, but I haven't told you anything about me yet. My name is Aden. I always had an Artificers blood in me. My dad was an explorer, and so was my mom. My friends and I are all around 24, Me being the youngest. Fred is 25, Ana is 26, and I'm the 24 year old. Now your wondering why I'm on this crazy trip, well when I told Ana and Fred about the lost artifact, they were all ears. But I didn't tell them the REAL reason I went. Before I set out on this expedition, my mom and dad went to find the same artifact I'm looking for, a gold pyramid...that has a map to the past, future, basically time. It is said the carrier can warp through time. But anyway, I waited 5 years for them to return...they said they'd be back in 3. Then I got a letter that said we are sorry to inform you that your parents have gone missing and after 2 years of searching, we are calling it a loss. I'm not going to give up though, I believe their still out here, struggling to survive. " WAKE UP! RISE AND SHINE BOYS WE LEAVE EARLY SO WE CAN MAKE IT!!" Ana banged together metal. I was too tired to bother to look what it was. We packed up and got on the boat, which the natives let us borrow for the time being. " cant we go by air?" I complained. " yeah, if you want to get stuck up there, remember? We're in the edge of the Bermuda Triangle, funny stuff goes on with radar, so we just go forward and hope for the best on this ship." Fred explained. "Beside, you get airsick way worse than sea sick." Ana laughed. "oh yeah..." I mumbled to myself, remembering the last time I flew." I SEE IT!!!! I THOUGHT IT'D TAKE LONGER BUT THERE IT IS!!" Fred yelled. "WHAT!? its only been-.." I looked at my watch, the hands were spinning so fast I couldn't read it." uh, guys?... look at this.." I pointed to my watch. They came over and gasped. " Do you think we passed through the triangle?" Ana asked. " We must have, but how long did it really take for us to get here?" I answered with another question. The boat looked torn up and old. The only thing that didn't seem aged was us. We finally got to a beach and stood there for a second, it was all sand except for a shard of glass that floated in mid-air a few yards away. The fact that we could see it from here meant it was rather big. We ran over to it." what do you think it is?" I asked "obviously its glass." Ana retorted. " I think he meant where did it come from and what does it do?" Fred re-asked my question, but more specific. I went to touch it. "NO!!" they both yelled at the same time. I quickly backed off. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS??" Ana asked. "well..n-" I was interrupted by her "DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT DOES??" "um..n-" again interrupted "then don't touch it" she finished with a long exaggerated sigh. "well there's nothing else here, and we cant go back because the boat is destroyed and since we don't know what this is we should at least find out." I then touched it. We all waited...Nothing happened.Fred shrugged and said " maybe we were knocked out by an unknown storm and we-" He stopped mid-sentence. The glass shifted, the turned, and a metallic sound covered the whole island. We all covered our ears. It spun then spread, made a huge dome over all of us then a beam came down, and the sand began to sink. We were soon falling into a giant sand whirlpool, that we could not escape. In a few moments we were in a dim lighted cave. The light came from the sky above, or rather the glass that was still an half sphere. Then It shifted back to its original form then light filled the whole cave. Crystals hung everywhere. Diamonds, sapphire, ruby, emerald, everything seemed to be here. "I wouldn't touch anything just in case" Ana whispered. We began to walk through the sparkling cave. We came to a huge drop off when a boy came out of nowhere and nearly beheaded Fred with a scythe. then he vanished. "WHAT WAS THAT!?" Fred panicked. "DID YOU SEE THAT!? HE CAME OUT OF NOWHERE!" "calm down, the last thing we need to do is p-RUN!!" the boy had appeared again and this time I could see the details of his scythe, the rod was made of flawless cut diamond, while the blade was a flawless cut emerald. He kept swinging it at us, nearly killing me 3 times, Fred 2, and Ana was in front so she wasn't affected..yet.We came to a giant hole. The boy raised his hands and got ready to swing. "JUMP!!" I yelled. Seeing as how we would rather take our chances by jumping into the mysterious hole than dying by the boy, we all jumped. We landed in water, then swam back up to more crystal flooring. " It said in the book there was a guardian that protected the artifact, maybe we're getting close" I said exhaustively. "no..." Fred said. "Its right there.." Ana finished and pointed at the floating pyramid. We all walked up to it. Fred held it and it lost whatever power that made it float. "Jeez it's heavy!" Fred exclaimed. " well since it can make us time travel, we should time travel back to when we first got to the checkpoint." I suggested. "good idea, first smart thing you said all day" Ana replied. We all touched it and thought of when we got to the checkpoint. Nothing happened. "this...is..how do you work it?" I asked. No one had time to answer, the boy had found a way down and was running after us from the opposite side of the room. But he stopped as soon as he got within 5 ft of Fred. We noticed an slightly clear force field around us. which I was only half way in, I quickly got inside. "what did the book say about the boy? is there a way to make him a friend or something, to make him put the weapon down?" Fred asked. "it just said He poped out with the pyramid." I answered. "wrong..." The boy said in a frail voice."I'm protecting you.." He continued. "by cutting off our heads!?" Fred yelled. "its better than dealing with that" The boy pointed at the pyramid." It thinks you've come to hurt me, so it wants to get rid of you, in anyway it can." "hey does it seem like you cant breath?" I asked everyone. "your standing in a field where no air can come in or out, so you will suffocate to death." the boy said solemnly. " IM NOT DYING THAT WAY!" Fred threw the pyramid and it hit one of the crystals with a crack. "PUT IT IN THE LIGHT!!!" I shouted "I REMEMBER! once put in the light of the cave, the guardian would be deactivated, we've got it all wrong the pyramid wasn't the artifact it was the BOY!!!" I exclaimed. By this time we all couldn't breath, But somehow I managed to summon up enough willpower to nudge it into the beam of light just inches from us. It got bright red, then shattered into millions of pieces. We all gasped for air. "shall I take you home?" the boy asked. "that would be nice..." we all replied. then I remembered the real reason I came. " hey did a old cou-" The boy interrupted me "they are waiting, they talked to the guardian and said it was a mistake, seeing as how they were the first ones to come, the guardian accepted their apologies and sent them away. I can return you with them if you'd rather have that." "take them home" I pointed to my friends "take me back to my parents" I looked at the boy. he seemed shocked. "parents?......" He seemed kind of distant, the nodded and looked at my friends, they vanished. " I had parents once." The boy said rather pathetically. " But when my home planet was knocked out of orbit, n order to save my life, they gave up theirs and blasted me away with a chunk of the planet.." Then he looked at me. "you were willing to go through everything just to find them?...hm.." then before I knew it I was back at home with my mom and dad. They were about to leave for the artifact." DON'T LEAVE!!" I yelled. "we know, the boy just sent us back" my dad laughed."you went after us didn't you?" We all settled and had a nice evening lunch.
    The End