The Two Mountaineers

SORRY- INTERVIEWS ARE CANCELED :( I WANTED TO DO THIS POST TODAY. I WORKED HARD ON IT AND WANTED TO SHARE IT WITH EVERYONE. 

Title: The Two Mountaineers

By: Madison Nef

It was 4 days before Christmas in 2012, and stormclouds hung over the peaceful town of Rindge, NH. Only a small splash of snow decorated some of the treetops, and even that was starting to melt off with the rain. Rindge was a small town right near the border for Massachusetts, and was very rural. Rural came complete with miles of trees surrounding you on almost every road, barely any stores anywhere, mountains everywhere you looked, and a  handful of dirt roads. This is a story about two sisters, named Shayla and Stacey, who by the end of the day would be sore and out of breath. But let’s not jump ahead of ourselves.

Right now, Shayla and Stacey were both reading their favorite type of book: a mountaineering book.  Shayla had just finished hers. “Hey sis,” she said, in a questioning tone, “Do you think Dad would let us go on a three day trip up OUR Mount Monadnock? “ Well,” said Stacey, “Depends on when you want to leave. If you want to head out today, we should ask NOW.” Both Shayla and Stacey ran downstairs to ask their Dad if they could go. While he was reluctant about letting them go off in such weather, he always tried to encourage their ideas. He told them they could be gone for 3 days, and no more. The sisters agreed.

The next part of the deal was they had to get to and from the mountain themselves. The girls firmly agreed that they couldn’t walk there, so they called a taxi service. They were soon at the base of the mountain. “Here we go,” said Shayla, hugging Stacey. As they began their hike, Stacey said, “I can’t believe Dad let us go on a day like this! We are only 13, and might be in danger!” “Oh, knock it off, sis, we are not going to be in any danger! That stuff only happens in movies!” At least that’s what she thought.

After about 2 hours of climbing, the girls stopped to eat lunch. Just as they were finishing up their sandwiches, a group of five people came running towards them with scared looks on their faces. As they ran by, they all yelled, “RUN! SAVE YOURSELF! ONE OF OUR GROUP MEMBERS STARTLED A BEAR BY TAKING A PICTURE OF IT’S CUB AND NOW IT’S AFTER US!” Startled, Stacey and Shayla packed up their items and looked for a place to go. They both knew that they had come too far to turn back now, but they did not want to be mauled by a bear. They could hear the thing coming closer and closer, so they jumped into a half covered cave in the side of the mountain.

However, what they thought was a cave, wasn’t. Instead, it was a hole! The two girls lost their grip on the rock and fell 6 feet down into the hole before landing hard on their backs. While neither of them was injured, they were very scared. They looked and saw a sort of leafy ramp way leading down into a cavern. As they got down further, they started to see human bones scattered all over the place, and heard a loud snoring. They got to the bottom of the ramp, and turned their flashlights
on, and not TEN FEET FROM THEM WAS A GIGANTIC BLACK BEAR!

Stacey almost screamed. Just before she did, Shayla clapped her hand over her mouth and warned her not to make a sound. “It’s getting dark; we need to camp. The last thing we want is for THAT to wake up,” she whispered. “You see those skeletons over there? Each one has a machete, and if we can get a few feet past that bear, we can grab the machetes and slaughter that thing in it’s sleep.” Stacey started to whimper. “I c-can’t! I d-don’t w-wan tooooooo!” she wailed softly. “Well, do you want to get eaten by a bear?!” her sister said. Then, Shayla crept softly behind the bear, and grabbed the machetes. She gave her sister the thumbs up sign, and tossed her a machete in it’s sheaf. Just as she was coming back, she accidently stepped on a bone. She winced.

The giant bear rolled around in it’s sleep, and slowly opened its mouth and yawned. It was a horrible thing that stunk and had fangs that were about 1 foot long each. The sisters quickly got their machetes out and started hacking at the thing’s neck. All the while, the bear was roaring and still waking up. When it was fully awake, though, it flung Stacey, who was on it’s back, up in the air. As she came down, she sliced the neck with her machete. Well, with that much leverage behind it, she diced the bear’s head right off. The blood spurted every which way across the cavern, and she gave her sister a high five. They decided to explore the cave further the next day.

The girls woke up early next morning and ate some power bars for breakfast. They saw a little passage leading off to the right heading down that they hadn’t seen yesterday.  They packed up their stuff and headed down into the cave to escape the stench of the dead bear. They could hear a rush that sounded like wind somewhere, so they assumed that they were close to the way out of the caves. But you all know what happens when you assume… So as the girls walked further into the cave, the noise got louder. Then, they looked down, and could hear the noise more than ever. Suddenly, a little crack appeared in the floor they were standing on. The ground started to rumble, and then broke apart underneath their feet.

Shayla and Stacey fell down maybe 2 or 3 feet this time, but instead of landing on the ground, they landed in an underground river! Their supplies were wrecked, and it was very dark. Their flashlights blew out when they hit the water, so the girls had no way of knowing where they were. They treaded water while they discussed their predicament. The water was freezing cold, and if they didn’t want hypothermia, they had to get out of the water FAST. They looked around, but there was no land in sight!

“What are we going to do!?” cried Stacey, her teeth chattering. “I have no idea,” said Shayla, “but we have to get out of the water fast!” The girls swam down the river desperate to find land, and saw a large rock ahead. They quickly swam to it and scrambled onto it. They could see light ahead, but knew they would die from the cold before they could swim to it. Shayla decided that they had better grab bits of weed and wood that were floating in the water and try making a raft of some sort to get down to the light.

Slowly, they gathered enough wood and weeds to tie together a small raft. It wasn’t much, but it would do to get them to the light, where hopefully they would be able to get out onto the mountain. They got on their makeshift raft and floated down, striking land about 15 minutes after they had started. They looked and saw an opening for them to get out. But just before the opening was a small crevice. Shayla stuck her hand in, and felt paper. She pulled it out. This is what it read:

To Whom It May Concern,

I was once a traveler that fell down this river myself. All I had left after making it to this point was pen, paper, and what you’ll find in the crevice after this. It has probably been 100’s of years since I left this note here, but I think whoever finds this treasure will be happy they came this way.

From,

Geraldston Cantill

Well, this got Shayla’s curiosity going. She reached back into the crevice, only deeper, and felt something stuck. Her hand couldn’t fit in the whole way to get it! So Stacey took a turn, and was able to pull the item out a little bit further. Then, Shayla pulled the item out fully. It was wrapped up in cloth, and was very heavy. The sisters undid it nervously, and there in the cloth lay a beautiful, huge diamond. It sparkled brightly and was crystal clear. This gave Shayla and Stacey just enough energy to crawl out and make it down the mountain. When they got home, they told their Dad all about their adventure, and showed him what they had found. Shayla and Stacey agreed that they wouldn’t sell the diamond, but instead keep it as a memory of the great adventure they had just been on.