The Final Find

Some say there is always an unexpected change of course in the wind, meaning life can take a turn for the worse or the better in a flash of an eye. The wind changes directions in an instant, without warning, measuring up to some other result. I never thought this was an actual occurrence in life itself, that the way we did things would ever take a toll, not to the extent that it has for me anyway. The more I think about it, the more I chose not to understand it and I wonder if it's just a defense mechanism in which my brain is just trying to control or mask my feelings. Either way, there is a story here with all this rambling, one in which is hard to explain but I will do my best.

My name is Katalina, I am a college student slash surface explorer with my brother Matt. If you're wondering what a surface explorer is don't worry, I was the same way when Matt started this gig. A surface explorer is basically like a treasure hunter but we don't look for just the gold and jewels that most are searching for, no we prefer to look into the mysteries of the earth. We are looking for fossils, landmarks that haven't been discovered, ancient life sources, things like that. In the last 2 years we have uncovered many ancient artifacts that have yet to be seen or named from the Aztec times, all the way up to finding permafrost with a frozen foal dating back 10,000 years in Siberia. All in all these are some of the most fascinating times in my life, out in the open, traveling the world with Matt, and discovering new things from past times.

"Kat! Are you done doodling yet? We need to set up camp." Matt calls out to Katalina who was sitting on a rock writing in her journal.

"Yes mom, I'm done." She said in a sarcastic tone, closing her journal and slipping it back into her backpack. She rose from the rock and walked over to her brother who was attempting to set up the tent on his own. Katalina laughed a little bit at the sight of him struggling.

Finally she lent a hand and the both of them were able to set up the tent, she then stepped inside, placed her bag on the ground, and started to untie her sleeping bag from the top of her backpack.

"Oh it's going to be a cold one tonight!" Matt said while stepping into the tent and zipping it up behind him. Katalina just scoffed at his comment then added gently, "You're the one who brought us to the mountains in winter dummy."

"Well I'm sorry, but if we are going to attempt to find the chest of Giza then we have to search for it in winter while the skies are still dark enough and the moon is at its closest to the earth.

Matt replied back while taking the map out of his backpack and setting it up in front of him to look at. Katalina just sighed and sat down beside him, glancing over his shoulder at the piece of paper.

"So, we are here." Katalina said pointing at the map.

"And we need to get to this point before the full moon, which is in 2 nights?"

Matt just nodded, his concentration still on the map in front of him. Kat could see his frustration in his eyes. Finally after a few minutes he just sighed and pointed.

"Okay, so we can get there as early as tomorrow evening, but there's going to be quite a bit of climbing involved. This is going to be difficult because the snow has already started and by morning we could be looking at another foot of fresh powder."

Sighing Kat turned back to her sleeping bag, unzipping the side before sliding into it. She then placed her hands on her lap, her gaze now fixed upon them.

"So, if we aren't careful we could cause an avalanche or not get the proper grip and fall to our deaths. Well that's just lovely."

"Oh come on Kat, we will be fine. Just take it step by step and it will all work out." Matt let a little chuckle escape him before continuing. "Just as long as I don't piss you off enough for you to yell at me, all should be well."

Katalina's eyes fixate on her brother with a deep scowl to his joke, this was not the time to be joking about things like this. They were in the middle of an amazing find but an impossible journey. She scuffed then laid down, covering herself, turning away from him to get some sleep.

As morning crept up on them, the duo was already beginning their journey. The sun was rising from the mountains, shimmering beams off the fresh snow that had fallen over night like something out of a dream. Katalina could only picture herself at the beach looking over the ocean, the sun beaming off the waves like something so perfect.

“Okay, are you ready for this?” Matt’s voice broke her out of her thoughts. Kat now looking at the massive cliff in front of her. With a slight sigh but excitement in her voice she answered.

“Yep, this is going to be fun. So who’s first?”

“Flip?” Matt asked while pulling a coin from his jacket pocket. She smiled noticing the coin, it was the first thing they found together. Matt carried it on him for luck with every exploration.

“Heads.”

Matt laughed knowing her response as he flipped the coin into the air. He caught it and placed it on the back of his hand.

“Ah! You got me again!” He exclaimed.

Laughing Kat already had her gear from her backpack, she stuck the ice pick in the side of the mountain, with each little movement she knew she had to be extremely careful. With a slippery situation like this there was no room for error. She looked down to her brother, making sure he was able to keep up with her. Katalina was very familiar with rock climbing, especially free climbing; she had won multiple competitions and one day wanted to take on the tallest mountain in the world. Matt was tracking behind at a healthy speed, he kept his eyes on his movements with the same intention to take it easy, smart, and slow. They made it a little more than half way up when they came to a ledge, they both crawled on top to rest.

“Okay, so just a few more feet of this and we should be at the mouth of the cave.” Matt said pulling the map from his pocket, unfolding it in front of them both.

“So, in the cave we have to find this black rock with, wait what is that symbol engraved?”

She stumbled on her words, squinting her eyes to try to make sense of the symbol.

“No one knows what it is. On the map they just drew a circle with some lines in it, legend says it’s a cross of arrows. So we will just have to look for that I suppose. Here, since you are going first just hold onto it and we will figure it out when I get to the mouth with you.” Matt said handing her the folded up piece of paper, Kat just nodded and stuck it in the inside pocket in her jacket.

“Alright let’s get back to it then, last one is a rotten egg.” Kat chuckled to her own words as she started back up the mountain.

A few minutes later she paused in her climb, shivering from the wind piercing through her clothes at the high altitude. She shook it off and glanced down at Matt who was stopped, trying to get a better grip with his pick on the side of the mountain.

“You alright down there?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Matt replied back to her as he kept trying to get a better grip, Kat remained watching him worried he was having too much trouble.

“Keep going, I will catch up to you. Let me know how it looks up there.” Matt looked up at his sister with a smile on his face.

In just that moment Matt lost his footing and started to slide down the side of the mountain, the fresh snow falling after him. Kat could only watch with fear as she lost sight of him in the snow. Quickly she started climbing back down, they were only about six feet from the ledge they were just sitting on. She kept her eyes on the wall of the mountain as she made her decent, tears started to fill her eyes.

“Matt!” She yelled.

“Matt?” She yelled again, not hearing his response with each attempt. Kat finally made it to the ledge where she started to dig in the snow that fell with her brother, finally seeing the blue from his hood.

“Matt! Answer me!” She kept yelling while digging, all the memories running through her head of them both growing up. The loss of their parents when they were both young, Matt was 5 years older than her and practically raised her. He was all she had in the world. She finally dug him out of the snow, he wasn’t moving, he was just laying there. She stared at him for a moment before pursing her lips in anger then slapping him across the face in hopes that would jolt him awake.

Matt gasped and opened his eyes, Kat grabbed onto his arm helping him sit up but stopped to the groans of pure pain.

“Stop, stop, stop!” Matt exclaimed trying to not move so fast.

“What? What hurts?” Kat asked confused.

“Well first my face, what was that for? I just took a nice slide and you slap me?” He asked while holding his face.

“Are you kidding me? A nice slide? You weren’t moving Matt! I thought I lost you!” She shouted in disbelief with him.

“Okay, well tone it down please. We don’t want to have an avalanche take us both out.”

Kat huffed to his comment, turning away from him with complete anger, taking a moment to breathe before turning back to face him. Matt uncovered his leg from the snow, groaning in pain as he tried to move it.

“Okay, so this isn’t going to work, you’re just going to have to go without me and finish the mission. I’ll just stay here and when you get back we can figure this out.” Matt explained while trying to situate himself on the ledge.

“No, I don’t want to leave you here like this, what if it starts to snow again? You’ll freeze.” Kat explained with sadness.

“Kat, you have to go and find this artifact before the sun sets. This will be the only time you can search for it, a moon like this only happens once every 100 years. You have to be the one to finish it and when you do we will announce it together, I promise.” A smile came across Matt’s face as he spoke, she knew this smile way too well. He usually gave her this look when he was trying to talk her into trouble, knowing it never ended up the way he wanted it to.

“Fine, I’ll go to the cave, find this thing, and when I come back I’m going to slap you again.”

“Deal.” Matt replied with a smile.

Kat just looked at him for a moment before turning back to the mountain to begin her climb once more. The whole way to the cave all she could think about was their life together and how badly she wanted to hit him for his comments on the ledge. Her mixed emotions of fear of losing him and anger in herself for agreeing to this adventure. If she wouldn’t have said yes then they wouldn’t be out here and he wouldn’t have been hurt. She wondered if he knew the real danger of being stuck on the mountain as dusk approaches. She shook her head trying to get out of it, she didn’t want to think like that. Right now she had to pay attention to the climb and just finish the adventure.

She stopped at the ledge of the cave, breathing heavily and looking around before pulling herself up. Taking a moment to gather herself after the climb she just looked around the opening of the cave, something about this seemed familiar to her, almost like she had been there before and was drawn to it somehow. Getting up from the ground she brushed off the snow and grabbed her light from her backpack, the inside of the cave was unlike any other darkness she’s ever seen before. Something about this situation made her wish Matt was with her even more, he should be there seeing this with her. Shaking her head again she started into the cave, shining her light along the walls. The designs of the rock were so mesmerizing to her, almost calming in a way but why? As she walked through the cave she noticed the rock slowly gaining color, blue and green in what looked like a river under her feet moving in the same direction she was walking. With curiosity she kept walking then finally came to a halt with shock, it was real, there really was something up here. She dropped her light to the ground at the sight, the cave was filled with crystals and as the moonlight started to shine into the cave from a small opening at the top, the crystals created this trickling effect making the light change color and look like it was moving. Kat watched the light pools end at the base of a bolder in the center of the room. She started walking slowly to the bolder, finally seeing the symbol revealed. With complete shock she took out her journal, the symbol was the same sundial she had drawn on the outside of her journal. But how was this possible? She had drawn this after a dream and since then has never seen anything like it, even after years of research she could never find anything like it. Nothing made sense to her anymore, was this supposed to be the artifact they were supposed to find? In just that moment the symbol started to glow from the moonlight, it was at the right point in the sky now, the sundial now shining a stream of light onto the ground before her. She took out her foldable shovel and started to dig in the dirt in front of her, quickly before the light disappeared. Matt said the light was only going to shine for a few minutes before going away for good. She kept digging, it felt like hours before she finally hit something hard in the soft dirt. She stopped and uncovered a medium wooden box, with wide eyes she pulled it from the ground. The box was worn, defiantly old but the designs in the box were similar to the ones on the cave walls. She slowly placed the box on the ground beside her before taking a deep breath.

“Okay Kat, you’ve got this” She said to herself.

She slowly opened the box, not knowing what to expect to be inside. She saw the most beautiful silk still perfectly preserved. She wondered how it remained so perfect after all these years. Slowly moving the beautiful fabric she gasped. Underneath laid a necklace of gold and in the middle was an ice blue diamond. Kat couldn’t believe her eyes and wrapped it back up, grabbing the box, and going back in the direction she came. As she made her way back she couldn’t believe she found it, all of this was the same place she’s dreamt about her whole life, this was her safe place and it was real. This wasn’t an Aztec discovery after all, this was a Native American tribe thought to be lost centuries before.

Katalina sits at a table in a meeting room with many others, she sits still and starring at the table lost in her own thoughts. She can hear the voices of the Historical society members around her but doesn’t acknowledge them. The praise they are giving with such an incredible find, the find of the century even so they are calling it, but in her head it was the opposite. She has been searching for a place like in her dream, hoping that one day it would be real but she never thought finding her safe place would cause her to lose her safety.

“Katalina? Are you with us?” A male voice spoke from across the table. She was ripped from thought at this time and looked directly at him. His name was Doctor Bassley, he was an archeologist who spent his whole career searching for the lost tribe. Her eyes went from him and slowly grazed around the room at the others who were looking directly at her with smiles. She sat up in her chair slowly and folded her hands on the table before speaking to the room.

“I didn’t make this find, for those who want to extend the credit to me, don’t. His name was Matthew Burkins, and he is the one who is responsible for this.” Her tone was clear, deep, and strict with every word she spoke.

“We understand and will award this find in your brother’s name.” Doctor Bassley said with sympathy in his voice.

“How would you like to receive this reward?” Another voice spoke gently from across the room, Kat turned her attention to the woman who was sitting not even a foot away from her.

“You all say there are decendents from this tribe still alive today? Other tribal members?” Kat asked with a strict tone. The woman replied back to her with a smile.

“Yes, there is a small tribe in Argentina that are direct decedents of the lost tribe.”

Kat nodded and looked down at the table for a moment, the picture of her brother on the ledge still lingering in her mind. He looked like he was asleep, but she knew otherwise. The temperature had reached an extremely low degree, he froze. She then looked back up at the people in the room.

“Then it doesn’t belong to us, the award is not meant for me as the box is not meant for you. It should be returned to the tribe, it should be returned home.” Kat had a sense of peace in her words, and after a mild confrontation with the room she had won her argument. Kat was then sent on a plane with the wooden box and the necklace inside. After arriving she was greeted by the chief of the tribe and in her short stay with them she learned the necklace was believed to have healing abilities. It was given to a member of the tribe after a love one had passed and had believed to hold the spirit of their loved one for 7 days. This allowed the family a healing period, in which after that time the spirit could move onto the next life. Kat took peace in this, knowing her brother had been with her during the find, had seen the beautiful place and carried her to safety all the way to the end of her journey. Matt had given her the strength to push on, even after knowing he was gone. She took her journal with her every step of the way of her journey with Matt, and it now sits in a case at the Smithsonian with her brother’s name on a golden plaque, as a token and award of the final find.