The 4 Stars Of Gemini

• Jacob Parker, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2010

What was that!
Something suddenly moved near me. Oh it’s just a bat. I found myself today very nervous and paranoid. I set out from camp today in search of treasures in the tomb of Queen Joshephout in Egypt. GEORGE BLOSSOM, I think to myself just imagine my name on the front page of the newspaper. The best thing that could have happened in 1922, the newspapers would also say. I now am wandering down this tunnel with my seven helpers unaware what it will change in their life and mine.
******

I am hearing noises from the next room. I cautiously peer in. In there are six knights all blocking the way they all hold a sword. Suddenly all the swords swing. My crew and I jump back afraid. To reach our destination we have to pass through this area. Luckily we came prepared I thought. I gave the signal and we took out our swords. I didn’t like it the way that we had to use symbols because we weren’t allowed to talk. We where about to fight the living dead and still we might lose. We charged forward desperate for our survival.

******

We were so lucky. Well I was one of my people died and another is badly injured, so far the queen is winning the battle. We walked on, jumping at each sound we heard. Soon we found ourselves in a great hall. I felt worried about this, something wasn’t right. I told my crew to wait while I went a bit closer. I put my foot on one of the tiles ready to continue when I thought it was safe. “Click,” I heard the tile go as it fell in to a quick sand trap underneath and was sucked until it disappeared. I knew how to avoid this. I told my crew to all take different tiles in lines. Quickly we had run across our line until it we got to the other side. “AHHHH!” I heard one of my people shout as I reached the other side. He obviously wasn’t quick enough. We hurried along after that. Down and down and down we went down a stairwell that seemed to never end. I wasn’t sure what would happen next but it was just waiting around the corner.

**********

The next corridor the walls were covered in coffins. All those coffins gave me the creeps. Suddenly one burst open. The thing that came out of it was a skeleton wearing rags and holding a dagger that was stained with blood. It lunged for one my people; my person tried to grab his sword but was to late. He dropped dead. We ran for the door up a head of us. “AHHH,” another one of my people was killed. I got there just in time as the moving stonewall closed. I only have two of my people left but I can sense that the end is near. The end was closer than I thought. One of my people slumped against the walls for rest and the entire wall fell. Inside there was an enormous pond. In the middle was a tree stump that had a key on it. It looked too easy to get to the stump but then I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. It was a rusty metal door. Suddenly the metal door opened and 10 alligators fell into the pond. I saw there was one more alligator but that one was a skeleton so the alligators must be hungry. The person that fell quickly hurried back into the corridor. Not knowing what the key could be used for we kept on going down the corridor. There we found a metal door with a keyhole. Sighing we went back to the alligator pit. We silently got into the pond and started swimming. All went well until halfway where we wouldn’t be able to go back. An alligator smelt us and lunged. Alarmed the other alligators started swimming towards my group. I wondered what would happen. Well I knew one thing I wouldn’t die without a battle. I got out his sword and stabbed the crocodile. Then I started swimming towards the tree stump. Blood started to surround me. I knew one of my people had been killed. Finally just as an alligator jumped at me I got onto the tree stump. I looked and saw both of my people, dead. I grabbed the key and then saw something. A brick and some rope and I know what to do with it. I tied the brick and threw it over a gutter that let the water come in, and then I swung over the alligators and back into the corridor.
*********
Inside the room all I saw was gold. Coins, trophies and any type of valuble you could imagine, but the one in the middle was the true prize. I had heard of the legend of it, it was the 4 stars of Gemini. The Four Stars of Gemini was basically a rectangle with two orbs attached to it. It had 4 stars attached to it too and was held together by a large stick. I knew about the 4 stars of Gemini already, it’s called that because there a four stars and when the rightful owner holds it the orbs glow up. Gemini because there are two orbs and they only glow when they have the stars attached to it. I was about to pick it up when I notice a note. It read:
HE WHO OWNS THIS AND IS NOT SUPPOSE TO WILL SUFFER A TERRIBLE FATE. DO NOT TAKE THE RISK OR YOU WILL BE SORRY WHEN THE LEAVES GO BROWN.
I took no notice of it and started to take more things.

When it was time to leave I wondered how I would. I had simply only planned how to get to my prize but not how to escape it. Something else was bothering me though. I could here a sound like water gushing from the other side of the room. I went over to it. There was another note there. It read
KNOCK THREE TIMES AND ONCE AGAIN. FOLLOW THE LINE THAT HAS NO END.
FIGURE OUT THE PUZZLE OF DOOM
THEN YOU CAN LEAVE THIS BEWITHED TOMB!
I understood it was giving me instructions. I knocked on the wall four times and suddenly a line lit up. Like the puzzle said I followed it. The end of the line never seemed to never come to an end for some reason, but then again the puzzle said that. Finally I came to they end. There was a tikis statue. Inside it mouth I saw some writing. It said. Turn around, thron until wall, thous until tiki, tsew until book, thorn UN til wall and tsae until painting. Lift up painting and 7,15. I was confused untell I cracked the code of the last one; it was actually north, south, east and west spelt backwards. It took me longer to figure out what 7, 15 meant until I remembered the alphabet. I translated it and it read go. After I followed the directions and opened a secret door by writing in go I saw why it sounded like water, it was water. I guessed it must have been leading to the river Nile. There was also a canoe in there. Just as I was about to jump into the canoe I thought for a moment, I did this whole trip and nearly got killed, I should be the one to keep the Four Stars of Gemini. Or should I?

Soon I was back at camp and the instructor believed that it wasn’t there so I got to keep it. I brought it home and put it on display as my most prized possession. I forget about the curse quickly and never told my wife or anyone about it. I should have.

Later that year

I had just come back from work on a nice autumns day. I sat down with my kids and my wife. Suddenly I felt a tickle down my spine. The next thing I knew I was being pulled up of my seat half flying. My wife and children where screaming, I was getting pulled towards the Four Stars of Gemini I realised. I was being sucked in. I tried to get free but not one muscle or bone in my body that would help me would obey me. Suddenly I remembered the last line of the curse
DON’T TAKE THE RISK OR YOU WILL BE SORRY WHEN THE LEAVES TURN BROWN
The curse was real and I was dying. I called over my children to say my last words. I told them every thing. I said my goodbyes for the last time then vanished into the 4 stars of Gemini. Suddenly the four stars lit up and fell off. A deep voice thundered into the room.
“If you can collect these Four Stars you may have thy who was swallowed back. Only a pure child can claim the stars. You must go to the opal palace, the diamond hills, the city of jewels and valley of the amethysts. Now good luck and be careful.”