Far Out West

• Frederick Watts, Grade 7, Irrawang High School
• Short Story
• 2017

Excellence Award in the 'Spread The Word 2017' competition

In the deep, red deserts of Western Australia, a young man wandered. His map in one hand, canteen in the other, almost empty, yet he pushed on, for he sought after only the greatest treasures. Winds wailed and howled, sending the red sands from their resting place and swirling around the desert as he searched on. Upon reaching the marked spot on his map, he found nothing. He was in the middle of nowhere, with a fake map. He was lost. He fell to his knees, pounding his fist into the sands when a crunch and a small rumble came from below as the ground caved in below him.
Darkness. All around was blackness. Above was a small hole, the light peering down into the deep, dark cave. The man lit his lantern to find markings all over the walls depicting armed men chasing and threatening frightened people. He ignored the markings and moved on, only to find massive cracks in the ground with a little metallic glint, reflecting off his lantern, in the centre of them all. "That has to be it!" He thought, reaching through the scarred earth, only to be interrupted by a rumbling sound followed by large stones rolling together to form a great golem, the mighty stone guardian of the golden artifact. The man was off so fast his feet barely touched the ground and, as a result, the golem engaged pursuit. Whilst running he noticed a small space, big enough for a young man of his shape and size and too small for the stone beast, and he sped into its safety.
He had to think, and quickly too, that mass of rock was blocking his only exit and he couldn't stay down there. He eventually thought up a plan, attach his hook to his rope (which he already had done), throw a small stone to distract the golem, creating a small window of opportunity, lob his hook up the hole and climb to freedom. Time to put his plan into action, he threw a rock the size of a small apple and it hit the golem in the shin, throwing into a massive rage. He now had two possible options, a safe but kind-of-boring plan and a fast but dangerous plan. Either wait for the rock monster to calm down and try the plan again or just carry out the rest of the plan, maybe it won't see him. He was a little daring and felling a little lucky so he darted out and threw his rope up the hole. He climbed for his life as the golem let out a grand bellow. "Buh-bye" he said, waving, and headed back home.