The Quest for Topaz Lake

My jewel-encrusted short sword slid out of its jet black scabbard, silver blade as sharp as the sharpest knife, glinting in the warm sunlight. I clashed my sword down as hard as I could against Lethe’s ferociously sharp scimitar. Unfortunately, Lethe didn't have much skill with a sword, so I beat her easily. “Yield, thy villain,” I exclaimed. Lethe groaned in frustration at my horrible sense of humour. I grinned mischievously and helped her to her feet.

“Where to next,” Lethe asked in a sluggish voice. My grin instantly faded and I took out The Map of Topaz Lake. Curse this troublesome map. We had trudged up steep hills, scaled rock-ribbed mountains and swam through cerulean, wide rivers!

I scanned the rough, thick parchment, and my eyes caught on the final destination that I had waited for.

“Finally!”

Lethe jumped and landed on the ground, looking surprised at my sudden outburst.

“Get up! Topaz Lake is 6 kilometres away!”

We plundered through verdant hills, shivering with excitement. After five kilometres, the verdant landscape transformed into hard, rocky ground with topaz veins threaded through them. We must be close.

Our footsteps echoing, we clambered through the vast mountainside, squinting into the blue haze that surrounded the mountainside with a hazy mist.

We drew closer to a colossal mountain, which stretched as high as the blue sky.

“This could take a while,” I announced, staring up at the humongous mountain towering imperiously over me. But, Lethe was already an eighth of the way through, with her nimble physique. I sighed and started half-walking, half-scaling up the massive mountain.

In two hours, we scrambled up the few metres of the tall mountain and collapsed on beautiful, level ground. Lethe raised her head ever so slightly and gasped sharply at her beautiful surroundings. Mossy green trees surrounded the huge clearing. The harmonic melody of colourful birds filled the vast clearing with a melodic tune. The rich smell of the wet rainforest drifted out to meet us. But, the most exquisite feature of the peaceful site was the Topaz Lake. Shimmering colours of yellow, pink and blue rippled across the surface of the extraordinary lake.

“It’s beautiful,” Lethe murmured, enhanced by the beauty of it all.

“No one could ever bring harm to a peaceful place like this. Nor could we,” I exclaimed out loud.

“Whatever are you saying?”

“Lethe, for the last few moments, I’ve been wondering. In my view, we must swear to never tell the location of the ’fabled’ Lake of Topaz. We must also burn the map.”

Lethe started to argue, but then saw the sense in my view.

“I swear to never tell the secret of the ‘fabled’ Lake of Topaz,” Lethe announced, half-heartedly.

“Good. I swear to never tell the secret of the ‘fabled’ Lake of Topaz,” I declared strongly.

With that, I took out The Map of Topaz Lake and ripped it into shreds. Lethe could only watch helplessly as I burnt the shreds into ebony ashes.