Highly Commended Story - A Thrilling Adventure

“A Thrilling Adventure” by Giuseppe Farrugia, St. Clare College – Primary B, San Gwann, Malta, is the Highly Commended story in the sub-junior category of the second biannual Short Story Contest 2018.

Giuseppe is a very outing boy. He loves to make new friends and his passion is to play sports. Football is his favourite sports! He adores animals and he likes to play with his dog pet Meghan. Giuseppe spends his free time reading and learning facts about space as the universe fascinates him. The Maltese Language is his preferred subject at school. His dream is to become a scientist one day and he also wants to have a big house to be able to adopt all the abandoned animals he finds outside!

A Thrilling Adventure

Martha was quietly reading a book, sitting on a bench in her parents’ big garden, when she suddenly noticed her dog Meghan digging in the soil. It was very unusual for Meghan to dig, so she decided to take a closer look. Martha saw a metal box buried in the soil where her dog was digging and she managed to take the box out of the muddy soil.

Excitedly, she took the box to her mother who was in the kitchen preparing breakfast. “Look what I found!” Martha told her mother, feeling as curious as a cat to know what’s inside! Her mother examined the box and she realized that the box once belonged to her grandfather, who used to live in the same house that they were living in now. She started trembling and with tears falling down her cheeks she opened the box gently, not knowing what to expect.

There were lots of old papers, but Martha’s interest was the map that was hiding between the papers that mum wanted to read after breakfast. She knew the place that the map was showing, so went eagerly to show it to her brother Tim. He was as eager as Martha to know what the ‘X’ sign that the map showed, was.

They packed all they needed and headed off on this thrilling adventure. Whilst walking on the route that the map showed them, they found the cave that they were looking for. The cave was pitch dark but they were as brave as lions and continued walking with the help of the flashlights. The only thing they could see was rocks, but then in the corner at the very end, Martha saw the ‘X’ sign that they were looking for! In a blink of an eye, a grizzly bear came out of nowhere, it roared and the two children had the fright of their lives! They went running out of the cave as fast as lightning. The bear kept chasing them for a while; it wanted them out of its habitat.

Somehow, Martha and Tim ended up on a beach, and luckily it was too hot for the grizzly bear to chase them on the hot sand, so it went back to the shelter of the cave. The mysterious ‘X’ was guarded very well and there was no way that the kids will risk to go into the cave again! It will remain a mystery…. for now!

The siblings decided to call it a day and make their way back home. They felt disappointed for not discovering what their great-grandfather hid in the dark cave, and although it was a very exciting adventure, they knew they were very close to getting hurt!!

Martha kept the map in a safe drawer…… maybe someday they would be able to go on this adventure again, with someone older than them, who will be able to help them.