The Waterfall

They approached the foot of the waterfall along the narrow path carved into rock by the fast flowing river.

"Is this it? Is this the one? Steve asked excitedly.

" I think it is! I bloody well think this is it" squealed Matt as he searched in the bag for the old map.

They had been following the map for three days through the forest up a fairly steep track that was thin, slippy, overgrown to the point of non existence at points and quite dangerous. They thought they had lost the trail several times but had kept on going.

Matt turned over the map which had more detailed drawings of the waterfall and more importantly had details of how to get through the waterfall if they were at the right location then all these tunnels lay behind this waterfall they were looking at.

Matt folded the map and placed it back into the waterproof bag and hung it around his neck.

"Oh my god, This is it, finally, I feel it, this is the one, woooh! Matt screamed setting off several birds that were perched nearby. "The treasure is in here, I know it. It's taken a few years man but we are here"

"are you sure this is it?" Steve asked hesitantly.

"Of course, trust me mate, this is it this time" Matt said in his most confident voice.

"It's just that we've seen many waterfalls now and they are all the wrong on? replied Steve.

"This is it, lets go" matt held up his hand for a celebratory high five but Steve insisted on a big hug

They both waded into the water , it was freezing cold against the warmth of the sun above , but also refreshing after the last three days of trekking. The water fall was noisy and flowing fast as it cascaded down from about 20 meters up, the water crashed just in front of them and sprayed them with a cold mist.

"Maybe we should swim over to the other side and see if we can see through to an entrance from there" Matt shouted to be heard over the falling water.

They were now swimming quite hard to stay where they were and not be washed down stream from the force of the water

"I think it's too strong to swim through " shouted Steve and he began to swim to the far side and beckoned Matt to follow.

"We need to try and squeeze long that ledge and not get washed off to get behind the waterfall" Steve added when they got to the edge.

They both waded to the shallower water until they could climb up onto the shallow ledge that ran up to the waterfall. The sound was even louder so they were now relying on hand gestures to work out what to do next.

Matt went first and pressed his body hard against the rock face and slid one foot at a time along the slippery rock below. He got about two steps under the gushing water when he let out a giant roar as he was washed away with the flow and surfaced about 15 meters down the river..

Steve gave the thumbs up after he saw Matt resurface and looked okay. Matt reluctantly gave the thumbs up back. Steve then pushed himself backwards and slid one foot at a a time along the path.

"Slowly, you can do this, YOU CAN do this, just keep going." Steve muttered to himself.

The water pounded his head and shoulders for what felt like ten minutes as Steve inched his way along the ledge until suddenly he fell backwards as the back rock disappeared.

He grabbed a small piece of tree root and held on time as the water tried to push him back out and into the river. Steve pulled himself onto the ledge and stood up,

" This is it!" Steve screamed at the of his voice. "MATT, Matt, where are you?!

Just at that point, Matt fell backwards and started to slip into the river as Steve grabbed his arm awkwardly and held him back. Matt scrambled around and pulled himself up on Steve's arm and looked up.

"Is this it Mate, have we found it ?" asked Matt

They look around and saw an opening about 10 meters in diameter but no path, door or cave to be seen. Matt got the old map out of the pouch and opened it up.

" what's next?" enquired Steve, "this doesn't look right"

Matt looked at the reverse of the map and it showed what looked like a U bend in a tunnel leaving where they were standing.

"There s a puddle over there " said Matt," go and look in there"

Steve walked over and bent down near the back of the hollow beside a small puddle. He took out his torch from the backpack and shone it into the water. The light seamed to sparkle and lit up the whole cave as the beams of light darted about in the crystal clear water and reflected off all the surfaces.

"Now all we have to do is swim down around and along this part and back up and we are in the start of the tunnels that will lead us to the treasure of our dreams!" Matt said as he followed his finger along the first section of tunnels.

" So all we have to do is swim down there along a bit and swim back up and there will probably be a tunnel with a standing area that contains breathable air" asked Steve.

" Yes, that's it" said Matt "Easy!"

Thank you for reading this story and I do hope you enjoyed it. I enjoyed writing it and will continue to create as long as I wield a pen. To support me and my writing you can help boost my moral and buy me a much needed journal or a nice coffee, this would be very much appreciated to encourage me to keep on writing new stories.

Photo by Ryan Fyfe