“Believe it or not, it doesn’t really change that much,” Caleb said. “Well… not if we can find that will placing the land in trust, anyway. He can’t just turn into a dragon in the middle of the county court. In those terms, his money and power is a lot worse than him being a dragon.”
“Oh. Well. I guess that’s a relief,” Kira muttered. “For a second, I thought we had a real problem.”
Caleb laughed, unable to help himself. “No – well, probably not anything worse than we already had, anyway.”
“All right, well, I’ll look on the bright side about that, then,” Kira said, shooting him a small smile, before a slightly troubled look crossed her face. “But wait – what was all that other stuff you were telling me? About the… the curse? And the golden treasure you had to find? It’s not just something for… for your hoard of gold, is it?”
“No, it’s nothing like that,” Caleb said, shaking his head. “My family doesn’t hoard gold – not all dragons do. The Tongle and Heit clans hoard property – but you could probably guess that. Some dragons hoard things like pencils, or stamps. Things that are collectible.”
Kira blinked, then understanding broke across her face. “And your family – it hoards films?”
“That’s right.” Caleb smiled warmly. “That’s why we have such a collection of them, and why they’re so precious to us. But we’re not the kind of dragons who guard their hoard, or hide it away from the world. We love to show off our collection, and we lend a lot of what we have to film festivals, or put on our own festivals at the cinema we own. It’s a hoard to be shared, not hidden.”
“I never thought about something like that,” Kira said wonderingly. “But… I guess it makes sense. Wow. Okay. That’s fascinating.”
Our mate thinks we are fascinating! The dragon puffed out its chest, stretching out its wings. We are fascinating!
Caleb did his best to push his dragon’s inflated ego to one side for the moment. “I’d love to be able to show you some of our collection at some stage,” he said softly, and felt his heart pick up the pace a little as Kira’s head shot up, her eyes widening as they stared into his. “But for now, I need to figure out this curse. I really do think the forest here is beautiful, and I want to do everything I can to protect it from Tongle & Heit. But I can do that much more easily after the curse is lifted.”
“And… you think whatever treasure – or whatever – that has the power to lift the curse is here in the parklands?” Kira asked slowly.
Caleb nodded. “That’s what I was told by the clan who are responsible for the curse – well, their ancestors were, anyway. They don’t really care about it anymore. They don’t even remember why it happened. But they told me that I’d find it here – whatever it is. The problem is, I have no idea where to start looking, or even what to do with it once I find it.”
Kira frowned, chewing her lower lip. “Well, I do know the park really, really well,” she said after a moment. “But I’ve literally never heard about any kind of treasure being buried here. Do you have any more information?”
“I took a photo of the parchment they showed me,” Caleb said, reaching into his pocket. “Actually, I took a bunch of them, in case something happened to one of them. And I sent them to my family and friends. And printed them out. And stored some on a backup phone as well.” He shrugged. “With my luck, you can’t be too careful.”
He unfolded the print-out of the photo he’d taken of the parchment, laying it out in front of Kira. This, miraculously, was really only the third one he’d needed – the first one had gotten soaking wet and torn to shreds when a stiff breeze had blown it out of his hands and into a water fountain. The second one had, intriguingly, been snatched out of his hands by a large bird, and Caleb could only guess that it was being used to line its nest right now.
Kira frowned as she looked down at the photo. Caleb leaned over her shoulder, the words before him familiar by now:
Find ----- ome of the Aurum Lacu---------
Prep--------- caref----------
BEWARE! If not ---------------- DEATH --------------- HORROR BEYOND IMAGINING
After the flames consume -------
“Wait, this part here,” Kira said suddenly, pointing at the first line. “Is this the treasure
part? The part that made you think it was something gold?”
Caleb glanced at her. “Isn’t it? ‘Aurum’ is Latin for ‘gold’, right?”
“It is, I’m pretty sure,” Kira said, nodding. “But I don’t think it’s talking about actual gold. I think it’s talking about something else – a gold color. Look –” She pointed at the second word, only partially readable, after time had worn the ink from the page. “It says ‘aurum lacu-something’. There’s a kind of mushroom that grows in this park called an aurum lacunosa. It got its name because its caps are a really bright yellow color – like gold. And the second part, lacunosa, is because it has holes in it, so it looks a bit lacy.”
Caleb blinked, staring at the page. “So… all this time, it wasn’t a real gold treasure I should have been looking for? It was a mushroom?”
“Well, maybe,” Kira said. “I mean, I don’t know for sure. It’s just my guess based on the fact it was the first thing I thought of when I saw that. It’d be a coincidence if it’s not, though, especially since the next lines seem to be saying something about being careful, and warning about horror and death – the main reason I know about these mushrooms is because they’re deadly poisonous, unless you prepare them in a really specific way, apparently. So we need to be really careful to make sure we can identify them, in case anyone ever eats one.”
“Oh – does that happen often?” Caleb asked.
“No. In fact, I don’t think I’ve heard of it happening since I’ve lived here. But that’s probably because of where they grow. They’re not exactly just springing up at the base of every tree.”
“Where do they grow, then?” Caleb asked, a slight sinking feeling in his stomach.
“Uh. Only in caves. And in this park, only really in one specific cave – well, that I know about, anyway. And it’s… kind of a hike to get out there. And then a climb.”