CHAPTER 2
The two friends dug and dug, their faces flushed from the stinging winds and their paws and toes numb with cold. The day was still new, and they knew that they still had a generous amount of work to do before the sun set and they could rest.
"It's so cold out here... when will the day be over?" Sparkle asked, her shovel falling from her numb flippers.
"Keep digging," Mythical replied, shivering. She didn't want to answer Sparkle's question in fear that it would lower both of their spirits. They had around 12 more hours of work to do, but she didn't tell Sparkle that.
Suddenly, there was a loud clunk noise that came from Sparkle's shovel.
Sparkle's eyes grew wide. "I think I found something!" she shrieked, ferociously digging to uncover the item that her shovel had found.
Mythical gasped, and bounded over to where Sparkle stood, sinking into the bottomless snow every few moments.
Sparkle kept digging, her flippers growing red with the burn of the hard metal shovel digging into her skin. But she kept going.
Finally, after around 10 more minutes of digging, a brown wooden chest could be seen under the snow. Mythical knelt down and began to scoop away the snow around the chest with her paws. It stung painfully, but she did it anyway, her astonishment numbing the pain.
When the chest was uncovered, they heaved it out of the snow, panting.
"It's a treasure box!" Sparkle cried, a wide grin stretched across her face.
"What's inside??!?!" Mythical asked, not sure she could wait a moment longer.
With trembling hands, Sparkle unlatched the box and peered inside. A gold light danced across her face from whatever was inside the chest.
"It's GOLD!" Sparkle shrieked, scooping up a handful of shimmering, golden flakes from the chest.
"No way!" Mythical yelled back, looking inside the chest as well. "The Gofnak were right! There IS gold under all this snow!"
"WHAT'S GOING ON OUT THERE?" Countess asked from inside the building. "I'M COMING OUT THERE TO MAKE SURE YOU'RE WORKING, YOU LITTLE BRATS!!"
"We can finally present her with the gold!" Sparkle said happily.
"No!" Mythical replied. "We can't let them get the gold. They will know that the rumors of gold being under the snow are true, and they will make us work double to find all of the gold. It will never end."
"We have nowhere to hide it!" Sparkle said.
Countess's footsteps could be heard from inside the camp.
Mythical glanced at the cave next to them. "We can both go in there with the treasure," she whispered.
"No, I am NOT going!" Sparkle protested. "That monster lives in there!"
"Trust me, Sparkle. We have to do this," Mythical said, and began dragging the chest into the cave.
Reluctantly, Sparkle helped push the chest into the dark cave.
They found a nook to the right of the cave entrance where they could hide the chest without it being seen from the outside.
"Now we can pretend we were-" Mythical began.
But Countess was already out the door of the camp building surveying their empty digging station.
"WHERE DID YOU LITTLE BRATS GO?!" She yelled, scampering delicately across the snow banks in search of them.
"Quickly!" Mythical whispered, tugging Sparkle towards another nook in the cave. "In here!"
They huddled in the space, not daring to breath. Countess peered towards the cave, trying to make out any forms in the darkness. But the treasure chest and the two orphans were hidden too well to be seen.
After a few minutes of searching their digging site, Countess turned to search the other areas of the camp.
The two of them crouched in the darkness, still too afraid to move.
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I hope you enjoyed the 2nd chapter! ^.^ Stay tuned for more!
-Panda
