“So this is it.”

Anja stopped in the midst of the forest and studied the entryway of an ancient castle. After hours of hiking a land hidden in the unknown, she and her brother finally stumbled across what she was looking for.

The groundbreaking discovery was left in a place of ruins. Cracked fragments of bricks and clay laid across the barely visible floor. Green ferns and stems broke through the ground, fighting their way to the single stream of light which fell through the low ceiling.

Anja was perplexed. This was not what she was expecting.

“What’s wrong?” Her younger brother Johan asked.

“It’s…empty.” Anja unclipped her flashlight from her belt and pointed it on her textbook. The image in her history book looked completely different from what she saw now. It had colorful lights, with musical instruments, and joyous people circling in dance. She wasn’t expecting any people to be in the castle, but she was expecting some sort of evidence that her ancestors lived here.

“I must say, I’m quite disappointed.” Anja said, giving her flashlight one last whip around the dark room. Someone must have been here, and they’ve stolen everything their ancestors left behind.

“What about this?” Johan kicked a pile of decaying leaves that floated above him, unveiling a human skeleton.

She’d almost missed it.

Anja crept behind Johan to look at his discovery. She shuddered as she kicked the bony remains to the side.

Above the skeleton was something much more intriguing. She ran her hand along the painted wall, feeling for every crack and bump. She remembered their ancestors communicated this way, with sketches and painted symbols. The first phrase was rather common, and easily recognizable.

“This one means ‘open the way.’ What do you think they mean by that?”

Johan was already on the other side of the room, exploring his own discoveries.

“Maybe it has something to do with this latch?”

“Don’t touch anything yet!”

It was too late. The ground violently shook and a stone wall rose up from the ground, blocking the entrance of the castle. A steady patter of sand hitting the ground filled her ears, first slowly, then pouring out all at once like heavy rain.

She felt like she was running out of time—like an hourglass.

“What’d you do?” Anja panicked. She didn’t want to die there.

She sat on the ground and flipped to the page in the textbook that could help her decide the rest of the message.

The wall read ‘Tree, moth, butterfly.’ It became apparent that this was a code for the order in which the latches should be pulled.

Anja and Johan trudged along the sand now reaching their ankles and matched the symbols to the correct latches, opening a door in the ground with stairs. Anja clutched her flashlight in one hand, and tugged her impetuous brother alongside her, down into the new passageway.

Walking through the hall lit with a mystical blue glow, they were extra vigilant of their surroundings in fear of falling into another trap. The hallway was mostly empty except for the overwhelming symbols overlapping one another that made them impossible to decipher.

Finally the hall came to the an end, opening into a room that emitted a strong scent of rocks and dirt.

When Anja flickered her flashlight on, she easily recognized the withering remains of what once was. She was amazed by the amount of artifacts that were left untouched.

Anja lightly tapped the ancient drums covered in jewels, and Johan looked into the old clay pots filled with murky water. Golden coins were sprinkled throughout the dirt on the ground.

“This is what we’re looking for. Our ancestors hid their belongings here.” Anja said with a smile. She ran her fingers over a decaying wooden banjo, collecting a massive amount of dust on her fingertips.

“What do we do?” Johan asked.

“We leave them. Let them rest.”

But a glinting silver nugget laced with leather caught her eye. Anja picked the necklace up. “Except for this. We’ll show grandma and momma this to remember our people.”