“Look out!” yelled Eddy. He fell right into a pile of leaves. His sister, Anna, laughed. She pointed a stick at his head. “You almost missed it, Captain Clumsy!” she said. Anna held up an old, wrinkly paper. It was not a drawing of their yard. This was special. Blue lines on the paper seemed to move. They glowed and wiggled. “It’s a treasure map, Eddy!” she whispered. Her eyes were big. “I found...
“Look!” Eddy whispered, pointing toward the water. “It wasn’t there yesterday.”
Anna squinted at the strange wooden raft tied to the dock behind her grandmother’s cottage. It was old and worn, covered in moss and sea vines, but something about it shimmered faintly in the morning sun.
Lily X tugged at one of the ropes. “This thing looks like it came from a pirate movie!”
Eddy stood at the edge of the old pier, his sneakers scuffing against the weathered planks as he peered into the turbulent waters of Taiping Lake. The sun dipped low on the horizon, streaking the sky with fiery oranges and purples. The air was thick with saltiness, but the lake was fresh, an anomaly in a town known for its oceanfront. Eddy’s heart raced, a mix of fear and excitement bubbling in...
The forest loomed overhead, a tangle of twisted branches and thick foliage that seemed to swallow the light. Anna paused, brushing a strand of hair from her face, her heart racing. “Are you sure this is the right way?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper as she scanned the shadows that danced around them. Eddy, her older brother, peered at the map they had found tucked away in their...
