The Adventure of Our Lives

We always traveled together, it was safer that way. You never knew what was next, but you instinctively knew it was going to excite you. That was the whole idea of taking this wild ride. My fellow travelers and I had attempted this trip once before, but it turned out disastrous. One of us had gotten separated from the rest and was taken away by a giant rodent. You may think I’m crazy or that I had hallucinated the whole thing, but I swear it happened. I must confess, we were all out in the blistering sun for a long time, but that had nothing to do with what I saw.

This trip started off just like the last. The six of us were floating down a winding murky river in old hollowed-out tree trunks. We were being followed by tiny ripples on the water’s surface. It served warning that a crocodile was in waiting. His eyes were glazed over, staring intensely toward his next meal. He was patiently waiting for someone to mistakenly allow their hand to slip over the edge. This was just the beginning of a long journey in our quest for adventure.

For the last couple of minutes we could hear the ever-increasing rhythmic beatings coming from just around the next bend. This could only mean trouble. We tried to slow our makeshift canoes, but the current had taken over. The thunderous beating continued to vibrate within our skulls. As we rounded the bend, there was nothing. No one was there. There were only footprints in the sand. Then, the drums stopped. From beyond the brush, a hail of tiny darts zipped over our heads. We huddled down for cover until we had floated past the turn. None of us had gotten hit, but we were all shook up pretty bad.

Leaving our canoes behind, we traveled by foot toward our next destination. The next leg of our journey was to scale the big White Mountain. But it was a long walk away. And the sun was already beating us down. There were going to be many distractions ahead that would keep us from our goal to find the illusive mammoth creature. And we didn’t want the same thing to happen to us that happened on the last trip, so we took a well-deserved break.

We would come across small villages of strange people, with Bazaars and marketplaces where you could trade for treasures from foreign lands. There was also an old mine where we encountered an elderly prospector. He swore that you could still pick up gold right off the ground. He led us through the mine in an old dilapidated cart. Its wheels would barely stay on the tracks as we descended deep into the darkness. As the cart moved faster, we all grabbed for the break handle, but it wasn’t there, neither was the prospector. He must have fallen out on the last turn. We were left to ourselves in total darkness. That’s when a beam of light appeared, and it was leading us closer to the end of our lives. Just when we all had started to pray for forgiveness, the cart abruptly stopped. A wooden door bursts open to reveal that we were once again spared a cruel and horrible death.

It was getting late in the day, and we still weren’t any closer to our quest. We had been told by the villagers that the creature could be found on the other side of the great White Mountain. There was still the long hard trek to its summit ahead of us. Hours later, we had succeeded in our task of ascending the winding trails to its crest. The trip down from the peak was worth the whole journey up. As we reached the bottom of the mountain, we all embraced each other at the realization that our adventure was almost at its end. So we thought.

Someone had spotted the massive rodent heading toward a nearby hamlet. We cautiously stalked our prey. Just when we were about to pounce, someone grabbed our arms. In disbelief, the whole bunch of us was taken from the area. We were led off, through one of the villages, toward the gate that surrounded it. As we passed under the immense opening, there was a loud voice radiating throughout our heads, “Can you kids try not to get lost the next time we come to Disney World?”

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