Keyword of the Week- My brother's discovery

I am not accustomed to thinking about the stories that men who live in the countryside usually tell at night, in the tranquility of the night, in the plains inland.

This is a way of staying alert, I think, so that people who are hunting feel that there are people awake in the distance, waiting for them.

From time to time, every few months of the year, I go to visit my family. One day, as evening fell, the men in my family, except for me, went out hunting. They wanted to have some good game meat to eat the next morning, so they could impress the guests that weekend. We are all family, some closer than others.

I was among the guests, visiting my brother. Those of us who were visiting settled into our hammocks while we listened to the men of the countryside preparing to take their instruments and go out in search of their prey.

My rest

Everyone was happy, them and us. I got the best part because I stayed lying down in my hammock, rocking back and forth. I'm not good at the art of catching prey. Soon, the women went to rest, along with the children inside the house.

Night had not yet fallen when my cousin and I, who had been left alone in our hammocks chatting outside the house, sensed something unusual. Something was happening about 50 meters away from us. There was complete silence, but suddenly the house dog ran out and, looking beyond where we could see, barked and barked.

It wasn't the barking of a dog that wants something; it was the desperate barking of a dog that wants to catch something. Or threatening the presence of something with its barking. I looked in the direction the dog was looking, but I couldn't see anything. Only the light of the stars illuminated the place, and the moonless night did not provide clarity in the distance.

Curious dog

I got up from the hammock and said to my cousin, “I think I'm going to go with the kids inside. I don't like that barking.”

My cousin said the same thing...

“I don't like that barking either,” and he got ready to follow me. The dog kept barking until it calmed down a long time later. Or when it lost whatever it was barking at.

We didn't see what the dog was barking at. In the morning, the first thing we did was check the area, and we didn't see anything. We would have to wait for the hunters to arrive at midnight, as with their experience, they would be able to tell if something or someone had left tracks there.

It didn't end there. When the hunters arrived early in the morning, instead of bringing meat from an animal, what they brought was a great silence. They were still scared and didn't want to talk until they felt comfortable.

They all arrived at the house, pale. We saw them there at dawn. None of them spoke to anyone. No one said anything about what had happened. The only thing they said was...

“It was a bad night; there was no hunting, there were no animals to hunt.”

They all looked at each other, and none of them said anything.

We, on the other hand, told them about our experience that night about the dogs barking and how we didn't see anyone nearby.

After a few days, the calmer man told the story of what had happened. They said that when they were coming back at midnight, they came across a light. They followed it, and it led them to the foot of a tree.

They didn't know what was illuminating the trunk. They searched everywhere for the source of the light, but couldn't find it.

My brother said he started digging where the light ended. Then the other two men followed him. That light continued to illuminate the hollow space they were digging with their hands. Suddenly, they made a discovery.

False wealth

There was something buried there. They took it. It was a large box. They opened it, and inside was a piece of paper with poorly aligned but understandable writing. There was also a smaller box, but it was also very heavy. It had a padlock. One of the men said...

“Hit the padlock hard with that rock.”

To which the second man said...

“Wait, let's read the letter first.” Everyone nodded, and my brother, who had taken the letter, proceeded to read it aloud.

“You who have had the audacity to dig and find this box, know that what the small box contains are gold coins. You will be a millionaire from the moment you open it, but you must know that everything has a price.”

My brother, who was reading the letter, suddenly stopped reading, but everyone told him...

“Go on, keep reading, little brother, we want to know.”

My brother took a deep breath, as if sensing that nothing good could be read there. He listened and continued reading...

“You will have so much money that you will not have enough time in your life to spend it all, but likewise, whoever has the courage to open the box will know that I will immediately take the soul of your younger brother or your best friend, but I will take a soul.”

When he finished reading these last words, my brother crumpled up the letter, threw it into the trunk, and they all began to throw as much dirt as they could on top of the box.

The light was gone. It no longer illuminated the place. The men all left one after the other. They stayed together and made noise with their words to feel accompanied.

When I finished listening to my brother's story, I felt a great chill run through my body. Because I knew immediately that that night, I was about to lose my soul because of my older brother's DISCOVERY; because in the shadows of that night, what was hiding in the nearby darkness was the entity that would take my soul. If my brother and friends had acted differently, with greed.

This is my entry in "the keyword contest of the week" proposed by my friend @wlin, DISCOVERY.

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