EXPLORING DESTINY
Isla Antao-Davis, 11
Farnborough Hill, Farnborough
Many years ago, a famous pirate ship sailed the vicious seas until the day it sank. Since then, no one had ever found it, not even the greatest and most determined explorers.
This is how Alice came to be searching the seas in her trusty dinghy. Alice came from a family of celebrated and brave explorers. She always wore a gold chain with a round pendant embossed with a ship. The necklace was a treasured family heirloom, passed from generation to generation.
Old maps had revealed their secrets to Alice – she had a rough idea of the location of the shipwreck. The blazing white light from the towering lighthouse had blinded Alice’s eyes and caused her to crash against the rocky shore. Strangely Alice felt that somehow this was meant to have happened. Arriving at the heavy, wooden lighthouse door Alice stopped. It was open she called out warily “Hello. Is anyone there?” There was no response.
Stepping cautiously inside the pitch-black room, Alice grappled for the light switch. Click! The room lit up like a match bursting into flame. There in front of her stood a small wooden table. Scattered all over the table top, glittering gold caught Alice’s eyes and winked at her. As Alice approached the table, the golden treasure showed itself to be coins bearing the same ship as her pendant. Beneath the coins lay a map- Old, torn and bronzed. Instantly, Alice knew where this map would lead her. Was it her imagination? Or was her golden heirloom glow ever so slightly around her neck.
Back in her dinghy, poised ready to dive into the crystal clear, turquoise waters, Alice felt a strange sensation of excitement and dread. She had a lot to live up to. Her necklace seemed to pulsate in time with her heart.
Seconds later, Alice was swimming down and down, her arms and legs cutting through the water like a sword. The necklace throbbed against her chest. And then, out of nowhere, there it was. The shipwreck.
The once-proud and courageous ship was now reduced to a mere fragile skeleton, draped with seaweed and creeping coral. Vibrant coloured fish darted in and out of the crumbling bones. Alice stopped suddenly. The necklace’s throbbing increased. Like a bullet from a gun, a shining streak of light shot forth from the pendant. Simultaneously a small, sealed metal chest slowly rose from the wreckage, caught in the blazing beam.
Like two opposite poles Alice and the mysterious chest were drawn towards each other. As Alice grasped the cold, hard metal with trembling hands, the lid sprang open like a spring out of a box, uncovering golden coins, photos and a ships log. Golden coins embossed with the pendant’s ship. Photos of unknown faces resembling Alice herself. The log captured the ships adventures.
An explosion of thoughts and realisation flooded through Alice’s brain: her family, her exploration, and finally, her destiny.