Into the Unknown
Issue #4
by Max Paige
Having graduated from Hogwarts, Max Paige now works with a professional private investigator/ghost hunter in Inverness, Scotland while living on Ghost Island...
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The Centaur's Well
Last month we responded to an invitation to the Forbidden Forest to investigate some mysterious runes inside an old well. The well was located just outside the Centaur Camp, and I had been thrilled to go back to the forest without the threat of detention hanging over me! The runes themselves were fascinating. Because of my work on Ghost Island studying some markings on a wooden structure that we uncovered from the Cove, I had been going over some of my homework from my Ancient Runes class at Hogwarts. I was determined to make Professor Fairbrother proud!
“These may be connected to Ghost Island,” I told James Dresden, my boss, as we sat in our Inverness office.
“You’re kidding,” James looked over at me, his skepticism obvious. “You know that not everything has to do with our island.”
“Yes, I know,” I laughed, but reached for my Ghost Island notebook anyway, which was never far. “Look at this though.” I turned to the page about the stone found at ninety feet below the surface. “See, look at these runes. The ones that started the entire treasure hunt over two centuries ago.”
“Ninety feet below, two million pounds are buried,” he said without looking at the sketch. “So? Ghost Island is off the coast of Italy, Max. The Forest is here in Scotland… I’m missing the connection.”
“Look at the runes and compare them with the ones from the forest, James. Then translate them. What do you see?” I asked, having already figured out the translation in my mind first. I wanted to make sure he was seeing the same thing though, before I offered my analysis.
He did as I suggested and then his eyes went wide. “There’s no way…”
“The Ghosts of the Knights have buried two million pounds here in this well,” I translated. “We can get the wood from the well dated, yeah? I bet you it’s from the same decade as the stuff in the Cove…”
James agreed with this course of action, and I just sat there, staring at the sketch in front of me. Was it really possible that the Ghost Island treasure been just out of our reach in the Forbidden Forest this entire time?