Looking for Treasure

"Moonlight Geist" image by Dan Scott

© Wizards of the Coast 2012

Every night, the spirit goes to search for the thing he lost twenty-two years ago in the blizzard. He does not remember what it is, but he remembers it is important, and he looks. Twice he has been banished, but he comes back all the stronger and continues searching. He remembers nothing about life, and in fact, each night he is formed new and he almost never remembers anything from the night before. Occasionally something incredibly important would break through from the previous night, but the next it would be gone. He could not speak, but wherever he went, it was cold, and not just with the cold of the night. For most, he was invisible, but for a very few, there was a faint light. He appeared to those few as a thin, wafting creature, mostly transparent, holding a lantern, and terribly sad and lonely looking, though he did not have a face. 

Nearby, there was a village, where some of the folk told stories about him. Occasionally he would come through town, or stay there, and the temperature would drop substantially. Sometimes a rider would come at night through a cold spot with a message, usually for a town on the other side of the mountain, and not for their village. When a rider came through and felt the cold, occasionally he would stop in the tavern, and very infrequently, one of the riders would mention it in the bar. Some of the children wandering at night felt the chill, and one of them could see the spirit. A couple of the adults could see it, but they kept it to themselves, for fear of further alienating themselves from the town. The child was called a liar, and the chill was thought a magical presence, but not intelligent. 

The children kept going out though, and the child who saw the spirit became very popular among the other children, especially when it became clear that she could predict the spirit’s presence. There were five – two boys and three girls. Sandra was the child who could see the spirit, and she learned, over time, that she could communicate with the spirit. Learning this gave the children a source of endless pleasure. Sandra communicated with the spirit, and the children were fascinated with what she heard, and what she told them. “He’s looking for something.” She told them the first night. “What? What is he looking for?” one of the girls asked. “I don’t know. He didn’t say.” Sandra looked slightly worried. “Probably buried treasure!” one of the boys speculated. Sandra tried to respond, but the other boy chimed in “Ask him where it is! Ask him where the treasure is!”

Sandra couldn’t figure out a way to explain that the spirit didn’t know where the thing it was looking for was, so for the next several nights, she played along with the other children’s treasure assertion. Finally avoiding being the daughter of the club-handed man, she enjoyed her lie a little. She grew to think herself that the spirit was looking for a treasure, or at least something valuable. It only made sense. She got the idea that the spirit had been looking a long time. Over time she and the spirit had more communication. Oftentimes, the spirit would say something it had told her the night before, but she knew each night, after it had communicated with her, that she would hear no more. 

Eventually, Sandra stopped claiming to see the spirit. They kept looking for the treasure for quite some time, and they would return to the idea from time to time as they aged, but for the most part, the search stopped and most everyone quit asking Sandra about the spirit within the week. The subject was all but forgotten a month later, but Sandra snuck out each night, looking for the spirit. Oftentimes she found it, and when she did, they communicated while she helped him look. She didn't know what they were looking for, so she pointed out strange things, like a meadow, and a hoe that had been left out too long and was just a head, and a cave on the north side of town, and once she found a coin pouch with three silver pieces in it, but it was not his, so she used it to buy a bird at the store the next day. The village was wealthy enough from herb and willow farming that children could afford such things if they saved their allowances, and her parents were none the wiser. She grew very fond of the spirit, and one night, she dragged her mother out to the edge of the village for a walk, and he obliged. She had heard stories of the spirit, but tonight, Sandra had insisted that she was interested in seeing the meteor shower Mr. Phaller had predicted for tonight, and seeing it apart from the village and the lights, so her mother had agreed, and father had offered to come to, which was fine with mother and Sandra. 

Sandra firmly took the lead, and headed towards where she could see her friend in the distance. As they came closer, father acted strangely, until he was sure what they were headed towards. He started trying to push his family to go another way, but Sandra insisted. He didn't know what the white object was, so he kept an eye on it. Mother was not fazed. Finally they got out to the object, and Sandra sat right down next to it. By this time Father could see what it was, and continued to doubt his sanity until Sandra and the spirit began to communicate. Then the spirit looked at Father’s club hand, and Father could feel the spirit’s thoughts, and father and son were reunited. Grandfather shot up into the sky with a loud crash and a flash of light, and though the townspeople came out looking for the fallen star, they found nothing but the bewildered mother, the contented father, and the daughter who finally understood. 

"Looking for Treasure" Flash Fiction © Ben Clardy V

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.