The Adventure Begins

The guest room of the house was filled with ancient treasures in glass cases. The walls lined dusty stuffed and mounted animals heads. The group of people assembled in the room, wandered around, looking at the displays and wondering why they were there as they waited for their host to appear.

Wine and brandy had been provided for the guests to drink. The brandy was untouched by the guests. A young woman idly sauntered back over to the table with the wine and brandy to pour herself another wine. She was joined by a man about the same age as herself.

"So whattya reckon 'bout all this?" He asked as a way of greeting.

"No idea." She shrugged, pouring herself a glass of wine. "You want one, or would ya prefer the brandy?"

He picked up the brandy bottle, opened it and sniffed it.

"I dunno if it's any good." He laughed, putting down the brandy. "Who the hell drinks brandy anyway?" He asked, pourin himself a wine instead.

"Have you looked around this room?"

"Yeah true. My name is Ike by the way."

"Tabi." She replied, shaking Ike's outsretched hand.

"Tabi? What kinda name is that?"

"It's short for Tabitha."

Ike laughed. "So have ya met this fella at all before?"

Tabi shook her head. "No. I just got a phone call tellin' me that it would be very beneficial for me to come to this meeting tonight."

"Same."

"That's weird. I'm the same." A third person added, joining their discussion. "I'm Fifi, by the way."

Ike and Tabi introduced themselves, and the three of them began to speculate why their host had invited them all to the house.

After about 15 minutes their host finally arrived, bursting through the doors, crying "Please be seated, my guests."

Bemusedly, everyone found a seat. Ike, Fifi and Tabi sat on the couch, and tried not to laugh at their host's outfit; heavy boots, knee high socks, khaki shorts, khaki shirt (tucked into his shorts) and a pith hat. Judging by everyone's faces, Ike, Fifi and Tabi weren't the only one's trying to stifle their sniggers.

If their host noticed this, he completely ignored it. He clapped his hands together in excitement. "I'm sure you're all wondering why you're here."

There was a low murmur of assent from the room as their host poured himself some brandy.

"Well, I'm Tobias Von Smith, and I'm an explorer."

"That doesn't exactly explain why we're here." Fifi pointed out.

"True! I've asked you all here to help me undertake my newest adventure."

"Surely there's other ways to recruit people. Like through a university or something." Someone at the back of the room said.

Tobias rocked back and forth on his heels a couple of times before replying. "I've tried the universities. They won't help me ... besides what I'm going to discover is too big to trust to anyone else."

"So you're going to trust a room full of strangers instead?" Tabi asked.

"Yes. This discovery will make you all very rich and famous if you agree to help me."

"What do ya want our help with?" Ike asked curiously.

"I can't tell you that until you agree to help me."

There was immediately an eruption of noise as everyone started talking between themselves and at Tobias.

Tobias stood back and waited for a couple of minutes, before ringing a bell to regain the attention of everyone. "So what say you?" He asked. "If you're not interested in helping me, you can leave now."

At this everyone exchanged looks. Only a couple of people actually stood up and left.

"Well, it looks like we've agreed to help you, Tobias. So what is this discovery?"

"You're going to help me discover Atlantis!"

Silence greeted this statement as everyone wondered if they should just get up and leave. Tabi exchanged bewildered looks with Fifi and Ike.

"And what makes you believe that you can find Atlantis?" Fifi sneered.

"I've recently found some new information about where it was located. No one has searched the area in question, and I'm confident that Atlantis is to be found there."

"Where is this area, then?" Tabi asked.

"I'm afraid that I can't tell you that. I've got to keep it secret until we actually set out. I don't want any competitor to find out my secret, you know."

"I can't imagine that anyone would take this loser seriously enough to steal from him." Ike muttered. Fifi and Tabi stifled their sniggers.

"I'll of course be paying you all very handsomely. 5000 dollars now, so that you can set your affairs in order before you leave."

"How mcuh when we're done?"

"That depends on how successful we are. But I assure you, it won't be any less than 15000 dollars."

"I don't care you crazy this bloke is, I'm going with him!" Ike muttered excitedly."

"Yeah, same." Tabi agreed. "That money would definitely be helpful. And I can write about the whole thing afterwards no matter the outcome."

"We'll be leaving in two weeks time. I'll send you everything you'll need for the adventure as well as information about where to meet before we leave."

Tobias then bid them all a good day, and left the room, leaving everyone to uncertainly find their own way out of the house.

They all left the house together, and stood as a group a couple of houses down from Tobias' to discuss what had just occurred. Everyone agreed that Tobias was obviously crazy, but that the money would be good. No one was sure if they would actually undertake Tobias' adventure with him, though.

Eventually people started heading their own way. Tabi walked to the bus stop, wondering if she should agree to go with Tobias or not, and how many others would agree to go looking for Atlantis.