“New Cache Near You!” Aiden felt a rush of excitement as he read the message.
Every day, when the other students at Jefferson High School went directly to the cafeteria for lunch, Aiden would stop by the school library, sit down at one of the old, slow school computers and check for a new geocache and today he had actually found one.
Geocaching was basically the ultimate treasure hunt. Websites provide GPS coordinates and sometimes clues and then players can find hidden containers called caches. They're stashed everywhere—from city parks to remote trails. Inside, there's usually a logbook you sign to say, "I was here," and sometimes cool little items you can trade. Growing up in the foster care system, meant moving around regularly and geocaching had become his unchanging element in a sea of chaos. No matter where he went, somehow there was always a cache nearby to find, often many.
But lately each time he was moved to a new foster family in another of the small suburbs outside of Minneapolis, it felt like he was finding them all too fast. When he was first sent to his latest foster parents, he had been pleasantly surprised by the number of Geocaches around the small town of Middleside, but a few short weeks later, he had found them all.
Excitedly, Aiden opened the link:
GeoCache Name: "Champion’s Cache" Difficulty: 4.5/5 Terrain: 4/5 Size: Unknown Reward Description: Welcome, intrepid explorers, to the "Champion’s Cache," a hidden GeoCache within an abandoned structure where possibilities linger in the air like dust motes in sunlight. Your quest for will not be for the faint of heart. Your search will take you through challenges and obstacles, out into the dark wild, and inside the forgotten past. As always, remember to trade fairly – a generous reward can be a generous trade.
Frowning Aiden wondered about the reward. By tradition, every geocache container held “swag”, small gifts and trinkets left by the person who set up the cache and traded by those who found it over the years. However, “First to Find” was not just the chance to solve the puzzle and find the cache first, but it also meant he would put his name at the top of the log book and sometimes, when a geocache was first set up that people would leave a reward, like an old coin, or sometimes even a gift card for the person who found it first. Despite how many caches he had found, he had never found a cache first. There had been a few times he had gotten close, but he was always beaten by the same person, the same name on the top of every list: Rendikar.
Excitedly, he found the coordinates and looked them up. A rush of surprise jolted through him. The geocache wasn’t just close, it was ridiculously close. The high school backed against some forested state land and the cache seemed to be located in that area, just a few hundred feet away from where he was.
"Less than a mile," he muttered under his breath. This was it. This was his chance to beat everyone, and maybe even to beat Rendikar.
He had never met Rendikar in person, but he had seen the name on many caches, but he had no idea who he was or how he managed to always be so close to every cache. All over the city, the same name was there time and time again. It had become a personal goal to try to beat him, or at least figure out who he was, but so far he hadn't had any luck. A few times he had come close, and once when he arrived he thought he saw an older grey-haired man leaving just as he was approaching the cache but that was the only clue he had as to who Rendikar might be.
He pulled up a map of the area. He didn’t know where Rendikar did it, but there was no way anyone could be closer than Aiden this time. The cache seemed to be in the woods behind the high school and there were no homes nearby.
He reread the cache’s description. 'Difficult to find' and 'challenging terrain' were phrases that hopefully would deter new geocachers or at least slow them down. But at almost seventeen and moving around from foster home to foster home, he had gotten pretty good at finding his way in places he didn’t know very well.
What really caught his attention, though, was the evident care put into this "Champion's Cache." There could actually be a reward worth the trouble.
Not for the first time he wished he had a cell phone to use to help him search. But he didn’t have one. He would have to do as much as he could do online. He would need to know where he was going so that he didn’t get lost. Trees often looked the same, he had learned that lesson the first time he ever found a Geocache.
He read the description and pulled up Google Maps, narrowing down the location as much as he could. A bit north of the school, it looked like there were some boulders in front of something… maybe an old building. Aiden wasn’t quite sure. It looked like he might be able to climb the boulders but if he couldn't he’d have to go around and that would take much longer.
Aiden's looked up at the library clock, it was over two hours until school let out and he didn’t have time to waste if he wanted to get there first, which meant he would have to skip his last few classes. If he printed the map and the clues, he could figure out the details as he was walking.
“What kind of web site are you looking at, young man!” a cold, hard voice said.
Aiden looked up and the school librarian, Mrs. Crabtree was frowning down at him as she started at his computer screen. Her stern features were framed with gray hairs that had fallen out of her loose ponytail. She was dressed in an oversized sweatshirt with a washed out “Jefferson High School” logo on the front that Aiden was pretty sure was older than he was.
She narrowed her eyes as she stared at his computer screen.
“Ge-oh-catch-ing?” She said the word awkwardly as if she was saying it for the first time. “Is that some kind of site to buy drugs?... Is that the dark web?” she hissed the last few words.
Aiden, taken by surprise, shook his head, “No,” he said quickly, “I mean, of course not, it has nothing to do with drugs.”
“Well, I’ve never heard of that,” the older woman countered, pushing her thick glasses up just a bit and frowning again at the screen. “Sounds like drugs to me.”
“It’s not,” Aiden answered, “it’s for history class… I just need to print a couple of things,” Aiden began but she cut him off.
“Don’t lie to me! If I’ve never heard of a site, so you don’t need it for history or any other class,” she answered sternly, her hands on her hips.
“But… I’m not…”
“I’ll not have you kids searching for drugs on my computers,” she punctuated her words by reaching out and hitting the power button on his computer.
Aiden's heart sank as the screen before him flickered and went dark, all his careful planning gone.
"But, Ms. Crabtree," he began, hoping to appeal to some unseen vestige of leniency within her. "I just need a couple minutes to—"
Her interruption was without sympathy. "If it's not schoolwork, it's not allowed on this computer," she declared, "Now, leave this instant before you wind up in detention."
Defeated, Aiden realized arguing would only make things worse; a stint in detention would certainly spell the end of any hope he had of reaching the cache today.
Under her stern gaze, he gathered his belongings, slipped his backpack over his shoulder, and left the room.
As he navigated the busy halls, he tried to remember what he had read, hoping that he could remember enough to find the cache. He slipped past students and teachers and out the side door. Once he was outside, he walked with what he hoped appeared to be deliberate casualness, to give the appearance of a student who simply forgot something and needed to retrieve it from a car. A few minutes later, he was at the edge of the campus, just under a tree just next to the fence that encircled the school.
With a furtive glance, Aiden made sure that no one was watching and then threw his bag over the fence with a practiced toss. Swiftly, he used the tree to get himself to the top of the fence. Once he was there, he jumped down and landed with a soft thud on the other side. He cast one last look over his shoulder and reassured himself that no one had seen him leave.
However, Aiden had barely taken a few steps when a flurry of white wings flew past him, and a bird landed directly in his path. Someone had apparently noticed his departure after all.
The small crow was looking up at him with dark intelligent eyes. It was on the smaller side, as far as crows went and while it had white wings, in certain lights, they looked iridescent with a bluish or purplish tint, which is what inspired his nickname for her – Pearl.
“What’s the matter now, Pearl?” Aiden asked.
The crow chirped back in a tone that Aiden thought sounded a bit accusatory.
He knew the bird probably didn’t care that he was leaving school early, but it was a bit uncanny that she did always seem to show up when he was cutting school. There had been more than one time, when, like today, Aiden got the distinct impression that the crow might also have been sharing some strong feelings on the matter.
“It’s fine, no one saw,” he said as he walked toward the bird. “Besides, this won’t take long, I just found a new cache and it’s not far,” he added with a smile as made his way around her and towards the woods. “I’ll just hurry and be back in time for my next class.”
The bird flew past him again, this time, landing ahead of him on a nearby branch and cawed seriously.
“You can’t really blame me, for this one,” Aiden said, walking quickly toward the location he remembered from the map, “after all, technically, it was your fault that I ever found Geocaching.”
It squawked again, this time it seemed even more indignant if that was possible.
But she had been his companion on more of these adventures than he could count. Aiden had been just seven years old when accidentally stumbled on his first geocache and technically, it was because of Pearl, or at least a white crow that looked an awful lot like her. When he was younger, every time he moved he would worry that she wouldn't be at the next home, but somehow, there was always a white crow when he arrived. As he got older, he realized that since he moved from foster home to foster, it was pretty unlikely that it really was the same crow in two different towns, but no matter where he went, there always seemed to be one white crow.
And if it wasn’t actually this white crow, it was definitely a white crow that had gotten him lost that day when he was seven.
* * * * *
From the first day Aiden arrived, his new foster parents Carl and Grace had been casually indifferent to him. They had made it clear that whenever he wasn’t at school, he wasn’t welcome back to the house until after dark and preferably until way after dark.
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Aiden didn’t mind. He had always preferred being outside rather than dealing with a new foster home. Outside, there was an entire world to explore and he loved to watch the birds, especially the crows. They always seemed so smart; when they were hungry, they always seemed to find ways of getting snacks from people at the park instead of just waiting for food to be tossed to them like other birds.
Among all crows there was one that stood out, a white crow in a sea of black. He noticed it because it was so unusual; it didn’t fit in, which was something Aiden could relate to.
Each time he went outside, he would look for the white crow, and that crow seemed to always be up to some sort of mischief. It seemed to love collecting pens and pencils, but, when Aiden found it, it would fly away usually leaving its treasures behind. Aiden had acquired all sorts of random school supplies this way and on occasion even bigger items like a lost pencil case on the ground. But of all the things it had left him, Aiden treasured a small eraser with a bird on it and he kept it, unused and in his pocket wherever he went.
So, when Aiden left the house that day, he had immediately looked for the white crow. He wasn’t far from his new home when thought he saw it. He got closer, but then, the bird seemed to be just a bit further away. Aiden had followed it from tree to tree and by the time he noticed that it was getting dark, he realized he had no idea where he was.
He started to worry and tried to figure out where to go, and then he heard the crow again. It was sitting on a branch of a large, towering tree, and just a few branches below the bird was something that seemed out of place.
A giant pinecone, almost as big as Aiden's own shoe was in the tree, but it didn’t seem natural. The pinecone was unusually large, and the deep brown surface was too smooth and perfect. He stared at it a bit longer and realized it wasn't a real part of the tree, but actually hooked onto the branch, hung by a thick cord.
The curiosity of what he found made him forget his worries about being lost. Carefully, Aiden reached up, and pulled on the faux pinecone. It felt cool and hard, like plastic, and he looked around. There were trees all over and not a person in sight. Carefully, he undid the twine, until he had the large pinecone off the tree. It felt substantial, heavier than a pinecone really should. Giving it a gentle shake, he heard the faint rattle as if there was something hidden inside the object.
Frowning, he looked it over again, this time more carefully and was able to see the seams that ran around the center. He tried pulling it apart, but it didn’t budge. Then he tried twisting and pulling at the same time and was rewarded with a very slight movement. Giving it all the strength of a determined and curious seven-year-old, he was able to twist the top and unscrew the pinecone.
Inside lay an assortment of items, a small treasure trove of miniature gifts. Aiden quickly looked around, nervous that he had found someone’s secret stash and was worried he was going to get in trouble. But then a rolled piece of paper fell to the ground
Aiden picked the paper up off the ground and found instructions for this unexpected game.
Congratulations, Adventurer!
You've Discovered the Fugl Folk Geocache!
Welcome to the hidden world of geocaching! Whether you're a seasoned treasure hunter or a curious newcomer, here’s what you need to know:
1 - Sign the Logbook: Inside this cache, you’ll find a logbook. Please take a moment to sign it with your geocaching username and the date.
2 - Trade Fairly: If you take an item from the cache, please leave something of equal or greater value in return. This keeps the cache exciting for future finders.
3 - Respect the Cache: Handle all items with care and return everything to the cache as you found it. Use the included map to put the geocache back where it should go to ensure the cache is ready for the next geocacher.
Aiden pulled another paper out of the cache, and looked at the map, happy to have it. He looked from the map to the trees around him and realized that although he had taken the long way to the tree, he actually wasn’t very far from home at all. It wouldn’t take very long to get home.
He then looked for the logbook and noticed the long list of names that were before him. He then followed the instructions and wrote his name on the paper at the very bottom.
And then, he considered the treasures. The instructions said he could pick one and was expected to leave a treasure in return. Aiden rummaged through his pockets looking for an item to trade, and found the one item he had been able to take from his old home. It was a small eraser with a bird on it, one of the trinkets that he had received from the white crow. It had been his favorite, so he had always kept it in his pocket, but they had said he had to leave something of value, and this was the item he had valued the most. He added it to the cache.
The cache's contents were modest: a keychain, some coins, and a few other trinkets. But then Aiden noticed a small metallic tube attached to a flexible metal keychain. As he inspected it, he realized that it was a small flashlight, no bigger than his thumb, but still pretty powerful. He picked it up and put it in his pocket, then put everything back together and put the pinecone back on the branch. With the flashlight to light the way for him, and the map to guide him, he made it back to his house in record time and before his foster parents even noticed he was missing.
* * * * *
That had been his first geocache, and after that he had been hooked. He had spent afternoons in the library looking up local caches and then going to search for the small treasures. When he was younger it could sometimes take months to find all the caches in his area and sometimes, he would have to move before he found them all, but as he got older and better at the exploration skills necessary, he would often finish them up in just a few weeks.
Unconsciously Aiden tapped his pocket as he walked. Nearly ten years later and he still had that flashlight and it still worked.
But a new cache was something else entirely. He wished again that he had at least been able to print out that map. He was pretty certain he was heading the right way, but he thought he would have seen some markers by now. On the map, there was a large mound of boulders and…
Just then, the large rocks came into view and Aiden smiled.
“Well, Pearl, we are on the right path.” This was the last part he had seen on the map before Mrs. Crabtree had shut the computer. After this, he had to just try to figure it out from what he remembered from the description.
Aiden eyed the mass of boulders ahead of him and considered his path. He reached out with his right hand, fingers clasping a jagged edge that felt as cool and clammy against his skin. Next, his left hand found a hold slightly above, securing him as he began his steady climb. If he wasn’t able to make it up, he’d have to go around, and he didn’t want to waste time.
Bit by bit he climbed, until he was nearly to the top. Carefully, he took the last few steps and then looked over the ridge and caught his breath.
“That’s got to be it, Pearl.”
Pearl landed on top of a nearby rock and chirped back at him. He wasn’t sure that she shared his excitement.
The building was a large two-story, old industrial or commercial structure that looked like it had fallen into disrepair a long time ago. The concrete block walls still held, but the paint had chipped away, exposing the gray surface underneath. In a few places, graffiti covered the facade but even that had faded.
The windows were broken, and the few doors were missing entirely. Weeds and grass are growing along the edges of the building and through cracks in the pavement, showing nature's reclamation of the area.
Aiden looked over at Pearl, his determination unwavering. “Well, that’s definitely it, the description said an ‘abandoned structure’ and this certainly fits the bill.”
He walked over to the old building, a chill of anticipation swept over him. He pulled his small flashlight from his pocket and shone the light inside the structure. Dust motes danced in the sparse shafts of light that pierced through the boarded-up windows, casting long shadows across the expanse of the former industrial titan. The air was stale, filled with the scent of rust and mold. Carefully made his way inside, navigating slowly around scattered debris and forgotten equipment.
Aiden's eyes adjusted to the dim interior, scanning for any sign that might point him towards some sort of lower level or basement—the final hiding place of his sought-after geocache. However, the building seemed an endless maze of corridors, punctuated by rooms with missing doors, collapsed walls, and broken windows. The flashlight in his hand, showed covered in peeling paint and occasionally cryptic graffiti.
He scanned the desolation, searching for any sign of a way down, any breach in the floor or a hidden stairwell that might lead to the fabled basement and the cache it concealed.
As he wove through the labyrinth of decay, the silence grew oppressive, and the only respite was the irregular chirping of Pearl from somewhere above.
Then, cutting through the stillness, a plaintive cry reached his ears. It was a soft sound, full of fear and pain.
He turned and headed toward the sound which was growing more pitiful as he approached.
In the back of the building was a large open space, which at one time must have led downstairs. Aiden could see the stairs across the empty space, however, the floor nearby was just a gaping hole its edges crumbled and opening like a maw to the darkness below. He had been looking for a way down, but this wasn’t what he had in mind.
Perilously close to the edge, tangled in obsolete cables and broken machinery, was the source of the sound—it looked like a small, dark cat, with a nearly black face and only an occasional hint of white poking through.
Aiden looked around for a way to help and was surprised to see an older man with graying hair watching him from the shadows across the empty room. He never expected anyone to be able to get here sooner than he did but here he was. Aiden tried to see him a bit better, but he couldn’t make out much, the light that was in the room was coming from behind him making him more of a shadow than a person. Even without being able to see a face, Aiden knew who it would be here so soon after the cache was announced. It had to be Rendikar.
“Excuse me,” Aiden called across the room, “Sir.”
The man just kept searching around, ignoring Aiden’s calls.
“Hey, you! There’s a cat that’s stuck over here. Can you help?”
The man stopped moving and turned toward Aiden. “Hah! A cat!” A voice, gritty with distaste, cutting through the stillness, "That’s not a cat, it's a skunk.”
Aiden looked back at the animal and carefully ran the flashlight over the small creature. As the light caught its body, the distinctive white stripe down its back was unmistakable. It was a skunk, its small body heaving with panicked breaths as it struggled against a few old wires that held it captive.
“Whatever it is, we should help it,” Aiden said.
“And get sprayed?” the man answered sarcastically, “It found a way in it’ll have to figure a way out.”
Aiden could see the skunk's frightened eyes, and realized the animal wasn’t all right. Its front paws were moving, but one back leg seemed caught between a few rocks.
“It can’t,” Aiden said, “Can’t you see it’s stuck, and if it moves too much it might fall where those floorboards are broken.”
The man didn’t answer and instead, surveyed the old building as if he too were looking for something.
"We have to do something," Aiden said.
But the man ignored him and instead started walking toward another room, "I have things to do."
“You can’t just leave,” Aiden called..
The man shrugged and walked through an open doorway.
As much as he hated seeing a person like that win the cache, he realized he couldn’t go on and leave the skunk like this. He had to accept that he was going to have to give up being the ‘first to find’ the cache and accept that the old man was going to win again.
Slowly, he approached the creature speaking in soft, soothing tones, “It’s okay, boy,” he said, “I’ll get you out of there.”
The skunk watched him warily and Aiden hoped it understood that he was trying to help and that it didn’t just spray him instead.
Aiden's breath hitched as he stepped cautiously over the debris. He had to reach the creature before it slipped through the gaping maw that had opened up in the floor. He had wanted to get to the basement, but this wasn’t the way he had in mind.
Above him, the dilapidated ceiling groaned ominously. Aiden cast anxious glances upward, praying that the fragile truce between the building and gravity would hold a little longer. But as if on cue, a cold gust wound its way through the broken panes, carrying with it the unsettling sound of shifting debris.
A small brick dislodged from its precarious perch in a wall far above, tumbled down with a thud that echoed like a warning shot. It plummeted down and through the floor just inches from the skunk.
It was followed by a few more small bricks and then Aiden heard a crash. Bricks were raining down from above and the floor beneath the skunk shuddered an began to lean toward the now gaping hole.
Aiden lunged forward, making a desperate grab for the skunk, hopeful that he could catch it before the floor beneath it gave out. But as he slid closer and closer to the skunk Aiden realized he wasn’t going to be able to reach it in time.
If only the animal was a bit closer. He strained to reach forward, but it wouldn't be enough. The skunk was scrambling but starting to slip.
Just a small push, Aiden thought, just an inch would be enough to save it.
Deep inside, Aiden felt something swell up. He didn’t know what it was, but it was like a feeling of certainty, a feeling of will, like a raw, untapped energy. Wind began to blow from behind the creature, a strong gust, directed toward the skunk.
The floor, underneath the creature began falling to the ground and Aiden heard the crash as the pieces started hitting the rubble below. However, the skunk remained floating on an unseen current of air. Using a power he didn’t know he possessed, Aiden tugged on the breeze and it moved the skunk toward his outstretched arms where he grabbed it and pulled it into his arms.
Just as quickly as it had begun, the feeling stopped and Aiden scrambled backwards with the small animal safely in his arms until his back was pressed to the security of a cold solid wall and his feet were as far as possible from the gaping hole in the floor.
And then a sudden whir of activity buzzed in Aiden's head, like a swarm of bees had taken residence in his skull. Text and images began to overlay his vision, making it blur and shift until finally a few lines of text came into focus:
Quest complete: Quantix Ability Confirmed!
Congratulations!
You have completed your first Quantix Magic spell!