It was such an ordinary drizzly day.
"We could go to a museum or a pastry shop," Majka suggested.
"Or to the candy store, or the museum," Maxík winked at Kaško.
"Or we could go to the museum, and the candy store. We have many wonderful museums, castles, mansions, but also good pastry shops in the country of Haravara. Have you been to a museum underground?" Kaško asked the children.
"Underground?" Majka wondered.
"Yes, here in Košice," Kaško said.
"Oh, I know where the museum is, but we haven't been there yet," Maxík confessed.
"So, we're going to the museum by the lower gate today and then we're going to get some great ice cream!" Kaško suggested to the children.
"That’s it!" shouted the children, until Kaško's rainbow beret fell off his head.
The kids packed up faster than they could finish a small ice cream.
Maxík packed some tools again, which Mom called junk. Kaško pulled out a hiking hat with a feather from his pocket and Majka, as usual, a pink skirt and hiking boots.
They went underground into the museum. It was pleasant there.
"Imagine that these were once the walls of Košice that protected the city from enemies. How much dust and dirt has settled here over the centuries," the children just looked around and could not believe their eyes.
They tried to imagine how other houses stood here many years ago and how carriages with horses used to drive by.
"What is this?" Maxík suddenly asked.
„To bude asi nejaká časť starého domu,“ zauvažoval Kaško.
"No, I mean what's sticking out of the ground here," Kaško was pointing to something in the ground.
"It's not a cable, it's a kind of wrapper."
Slowly they took the wrapper out of the ground and opened it. They almost passed out. It was a map of the country of Haravara. There was a cross on it where it said Rožňava. And under the cross, there was the heading – HERE TREASURE MINE.
"Treasure! Well, I think, my friends, we'll trade the museum and the candy store for a treasure hunt."
Stars appeared shining in the children's eyes and there was simply no other option – they immediately ran to the station and got on the first train to Rožňava.
"In Rožňava and its surroundings the wealth of our land was extracted. There were many mines and miners here. I had a great-great-great grand uncle who taught miners to use dynamite for the first time. When the treasure is in the mine, it can only be in one place. The mines are now closed, but they transferred all the good stuff to the mining museum in Rožňava. Let's go there!"
"And I took my hiking boots!" Majka regretted.
"You may still need them," Kaško smiled mockingly.
First, they went through one museum, where they looked at old documents and photographs; in another one, they examined hundreds of jugs, jars, pans, kettles, cauldrons, chests, even a wonderful old bicycle with one wheel larger and the other smaller, until they came to the oldest building, built to display mining objects.
And there were all kinds of cool things and objects used by miners. But when Maxík investigated one of the courtyards of the museum, he saw a huge cylinder.
"Phew, that's what I remember. This is a steamroller. I think it's the third oldest in the whole world. Awesome!" Kaško praised Maxík for his find and they went to take a closer look at the steamroller.
"Wait a minute!" Kaško stopped the children and flew into the hollow cylinder. Half a minute later he was back with a tube of some kind. They opened it and another map was inside.
Of course, also with a cross and the inscription TREASURE HERE.
"Look! Turňa Castle is ticked. It's not far!"
"A castle and a treasure, that sounds better," said Majka.
She imagined a castle, princesses, princes, knights. Somehow, they all got to the station in Rožňava while reminiscing a bit.
So Kaško and his friends got on the train again and reached the village of Turňa, from where they reached the castle. On the way, Kaško reminisced a bit.
"See that turret over there? Well, what's left of it. There was still a guard on that tower. There's Hungary over that hill, and this was one of the main roads. From this castle, our ancestors defended us from both the Tatars and the Turks, because from the tower you could see the enemy at a great distance. Try as they might, they did not resist the Turks. They conquered the castle and ruled here for a very long time. Can you imagine that the borders of Turkey were not far from here? The Turkey where you go on holidays to the sea today," Kaško explained, and the children devoured his every word.
"The Turks occupied the castle but did not destroy it. They just lived there. It was destroyed by the locals in an uprising."
"What a shame!" Majka said sadly as she imagined how beautiful it was and how it used to be.
"There's not much left of it, but that's why it now serves the birds of prey."
"Well, our treasure should be here somewhere," Maxík looked around.
"Where do we start?" Majka asked.
"What shall we start?" Kaško didn't understand.
"Digging!" said both Maxík and Majka at the same time.
"Digging? And with what?" Kaško surprised them with a question.
Then they realised that they probably couldn't dig the treasure with their hands. They examined the map a second and third time to see if they could find any other clues.
"We took a bad look at it. The cross is not on Turňa Castle, but on the sign Silická Jablonica!" Maxík exclaimed.
"That's the one over there, look! We're not going to take the bus; we're going to fly!" Kaško decided.
And as soon as he finished, they were flying.
"Here, somewhere above the village, is the only place where treasure can be buried."
And really. Above the village in the meadow and in the small wood there were several large piles of stones.
"These rocks were deposited here long ago by people to fence off their land. And even then, when they cleared the land, they had to put the rocks somewhere. Come, let's look for the treasure!"
"Oh, what is this?" Majka shouted and showed the flat stone to Kaško and Maxík.
"These are the prints of ammonites, and these here are the prints of prehistoric worms. These ammonite prints are not only the oldest in our Haravara country, but they are some of the oldest in Europe," Kaško instructed again.
"So, this is the treasure?" Maxík wondered.
"I doubt it." Kaško replied incredulously, tapping the stones nervously.
Suddenly, one of the stones made an interesting sound. Something like a hollow musical instrument. Kaško picked it up and noticed a small hole. He stuck his fingers into the stone and opened it like a shell.
He took out the map and they started laughing a lot. It also had a cross on it, and it also had the word TREASURE on it, and it also had the city on it. But there was also something else. On the other side it said:
THEATRE PERFORMANCE – TREASURE HUNT
They read no further. All those maps were posters or props from the theatre that plays for adults and children. They probably missed a few things along the way.
The sun was slowly setting over Silická Jablonica and Turňa Castle. Our searchers therefore returned to Košice and Kaško bought everyone a delicious triple ice-cream in a sweet cone. Do you also have your favourite ice cream flavour?
