The Twins at Tretower

Long ago in the dark and murky castle of Tretower, an adventure lurked throughout. Its wet fingers creeping down the dark, dim lighted corridors, into rooms, through floors, waiting, waiting…… until it began to creep through peoples minds raveling them up and into the excitement…….

            Tretower castle on this particular morning was flooded with sunlight, birds singing and the sough swishing through the branches from left to right, left to right. However, inside the castle a great racket took place.

“It’s gone! It’s gone!”

“ It can’t have!

“We need to call the police!

In the middle of the crime scene stood a crowd of restless people shuffling round looking into every cobwebbed corner, scanning the underground cellars for the missing treasure! Upstairs, however, Mrs Durbstone, a jolly old woman was busy cooking one of her master pieces, for the twins that had come to stay for the summer holidays.

“This looks fabulous Mrs Durbstone!!!” said Toby, a young boy with a mass of golden curls and a jolly smile.

“Thank you dear, but really I love my cooking and with you children around I’m jolly happy!”

Dakota, Toby’s twin, with a long mop of golden hair that climbed down her back, began to eat up her breakfast like a dog, spilling juice down her new white blouse!

“I’m afraid that during the night a terrible thing happened! The treasure down in the depths of the cellars was stolen and a great crime scene stands within this castle!” said Mrs  Durbstone.

“ What!!!” exclaimed the twins together.

“ This castle seemed so quite to us when we arrived but now it looks like an adventure is lurking about!!! said Toby.

“Well that thought has not lasted long children, I really don’t think that you should get mixed up in this adventure, your parents seemed to think that it would be quite enough for you here without any extra bother!” said Mrs Durbstone in her kindly voice. The twins looked at each other with mischevious grins. “We’ll get to the bottom of this!!!” 

That afternoon the twins decided to go out to Brecon, the local town. The lovely little shops with honeysuckles climbing up the walls inspired the children to stay longer.

“This is a gorgeous little town!” said Toby,

“I say look at that antiques shop just over there, do let me go and see it Toby?”

“Alright then, but I’ll have to come with you.”

The two children set off to the antiques shop and walked in through a lovely old-fashioned wooden door.

“Hello!” called out Dakota.

“Be patient will you?” A loud voice bellowed through the shop making both children jump. A large man appeared through a doorway behind the counter.

“What do you want? Gaah, It’s children! What are you doing here?”

“We’ve come to look at some of your antiques,” replied Dakota in her sweetest voice.

“Antiques! Antiques! Why would you children want to look at my lovely antiques?”

“Well I rather fancied buying a few of the those horse brasses over there. I’m a great fan of collecting them!”

“Very well,” replied the shopkeeper who was overcome by the way Dakota had spoken to him.

The twins spent quite a while in the shop and when they finally came out of the old fashioned wooden door it was nearly time for refreshments back at the castle.

“Well Dakota, you’ll never guess what! I was talking to that old fellow in that shop whilst you were looking at the horse brasses. He told me about Tretower castle - said something like - it has underground passageways that lead on for miles! Back in the past stolen goods and treasures were hidden so that nobody could find them and in the end they were taken off by boat to foreign countries and were sold for thousands and thousands of pounds!

“I say!” exclaimed Dakota “Does that mean that the treasure that was stolen last night is hidden in those underground passages and could be taken off any day to be sold?”

“Well that’s what I thought but it seems quite far fetched to me!”

“Why don’t we explore the passageways tonight maybe we could find something useful! Although we would have to find the passageway first before we went off exploring wouldn’t we? said Dakota.

“Yes, but a bit of exploring wouldn’t do any harm would it?”

            The children were asked to help Mrs Durbstone with her chores that evening and by the time they had gone upstairs to bed they were exhausted and couldn’t help just to flop down onto their softly padded beds and fall fast asleep.

            The sun woke the two children next morning, to the smell of freshly cooked bacon and fried eggs. They got out of bed and dressed before making their way down the stairs.

            After breakfast the two children went out into the grounds of the castle and began to look for any evidence of a secret way or underground passage.

“We could look in that old stable yard Toby, there are panels for the walls maybe one of them could slide back and a deep dark hole could lie beneath. Cobwebs hanging from the roof and spiders crawling up our legs as we….

“That’s enough of your silly talk Dakota! We will definitely look there, we are going to find this secret way - today!”

            The twins knocked and hammered, banged and pushed but to no avail.

“It’s no use doing any more there’s nothing here!” Where else are we meant to look?

“I say what about the cellar!!! If they really were smuggling goods the night before last they wouldn’t want to be seen creeping through the castle to the secret way would they?”

“Your brilliant Dakota! That’s a jolly good idea of yours lets quickly go and explore it before lunch!”

            The twins ran to the cellar and began to look for the secret way and at last, there it was under a big slab of grey stone, a dark hole going down into the depths of the floor!!!

“Lets explore it know! Oh blow it’s lunch time, and I did so want to help Mrs Durbstone with the clearing up today.”

“Well we’ll explore it tonight when everyone’s asleep!!”

And so it was that night two children crept through the castle in the dead of night to the cellars!

“We need to lift that slab of stone quietly so as not to wake anybody up!” whispered Dakota. Somehow they did it and were climbing down the dark hole, torches to hand.

“It’s covered in cobwebs and it smells all musty!”

“Dakota, how are we meant to find the treasure, the fellow in the antiques shop said that it went on for miles and split into lots of different passageways.”

“Well I guess we could look for footprints with the light from our torches.”

“ Yes that’s brilliant! Come on we better get a move on with this it might take up most of the night!” They could see faint footprints but it was rather hard to follow!          

After hours of walking they finally came to a small hollow where the footprints stopped dead, a trapdoor was fitted into the floor and it wasn’t long before the twins were climbing down through it and came to a different sort of cave. It was lighted by a faint candle which flickered as the children walked by.

“Look there’s another trap door! Please say it holds the treasure!

            Those words seemed to come true before their eyes. As they opened the trap door a box of treasure sat underneath dust already covering it in a thick blanket.

“The treasure!” The twins exclaimed together. We need to get it quickly and get out of here. But suddenly, a big voice bellowed through the cave that they were in.

“And what would two young children like yourself be doing beside this box of treasure?”

“Run!!!!!” They grabbed the treasure scrambled up the trap door and began to follow the footprints once again this time running for their lives!! The footsteps of the men behind them echoed through the tunnel, they could hear themselves breathing and their hearts pumping. Finally they came to the big slab of grey stone. They threw the treasure up and scrambled through the hole.

“Mrs Durbstone!”

“Mrs Durbstone!”

The twins screamed and shouted and soon the whole household was up and about. Mrs Durbstone called the police and told them about the chase through the tunnel.

Soon the big burly policemen arrived and had their strong arms round the men. Toby and Dakota were asked to tell their story over and over again. And Mrs Durbstone being Mrs Durbstone made some big mugs of hot chocolate which sent the children straight into a deep sleep, dreaming of their exciting adventure, their mother trying in vain to find somewhere else for them to stay without the smell of adventure creeping down the corridors, but will she ever succeed? I think that adventure clings onto those children, what do you think?

THE END

By Abigail Fisher