Robert woke up to the sound of birds chirping and slight chatter from outside of his room. He looked at the bedside clock and saw that it was off.

He walked out of his room,after changing, and saw what seemed to be all of the guests gathered at the car park. He joined the large crowd of people.

At the centre of the huddle stood the receptionist he met last night when he checked. It appeared as if she was about to announce something.

"Ladies and gentleman, we apologise for any inconveniences caused but we suspect the powerlines were damaged during last night's thunderstorm so we were,and are, still without electricity for the time being. While we work to get the generators operational, everything will still run as normal. Breakfast has been prepared in the dining area and a battery powered radio is available in the reception area. Thank you all for listening and once again, we humbly apologise for any inconveniences!" She concluded.

Robert walked into the dining area and found an empty table nearest to the window and gave his order to the waitress.

"What were you working on dad…" Robert wondered as he stared out the window.

Simply put, Robert had no idea what his father's actual occupation was. He knew his father was in love with anything to do with history and he was often always away on some expedition or trip. He offered Robert to go with him on some of his trips but Robert never really shared the same love for history as his father so he declined most of the time but there were some that he went on with his old man.

Robert sat for a while thinking about the last time he was on a trip with his father when a man sat down opposite Robert. The man was a matured man, probably late 40s to early fifties, dressed in beige trousers, a red striped shirt and some glasses. There was something familiar about him though but Robert was more concerned about why he sat across him.

"You don't mind yeah?" the man said with a slight english accent.

"I-I guess not…uhm do I know you?" Robert asked.

"So I take it you don't remember me?"

"Should I?" Robert asked with a slight smile.

"Well it has been some time hasn't it? Almost 7 years I'd say." The man chuckled.

"7 years…wait in Cairo! You were with my dad and I! Uhm Finn right?"

"That's the one. Good to see you Robert! How've you been chap?"

"I've been great and you?"

"I've been getting old!" Finn said with that famous humour he was known for.

"What are you doing here?"

"Ah just passing through. I saw your mum just yesterday. She's really excited to be seeing you."

"Yeah, she's been calling everyday. So where are you headed off to?"

"I was here to explore the mountain range. This area has some interesting history. Your father and I came here at one stage after being tipped off from an unreliable source, in my opinion, so we found that people say that something is inside the mountain. A great power that dwells within. Try as we might, we couldn't find a single opening,cave,tunnel… so we abandoned the search. I came back to check on any parts that we missed but I landed up finding this."

Finn reached into his pocket and brought out a weird sort of stone in the shape of the number eight. It looked rough, and very black in colour.

"What is it?" Robert asked.

"I don't know…I think its a key of sorts. A key into the mountain."

"Did you find what was inside?"

"No, I couldn't bring myself to go in without your father so I'll leave it in your hands. Not many people know about it but some might come poking in around to find the mysterious power so one day if you decide to go on an adventure or expedition, here's where you can start off." He said, handing over the object to Robert.

"Thanks." Robert said as he looked the object over.

"Well I best going off now. Cheers and say hi to your mum for me." Finn said as he stood up to leave.

"Will do."

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Robert stood outside of his mother's new house. It was a small place with a picket fence, a garden on the left and a picnic table on the right of the front lawn. The house itself was small and painted in a light orange colour.

Robert knocked on the door and was greeted with a hug by his mother.

"Robbie! Its so good to see you! Come in come in!" Mary-Anne exclaimed as she led Robert into the cosy lounge of the house.

"So what do you think?" She asked.

"It looks great. Its nice, cosy and surprisingly lively. The neighbours are friendly and, busy. It seems nice."

The two sat in conversation for a while catching up on the past few months they haven't seen each other.

_________________________________

Robert checked the time was 20:30 and packed his bags in the guest room.

He pulled out the object Finn had given him and stared at it for a while. On further inspection he noticed the object now had a faint yellow glow to it.

He walked to the living room to ask his mom if any of his father's items like a diary was there.

She told him of the diary his father wanted to give him.

After retrieving the diary, Robert started reading through it. Absorbing page after of information that luckily pertained to this particular "artifact" that he held. The last entry in the diary was what got Robert's attention as it read:"My ongoing quest to find the origin of the 'key' has lead me to Pinewood Mountain Range. I believe that somewhere along the mountain, the 'key' must be inserted and the mountain will open to reveal a long hidden power but we hit a bit of a snag. The was a slight tremor that day that resulted in falling rocks and boulders from the mountain summit. The mountain rangers had evacuated the area immediately and closed the mountain range until they were sure that no more rock avalanches would occur so unfortunately we had to halt our excavation. I gave up the quest and the key as it served as a constant reminder of my failure to discover what lay in the mountain. Anyway now I can return back home to wallow in self-pity."

Robert eyed the key. He decided that he would complete his father's mission of seeing if indeed the mountain had something inside of it.

Robert told his mother he was going out and quickly drove to the mountain range.
__________________________________________________________________

Now in the surrounding forrest, the full moon shining in the star glittered night sky, Robert navigated his way through the woods. The wind rustling the leaves added to the tranquility that Robert found in the forrest.

Up ahead the mountain stood high and mighty above the land. The local hikers and mountain climbers say that simply being on the mountain was a thrill in itself. You versus nature.

As Robert approached the looming mountain, clad in climbing gear, the key was glowing ever so brightly and was even becoming warmer. Robert knew it was dangerous to scale a mountain at night but his sense of adventure clouded his judgment.

He stood at the foot of the mountain and peered all the way up trying to the summit but he couldn't. Up close, the mountain was a thousand times larger and a thousand times more imposing which only served to add to the need to scale it. Roberts now understood why the climbers had called it a thrill to be on the mountain.

Robert placed the key in one of his pockets and prepared himself for some rigorous climbing. After a while, Robert reached a ledge he could climb on to and pulled himself on to it. He rested on the edge of the ledge, dangling his legs over it and taking in the view of the north side of the range.

Robert took out the key and saw that the glow was much more bright now. Robert stood up off the edge and traversed across the ledge which he now saw was a large flat surface. He walked across the strangely smooth surface but stopped when he observed a gaping, 8 feet wide gap in between his side of the surface and the other side.

"Well shit." Robert said aloud.

Deciding to turn back and find a way around he stopped and pulled out the key. There was pulling force on it like how a small metal object is drawn to a magnet but the key was pulling towards the other side of the gap. Robert eyed the gap to his proposed destination and considered whether he could make the jump or not. He was in good physical shape but this was quite the distance and the gap only lead to a rocky demise, 30 feet below.

Tensing himself, Robert walked back a few paces and broke into full sprint. As he approached the edge he jumped off with his stronger right foot and held his heart in his mouth as he was in mid-air. Robert quickly tucked into a roll when he landed on the other side of the gap, panting heavily from what he had just done. He had a quick little chuckle to himself as he realized that he could have very well died tonight.

Standing up, Robert pulled out the key and saw that the glow and the pulling force were very strong now. He followed where the key was being pulled on most and eventually found himself facing a smooth wall. He brought the key closer to the wall when suddenly a hole in the shape of the key appeared on the wall. Robert shrugged his shoulders and inserted the key into the wall. The mountain side started trembling when the wall started opening inward. The tremor quickly faded away.

"Well here goes nothing." Robert announced out loud as he entered the mountain wall.

The tunnel Robert was walking through was pitch black. Robert couldn't even see his hand right in front of his face so he pulled out his flashlight. The tunnel appeared to snake downward and probably to a chamber, Robert guessed to himself.

As Robert walked down the tunnel he could feel that there was something else in the mountain, something big.

After what felt like hours, the tunnel finally ended and lead into a chamber. When Robert walked entered the chamber he was shocked to see its size. The roof of the chamber was high like REALLY high. The walls of the chamber were lined with shining emeralds that gave light to the chamber and made it look all the more beautiful.

A few hundred feet away there was a huge column. It was about 300 feet in height and spanned about 2000 feet in width and length and was positively intimidating yet it looked there was something resting on it. Robert walked across the column tracing his hand on it. When he got to the other side of the column he saw a huge door at the far side of the chamber. It looked like it was made of solid gold. Robert dismissed that it was a door purely because nothing that big existed. It was probably just shaped like that from the past civilization that created this chamber.

Robert turned back to face the huge column when he noted small holes on the side of the column he was facing. They looked like hand holds. Robert approached the holes and carefully started scaling the column. As he was climbing Robert wondered why this ancient civilization had built this column. Maybe it had gold at the top?

When Robert finally got to the top of the column he looked around the chamber from his new vantage point. He turned back to look at what the column held but he saw something that just shouldn't be real.

Resting a few feet away from him was a mane of vibrant brown hair that led to a huge skull. As Robert looked down the length of the column he saw that it wasn't treasure resting on the column but a huge body! A female body!

"No way! This isn't real. I'm just dreaming!" Robert spoke out loud, convincing himself that he was in a dream.

Robert walked over to the side of the head and slowly reached his hand over to touch the giant woman's cheek, expecting to not feel anything and then wake up from this crazy dream. When he finally did touch the huge cheek Robert felt that it was warm and soft. He quickly retracted his hand when he felt a spark. Robert suddenly felt a drowsy feeling overcoming him and thought that he was finally going to wake up in his mother's guest room.

The world started spinning and fading away when Robert finally passed out not seeing the giant female's eyes slowly blink open.