The Dragon's Treasure

Chapter 1-1

Chapter 1

Carly Tate hummed to the music playing on the radio as she slowed to a stop at the front entrance to Yachats State Park. Today was the day! She was taking control of her life. In reality, today was actually the third day of ‘Today was the Day’. She was going to start exercising, lose some weight, focus on getting a better job, and perhaps even think about moving out of Yachats, Oregon. Heck, she might even consider moving to Portland or Seattle.

“One baby step at a time,” she said out loud, repeating her new mantra.

She just needed to concentrate on staying focused, which was not something that she was especially good at. Luckily, her roommate and best friend, since forever, loved her just the way she was – most of the time. Poor Jenny had the best shoulders to cry on, and only went a little nuts when Carly went to pieces after she chose to date the wrong kind of guys – like Ross Galloway.

“How many?” the ranger asked in a slightly bored tone.

“Just me,” Carly replied, handing him her state park pass.

“Be careful along the trails; it looks like we have a storm coming. Park closes at sunset. Please park in designated areas only and don’t feed any wildlife,” the ranger said, handing back her pass, along with a map, and the parking pass for her car dash.

“Thank you,” Carly responded.

She decided it was probably best not to tell the ranger that they had had this same conversation the last three days in a row. This would make her fourth trip in as many days. She now had a nice stack of maps littering her passenger seat.

Accelerating, she followed the winding road. The same old feelings started to choke her the farther she drove. She reached over and turned up the music just as she had done for the last three days, hoping it would kick her adrenaline into gear and not her imagination.

Tall redwoods and other evergreens lined the narrow, winding road. Green moss grew on the rocks, making them slippery, and lush ferns rose up past her hips. Carly knew exactly how slippery the moss was and how high the ferns were because yesterday when she’d reached the top of the path, she had stepped up on a rock for a “Rocky movie moment” and had promptly – and very inelegantly – landed on her ass in the middle of some ferns.

Carly was not a graceful athlete. In fact, just using the word athlete and her name in the same sentence was enough to qualify to go on the Comedy Central Standup Comedian circuit. She had decided the day before that she had a better chance of becoming a mega-star comedian than she did losing the weight she wanted and hiking the full length of the trail without killing herself in the process. Still, she had sworn to Jenny – her very athletic best friend – that she was going to do this even if it killed her.

“Unfortunately, it just might,” Carly muttered when she shifted in the driver’s seat of her dark red Ford Focus and felt the bruises and protesting muscles from her fall the day before.

She was still muttering under her breath when she pulled into the parking spot near the entrance to a hiking trail and turned off the ignition. She hadn’t tried this trail yet. Picking up one of the maps from the pile, she glanced at it and wrinkled her nose before releasing a low groan.

“Four miles,” she moaned, leaning her forehead against the steering wheel. “You can do this, Carly. It’s only four miles. It will be a walk in the park.” A snort escaped her at the pun. “Okay, you do this and you can treat yourself to a small ice cream at the Dairy Queen on the way home, how’s that for a reward?”

Leaning back in the seat, she bent over and picked up the small backpack from the floorboard and shoved the map inside. Opening the door, she slid out with another loud groan before glancing around to make sure no one else could see or hear her. She turned, slammed the door shut, and pocketed her car keys.

“Ice cream. Remember the ice cream,” she mumbled under her breath as she forced her aching muscles into motion.

She stepped onto the trail and pulled the denim and leather backpack onto her shoulders. Gripping the straps, she started down the uneven path. “Ice cream…” she muttered with each of the first two hundred and seventy-one steps before she started focusing on other more important things – like hungry bears, mountain lions, and Big Foot.