It's almost sunset.
Extremely exhausted, he sat on the huge, jagged, wind sculptured, granite monolith that marked the summit of Monte Trésor.
Rogelio Pagoto breathed a sigh of relief as he gazed across the western
horizon. As seconds went by, the perfectly round midsummer, evening
sun had been gradually hiding behind the distant, rugged hills. With
the priceless vista in front of him, all he wanted was to savour this
moment!
"Finally!" he said.
The
random patches of orange lichens covering the gigantic rock he was
sitting on had turned golden-- as if glistening against the final glow
of the day. Minutes later, darkness engulfed the mountain range! Then
Rogelio thought about his backpack- it was almost empty. The three-day
journey up to the peak had completely depleted all his provisions. So
as the unseen forest crickets started chirping, he felt another
challenge he's facing right now. Darkness... frigidity... starvation.
But there's something waiting for him! According to the legend, Monte Trésor
promises brightness, warmth and abundance. Rogelio believed all the
tales that had been told about this mystic mountain so armed with faith,
courage, and determination, he took the treacherous, less travelled
trek and luckily conquered it.
Troubled, he stayed lying on the rock for a few minutes blankly staring on the starless sky. The night was pitch black.
Rogelio
finally decided to stand and as he laid his right hands flat on the
supposedly lichen-carpeted granite surface, within the crevice, he
surprisingly felt a small purse half-full of round, soft and smooth tiny
balls. His heart rate had risen, unusually beating stronger! He
quickly grabbed the purse believing that it might be the treasure that
everyone had been searching for!
As he was
excitedly loosening up the purse's string, he suddenly spotted something
that's glistening ten metres away! Rogelio was on a serious dilemma
because according to the legend, there were plenty of treasures
interspersed within the moss-covered rock, scattered around the summit Monte Trésor.
The worthy recipient, however, could only possess ONE (and not both) to
achieve happiness and success in life! So now he had to choose- take
the vintage purse he was holding or grab the one that's glittering at a
distance.
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NOTE: 'Trésor' is a French word for treasure.
