Chapter 1- Not that seal

Letter quest

Chapter 1- Not that seal

"Petraaaa! Petraaaa! Wake up, pudding bum! It's mail sunday!" Kit trilled into Petra's ear. 

"Ow, okay Kit. Calm down alright? I'm tired here," Petra sat up in her rumpled sheets, yawning and glaring bleary-eyed at her older sister.  

"Fine," Kit sighed, rolling her eyes and skipping out of the door, "I'm gooooing first then!"

Petra snuggled back into her warm and silky covers, shutting her eyes blissfully. Finally. No Kit. She was annoying, alright, even though Petra secretly loved her. They had a love-hate relationship. Sometimes, Kit could be... immature. 

Petra could feel herself slowly rolling into the sweet current of sleep... 

"Petty!" Kit screeched in her ear. 

"Ouch! Kit!" Petra moaned, sitting up for the second time, "what now?"

"This is for us! It has that red thingy-ma-blob on it, like in the old days," 

Petra reached out for the envelope that sat in Kit's hand. She took it from her fingers and inspected it.     

"It has a seal on it," Petra traced the engravings and carving in the hard wax, feeling the smooth dips and lines in it. 

"A seal? This isn't an aquarium," Kit looked around for the 'seal', her head turning so quickly it was a blur. 

"Not that seal," Petra laughed, "this," she slid out of her sheets and went up to her desk, placing the cream coloured envelope down on the surface. She slid her long fingers under the seal and pulled it up.

"This seal, Kit," she handed the red wax to Kit. 

"Oh, I knew that," Kit said with a grin. 

Petra flipped the envelope around and her eyes popped at the bold words stamped in red on the back: CONFIDENTIAL 

Then she realised there was no stamp, no name and no address on it. 

"That's odd," she said under breath as she fished out the letter folded inside. Smoothing out the letter on her desk, her gray eyes scanned the words. 

"Kit, come here," Petra said breathlessly. 

"Huh?" Kit came over, her playful face solemn. That was one good thing about Kit. She knew when to be sober. 

"Read this,"

To the reader,

I can only assume this has gotten safely into your hands. I can only assume that you are safe and well. I know I am that, for sure, and I hope you are too. 

We are in great danger. We have to hurry. My dear, there isn't much time. The seconds are ticking away as you read this. 

I need you to be aware this can get into the wrong hands. Therefore, I will not be directly leading you to it. I will present to you a line of clues. Here is your first one. 

Read the following carefully:

In this crucial time

Never stop running

The secret awaits you 

Only you can find it

X marks the spot

I count on you. 

Careful. 

-X

"Any idea who this is from?" Kit looked up at Petra. Petra shrugged.

"Beats me, there wasn't any return address or name or anything like that,"

"Hey, what if we took it to the post office?" 

"Right. But would they tell us?" Petra wondered, furrowing her brow.

"I don't know. But it's always no unless we try," Kit twisted her light brown hair into a bun and sighed, "you're lucky you have curly hair," she stared in envy at Petra's dark ash brown curls. 

"What? Kit, this is not the time to talk about hair. We have this to get to the bottom of,"

Petra held up the letter and turned to face Kit.

"How about we go now?" 

"Come on, we're not ready," Kit gestured to their bedraggled hair and pajamas. 

Petra took Kit's arm and ran into the bathroom.

"Well, are you coming or not?" Petra raised a dark eyebrow.  

"Um... I guess," Kit shrugged. 

"Then hurry," Petra said with a mouthful of toothpaste.