The Biggest Opal Ever

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One lovely day, while Lily was digging in her garden, she saw something peeking out from in the ground. She dug some more around it, and she picked it up to see that it was a map! On the back, it said "Map to the biggest opal ever!" Lily loved opals. They were such beautiful, shiny, valuable stones!

Looking closer, it looked like a map of Australia.

But how am I going to get to Australia? Lily wondered. I don't have a boat.

Then, Lily got an idea. Why not build a boat? It was genius! So Lily went around town with a sharp knife and cut the branches off the trees. She took them all home and tied them together with kite string to make a strong enough raft.

Once the raft was made, she took it out to the nearby beach, put the raft in the water, made sure the branches floated, and hopped on.

She paddled with her hands until she saw Australia. She knew it was Australia because there was a sign that said "Welcome to Australia!"

As she paddled onto the boat dock, people gave her strange looks. They had never seen a child come to Australia on a raft made of tree branches before!

Once she was ashore, Lily took her map out. It looked like she would have to go through the outback, through the underground town of Coober Pedy, and into the Uninviting Cavern, where the opal would be.

Lily went through cities and towns, following the map, until she finally came to the outback.

She wandered around for a little while in the outback, and eventually came across a snake.

It showed its fangs and hissed. Just as it lunged toward her, she wrestled with the snake, tied it in a knot, and went on her merry way.

The rest of the journey across the outback went off without a hitch. She soon arrived at Coober Pedy.

It looked like a house made out of mud, with a grass roof. She walked up to the door and opened it to see a staircase leading down, down, down, and then, at the bottom, she found a long hallway with doors on either side.

These must be doors to houses, Lily thought.

She followed the hallway to the very end, where the map said the Uninviting Cavern would be, but didn't see an opening. She tapped on the dirt wall a little bit and it crumbled into pieces. Lily's heart began to race with panic, but then with excitement, as she saw the opening of the Uninviting Cavern, and there, sitting on a pedestal, was the opal.

Lily took it from the pedestal... and then, big, hairy tarantula spiders lowered themselves down from the ceilings on their silk webs!

Lily ran out of the cavern, dodging spiders all the way. She sprinted through the hallway, flew up the stairs, dashed out the door, raced across the outback, past the tied-up snake, and all the way back to the boat dock. She got on her little raft and paddled as fast as she could back home. Once she got there, her parents were so happy to see her!

"Where have you been?" her mom asked.

"I went to Australia and got the biggest opal ever!" Lily replied.

"Woah, we're going to be rich!" her dad exclaimed. "Tell us how you found it."

"Well, it all started when I was digging in the garden..." Lily started.