"So how are we actually going to find this thing?" Declan asks.

After getting cleaned up from our fight with the Hogmer, we bought our tickets and had a look at the map that we got with the tickets.

"Accordin' to the map 'ere, we are currently next to the golf course and plantation walk." Amber tells us while carefully studying the map in her hands.

"How many attractions are there?" I ask her.

"Thirteen in total. There is." Amber clears her throat loudly, "the tickets, theatre and tour section, which we just passed. The gift shop. The cafe and ice creamery. The plantation walk. The sky walk. The look out. The mini golf course. The nursery. The candy making kitchen. The water park. The toboggan ride, and last but not least, the laser tag."

"The candy making kitchen sounds as good a place as any to start looking." Declan not-so-subtly puts in.

I roll my eyes at Declan thinking of his stomach again. "Ok guys, this thing is going to be small, about a fifth of the size of a pen." I tell them.

"How'd we know wha' it looks like?" Amber asks.

"How bad is Gareths memory loss? He forgot to tell us this too?" Declan shakes his head sadly.

"Seriously Declan? This is serious." Amber elbows him in the ribs.

"Hey-" Declan begins to say.

"Guys! Stop!" I push them apart, "this is serious as Amber said, so just stop. I don't know what it looks like but I'm willing to bet that we'll know what it is when we see it. If we wouldn't be able to work out what it is then Gareth would've told us. He obviously knew that we will know what it is when we see it." I repeat the bit about knowing what it is when we see it in hope that they get the point.

"Then where d'we start lookin' for it?" Amber asks.

"We'll start at the plantation walk and make our way up towards the top of the park I guess." I shrug at her.

"Should we split up? Cover more space in less time, phone each other if we find it or something of interest? Because I think the candy making kitchen is like, up there somewhere." Declan points in the direction where he thinks the candy making kitchen is.

"No." Amber and I say in unison.

"One of the only things that movies teach ya is to never split up when on a mission because someone always finds someone that's trying to kill 'em. Technically speaking this is a mission so we're stickin' together unless ya have a death wish." Amber says to Declan.

"Besides, that Hogmer is still on the loose around here somewhere. Who knows how many buddies he has with him." I add.

Declan sighs, upset that he can't go to the candy making kitchen straight away.

Through out the whole walk we look out for this 'lavapick piece'. After checking every small stick, ends of straws, rubbish, we still haven't found anything. There are still twelve more attractions to go so the chances of the lava pick piece being here was pretty small, but still it is a bit of a disappointment.

We spend the rest of the morning going to each of the attractions. We get a little distracted at some of the places like laser tag and candy making kitchen, but all in all we look really hard for this mysterious lavapick piece.

On our last activity, I'm starting to wonder whether or not it blew away in the wind. Or if someone mistook it for rubbish and popped it into a rubbish bin. By the way Gareth was talking, with it being long forgotten by many, I'm really considering it no longer being here. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I realise how low the chances of it being here really is.

After finishing the water park, our last activity, all of my thoughts about it not being here have been confirmed. I plop down on a near by bench and run my hands over my face in frustration. "This thing is tiny, it's been here for ages, the wind, the people. Yeah it was never very likely that it was here anyway." I say to Amber and Declan who sit down next to me on either side.

"Who said that it was in an attraction?" Amber asks, trying but failing to lighten the mood.

Declan and I raise an eyebrow at her. Amber sighs in defeat and slouches down into the bench that we're sitting on.

"Should we go back to Gareth and tell him that it's not here?" Declan quietly asks after a couple of minutes silence.

I close my eyes. There were five pieces that we had to find and we couldn't even find the first one. I hate failing a mission, of any sort. But this is what was going to get back the homestead. I feel like punching something, just so I can get this feeling of failure out of me.

I take a couple of final deep breaths and stand up. "We'll go back to Gareth. Tell him what's happened and that he should get someone else to do it cause we can't." I try to keep my voice as emotionless as I can, but at the end I can hear my voice crack a little.

Because of us, the homestead could be forever compromised. I don't want to think about their lives currently. We'll do something to help, but the simple truth still remains. We failed.

I guess we all know that this is it because without any words spoken between us, we turn and walk out of the dreaded big banana.

As we're about to walk out of the exit, a man with a strong English accent comes up to us, "Excuse me for interrupting, but it's been reopened now, after cleaning it."

I look at the man weirdly, "look I'm not having the best of days at the moment so I'm just going to say it, I do not want to buy anything." I can't believe what people do for a bit of money these days. It's ridiculous.

The man shakes his head and smiles, "no, no ma'am. Its open again. What you were waiting for, yes?" The man grabs my arm to stop me from leaving and points towards the big banana it's self.

"What do you mean it's open? I haven't been waiting to go anywhere." I tell him, trying to get my arm back.

"Come." The man says, gripping my arm more tightly, he drags me over to the big banana.

I'm about to give the guy a nice, big, punch to the nose when something clicks in my mind. Something that has already cheered me up immensely.

Australia's yummiest attraction isn't the big bananas park, it's the big banana itself. I grin at the strange guy who is still pulling my arm. When he notices my expression, he drops my arm and walks off to do whatever. I can feel the waves of extreme confusion radiating of Amber and Declan.

When we're only a meter or two in front of the big banana, I stop and look at Declan and Amber. "We are literally the biggest idiots ever." I happily tell them.

"Love you to, Micky." Declan mumbles.

I give them another large smile and look back at the big banana. I focus on every square inch of it, looking for the first piece. When I get to the end of it, amongst all the brownness of the end of the banana, I finally spot what I have been looking for. The first lavapick piece.

I know that it's probably against the rules of this place to go climbing on the big banana but I need to get this one way or another. Using small dents and holes in the banana, I manage to climb up and grab the first piece.

When I land back on the ground, I proudly show it to Amber and Declan. The thing is about five millimetres long, jus like Gareth said. It's a bronze colour, with blotches of gold on it. It's straight and surprisingly heavy in my hand.

They both stare at it, just as shocked as I was. All of a sudden Amber starts laughing. "We are so stupid." She manages to say in between her giggles.

"I know. I feel so bad now, I had worked myself up about not finding it." I tell her, beginning to laugh as well.

"One down, four more to go." Declan happily says.

"So what d'we do now then?" Amber asks.

I shrug at her, "get back to Valerie I guess. See if we bump into someone that's going to give us the next clue."

With that, we begin our walk to the nearest road go grab a taxi. We wait by the side of the road, looking out for one. "Ma'am." A voice behind me says.

I turn to see the English man at helped us before. "Thank you. I'm sorry for what I said to you before." I say to him. I feel really bad though, I practically told him to go away because he trying to sell me rubbish.

"Oh, don't worry, it's fine." The man smiles at me. "Mount Everest's shadow and fan." With that he turns and walks away.

Declan raises an eyebrow, "this place is full of weirdos if you ask me." He mutters.

Amber gives him a little shove in the shoulder. "I'm pretty sure that, that was our clue."

"Mount Everest's shadow and fan??? What the heck is that supposed to mean?" I ask them. Is this a person? Or what?

"I'm with Micky here, on that one." Declan says.

"Let's get back to Valerie and work it out there, I guess." I say to them, "we should probably call Gareth to, let him know that we found the first piece."

~~~~~~~~

A/N:

The map at the top is the actual Big Banana Map 🍌. So what did you guys think of it? Feedback? It will be helpful, COMMENT and VOTE too, please.