They were waiting for Benji when he got back from working on the latest cabin.
When he noticed the group in front of Isis’s cabin and saw that they were all looking at him, he braced himself and strode forward.
Raising his hands, he said, “It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t do it. I’m sure I can fix it.”
That caused everyone to laugh.
“Save your excuses for next time,” Jax said with a grin.
“For once, you seem to have done something right… probably by accident.”
When Benji saw Chantel in the crowd, he said, “You told on me, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I’m afraid I did,” she said, taking his hand and leading him to the group.
“Let me guess,” he said to Jax, “you want to go find that big old tree.”
“Right on the first guess,” Jax replied, “and we want you to go with us.”
“Why me? You and Piper are the intrepid explorers.”
“To be honest, Benji, I can’t really say why,” Jax replied, “but we all know that things happen in this valley for a reason, and it was you who came up with the idea of the ‘history tree.’”
“Oh, I’m not trying to get out of going,” Benji said. “If you haven’t noticed from my size and long fur, I’m totally at home up in the mountains with that wonderful cold air.”
“But you and Piper had better pack your winter woollies,” he said with a grin.
“I don’t need woollies,” Piper grinned, “I’ll just snuggle with Jax.”
“Now, that’s an idea,” Benji said, looking at Chantel.
“Oh, no,” she said, “I’m a warm weather girl.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing. If we get high enough in the mountains, we might even find some snow to play in,” he said with a mischievous grin.
“I’ll save you a place by the fire for when you get back,” she said. “But all that aside, let’s start planning your trip.”
Benji turned to Jax, “I’m sure you and Piper already have a plan figured out.”
“We were thinking of a three- or four-day trip to start with,” Jax said. “There’s no reason to treat it like a major expedition. We can just make short trips, coming back to the village to regroup and resupply.”
“I suppose you’re planning on heading out first thing in the morning,” Benji said.
“Yeah, I thought we’d start at the cliff where the cave is and follow along the cliffs up into the mountains on the south side of the valley,” Jax explained.
“Sounds like a plan,” Benji agreed. “I’ll put a pack together and meet you here in the morning, but right now, I want to get cleaned up before dinner.”
That night at dinner, Chantel and Benji were sitting together.
“So, while I’m gone, who are you going to get to walk with you to the cave at night?” Benji asked.
“I think we’ll be okay on our own,” Chantel replied. “I was going to say something, but I’ve enjoyed walking with you every night.”
“I’m glad you didn’t say anything,” Benji smiled. “I’ve enjoyed spending time with you too.”
“I guess when I get back, we’ll have to come up with another excuse to spend time together.”
“Yeah, we’d better, because nobody suspects a thing,” Chantel said sarcastically.
“It is a ‘thing,’ isn’t it?” Benji said, holding her hand.
“Yeah, it’s a thing,” Chantel said with a smile.
Early the next morning, Jax, Piper, and Benji were walking toward the edge of the village when Chantel hurried to catch up.
“I thought you might want to take these with you,” she said, handing Benji a package. “It’s a batch of those cookies you liked so much. They’re actually a very good trail food. They are, after all, mostly just ground up dried meat mixed with fat, berries and nuts.”
“There’s plenty, so maybe Jax and Piper can talk you into sharing with them.”
“Anyway, I’m glad I caught you,” she said, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. “Now go find that tree.”
Jax and Piper tried to act like they didn’t notice Benji blushing as they left the village.
When they reached the cliffs, they took a break.
“Okay, here’s where we start,” Jax said. “We’ll walk along the line of cliffs up to the higher levels.”
“As long as we’re going this way,” Piper said, “we might as well scan the cliffs as we go. I’m beginning to think there are a lot of unusual things in this valley.”
Jax saw Benji munching away, “You’re breaking out those cookies already?”
“Sure, do you want one? No? How about you, Piper?”
“Maybe later, Jax, and I had a big breakfast,” she said, swinging her pack up on her back.
“Okay,” Benji said, brushing some crumbs off his fur. “Let’s head for the mountains.”
They hiked into the late afternoon and were approaching rock slides at the base of the mountains. High peaks rose above them.
“You know, if we’re looking for trees,” Benji said, “there’s no use going above the tree line.”
“I hadn’t really thought about it, but yeah, that does make sense,” Jax said.
“It’s probably about time to start looking for a campsite,” Piper said. “We’ll need to gather some wood for a fire. It’s going to get a little chilly tonight.”
Later, sitting near the campfire, they started making plans for the next day.
“So, exactly what are we looking for?” Piper asked. “We’re high enough now that there are definite seasons, so this might be a good area to plant their tree. So what do we do now, just look for a suspicious looking tree?”
“I think we need to find an isolated clearing,” Benji replied, “probably sheltered from high winds.”
“So we probably won’t see it unless we get higher up, so we can look down to find it,” Jax said.
“That sounds like a lot of work, and even a little dangerous,” Piper said.
“It’s possible there would be a way into that clearing from down where we are,” Benji said.
“It would make a lot more sense to look for that before we start climbing mountains,” Piper said.
“Let’s do that then,” Jax said. “That’s a good way to start.”
They were up with the sun the next morning. After stoking the fire for a warm breakfast, they were ready for another day of hiking.
They hiked along the foothills of the mountains, looking for any feature that might be what they were looking for.
“This is really guesswork,” Jax said, “but for now, we might as well just relax and trust what our gut tells us.”
“Strangely enough, the way things have been happening, that makes sense,” Piper said.
“I agree,” Benji said as he followed behind the two. “Relax and let it happen.”
For the next two days, the three cats explored along the area at the base of the mountains. They took time to probe deeper into any feature that looked like it might lead to a sheltered area. They found nothing. Finally, they decided to head back down to the village.
“Well, that was a nice bit of exercise,” Benji said, following a game trail downhill, “but we’ve got nothing to show for the effort.”
“It would have been way too much to expect results this soon,” Piper said.
“Yeah, I know, I guess I was just feeling lucky.”
“If nothing else,” Jax said, “we’re getting a good idea of the lay of the land in this part of our valley.”
“When we get back, we’ll want to update the maps we’ve been making since we got to the valley,” Jax continued.
“That’s true,” Piper said, “most of our valley is unexplored territory.”
“Alright, so this trip hasn’t been a total bust,” Benji said. “I have to say, I am looking forward to getting back.”
“We’re making good time heading home,” Jax said. “We should be back in time for dinner.”
“I imagine we smell a little funky after days on the trail,” Benji said. “I’m planning to jump in the stream for a quick wash-up as soon as we get home.”
“You wouldn’t want to offend a certain lady, would you?” Piper kidded him.
“I won’t lie,” Benji said. “That’s what I was thinking about. I’m looking at things a little differently now.”
“As far as Jax and I are concerned,” Piper said, “we both stink about the same, so we don’t even notice.”
“Well, I wasn’t going to say anything, but…” Jax said with a grin.
“Why you dirty rotten…” she growled, looking for something to throw at him.
Luckily, nothing was handy, but Jax knew he’d end up paying for that remark.
“I can see a bath in your future, Jax,” Benji laughed.
Back at the village, after all three cats had indeed ended up in the stream. Once they dried off, they all had clean, fluffy fur and a distinct absence of funk.
“Okay, I think we’re safe to show up for dinner,” Benji said.
“Were you planning to let Chantel know you were home,” Piper asked, “or were you just going to surprise her at dinner?”
“I was just going to see her at dinner,” Benji replied. “Why do you ask?”
“Well, a lady doesn’t always want to be taken for granted,” Piper said. “Maybe you should offer to escort her to dinner.”
“You’re right, thanks for the advice,” he said as he left to ask a certain lady cat to dinner.
Dinner that night was another of Taniki’s surprises. She was making good use of the fire pit that Pinky and his crew had made for her.
Kyron had brought in a good-sized buck and had helped her cut it into manageable portions. Taniki wrapped the venison, along with a selection of vegetables and spices, in the large leaves that she cut from the glimmer bush. For dessert, she set out a selection of various kinds of cookies.
The meal was delicious, but everyone was talking about the cookies.
Chantel was sitting next to Benji, “Taniki let me use her kitchen to make the cookies I gave you for your trip. When she tried one, she was impressed by how good they were and how nutritious they had to be, considering the ingredients. She’s been trying different variations of my recipe, and I’ve got to tell you that some are better than mine.”
“Well, we really enjoyed them on our trip to the mountains,” Benji said. “They seem to be just what a body craved on a tough hike.”
“Exactly, we think the cookies would make an excellent trail food for all our cats to take with them when they travel,” Chantel said.
“So, you’ve given up interpreting drawings to take up baking cookies?” Benji asked, a little puzzled.
“No, silly. I just made those cookies for you, and it just took off from there. All these new cookies are Taniki’s thing.”
“So, how is your work at the cave going?” he asked.
“Well, we’re coming up with a lot more questions. If that’s progress, then we’re doing quite well.”
“Remember that part of the drawing that showed cats moving boxes of papers into a cave?” Chantel asked. “Well, if we could find that cave, I’m sure we would find a lot of answers.”
“We did keep an eye out for caves in the cliffs on our way up to the mountains,” Benji said, “but we drew a blank.”
“We didn’t have any luck finding the history tree either,” he added. “Of course, we’ve just started our search. We’ll be heading out again in the morning.”
“So soon? I thought you’d be back for a few days,” she said, sounding disappointed.
“Yeah, that would have been nice, but I’m just following Jax’s lead. We probably should keep after it as long as we have ideas on where to search.”
“It’s really going to be something when you do finally find that tree,” she said.
After that, they just sat together, holding hands, watching all the other cats.
Jax and Piper were talking to Isis and Cisco about their trip.
“We skirted along the foothills, looking for a sheltered place where the tree might be,” Jax was saying. “Unless we’re really lucky, it’s going to take a long time to search out every nook and cranny along the base of the mountains.”
“We do have an alternate plan,” Piper said. “We think if we climb higher up on the side of the mountain, we should have a better view looking down.”
“When are you going to head back out?” Cisco asked, looking across the clearing to where Benji and Chantel were sitting close together.
“We figured first thing in the morning,” Jax said. “And yes, we already told Benji. We want to get this done.”
The next morning, the three cats met for a good breakfast before heading back up to the mountains.
“So, what are we doing different this time?” Benji asked.
“Well, for one thing, we’re all carrying a warm fur robe,” Piper said. “It turns out it did get pretty cold up there.”
“It did get chilly once the fire died down at night,” Jax agreed.
“Even I’m not going to complain about a little extra warmth at night,” Benji said.
“The only other things I could think to bring,” Jax said, finishing the last of his breakfast, “were a couple of coils of rope and a good supply of Chantel’s and Taniki’s cookies.”
It was late in the afternoon when the three cats got to the base of the mountains.
“Well, here we are, right where we were five days ago,” Piper said, dropping her pack at their old campsite.
“There’s still some time before sunset,” Jax said, looking up at the mountains. “Let’s drop our packs and see how high we need to go to get a decent view from above.”
“I’m comfortable climbing with my pack on,” Benji said. “It’s not like we’re going to be doing any real rock climbing.”
“Yeah, we’ll mainly just be scrambling up old rock slides,” Piper replied.
“Alright, your choice Benji,” Jax said. “Come on, I’ll take the lead.”
Jax was able to find areas that were clear of the loose shale, letting them climb high enough to get a good look at the foothills below.
“We can see a wide area from here,” Benji said. “But we’re going to have to cover that area in detail.”
“I think we’re going to have to mentally divide what we can see into sections and then carefully study each section.”
“Do we know what it’s going to look like from up here?” Jax asked.
“We’ve all seen sketches of the symbol,” Benji replied. “So, I guess we’re looking for a circle with a big tree in the center and seven somethings around the edge.”
“In other words, you’ll know it when you see it,” Piper said.
“Okay, let’s climb back down,” Jax said, turning to head back down the slope. “We’ll hit it hard tomorrow.”
The next day, they had decided on a plan of action. The day before, they’d seen that the wide areas of loose shale would be too dangerous to cross, so the plan was for one cat to climb straight up, using clear paths, to where they could view the section they wanted to scan. Around noon, the first cat would come down, and the next cat would climb up to get a view of the next section. That would give them around three hours to carefully study their section. At least one cat would try to keep the cat on the mountain in sight, though it was at quite a distance.
“Benji, you take the first shift,” Jax told him. “Piper will be your spotter, and I’ll scout along the foothills for where I’ll head up after you come down.”
“Okay, I’ll see you in a few hours,” Benji said, heading for the trail leading up the slopes.
Once he found his chosen spot, he got busy setting out stakes, dividing the area he could see into smaller chunks. Then he settled down and started to pick out all the details of the foothills below.
After hours of not finding anything of interest, with the sun overhead, he identified a prominent feature at the edge of his area so he could describe where the next cat could mark the start of the next section. After that, he looked around to make sure he hadn’t left anything behind, then he shouldered his pack and headed down.
“I think we’ve got a good system,” Benji said as Jax was about to climb up to his viewing position. “If the ‘tree circle’ is of any size, we should spot it.”
“One thing, though, you really have to concentrate. When you’re up there in the quiet with the warm sunshine, it’s easy to start daydreaming.”
“Yeah, I can see how that could happen,” Jax replied.
“I’ll be keeping an eye on you this afternoon while Piper scouts out her path for tomorrow,” Benji told him. “We’ll be right at this spot when you come back down this evening.”
Jax’s afternoon shift on the slopes was a duplicate of Benji’s that morning. Sitting around the fire at the new campsite, they compared notes as they ate. The plan for the next day was more of the same. Piper would go up in the morning, and Benji would be back up on the slopes in the afternoon.
As Benji was looking for the route he’s take in the afternoon, Jax watched Piper pick her way up the slope, avoiding the areas of loose shale. He relaxed when he saw that she’d reached her viewing spot.
Jax looked off to his left to see where they’d be searching in the next few days. He was careful to keep returning to his view of Piper up on the slope.
“This is both worrying and boring,” he thought to himself.
“I’ve found my path for this afternoon,” Benji said, walking into the campsite. “How’s Piper doing?”
“I haven’t seen her jumping up and down and waving her arms,” Jax replied, “so I’m guessing she hasn’t found anything yet.”
“I can’t say this is very exciting,” Benji said, “but I can’t think of a better way to do it.”
Eventually, Piper started down to where they were waiting.
Jax greeted her and took her pack when she finally joined them.
“The only thing I can report is that my butt went to sleep while I was sitting there,” Piper said with a tired grin. “I was walking funny until I got the blood flowing again.”
“And don’t you dare say that’s how I always walk,” she said, giving Jax a stern look.
“I would never say that,” he said with an innocent grin. “I like the way you walk.”
“Yeah, well anyway, I’m glad I’m done for the day,” she said.
“Are you ready for your turn again, Benji?”
“Yep, I’ve got a good spot picked out with a nice comfy rock to sit on,” he replied. “Actually, you know those warm robes we brought with us? They make an excellent cushion to sit on.”
“I’ll remember that for my next shift,” she said, unconsciously rubbing her butt.
Up on the mountain again, Benji set out his stakes to help divide up his view, then he resumed his search for the circle with the tree in the center. Like the day before, he started on the left and slowly scanned that slice of terrain from near to far. Then he’d switch to the next slice and repeated his scan.
Later in the afternoon, as Piper was keeping watch, there was a rumble on the mountain.
Piper stood up, looking for Benji as a cloud of dust obscured the area where he’d been. She moved back and forth, squinting and shielding her eyes, trying to spot him.
“Jax!” she yelled, “Benji’s in trouble!”
Jax came running out of the forest. “Where is he!”
“Somewhere in that cloud of dust!” Piper yelled, pointing toward where she’d last seen him.
“Alright,” Jax said, “grab your pack, let’s get up there.”
The two cats took off at a run, which soon slowed to a frantic climb.
By the time they got to where Benji had been, most of the dust cloud had blown away.
“Benji, where are you!” Piper yelled.
“Careful, Piper,” Jax said, “these rocks are pretty unstable.”
Standing in place so they didn’t start another slide, they looked all around, yelling his name.
“You’re sure this is where he was?” Jax asked.
“As sure as I can be,” she replied.
“Wait! Look down there.” she yelled, pointing. “That’s his pack!”
They carefully made their way down to the pack, where they started picking up the smaller rocks and throwing them out of the way.
Jax grabbed a hold of the pack and gave it a tug, but it was stuck fast.
They continued with their frantic digging through the rocks and found what was holding the pack in place. There was a big cat’s hand tightly gripping one of the straps.
Still not getting a response when Jax called his name, he started furiously moving the rocks out of the way.
“Hold on a second, Jax.” Piper said, taking a hold of the hand holding the pack. “I want to check for a pulse.”
“Okay, go ahead,” Jax said, stopping to catch his breath.
“I’ve got a pulse, so he’s probably still breathing… I hope,” Piper said.
“We don’t want these rocks to shift and crush him,” she cautioned. “Let’s go slow and careful.”
They finally moved enough rocks to determine that he was relatively unhurt.
When they tried to move him, he woke with a scream of pain.
“Stop, stop, stop,” Jax yelled.
“Okay, I’m not moving him,” Piper said.
Benji just groaned.
After carefully uncovering the rest of him, they could see that one of his legs was pinned under a giant boulder.
“Well, that’s not good,” Jax said, trying to shift the boulder. “There’s no moving that.”
“We might be able to dig underneath it, but we’ll have to be sure it doesn’t move.”
Benji was starting to come around.
“Damn, one more jump and I could have gotten out of the way,” he said groggily, then he passed out again.
“We’re going to have to get some help,” Piper said. “We need cats to make sure that rock doesn’t move while the rest of us try to dig Benji out from underneath.”
“Do you want to go or should I?” Jax asked.
“You go. I’ll stay and take care of him,” Piper replied. “Get that robe out of his pack and wrap it around him as best you can. We need to keep him warm.”
“Here’s his pack. I’ll wrap him up,” Jax said. “It’s going to be quite a while before I get back, so you stay warm too. For that matter, here, take my rope too. I won’t need it on the run back to the village.”
“Thanks,” Piper said, taking the robe and giving him a hug. “Hurry, but be careful. See you in a while.”
Once he was clear of the slope, Jax took off running for the forest trail that would take him down to the village.