Isis looked around the group of cats that had gathered at her cabin.
“I think we’ve got everyone we need to start making plans for our Ice Cave trip.”
“Chantel, have you decided who you want to take with you?” she asked.
“I’m thinking of Gabby from my team,” Chantel replied. “Plus, I’d like to take Benji. He’s pretty well recovered from his knee injury, and the exercise would do him good.”
“What about the rest of your team?” Isis asked. “I would have thought they’re all wanting to be involved in this.”
“They did, but I thought it was important to finish the cave drawings project,” Chantel replied. “We still need copies of the color paintings. With Star, Nicole, and Seraphina working on that, it shouldn’t take too long. Jen will be working with them. I told them I’d make sure they were all included when we return to the History Tree site.”
“Jax and Piper have already said that they’d be going with us.” Isis continued. “They want to do some more exploring in the area.”
“Finally, representing the research and innovation group, Cisco and I will also be joining you all.”
“That sounds good.” Jax said. “That leaves plenty of cats to keep up with what needs to be done here in the village.”
“We’ll gather together in the morning and head downstream to the point where we can go straight up to the Green Spot, then on up to the Ice Cave.”
“Will that work for everybody?” he asked.
There was a chorus of agreements as the group split up to prepare for the trip.
Heading straight up to the Green Spot wasn’t quite accurate. Hiking straight up would have been difficult for no good reason. Instead, the group took a more meandering path up to the Green Spot at the foothills of the mountains.
“Okay, guys,” Jax said, dropping his pack next to the stream. “This is as far as we go today. I know you’re anxious to get to the cave, and there’s a little daylight left, but I can assure you that hiking and setting up camp in the dark isn’t fun.”
“Alright, let’s make camp.” Cisco said. “A couple of you gather stones for a fire ring, and some of us can gather firewood. Then we can relax and rest up for tomorrow.”
After a beautiful sunset, the cats were relaxing around a bright, cheerful fire.
“Isn’t it about now that at least one of us realizes what we forgot to bring?” Piper joked.
“Oh, no, that won’t be until right when you need it,” Chantel said. “Then you’ll look around to see if anyone noticed that you messed up.”
“Yep, been there, done that.” Cisco laughed.
After enjoying comfortable conversation as they watched the fire burn down, the cats wrapped up in their blankets and tried to get to sleep while thinking of what they might find tomorrow.
The middle of the night found the cats retrieving heavy cloaks from their packs. The night was colder than expected.
The next morning, enjoying the warming sunshine, the cats followed the stream into the foothills.
After little more than an hour, they found themselves in the clearing with the cave entrance on the far side.
“There’s our cave,” Jax said. “Let’s drop our stuff and check it out.”
With shiners in hand and wearing their heavy cloaks, they entered the cave.
“I expected it to be tight, like the entrance to the drawing cave,” Gabby said, looking around.
“Wow, this is really something,” Isis said, her voice echoing as they entered the second chamber. “Did you find any wall drawings in here?”
“I don’t think any of us thought to check,” Chantel replied, sounding slightly embarrassed. “We certainly will before we leave this time.”
“Now I understand why you had us put on our heavy robes,” Cisco said, as they entered the third chamber.
“Hold on just a second before everyone starts running around,” Jax warned. “That dark area in the center is a pool of ice cold water.”
“As tempting as a quick dip might be,” he joked, “I’d advise staying out of that.”
Walking well to the right of the pool, Chantel reached the chamber’s rear wall. “This is the area we’re interested in,” she said, holding her hand up to a section of the ice-coated wall.
All the cats illuminated the wall with their shiners, looking for anything unusual.
“All I see is ice,” Jax said. “What do you see, Piper?”
“I don’t see a thing,” she replied. “There’s too much reflection from the shiners.”
“Let’s try this then,” Chantel said, activating one of her dim shiners. “I’d like all of you to cover your shiners for a minute.”
With only the one dim shiner, the chamber was nearly dark… except for the dark outline showing through the ice where Chantel’s shiner was pointing.
“There it is!” Chantel exclaimed. “Do you all see it?”
“Just like what your drawing showed,” Gabby said in a hushed voice.
“Well, we’ve got some work to do,” Benji said. “It’s going to be a job breaking through that ice.”
“Good thing we brought a couple of heavy axes,” Cisco said. “Let’s stay away from the dark area until we see how the ice breaks up. We don’t want to damage anything important.”
“I think we’ve seen enough,” Jax said, “let’s get out of this cold and plan how we want to go about this.”
Outside again, sitting in the grass next to the stream, they talked about what to do next.
“It seems to me,” Isis said, giving a little shiver, “is to come up with ideas on how to handle the cold.”
“Well, the robes helped,” Piper said, “and I think while we’re working, we’ll be warm enough.”
“Except for our feet,” Chantel said. “Standing on that cold rock floor will suck the heat right out of you.”
“How about this,” Cisco said. “First, we take one of our blankets and cut it into squares. Then we gather a bunch of dry grass. Then we pile the grass on the blanket square and tie it around our feet.”
“I like it,” Gabby said. “But whose blanket are we cutting up?”
“Don’t worry, kiddo,” Chantel grinned. “We’ve got extras.”
“Alright, then, what next,” Isis said.
“I think next is to bust up some ice… carefully,” Benji said. “After all, who knows how the cave is going to react to being beat on after all this time.”
“You raise a good point,” Jax said. “I think we need to put someone in charge of safety. You know, someone to keep an eye on everything in general while we’re concentrating on what we’re doing.”
“I’ll do it,” Piper spoke up. “I can see that each of you is really excited about this, and I think there should be someone who can stand back and watch out for everybody.”
“Thanks, Piper,” Jax said, giving her a warm smile. “I know you’ll keep us safe.”
“That should get us started,” Cisco said. “Let’s gather some grass.”
Back in the chamber with the ice wall, the cats were ready to begin. Benji stood next to the ice wall with an ax. Cisco stood next to him, holding a shiner to illuminate the area. Piper stood on the other side of the chamber, where she could scan all the walls and, most importantly, the ceiling. If she saw anything move, she’s call a warning so Benji and Cisco could get clear of the danger.
“Is everybody ready?” Jax called from where he stood next to Piper, adding his shiner’s light to hers. “Okay then, give it a light whack, Benji.”
There was the sound of a ‘thunk’ as Benji struck the ice sheet with his ax.
“That wasn’t very impressive,” he said, looking at the small chunk of ice lying at his feet. “It’s going to take more of a good, solid strike.”
“Are we still okay?” Jax asked Piper, who was scanning the chamber.
“No change,” she said. “Go ahead and hit it like you mean it.”
“Here goes,” Benji said, swinging the ax as if he were felling a tree.
The sound of the strike rang out, echoing around the chamber. Splinters of ice sprayed out, and chunks of ice, as well as a few pieces of stone, hit the floor.
“That was more like it,” he said with a note of satisfaction. “I don’t see any damage to the ax. We should be good to go.”
“Hold on a minute,” Cisco said, examining the wall where the stones had broken away. “We need to look closer at this.”
“See the veins of ice filling the cracks between the rocks,” he said, holding his shiner to the wall. “If the whole wall is like this, it’s only the ice that’s keeping it from collapsing.”
Studying the wall, he said, “It looks like when water in the rocks froze, the expanding ice fractured the rocks even more, but by staying frozen, the ice is now holding the rocks in place.”
“If we fracture that ice,” he concluded, “the wall and possibly the whole chamber will collapse.”
“Well, there goes my idea of building a fire in here and melting the ice off the wall,” Jax said.
“Okay then,” Piper said, “first attempt failed, but important information acquired. Let’s go back outside and decide what to do next.”
Back out in the sunshine, they called the other cats around.
“So how did it go?” Isis asked as she walked over from the other side of the meadow. “How long is it going to take to break through the ice?”
“We’re going to need a new plan,” Cisco said, as he leaned down to untie his grass-lined booties. “Let’s have some lunch, and I’ll explain.”
While they were eating, Cisco related what they’d found. “So you see, we’re going to have to come at this from a new direction.”
“I’ve got a question,” Chantel said, “Now that we’ve all had a look at that dark area in the wall, what do you think it is?”
“I think it has to be a door,” Gabby said. “What else could it be?”
“Well, it could be just another kind of rock in that part of the wall,” Benji said, “you know, darker than the rest of the wall.”
“It has awfully straight edges to be natural rock,” Chantel replied. “I say it’s a door.”
“Well, we’ll find out soon enough,” Isis said, “but for now, it’s easier to call it ‘the door’ instead of ‘that dark area’.”
“I agree,” Piper said. “Let’s just call it a door until we find out differently.”
“So the mission is, to uncover that door and get it open,” Cisco stated. “How do we do that without collapsing the wall and possibly the whole cavern?”
“Carefully!” all the cats shouted together.
“Yes, carefully,” Piper said to herself, “without anyone getting hurt.”
“Okay, so going ahead, instead of trying not to get too close to the door,” Benji said, “we’re going to have to work on the door and keep a careful watch on the wall.”
“I think we need to isolate the door from the wall,” Cisco said. “Yeah, I know the door is mounted in the wall, but we can isolate the ice covering the wall from the ice covering the door.”
“And have just the way to do that,” he said with a grin. “I think we’re going to see the ‘Magic Valley Effect’ again.”
He rummaged in his pack and came up with a bundle that Olaf had sent to him. Unwrapping it, he produced a pair of chisels made of bright, shiny copper.
“Just what we need, right when we need it,” he said.
“I think we can chisel a groove in the ice around the door to isolate it from the wall,” he said.
“So, did you bring a mallet to use on those fancy chisels of yours?” Jax said with a grin. “Or should we just find a big old rock?”
“Don’t even think about it,” Cisco said in a threatening tone, holding up a mallet. “There’s more than one way to use this.”
“Okay, kids, play nice,” Piper said, shaking a finger at them.
Cisco spent the rest of the afternoon chiseling a channel in the ice around the edge of the door. Benji was there, holding a light for him while he worked.
“You’re not going to let me take a turn with that shiny toy of yours, are you?” Benji asked.
“Nope, it takes a high level of skill to use a fine tool like this,” Cisco said with an innocent smile. “Wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself.”
“Yeah, thanks for looking out for me,” Benji replied sarcastically.
“No, really, I’m nearly halfway done,” Cisco said. “You can do the second half.”
Standing near the center of the chamber, Jax and Piper were constantly scanning the walls and ceiling for any sign of danger.
“You know,” Jax said, “this place has been here probably hundreds of years, and it looks solid as a rock.”
“Yeah, and then we come along and start messing with it,” Piper said. “Let’s hope it doesn’t notice.”
“How are things going in there?” Isis called from where she was standing at the entrance to the first chamber.
“I’ll be right back,” Piper told Jax.
Walking out of the cave, she squinted in the bright sunlight.
“I think Cisco just told Benji that he was about halfway done chiseling around the door,” Piper said, standing next to Isis. “This sunshine feels good.”
“I can spell you in the cave if you want,” Isis said.
“That’s okay,” Piper replied, “it’s really not that bad with this robe and my grassy booties.”
“Where did Chantel and Gabby get to?”
“They’re exploring the meadow and the hillsides,” Isis said. “They think the Ancients might have left some carvings around here. It’s giving them something to do while we’re waiting.”
“Do you really think this is the cave shown in the drawings?” Piper asked.
“I have no way of knowing,” Isis answered, “but yeah, I think it is… I hope it is.”
“I hope you’re right,” Piper said as she walked back into the cave.
Benji took over the chisel and mallet. Cisco had left him the upper part of the door, including across the top.
“This chisel is really sweet,” Benji said as he lengthened the groove along the outline of the door. “The weight of it just feels right.”
“Olaf made me two of them,” Cisco said, holding his shiner to highlight where Benji was working. “I want to keep this one, but I’ll let you take the other one for the building crew to use.”
“Thanks,” Benji said, “we’ll put it to good use.”
“So what’s our next step after I finish this channel?” he asked as he continued chipping away at the ice.
“Well, we can start trying to break the ice off the surface of the door,” Cisco replied, “or we work on removing that 2 inches of ice that’s locking the bottom of the door to the floor.”
“I don’t think breaking up the ice on the floor will have much effect on the frozen wall,” Benji said, “Let’s take care of that first, then we can concentrate on the door.”
“Fine by me,” Cisco said, “Finish what you’re doing, and we can start on the floor.”
By the end of the day, the ice on the door was isolated from the wall, and the ice at the base of the door had been broken up.
Cisco and Benji walked out into the late afternoon sunshine, happy with the amount of progress they had made. Jax and Piper followed them out.
Chantel had started a fire and had a pot of broth on a slow simmer.
“I thought you might want something warm after being in the ice cave so long,” she said, pouring the broth into mugs and passing them out.
“Thanks, Hon,” Benji said, cradling the hot mug in cold hands. “This is just what I needed.”
“You’re a lifesaver,” Piper said, clutching her mug and sipping the broth. “That cold seeps right down to your bones.”
Once everyone had a mug, Chantel asked, “So how does it look, do you still think it’s a door?”
“Well, you can see the grain of the wood,” Benji said, “If it’s not a door, I don’t know what it would be.”
Turning to Gabby, Piper asked, “Isis says you’ve been searching the area for artifacts. Did you find anything?”
“Not a thing,” Gabby replied with a shrug. “There are a few more places to check out, but so far, nothing.”
“Well, don’t worry,” Piper said, “maybe you’ll find something tomorrow.”
“You know,” Piper said, taking Jax’s hand, “after standing around so long in the cold, I’d like to go for a walk.”
“Sounds good to me,” Jax smiled, “Shall we go look at that place where we’re not going to build a cabin?”
They walked off, sharing a comfortable silence, just being close.
“And that, my friends,” Isis said, watching the pair walk away, “is what we’re working to protect.”