The sun was up, breakfast had been eaten, and the cats were ready for another day at the Ice Cave.
“Does everybody know what they’re doing today?” Jax asked.
“Yeah, the same thing we were doing yesterday,” Benji said. “Cisco and I working on the door, you and Piper on safety watch, and Isis is on backup safety watch.”
“Gabby and I are going to start checking the two outer chambers for hidden drawings,” Chantel said. “We’ll use our dim shiners to see if anything’s there.”
“Okay, cats that need them, get your booties on, and let’s get to work,” Jax said, pulling on his heavy robe.
Standing at the wall of the ice chamber, Benji and Cisco were looking for any signs of damage. Not seeing anything, they moved back in front of the door.
“If we wanted to be lazy,” Cisco said, looking at the thick sheet of ice coating the door, “we could try prying it open with the ice still on.”
“Yeah, we could,” Benji said. “But do we really want to be fighting with all that weight?”
“I’m pretty sure if we tried that, we’d end up in a world of hurt,” Cisco replied. “I’ve been giving this project some thought, though.”
Leaning in and holding his shiner close, he said, “With that channel we carved yesterday, I can see the edge of the door and its covering of ice.”
“We might be able to pry the ice off instead of trying to break it into pieces. My copper ax has a thinner, wider edge than the chisel, so let’s try it first.”
“Okay, your ax, your job,” Benji said. “I’ll hold the light for you.”
“Are you guys ready on the safety watch?” he called out.
“Go for it, we’re watching,” Piper called back.
Cisco positioned his ax and smacked it on the butt with the mallet. Surprisingly, a good-sized piece of ice came cleanly off, dropping to the floor with a clatter.
“Well now,” Cisco said with a grin, “it looks like this is the way to do it.”
“And I think I see why,” Benji said. “Look at where the ice broke away. It looks like the door has the same shiny coating as that box the kids dug up at the Hidden Village.”
“They must have sealed the door with Moonglow resin,” Cisco agreed. “I still haven’t figured out how they could harden such a big area without burning the wood.”
“Anyway, let’s get this ice off and see what we need to do next.”
It still took a couple of hours to clear all the ice away. When they were done, Cisco stood back, looking at the shiny surface.
“I want to check something,” he said. “Let’s take a break.”
Collecting Jax and Piper on the way out, they headed out for a little sunshine therapy.
Passing by Chantel and Gabby on the way out, Cisco said, “Can we borrow you two for a little bit?”
When they were standing outside in the sunshine, Chantel asked, “What can we do for you?”
“We’ve got the door clear of ice,” Cisco stated. “What we’re left with is a wooden door preserved in Moonglow resin. It occurred to me you might want to check it for any symbols or writings with your dim shiners.”
“Sure,” she replied, “we’ve been drawing a blank in the other chambers.”
Back in the ice chamber, Chantel and Gabby were standing in front of the now iceless door.
“Okay, everyone,” she said, “you know the routine, cover your shiners.”
When it was dark, she shook her shiner, activating its soft blue glow.
“Look at that, Mom!” Gabby said excitedly. “That’s the flower from the drawings!”
“And look below it!” Chantel exclaimed. “Those are the twin scrolls that we’ve seen on the amulets.”
“Well, we know we’re in the right place,” Isis grinned.
“Alright,” Benji said, uncovering his shiner, “let’s get that door open.”
“Okay, make space for the workers,” Cisco said, “we’re going in.”
“It looks to me like the door is sealed with the Moonglow all the way around the edge,” Isis said. “You’ll have to do something about that.”
“And my ax comes to the rescue again,” Cisco laughed. “Come on, Benji, let’s get to work.”
It took a while, moving around the door’s edge, breaking the Moonglow seal, but eventually, they were done.
“So now what?” Benji asked. “I don’t see anything to grab onto to pull it open.”
“Maybe we can wedge a chisel between the door and frame and pry it open,” Cisco said.
“We’ll have a better chance if we use both chisels at the same time,” Benji said.
“First of all, you’d better figure out which side it opens from,” Isis said, looking at the door for clues. “You could try thumping around on each edge; the hinge side should sound more solid.”
“Just remember to thump, not bang,” Piper said, “that wall still worries me.”
“Okay,” Cisco said, “you watch the wall, and we’ll thump the door.”
Once they decided which side the door would open on, they got busy with the chisels.
The rest of the morning was filled with a lot of frustration and some colorful language. They finally decided to break for lunch.
Sitting around munching on dried fish and trail cookies, the cats were discussing their options.
“Well, if all else fails,” Jax was saying, “it’s a wooden door, and you have that nice shiny copper ax.”
“Yeah, I already thought of that,” Cisco said. “But let’s save that as a last option.”
“I guess we’re just going to have to keep working on it then,” Benji said. “Maybe if we cuss at it enough, it’s going to pop open on its own.”
“Okay then,” Cisco said, heading for the cave. “You grab the chisels and mallet, and I’m going to start the cussing.”
“So, more of the same,” Benji said, following him. “Got it.”
It must have been the cussing, because it wasn’t long before they heard a creak and felt the door give a little lurch.
“Don’t stop now,” Benji laughed. “Keep cussing, and we’ll have this door open in no time.”
It did take quite a bit of time before they had enough of a gap that they could get a grip and muscle it open far enough to get a look inside.
They stopped and waited for everyone to gather around. “Who wants to be the first to look inside?” Cisco asked.
“You and I are the muscles,” Benji said.
“And Piper and I are the explorers,” Jax added.
“So that leaves Chantel, Gabby, and myself,” Isis stated. “I was one of the first to view the cave with the drawings.”
“And I was there when we found the History Tree,” Chantel said, smiling. “So that means Gabriella gets the honor.”
“If that’s okay with everybody, I’ll take a look inside,” Gabby said, approaching the door.
“I just hope there are no dead bodies in there,” she said, half-joking.
Shaking her shiner to full brightness, she shined the light into the opening.
She said nothing, just shined her light back and forth, then up to the ceiling and down to the floor.
“What do you see?” Chantel asked impatiently.
“Well,” Gabby said, backing up. “There are no dead bodies.”
“And…?” Chantel prompted.
“Mainly just quite a few big boxes,” Gabby replied. “And lots of clay jars on shelves.”
“Just boxes and jars?” Piper said, looking at the others. “Somehow I’d expected more.”
“Well, I guess they can’t all be caves with glowing drawings or Giant trees surrounded by carved stone pillars,” Jax kidded her.
“Alright everyone,” Isis said. “We still don’t know how unstable this cavern is, so let’s get that door open and start moving whatever is inside to someplace safer.”
Benji put his shoulder to the door and pushed, inching the door to a final fully open position.
“Damn,” Benji said. “That thing just didn’t want to give up.”
“You did good, Benji,” Chantel said, with a hand on his shoulder. “How’s your knee?”
Flexing his knee a couple of times, he smiled. “It feels fine, just fine.”
“Alright, let’s get busy,” Jax said. “Piper, you stay on safety watch, we’ll do the hauling.”
“Just take everything to the second chamber,” Isis said. “It’s still pretty cold in there, so it won’t be a big temperature change.”
First, they brought out the large wooden boxes. They looked very much like the one from the Hidden Village, completely sealed in hardened Moonglow resin.
Then, they started carefully carrying the clay jars out of the cave. On each jar was the symbol of the flower.
When they were done, the second chamber had row after row of the clay jars, carefully arranged along one wall. There were also six of the sealed boxes positioned near the jars.
“I won’t say that was enough excitement for one day, because it wasn’t all that exciting” Isis said, “but I can say it was enough work for one day. Let’s go get cleaned up and get some dinner.”
“Well, at least we didn’t bring down the whole cavern,” Piper grinned. “Did anyone remember to close the door when we left?”
Everyone just laughed and walked out into the warm evening air.