“So Isis kicked you out,” Shaun laughed. “What did you do wrong?”
“Not so much wrong as impatience,” Cisco replied with a grin. “I wanted to categorize all the documents in the box, but Isis wanted to study each one, looking for a clue to the cure she’s looking for. She recruited Cassy to help with that, and I suddenly found myself out of a job.”
“You don’t seem very upset about that,” Suki said.
“You’re very observant,” Cisco replied, laughing. “Now that I have all this free time, shall we start on a new project?”
“We’re always ready for a new project,” Shaun said. “What have you got for us?”
“The problem we need to solve is our need for better tools,” Cisco stated.
“We have ordinary tools like stone axes and hammers, flint knives and scrapers. For sewing or finer artistic carving, we use bone or antlers.”
“These are all good, but with better tools, we could accomplish more in a shorter time. Dangerous times are coming, and the better prepared we are, the better we can meet the challenge.”
“What about those copper chisels and your copper ax?” Suki said. “Those work pretty good, don’t they?”
“Yes, and no,” Cisco replied. “Our only source of copper tools is Olaf, and we have to supply the copper. We’ve found that deposit of copper nuggets, but that can’t last forever, and we need some of that copper for other trades.”
“Also, while copper is great for some things, it does have weaknesses. For instance, when using the copper chisels to carve stone, the edge needs to be resharpened frequently. The ax I carry is actually too lightweight for heavy construction work. To produce an ax with a heavy enough head would take a lot of nuggets for each one, and we need more than just one or two.”
“Okay, so what do you have in mind?” Shaun asked.
“We need to find a new material,” Cisco said. “I’ve been thinking about the Moonglow resin ever since we made the shiners and the roofing panels.”
“When we heated the resin using the glimmer bush oil, it gave it different properties. Different oil produced another property. I’m thinking that if we can find the right thing to add to the resin, we could have a material with the properties we want.”
“So what exactly are you looking for?” Shaun asked. “I mean, we can already make Moonglow resin into a really hard sheet. I imagine we could make just about any shape we want.”
“That’s true,” Cisco replied, “but I’ve been testing some of our extra hardened resin, and while it’s hard, it’s too brittle for heavy impact. Plus, I can’t get it to hold an edge like you’d have on a knife. When you get it close to sharp, it starts flaking off, and even if you did get it sharp, it would only be good for cutting soft things, like meat or leather. If you hit a bone, you don’t have an edge anymore.”
“Let’s start experimenting with what we have on hand. We’ve got a good variety of minerals that we acquired for different projects. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
They spent the next few hours trying every mineral they could lay their hands on, from the whitewash lime to the pigments for the artist’s paints and everything in between.
“Well, that’s another fine mess.” Suki said, looking down at what looked like a pile of gravel. “I don’t think we’re getting any closer.”
“If nothing else,” Cisco replied, “we’ve got a great list of what doesn’t work.”
“Do either of you have any new ideas?” he asked looking between Suki and Shaun. “No? Okay, let’s review what doesn’t work and why.”
“Well, when we tried using different oils,” Shaun said, “we found the resin had different light-affecting properties. That doesn’t help with this project.”
“I don’t think adding minerals is going to help with the hardness.” Suki added, “The minerals themselves don’t really have any strength. They can be crushed into finer and finer particles, so, if anything, they make the end result weaker.”
“Okay, we need to find something that can’t be crushed.” Cisco said. “I wonder if Olaf might know about something that might work.”
Piper, who had been quietly watching, spoke up. “It sounds like you’re describing metal, like your copper ax or those chisels Olaf made for you.”
“I think you’re right.” Cisco considered, “but how do we add the copper to the resin?”
“We’ve got those copper nuggets, which is all well and good, but I’m pretty sure we’d just end up with resin-coated nuggets.”
“I have an idea,” Piper said with a sly grin. “I’ll be right back.”
When she got back, she handed her bag of gold dust to Cisco. “Try adding some of this to your Moonglow resin.”
“Interesting,” Cisco said, sifting the fine gold dust through his fingers. “Definitely worth a try.”
Piper sat back to watch the three cats prepare for another test run.
Suki added a precise measure of the gold dust to the Moonglow resin, while Shaun prepared the fire and the flat piece of slate they were using for their tests. Cisco was writing down exactly what they were doing.
“Let’s use the Glimmer bush oil for this test,” Cisco said. “We’ll pour out a flat sheet of resin and see what we get.”
Piper came over to look at the resin and gold dust mixture. “Well, it’s pretty with all those gold speckles floating around in the clear resin.”
“I’ve got the slab oiled up with the clay border in place,” Shaun said, moving back so Suki could pour the mixture on the slab.
“Okay, now we wait.” Cisco said, settling close to the fire.
“If nothing else, it looks pretty,” Piper said. “Maybe you’ll have to add a larger measure of gold to get a result.”
“Let’s wait until the temperature gets high enough for the Moonglow to reach the hard state,” Cisco said, “before we decide if we need to try something different.”
They watched as the heat rose and the resin went through the different stages: first turning to glue, then a pliable state, and finally the hard state they were looking for.
Suddenly, they heard a loud splash and shouts from the direction of the main stream.
“Someone’s in trouble!” Piper exclaimed, jumping up and running toward the commotion.
When they got to the stream, they found Jax holding a soaking wet kitten.
“What happened?” Piper asked.
“Little Pounce here decided she was big enough to catch a fish,” Jax said with a laugh. “Turns out, she wasn’t.”
Pounce giggled as Jax tickled her belly. “Got wet,” she said, giggling more.
Piper looked around at Cisco, Suki, and Shaun. “We’d better get back to what we were doing.”
“It was already at the hard stage,” Cisco stated, examining the sheet of Moonglow. “And it’s been heating up even more while we were at the stream. We’ll have to start over again.”
“Hold on,” Piper said, peering at the sheet. “Something’s changing.”
As they watched, the clear resin with the shiny gold specks started to transform into a shimmering solid golden hue—not the shiny yellow gold of the gold dust, but more of a tawny gold color.
“Now that’s interesting,” Cisco stated with surprise, examining the sheet from all angles. “When it reached that extra-high temperature, it just… changed.”
“Pull it off the fire, Shaun,” Cisco said. “Let’s cool it down and see what we’ve got.”
Once it was cool, Shaun handed the sheet to Cisco. “Here you go, it almost looks like a sheet of gold… except the color’s off and it doesn’t bend easily like gold would.”
“It’s definitely different from anything we’ve had before,” Cisco said, taking the sheet. “It’s way too light to be gold, or copper for that matter.”
“Let’s see how tough it is,” he said, as he tried to bend it without success. “Okay, how brittle is it?”
He held it tight and swung it down onto a rock. It flexed and flew out of his hand.
Retrieving the sheet, he held it up, searching for any damage. “So far, it looks good. Let me try one more thing.”
He held the sheet and hit the edge on the rock, then checked for chips or breaks. Finding none, he hit the edge on the rock repeatedly.
“Well, that’s impressive,” he said, showing the edge to the other cats. “No damage at all.”
“Okay, so you have a sheet of indestructible something, which I can see some uses for,” Suki said, “but can you shape it into a tool?”
“That’s a good question.” Cisco replied. “Remember those abrasives that I brought back from Olaf’s… now would be a good time to put them to use.”
“I know where they are,” Shaun said. “I’ll go get them.”
When Shaun got back, Cisco had a large flat piece of slate sitting firmly on the ground, with a water bag nearby.
“I think I’ll start with one of the coarse abrasives,” Cisco said, sorting through the bags.
“This looks good,” he said, pouring a small amount on the slate. “I’ll add a little water and we’ll see how it goes.”
“I can feel it grinding,” he said, as he dragged a corner of the sheet back and forth across the abrasive.
“See there, it wore that corner down a little,” he said. “That means we can shape it. Next, I want to see if I can grind a sharp edge.”
Using progressively finer abrasives, he managed to put a fine edge on the edge of the sheet.
“Well, would you look at that,” he said, as he made experimental cuts on a piece of leather. “That is a sharp edge.”
“The only problem that I see,” Shaun said, taking the sheet. “is that this stuff is awfully light. If you molded it in the shape of a hammer, it would be tough enough, but it would be like beating on something with a bag of feathers.”
“I have an idea,” Piper said, holding a rock in her hand. “Say you want an ax head. Find or shape a rock to the basic shape that you want. Heat up the sheet of Gold Moonglow mixture to the pliable state and mold it around the rock, then heat the coated rock up to the change-over temperature. When it cools down, you can grind it to whatever refined shape you were looking for. The rock gives you the weight, and the Gold Moonglow gives you something you can put an edge on.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to join our development team?” Cisco asked Piper, laughing.
“No thanks,” she replied. “I’m on the ‘Jax and Piper’ team, explorers through and through.”
“Okay, then… Suki and Shaun, look for a hammer-shaped rock and maybe one that could be the core of a knife,” Cisco said. “I’m going to look for one for an ax.”
“I’ve got to say though that I’ll be amazed if the Gold Moonglow can hold up to that kind of abuse. We might have to experiment with different thicknesses of the Gold Moonglow. Or maybe the amount of gold we use for the mixture.”
“Good luck, guys,” Piper said as she turned to leave. “I’m going to find Jax and tell him I finally found out why I brought home that bag of gold dust.”
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