The mood of the cats was somewhat subdued as they prepared for another day at the Ice Cave.
“I don’t know about you guys,” Piper said, “but I thought it would be more exciting. I mean, just boxes and jars. That was disappointing.”
“I know how you feel,” Isis said. “I guess I was thinking we’d find all sorts of artifacts.”
“Yeah,” Cisco agreed. “I expected something awe-inspiring, beautiful, or at least shiny.”
“I just hope those boxes contain more than someone’s dirty laundry,” Benji said.
From where she’d been nervously pacing, Chantel spoke, “I can’t shake the feeling that we’ve missed something.”
“Well, today’s another day,” Jax said. “Let’s go see what we can find.”
In the second chamber, the cats examined each jar and box under the glow of dim shiners, looking for any symbol or writing that might appear.
“Well, that’s the last of the jars,” Isis said, placing the jar back in line with the other ninety-nine. “Nothing hidden, no magical symbols, just clay jars with the flower symbol stamped on the side.”
“Maybe we should break the seal on one of those to see what’s inside,” Cisco said.
“Let’s save that for later,” Isis replied, moving over to the boxes.
“Now that’s interesting,” she said, sweeping her light over one of the boxes. “Hey guys, come look at this.”
“That’s archaic writing,” Chantel said, as all the cats crowded around. “Hold the light steady. I’ll see if I can read it.”
Chantel read aloud, “History of the Territory.”
“Let’s check the other boxes,” Isis said.
“Okay,” Chantel said. “This one is labeled ‘Tribal Histories’, and the other three are labeled ‘Family Histories’.”
“And the sixth box?” Cisco asked.
“That one’s different,” Chantel said. “There’s just one word: ‘IMMEDIATE’.”
“I’m pretty sure that means ‘Open me first’,” Benji said.
“Now things are getting interesting,” Piper grinned, rubbing her hands together.
“Since it’s been sitting here for a few hundred years,” Jax said, “I think ‘IMMEDIATE’ can wait until we get it back to the village.”
“I’d have to agree with that,” Isis said.
“Spoil sports,” Piper muttered under her breath.
Chantel put a hand on Piper’s shoulder. “I need your help in the ice cavern. There’s something I want to check out. You too, Gabby. Bring your dim shiner.”
“Well, it hasn’t fallen down yet,” Piper said as they walked into the cavern. “And see, we did forget to close that door.”
“Yeah, like you’d really want to have to pry it open again,” Gabby said.
“Well, no,” Piper grinned. “So what are we doing here?”
“It occurred to me,” Chantel said, approaching the door, “that while we hauled everything out, we didn’t check the chamber itself with the dim shiners.”
“You’re right,” Gabby said. “We stopped using our dim shiners once we got the door open.”
“You two go ahead then,” Piper said, activating her own shiner. “I’ll do my safety watch thing out here.”
“Come on, Gabby,” Chantel said, walking into the chamber. “Check everywhere.”
They scanned the floor and the ceiling, then the walls where the boxes had been stacked. Finally, they inspected the shelves where the jars had been stored.
“Damn,” Chantel muttered. “I was sure we’d find something. I mean, look at the cave we’ve been working in at the cliff. It’s completely full of beautiful drawings. And the History Tree site has all those carved stones, plus the History Tree itself.”
“And here,” she said, waving around, “we’ve got nothing, absolutely nothing.”
“Well, we tried,” Gabby said as she followed Chantel out of the chamber.
“Stop! Right where you are!” Piper yelled.
Freezing in place, but trying to look everywhere at once, Chantel and Gabby stood in the doorway.
“Look at the back of the door,” Piper said excitedly. “Shine your light on it.”
“So, there was something here after all,” Chantel said with a satisfied smile.
“What is it?” Piper called from where she was still scanning the cavern for danger.
“Lines of text,” Chantel answered. “Give me a minute.”
“It looks like some kind of message,” Gabby said.
“I think you’re right,” Chantel said, trying to read what it said.
“It says…”
‘By finding this, you’ve been chosen.’
‘Plant the seeds wisely.’
‘Use the information.’
‘Return the Histories when the time is right.’
“Well, Piper, you saw it first, so I guess you’ve been chosen,” Chantel said with a grin.
“Well, there you go. I always knew I was special,” Piper replied with a superior smile.
“If special is the same as peculiar, then we’ve always thought that about you too,” Chantel said, smiling.
“Is that one of those ‘payback’ things you’re always talking about?” Piper grinned.
“Maybe,” Chantel laughed.
“Alright, you two,” Gabby said, “Let’s go tell what we found.”
“What ‘we’ found?” Piper said. “Does that make you peculiar too?”
“Oh, just let me out of here,” Gabby said, heading for the exit.
“That’s amazing,” Isis said, standing with the others at the open door. “A message directly from the past.”
“It’s a little cryptic,” Chantel said. “But once we look in the boxes, it should make more sense.”
“With that in mind,” Jax said, “we need to make a plan to get all the jars and the boxes down to the village.”
“Before we get too excited and start hauling everything down to the valley,” Isis said, “we need to get the boxes and especially the jars used to the temperature change.”
“Let’s get out of this cold and you can tell us what you have in mind,” Benji said.
Everyone was glad to follow him out of the ice cavern, through the other two chambers, and out into the warm afternoon sunshine.
“Oh yeah, that’s better,” Piper said, wiggling her toes in the warm grass.
“Okay, Isis, what’s your plan?” Benji asked.
“The first step,” Isis stated, “will be to move the boxes from the cold chamber to the entrance chamber.”
“I don’t think the boxes and their contents will be all that sensitive to the temperature change. So, by tomorrow, we can start carrying them down to the village.”
“The jars on the other hand, which are apparently filled with flower seeds, might be more of a problem. So, the more gradually we bring them up to temperature, the better. I want to leave them in the cold chamber for a day or two more before we move them to the entrance chamber.”
“I’ve been thinking,” Jax said, “now that we’ve brought everything out of the ice chamber, it’s important that we don’t leave this stuff unguarded.”
“Exactly… not for a minute,” Cisco said decisively. “We need to get some help from the village.”
“Let’s rig one of the boxes to carry,” Jax said. “and Benji and I can carry it down to the village. We’ll drop it off at the storehouse where Kikki and Tam can keep an eye on it. Then we’ll come back with the build crew to help haul the rest of this stuff.”
“By the time we have all the boxes moved to the village,” Isis said, “we’ll have the jars brought up to normal outside temperature. With a hundred of them, we’ll have to come up with a way to transport them without breaking any.”