The next morning, the village was full of activity.
Standing with Kikki and Tam, Star said, “You two go get what you’ll need to light up the cave. I’ll sort out what I want to use to make copies of the cave drawings.”
It wasn’t long before the three were headed for the cliff and the cave.
“Jax, I know you want to do some more exploring around the Hidden Village,” Piper said. “Would you like some company?”
“Of course… I was going to ask you,” Jax said. “It’s always a good time when you’re around.”
“Oh, so you’re just bringing me along for entertainment value?” Piper said with a mischievous grin.
“Well, yeah, I thought you knew that,” Jax replied with his own grin.
With that, Piper punched him on the arm, and he feigned being injured. Then they shouldered their packs and walked off upstream toward the Hidden Village.
After watching them leave, Cisco turned to Isis and Baxter. “Are you two about ready to leave?”
“Just waiting on you,” Isis replied.
“Come on, let’s hit the trail,” Baxter said, taking the lead.
As they walked toward the edge of the clearing, Isis called back to Suki, “Are you and Shaun okay with taking care of the village while we’re gone?”
“Of course,” Suki replied. “What could possibly go wrong?”
“Yeah, what she said,” Shaun said with a laugh.
Isis just shook her head and followed Cisco and Baxter to the trail that would take them to Sunny Meadows and her friend Cassandra.
After a few days on the trail, the three arrived at Sunny Meadows.
Entering the village, Isis led the way to Cassandra’s home. As they approached, they saw a cat with light blonde fur tending her plants.
“Cassandra, is that you?” Isis called.
“And who else would it be?” the cat said, turning around. “Isis! What are you doing here?” Cassandra exclaimed, giving Isis a warm hug.
Then, looking past her friend, she said, “And who are your handsome companions?”
Holding Cisco by the arm, Isis said, “This is Cisco, and he’s mine, so keep your hands to yourself.”
“I remember how you are,” she added with a mock scowl.
“The big guy is Baxter. He’s a good friend, so go easy on him,” Isis said.
Turning to Baxter, Isis said with a grin, “Watch yourself, Baxter, she’s a sneaky one, and she’ll have her way with you if you’re not careful.”
“I’ll definitely keep an eye on her,” Baxter said, giving Cassandra an appreciative glance.
Once they were settled, and Cassandra had brought them refreshments, she asked, “So, what brings you to Sunny Meadows?”
Isis sipped her tea and said, “Do you want the long version, the short version, or the really short version?”
“Just for the fun of it,” Cassandra replied, “let’s start with the really short version and work back from there.”
“The really short version,” Baxter said, “is we need more of the minerals for making blue light.”
“Direct and to the point,” Cassandra said with a grin. “I like that in a man.”
“Unfortunately,” she said, “I only have a small sample of each mineral. How much do you need?”
“We were thinking of thirty or forty pounds of each,” Cisco answered.
“More than just a pinch, then,” a surprised Cassandra chuckled.
“Do you know where we can lay our hands on that much?” Isis asked.
“If I remember right, I got mine from an oddities trader named Jangles. I traded him a few locally crafted amulets for a couple of jars of the stuff. I think he’d just come from the village of Fiery Mountain. That’s the first village to the east of here.”
“How far is Fiery Mountain from here?” Cisco asked.
“A little less than two days’ travel,” Cassandra answered.
“It looks like you two are headed for Fiery Mountain,” Isis said. “I’d like to stay and talk to Cassandra about what we’ve found in the valley.”
“You’re welcome to stay,” Cassandra said. “You must have a pretty good story if it’s brought you all this way.”
Turning to Cisco and Baxter, she said, “Take the main trail east. When you crest the hill just outside the village, you’ll see the cone of a smoking volcano to the east. The village of Fiery Mountain is near the base of the volcano.”
A short while later, standing at the top of the hill, Cisco and Baxter scanned the horizon and spotted the smoking volcano.
“That looks a lot closer than two days’ travel,” Baxter commented. “The main trail must wander quite a bit getting there. I wonder if we could get there going cross-country?”
“Maybe we can follow game trails headed that way,” Cisco replied. “Let’s head down the main trail and see if we can find a trail that branches off towards the volcano.”
“Sounds like a nice day for a walk in the woods,” Baxter said. “Let’s go.”
They took the first side trail they found and soon disappeared into the forest. They made good progress for the first couple of hours, but then the trail stopped at a ravine.
“I don’t see any way around, do you?” Cisco asked.
“Let me take a last look before we turn back,” Baxter replied, walking along the edge of the ravine.
“Take a look at this,” Baxter called. “There’s a mark on this big boulder. It seems to be pointing back into the forest.”
“I see what you mean,” Cisco said, examining the boulder. “It can’t hurt seeing what’s in that direction.”
Moving in that direction, they soon found another boulder with a marking. After one more detour, they found themselves on the far side of the ravine.
“I’m beginning to think this is more than just a game trail,” Cisco stated. “Let’s keep going and see how far we can go.”
They started out again, and as they traveled, they came across several more places where they were directed around obstacles. At one point, a hillside had sloughed onto the trail. As they walked across, Cisco noticed something in the loose dirt.
“Look at this,” he said, holding up a shiny metallic nugget. “They’re scattered all over here.”
“Well, they must be worth something,” Baxter said. “Let’s grab all the ones we can see. We can come back some other time to see if there’s more buried in the dirt.”
“Good plan,” Cisco said, collecting the nuggets in a leather pouch.
When they’d picked up all the nuggets they could see, they continued down the trail. After less than a day, they were able to leave the forest and join the main trail into the village of Fiery Mountain.
When they asked about the minerals, they were directed to the shop of a local craftsman. A large cat greeted them at the door.
“My name is Olaf,” he said, “what can I do for you?”
“We’re looking for a couple of specific minerals,” Cisco answered, “Lustralite and Stellarite.”
“Ah, you want to make the pretty blue light,” Olaf laughed. “It’s a neat trick but not too useful.”
“Strangely enough,” Cisco said, “we have found it to be useful in certain circumstances.”
“You shouldn’t be so willing to share,” Olaf said with a grin, “you’ll lose your bargaining power.”
“I’m not here to drive a hard bargain,” Cisco stated, “just one that’s fair for both of us.”
“Well said.” Olaf grinned. “So, how much of the minerals are we talking about?”
“What do you think?” Cisco asked, looking at Baxter.
“Maybe thirty pounds of each?”
“Sounds about right.” Baxter replied. “It would be best to get them in five or ten pound bags.”
“I’m guessing you want it in granular form and not in solid chunks.” Olaf said.
“I hadn’t thought about it, but I’m sure granular would be better.” Cisco replied.
“I think I have that much in my storeroom,” Olaf said. “And now we know what I have,” Olaf stated, “Let’s talk about what you have to put up in trade.”
Cisco reached into his pouch and pulled out a couple of the shiny nuggets, and laid them on the table. Olaf’s eyes lit up when he saw the nuggets.
“So you do have something to trade,” Olaf said.
“How many of these nuggets will you need for the minerals?” Cisco asked.
Instead of answering, Olaf gestured to the oval badge Baxter had sewn to his armband, the one depicting the fire and the hammer.
Olaf was quiet for a moment, then pointed up to a shield above his fireplace. On its face was painted a fire and hammer, nearly identical to the one on Baxter’s badge.
“Well, that is interesting,” Baxter said. “It seems we have stories to trade as well as minerals and nuggets.”
“My story is a simple one,” Olaf said. “The Fire and Hammer are my family’s coat of arms. We’ve always been makers of tools and forgers of metal.”
“I don’t know of a family heritage such as yours,” Baxter said, “but since I came into possession of this badge, I’ve felt an urge to learn new skills.”
Baxter then related the story of how he had come into possession of his badge. “Perhaps there’s another reason I’m here, besides having a strong back to carry minerals,” he said with a considering look.
“Do you carry the same badge, Cisco?” Olaf asked.
Holding his badge out for Olaf to see, Cisco said, “As you see, mine shows an ax and a knife.” “Its meaning isn’t as clear as Baxter’s. I lean more towards building things and coming up with new ways of doing things.”
“Come back into my workshop,” Olaf said with a look of amusement. “There’s something I’d like to show you.”
In the workshop, Olaf spread his arms and said, “This is where I do most of my work.” He showed them a furnace for refining metals, a forge, and an anvil for shaping tools.
“Now you can understand the fire and hammer in my coat of arms,” he said. “But what I’d like to show you is this.”
He reached up and pulled down an object from the wall, revealing an ax with a beautifully crafted copper ax head.
“This is what I can make with nuggets like you brought me,” Olaf said.
“So you already have a supply of the nuggets?” Cisco stated, his eyes widening in realization.
“Not really, I had to smelt the copper from ore,” Olaf said. “That’s a difficult process to get any real amount.”
“Okay, now that we’ve established that we both have something that the other wants,” Cisco said, “let’s get down to some trading.”
“First, let me check the storeroom to make sure I have your minerals,” Olaf said.
Returning, he said, “No problem. I have enough to meet your needs.”
“To be truthful,” Olaf said, “the minerals you’re after are fairly common around here.” “I can let you have them for four ounces of your nuggets.”
“I hate to ask,” Cisco said, “but would you be willing to sell the ax?”
“It seems from the symbols on your badge, it’s something you should be carrying.” Olaf mused.
“To tell you the truth, I’ve wanted to make some different copper tools, but the ax took all that I had, and I couldn’t bring myself to melt it down.”
“If you could part with it, what weight of nuggets would you take?” Cisco asked.
Looking from the ax to Cisco, Olaf said, “I feel like you are the right one to own the ax.”
“As for the price in nuggets, that would be the weight of the ax head itself, plus I think, another five ounces for my work in crafting such a fine thing.”
Baxter spoke up, saying, “Before you get too excited, Cisco, we’d better find out the weight of the nuggets we have with us. We might have to come back at another time to buy your shiny ax.”
Olaf brought out a balance scale and placed the ax on one side and a spare ax handle on the other. “That eliminates the weight of the handle from the deal.” He explained. “Go ahead and start adding nuggets to your side of the scales.”
Cisco brought out his pouch of nuggets and started dropping nuggets on the pan. As he dug deeper, he said, “I’m beginning to think I should have brought a bigger pouch.”
When the scales leveled out, Olaf set the ax and the nuggets aside. “Now we need to weigh the nuggets for the rest of the deal,” Olaf said, getting out a set of weights. “That’ll be five ounces for my work on the ax and four for the minerals,” he said, placing nine ounces of weights on his side of the scales.
“Okay, let’s finish this,” Cisco said, digging deeper into his pouch.
When the scales balanced out again, his pouch was nearly empty.
“Alright, so that’s the weight of the ax head plus five ounces, and another four ounces for thirty pounds of Lustralite and thirty pounds of Stellarite,” Olaf summed up.
“I’m good with the deal if you are,” he said.
“It sounds like a fair deal to me,” Cisco said.
“Now that the deal’s settled,” Baxter said, “I have a request.”
“If you’d be willing, Olaf, I’d like to come back and learn more about how you work with metal. I feel like it’s something I should know.”
“You’re welcome anytime, Baxter,” Olaf said. “And feel free to bring more of those shiny nuggets with you,” he added with a laugh.
With their business concluded, Olaf helped Cisco and Baxter load the pouches of minerals into their packs. With a wave goodbye, they headed back to the trail leading to Sunny Meadows. Cisco proudly carried his new ax.
“Since we’re carrying the extra weight of the minerals, should we take the easy, long way back?” Baxter asked.
“Or should we try the shortcut again?”
“I say we do the shortcut,” Cisco answered. “We have plenty of time, so I was thinking we should go as far as the spot where we found the nuggets. We can camp there overnight and do a little digging. Those nuggets are really good for trading.”
Traveling up the trail, they again found their way around obstacles by following guide stones. After a few hours, they reached the slide area where they’d found the nuggets.
“This looks like a good place to make camp,” Cisco said. “It’s pretty level and near the stream. Let’s dump our packs and go see if there’s any more of those nuggets.”
“Too bad we didn’t bring shovels,” Baxter said. “But if we tried to plan for everything, we’d need to drag a wagon behind us.”
“Of course,” Cisco said, “if we needed a wagon, we wouldn’t be able to take this shortcut, and we wouldn’t have found the nuggets and wouldn’t need the shovel. So I guess everything is as it should be.”
“Besides,” he added, “the slide was recent, and the dirt is still pretty loose. Let’s find something to dig with and see what we can find.”
Cisco used his ax to cut down a sapling and cut off a three foot length. Then he chopped one end into a flat, spade-like shape. He handed that one to Baxter and made another for himself.
“There you go,” he said. “Shovels, kind of. Let’s see how well they work.”
Finding the spot where they first found the nuggets, they started digging and immediately found pockets of nuggets. With very little effort, they filled Cisco’s pouch again.
“Well, now we’ve got a decision to make,” Cisco said. “I’m sure we’re going to find more nuggets than we can carry, especially with the minerals we already have in our packs.”
“There’s no real decision. The answer’s pretty simple,” Baxter said. “First, stop digging. Second, cover up where we’d been digging. Third, ditch our ‘shovels’ in the bushes. Fourth, put the pouch of nuggets in your pack, and move one of those five-pound bags of minerals over to mine. And finally, we hike on up the trail for a while before we make camp for the night. If anyone comes along, we don’t want them thinking there’s anything of interest here.”
“Excellent plan, Baxter,” Cisco said with a grin. “We’ll have to plan a trip back here when we have the time.”
The next day, mid-morning, they arrived at Sunny Meadows and found their way to Cassandra’s.
She met them at the door. “Hello there, big boy,” she said, smiling up at Baxter. “Oh, and hello to you too, Cisco.”
Behind her, Isis laughed. “Always the flirt, Cassandra.”
“Come on inside,” Isis said, “and show us what you found.”
Once they were inside and comfortable, Cisco reached into his pack and pulled out the pouch of nuggets. He handed nuggets to Isis and Cassandra, saying, “We came across a deposit of these and found them to be very good for trading.”
“We traded some of them for the minerals we were after,” he continued. “I also traded a lot of them for something for myself.” He said, looking a little embarrassed.
“And just what did you spend your hard-earned nuggets on?” Isis asked sternly before breaking into a big grin. “Did you buy yourself a big bag of sweets?”
“Why would I want sweets when I have you?” Cisco replied with a shy grin.
“Okay, Sweetheart,” Isis said with a soft purr in her voice. “What was it that you had to have?”
“I couldn’t resist trading for this,” Cisco said, holding up the copper ax. “You might say, my badge made me do it.” He added with a grin. He held up his badge for Isis and Cassandra to see.
“From what you’ve told me so far, he might be right,” Cassandra said to Isis.
“Well, with all the strange things that have been happening,” Isis mused, “I think I’ll have to let him get away with this one.”
“Thanks, Hon,” Cisco said. “At least we did stop on the way back to replace the nuggets I traded away.”
“And what did you get for yourself, Baxter?” Cassandra asked.
“I didn’t get any new toys like Cisco did,” Baxter said, “but I did gain a mentor who’s willing to teach me a new trade.”
“And like Cisco, my badge had something to do with bringing that about.” He went on to relate the story of how his badge and Olaf’s family coat of arms were nearly identical.
“This is really sounding weird,” Cassandra said as she leaned forward to examine Baxter’s badge.
“Well, you already know how you felt when I showed you my badge,” Isis told her.
“That’s true,” Cassandra said. “I have to tell you that I really want to be part of whatever is going on here.”
“Absolutely,” Isis said. “You should come over to our valley.”
“You’ll have to give me detailed directions so I can find you when I get time to make the trip,” Cassandra said.
Baxter spoke up, “I plan to get back with Olaf at the Fiery village to learn some of his metalworking techniques. On my way back, I’d be glad to take you to the valley.”
“I like that idea,” Cassandra replied. “Just let me know when to be ready to go back with you.”
Turning to Isis, Cisco said, “Are you ready to head back home?”
“All ready,” Isis stated, “but I told Cassandra that we’d give her some of the minerals to have on hand.”
Cassandra handed Cisco a couple of small jars, one for Lustralite and one for Stellarite. Cisco filled both jars.
“That’s it then,” Isis said. “Let me grab my pack, and we can be on our way.”
Isis said to Cassandra, “If you want to come see us before Baxter makes a trip to the Fiery village, just go to Golden Oaks, and the Rangers there will make sure you get to our valley.”
“Yeah, that might work better than waiting for the big guy to come wandering through,” Cassandra replied, looking at Baxter, who laughed.
“Okay, so I’ve been demoted to being the backup plan. I see how I rate around here.”
Cassandra walked them outside, and after hugs and goodbyes, the three shouldered their packs and headed for home.