What Jax didn’t expect to see was a cat, educated in all aspects of learning, hugging a towering tree growing in the center of a stone-paved circle.
Piper came over to stand next to him while Chantel had her moment with the tree.
Finally, Jax asked with a laugh, “So, Chantel, what did the tree tell you?”
“It told me,” Chantel replied in a very serious tone, “that we need to completely change our plan.”
“Well, okay,” Jax replied, no longer laughing. “Care to explain?”
“Oh dear,” Chantel replied, totally embarrassed. “I didn’t mean to be nasty about it. Let me explain.”
“Back in the cave, looking at the drawing with cats planting a tree in their present time, then the circle symbol with the dots, which we can clearly see represented this site, and finally, the symbol with the concentric circles. With just that information, we thought we were right to read it as saying, ‘We’re planting a tree at the end of our plague, at this specific location, so you can tell how long ago our plague was by counting the rings of the tree in the circle.’ We figured the center dot of the symbol was a tree, but we weren’t sure what the seven dots around the edge represented.”
“Okay,” Piper said. “That’s the story we’ve been working with. Are you saying we were wrong in our understanding of the drawing?”
“I’m saying our understanding was incomplete,” Chantel stated. “Standing here, we have all the details to really understand what our ancestors were trying to tell us in the drawing.”
“The tree does represent the time since the last plague, but it also represents the strengths they developed in fighting it.”
“Look at the seven stones standing around the edge of this paved circle. There are symbols carved on each one, facing inward toward the tree. Look closely. Do they look familiar?”
“You’re right!” Piper exclaimed, examining the nearest stone. “Look, Jax, that matches the symbol on the badge you chose.”
Looking closely, Jax said, “That’s my symbol alright, a shield embossed with a flower. And look, there are more symbols carved below it. I recognize some of them.”
“They’re on all the stones,” Chantel said with a sweeping gesture around the circle.
“I’ll tell you what the whole scene says to me.”
“The massive tree in the center is a manifestation of the power of all the skills carved on the stones coming together to battle the plague.”
“I think we can accept the fact that it took years and years to grow a tree that big,” Piper said, “and if we add in that our tribal memories of the last plague are so old they’ve been reduced to legend, hundreds of years could easily have passed.”
“Then, if you look at the cats that have come to this valley, each with skills, some of which are only now being discovered, it does seem like we’re being drawn together for a common purpose.”
“Well,” Jax added, “you have to admit that all of us are working toward a single goal, to find the cure for the plague.”
“It all suggests that the plague is near,” Chantel said. “We all know it.”
“We don’t need to cut down the History Tree to prove it.”
“That being said,” Jax pointed at the position of the sun. “It’s time to head back to camp.”
“You’re right,” Piper replied. “It’d be easy to get lost in these hills after the sun goes down.”
“Now that we finally found the History Tree, I don’t want to leave,” Chantel said, sounding a little like a petulant child.
“Now, Chantel,” Piper said, trying to sound like a strict parent, though she couldn’t hide her grin, “be a good girl. Come along, and we’ll let you come back tomorrow.”
“Well, okay, if you promise,” Chantel pouted, playing along.
Jax just shook his head and started back toward their camp.
Back at camp, the cats were relaxing after a strenuous day of climbing hills.
“What exactly are you planning to do at the Tree site tomorrow?” Jax asked while chewing on a trail cookie.
“There’s so much there with all the carvings on the stones, let alone anything we haven’t discovered yet,” Chantel replied, looking up from her notes. “So, with that in mind, I plan to basically play tourist. Just wander around, taking in the whole scene, making sketches, perhaps from a hilltop as well as ground level. I’ll just call the day ‘my first impressions’.”
“I’m thinking I’d like to return with Nixie and Gabby to help me interpret what we find, and maybe even bring Star and Nicole to get pictures and sketches of everything. Of course, we need to finish our work at the cave before that.”
“How about you, Piper? Got any big plans?” Jax asked.
“From the way you ask, I think I’ll be helping you,” she replied.
“You’re never going to admit that you can read my mind, are you?” Jax kidded her.
“A lady is allowed to have secrets,” Piper replied with a wink.
“My plan for tomorrow,” Jax said, “while Chantel spends the day at the Tree site, is to mark out a path from the site heading directly north. If you look at the drawing we used to find the History Tree, you’ll see that as we walked west to get to our final reference point, we actually passed right by the point where the tree site was directly south of us. Instead of turning south at that point and walking directly to the site, we kept on walking west to our reference point and then angled back to the southeast to find the site.”
“I see what you mean,” Piper said, looking at the drawing as he explained. “The extra distance was necessary because that final reference point let us find the History Tree.”
“That’s true,” Jax agreed, “but now that we know where the History Tree is, we don’t need that zigzag path anymore.”
“Making a path directly from the site, north to the edge of the foothills should cut off at least a half-day’s travel, if not more.”
“My plan to make a straight path is to simply walk, heading north, between the hills, keeping the sun on our right in the morning and on our left after noon. We can leave markers as needed.”
“That all sounds good,” Piper said, “but I don’t see why you need my help.”
“Well, let’s see… it’s always best to travel in pairs in uncharted territory, and you can carry our lunch,” he said with a grin.
“So, once you’ve marked your trail, you’ll come back and get me?” Chantel asked.
“Yep, that’s what I was thinking,” Jax replied.
“The sun’s down, and I’m beat,” Piper said with a yawn and a stretch. “I’m going to turn in.”
The next morning they loaded up everything to take with them. They didn’t plan on returning to this campsite at the end of the day.
“Let’s push it a little to reach the History Tree site so Chantel can have as much time there as possible before she has to leave.” Jax said.
“I appreciate the consideration,” Chantel replied, “but remember I’m an academic, not a trained Ranger.”
“Not ready for the Ranger quick pace?” Piper asked with a grin.
“I’m not sure what that is, but I’m pretty sure my answer is no.” Chantel replied.
“What we call the ‘Ranger quick pace’ is what we use when we have to cover a long distance in a short time,” Jax explained. “It amounts to jogging for a ways, then fast-walking for a bit, then jogging again. Once you get used to it, you can cover quite a distance that way.”
“We could try it if you want, but I was actually thinking of just a good, steady walk.”
“No, that’s okay,” Chantel quickly replied, “a good, steady walk sounds just fine.”
“You two go ahead,” Piper said, “I’ll finish burying the campfire and then catch up.”
“Okay, let’s see if we can find that tree again.” Jax said heading for the marked trail.
Keeping up a steady pace, they arrived at the site of the History Tree by mid-morning.
“Oh, this is going to be a good day,” Chantel proclaimed with a big smile.
“You know what we’re going to be up to, so we’ll leave you to it,” Piper said. “Have your fun. We’ll be back for you later this afternoon.”
Climbing up out of the north end of the depression, Piper and Jax scanned the hills in front of them, searching for an obvious trail leading north.
“I’m not seeing anything,” Jax said. “How about you?”
“Nope, but any wear patterns would have weathered away over the decades.”
“Yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking.” Jax replied. “So, let’s just head north between the first set of hills. Anytime we have to make a turn, we’ll leave a marker.”
“You know, this might not be as easy as we thought,” Piper said. “We could hit a dead end before we get there.”
“We may have been too optimistic,” Jax replied. “As long as we can find our way back here, we could try again tomorrow if we need to.”
“That’s true,” Piper said, leading off down the hill.
While it wasn’t a straight shot by any means, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. At least they didn’t hit any dead ends.
It was late afternoon before they climbed the last hill overlooking the site of the History Tree.
Chantel saw them right away from where she was sitting with her pack, waiting for them.
“Hi, guys! I thought you’d be back before now. How did it go?” she shouted up to them.
Walking down the hill, Piper answered, “It went fine, but it took longer than we thought.”
“How was your day?” she asked.
“It was great. A whole day with no pressure,” Chantel replied. “I definitely want to get the rest of my team up here to help me record this place.”
“I wonder if there’s any way I could get Mother up here to see this site. I’ll have to think about that.”
“Okay, you two,” Jax said, getting their attention, “We need to decide if we want to try to make it out of the foothills before dark or if we want to make camp here and leave in the morning.”
“I’m ready to go,” Chantel said, “but you two have been doing all the walking today, so I’ll leave it up to you.”
Jax looked at Piper. “What do you say?”
“Let’s do it,” Piper said without hesitation. “We should have plenty of time, but even if it starts to get dark, it’ll give us a chance to use our shiners under real conditions.”
“We’ve got everything with us,” Jax added, “so if we had to stop, we could always make camp and head out again in the morning.”
“Do you guys need a break, or are we ready to go?” Chantel said, reaching for her pack.
“We haven’t been pushing all that hard,” Piper said, turning to climb the hill again. “You did say you wanted to try out the Ranger quick pace, didn’t you?”
“I’m pretty sure I didn’t say anything of the sort,” Chantel laughed.