by Geo Dell
~
There were a half dozen small rooms off either side of the main tunnel that would prove useful. Almost all of them had been at least partially worked by hand.
The air flow through the tunnel became stronger as they searched deeper. It carried a warmer breeze with it and the scent of something that seemed familiar. Several commented on it, but no one could place it with any certainty. They were about to stop for lunch when they reached a divide in the tunnel.
The left tunnel sloped downward steeply, the right side twisted upward. Craige held his lantern in both passages and the flame danced just as wildly. He turned and looked at Candace.
“Makes no difference to me,” Candace said.
“Let's do the left side, have our lunch and then we'll do the right side,” Cindy suggested.
Candace lead the way down the left tunnel.
“How far do you think we've come?” she asked of anyone who cared to answer.
“Not very far if you think about it. We've spent most of our time exploring,” Bonnie said. “Maybe a quarter mile... Give or take.”
“That feels about right,” Cindy agreed.
“Hey,” Candace said. “Look.”
Light spilled around a curve in the tunnel ahead where it twisted to the right slightly. The warm air was stronger, almost hot as it poured into the tunnel.
They slowed as they approached the turn, and then stepped around it onto a wide rocky shelf. A wide green valley swept away from them, running in between towering mountain peaks.
They were approximately thirty feet above the valley floor, Craige thought. Worn, stone steps, cut into the rock, led steeply down to the valley floor.
“Wow... Where is this?”Candace asked.
“It has to be the other side of the mountain,” Lilly said from beside her: Her voice was quieted with awe.
“Has to be,” Amy agreed.
“It's as big as our valley,” Craige said. “At least.”
“More space as we welcome people to the fold,” Lilly said.
Candace looked at her.
“Probably more here before the snow flies,” Craige agreed. “That what you guys call this? The fold? I thought it was the Nation... Unofficially.”
“It is so complicated,” Candace said. “Way more than what it needs to be too. But,” she took a second to compose herself. “When we met Bob and Janna they began talking immediately about this place... We didn't just end up here by accident, Bob knew about this place. He wanted to build the new Native Nation here. We almost fell apart over that, but we came here. It's called The Nation for short. But I have heard The Fold a few times too. Mostly from Jessie's people. They had an idea to start a place called The Fold. A settlement. The Fold, as in welcome to the fold. But in these days and times it seems like a name like that can get nailed down and gain a lot of importance pretty fast.” She sighed. “There's so much... Feeling... No, there are people that have their feelings wrapped up in a name, I guess. This name, that name... I suppose we'll have to sit down and work it out so feelings don't get hurt even more.”
Lillie's eyes were wide. “What do you think, Candace?”
Amy and Bonnie turned to her too.
“Well... I don't know to be honest with you. I didn't think about it. I think it's a name... A name.” She shrugged. “It doesn't make the place, we do. So I guess I'll go with what the majority thinks.” She smiled uncertainly. “Did I miss something? Is it a big deal as all of that?” She tried a small laugh that was answered by the others.
“I doubt it,” Craige offered. “We had kicked a few names around too...” He smiled and then laughed. “I can't think of a single one of them now though. I guess it's like you say. It's just a name.” Craige turned back to the valley and the others turned with him. Candace made a mental note to talk to Mike about the conversation later.
A deep stream of water worked its way down the rock face from high above them somewhere, leaving a heavy mist hanging against the rock face as it fell to the stream bed below. A herd of wild horses grazed the valley floor about a half mile away, and a larger herd of bison another half mile beyond that.
It appeared that the valley ended at the next rise of the foothills a mile or so away, but they suspected, like their own, it probably curved around to the left or the right. There would be no way of knowing until they explored it thoroughly. The shelf of rock they were on ran along the face of the rock some three hundred feet before it curved back into the rock face, Craige thought. The overhang was carved deeply into the side of the mountain too. The wind, maybe some long gone water source, something had carved the rock away over a long course of time, leaving the wide ledge and its concave back wall.
They walked it from one end to the other. Like their own cave, it was just the tunnel leading away. In their cave it turned into a large room, here it lead back to the divide in the tunnel.
“It's beautiful,” Candace said.
“And probably very useful too,” Bonnie agreed.
“Well... Let's have our lunch... Go check the other one and then head back before they wonder where the hell we got to,” Amy added.
“Works for me,” Craige agreed. He settled down beside Cindy on the wide rock shelf. They looked over the valley in silence as they ate.
~
The other tunnel curved away to the right, sharply rising as it did. Just before it seemed as though it would have to curve back around on itself, it opened into a large cavern of a room.
The room was easily twice the size of the one that they used. Light streamed into the room from several places, along with the smell they had been following. It became obvious immediately. Small wisps of smoke seemed to drift up from the corner of the room and lift upward toward the ceiling. Most of it made its way to the ceiling, but some of it was caught by the currents of air and pulled apart.
The ceiling seemed to have no outlets to allow the smoke to escape. A cloud of blue-gray smoke hung thirty feet above them, swirling slightly in the air currents from the openings that lead to the outside.
“It has to be coming from our fire,” Craige said. He seemed to be lost in thought for a second. He turned his head first one way, looking along the tunnel they had traveled through, and then back to the front, staring at the rock floor some ten feet below them. He continued. “Has to be... We curved around enough and doubled back... We must be right over the top of our cave. It's the only thing that makes sense.”
Candace nodded. “Bob tracked it, when we started the fires. They seep out through natural cracks and work their way to the top of the mountain. He found the place where what's left of the smoke comes out. Not a lot left either. This has to be part of that.”
Across the wide expanse of floor below them sunlight streamed into the room from a break in the wall. They carefully worked their way down a gently sloping, worn stone path to the lower level. They walked across the floor to the crack in the side of the wall where sunlight streamed through.
Thick, woody branches pushed their way through the opening into the room. Craige used his hands to push the brushy branches that intruded into the space back out, snapping off some of them as he did. A few minutes of work cleared an area that stretched up about fifteen feet, and was about three feet wide at the bottom. He worked his way deeper into the space, pushing the branches before him, the occasional snapping of larger branches coming to those that waited.
Aha,” They heard him say a few minutes later. They heard a grunt and a bush came backwards from the narrow opening, showering dirt across the floor as it did. He poked his head back around the door grinning. “Come see this, ladies,” he said as he once more disappeared from sight.
Candace stepped forward. She hesitated, peering into the narrow opening and suddenly a sheep popped its head in at her.
“Bahhhh,” the sheep protested.
Candace's heart leapt into her throat as Craige broke into laughter outside of the cave. “Jesus,” she squeaked. A second later they were all laughing
loudly looking at sheep that was staring back at them, its own eyes wide and frightened. The sheep popped its head back outside and Craige appeared in the opening grinning and red faced.
“You...” Amy said. She shook her fist at him, but she was squirting tears of laughter from her eyes.
“The brave party of explorers were killed and eaten by a herd of sheep,” Cindy managed. That got them all going again.
“Oh, Christ,” Lilly managed, swiping at her eyes. She stepped up beside Candace and the two of them stepped out into the light.
Candace caught her breath and tried to slow her racing heart.
“Jesus,” she said again.
“Scared me too, Candace.” Amy agreed
“Goddamn goat,” Lilly said.
“Goddamned sheep,” Cindy corrected, and they all began to giggle as they made their way out into the bright sunlight.
They looked at each other and burst into laughter once again. Candace stepped out into the light first.
“Oh,” she said. “Come on, girls. We're home.”
The other three lead by patty stepped out into the small field above the cave. Behind them Craige pushed the one inquisitive sheep away and began shoving the broken brush and limbs he had removed back into the opening. “Unless we want a cave full of goats and sheep,” he said when Cindy looked at him.
They followed the stream that wound through one edge of the field to where it fell away from the mountain. The valley they had found earlier lay far below them, winding away on the opposite side of the mountain.
From this vantage point it was easy to see the other valley in its entirety. The herd of horses, the larger herd of bison grazing further out.
The valley didn't turn as their own did. This valley just widened out into a broad plain that rolled away to the mountains in the distance. On one side the walls fell away and they could see where their own second valley cut back into this one.
This new valley was accessible from their own valley. All that lay between was the rocky ridge. To the right there was another low rock spine and then a pine woods that marched away to the horizon. Neat orderly rows, Candace noticed. Probably reforested land, but it had to be generations ago. The trees were huge.
One of the big dogs came over and wagged its tail. The female, Candace noticed. Her belly so large it nearly touched the ground as she walked.
“Come here, girl,” Candace called. The dog trotted over and sniffed her. She wagged her tail harder. Candace grabbed the fur on either side of her huge head and gave her a good scratching. He tail wagged even harder. “Looks like you and me are in the same boat,” she told the dog. She looked around smiling. “And Lilly... And Aim... Hey! This dog should be grounded just like we are,” she laughed. “Look at the size of her!”
“She looks about to pop,” Lilly agreed. “But so do we, and we got a way to go yet.”
Candace laughed. “True.” She looked around. “Might as well take the easy way down,” she said as she started for the trail that lead down to the cave.
They walked down the ledge and found Janna and Beth leaning against the waist high stone wall that fronted the ledge that looked out over the valley.”Candace,” Janna said. “I thought you girls were inspecting the caves?” Her eyes swept over the others to include them in the question.
“Exploring, Janna. We were. We found a way to the top of the mountain and also to the other side.” She included Beth with a smile. “Should you even be up and around?”
“It's an arm,” Beth said as if it really meant nothing more to her. She smiled and dropped the serious tone from her voice. “I can not stand lying around, and Bear thinks I should retire from life or something, it's crazy, really.” She had edged back toward serious, but as she finished they all burst into laughter.
“Men,” Amy said. “Good thing they don't have to have babies.”
Bonnie snorted laughter. “The human race would be done right there,” she laughed.
“We also found a small water filled room. Warmed water,” Annie said.
“It is going to become a bath house I suspect,” Craige said. He seemed embarrassed to be there as everyone turned and looked at him as though they had completely forgotten he was there. “I... I think I'll go down and see what the boys are doing,” he added red faced.
'We didn't mean you, Craige,” Cindy added. Craige turned bright red, smiled harder and mumbled something as he made his way to the path that lead down into the valley.
“Sorry, Cindy,” Amy said.
“Why do guys get so embarrassed by stuff like that? Don't they hang out and talk about us? Or make a joke now and then?” She asked.
“They do... It's just harder when they are caught in it,” she placed a hand to her mouth to hold back a giggle.
Several others giggled too. Janna looked serene as she always did.
“Well,” Janna Adams said at last. “That seems like a busy morning to me. I wish I had gone with you I would have liked to see that.”
“Oh, you'll see it, Janna. You'll see it,” Lilly told her.
“Yeah,” Amy added. “You'll be going, Janna.”
~
By late afternoon nearly everybody had found an excuse to go looking through the tunnels. It turned out to be a short walk to the other large cave that overlooked the upper meadow when you weren’t stopping along the way to check other passages.
The hot pool was the biggest attraction. Everyone had their own idea of what it had been used for. The predominant theory was they were changing rooms of some kind.
Bob, Tom and Tim had experimented with a long stick shoved into the crack in the floor where the smoke rose and the result was a small scrap of stick protruding from the ceiling in the main cave where the smoke disappeared into the smoke hole. The cracks probably went all the way to the top of the mountain, Bob had ventured, but over centuries the cracks had probably clogged up with sand and dirt, roots from plants, and slowly became partially closed off. Another stick rammed back and forth through the crack in the ceiling opened it back up fairly quickly. The smoke began once again to exit from the top of the mountain, no longer backing up into the cave.
Bob was excited by the idea of cutting the hole wider and building a staircase to join the two levels together. The floor thickness over the smoke hole was no more than three feet he estimated. It wouldn’t take too much to open it up.
When Bob came back down to the hot springs to look it over he was told by Annie, who was affixing a hand lettered sign to the wall, that the pool was out of service. Behind her he heard giggling from inside. Bob retreated back down the tunnel without a word, and Annie slipped back inside the room
The inside was lit up by a half dozen lanterns and the pool was full. Every woman in the nation was there. Some in the water, some just soaking their feet. Even Beth sat at the edge of the pool. Her arm in a sling, feet dangling in the water, carrying on a conversation with Jessie Stone.
“Who was it, Dear,” Janna asked, as Annie slipped back inside through the covering of blankets that had been fixed over the entrance. Annie peeled her clothes off and slipped into the water. There was a stone ledge very close under the waters' surface and she settled down onto it sighing as she did.
“Bob,” she told her. “Oh... This is so good.”
Candace and Amy floated nearby with Lilly, their bellies poking out of the water. Annie laid back into the water and began to float on her own back. She looked down at her own stomach. A little curve and nothing more, but it was more noticeable already.
“Makes me feel a hundred pounds lighter,” Candace said.
“It's the mineral water, dear,” Janna Adams said.
Annie floated by still looking at her stomach. “Can you see it?” she asked.
“Janna laughed. “Yes, dear, you can. A little, but it is there.”
Annie grinned ear to ear and relaxed back into the water as she floated out into the pool.
~
The men stood in the tunnel way and wa
ited on the women. Most of them had just come back from harvesting the wheat fields. They were dusty and sweaty. They had used the combine attached to the harnesses, and even with only partially trained oxen the field work was going very fast.
There were four oxen Bob had been training. There had been a few hitches, some oxen wanted to stop and eat as they walked through the fields, but they were young, Bob had pointed out: More training and by next year they would walk through it like it was nothing.
The field had come down so quickly that they had gone over to another field of standing mixed wheat, rye and barley and done that one too. They mixed the two cuttings together for a yield that was nearly all wheat. The two custom made wagons were not much more than rolling frames cut from old trucks and fitted with the axles. The front axle attached to a tongue that the oxen could pull. That tongue also steered the front axle, so as the oxen pulled the wagon naturally followed them.
The rear wheels were the second solid axle from the big trucks and just went side to side. A huge rough sided box on skids could be pulled up onto the frame by the oxen. Pinned into place, and once filled, unpinned and pulled off the low slung frame by the oxen and stored in the barn.
They had built six of the rough lumber sided boxes. Four now resided in the barn, full to the tops. The other two would be used to collect the hay for the mows after it had dried for a few days.
They were all hot, tired and dusty, but the news of the pool was too much to ignore. “Hot bath or cold dip in the stream?” Bob had asked when they had finished.
“The ladies are lucky they beat us to it,” Bear had laughed.
Bear had also spent part of his afternoon with Bob trying o figure out the smoke hole and where it went to. Crawling around on the smoke black and dusty floor of the cave above their own, and reaching in to the soot blackened smoke hole itself had left them both filthy. They were both looking forward to the hot bath.
Tom and Tim had come back from exploring the other tunnels exits and were equally hot and grimy. They had all been about to head down to the men's bathing area of the stream when Bob had convinced them the women would be out soon and they could get themselves in there. It hadn't taken much to convince them. They all made small talk in the tunnel hallway now as they waited.