Page 42 of The Alien Noble's Little Human

“The caverns in the mountains aren't safe places to be,” Taurek informs me.

“Is anything?”

“No.” He laughs.

“You'll be my canary in the coal mine.”

“I'm not familiar with that parable. Another one with a moral like the beanstalk boy?”

“It should be, but no, this is another legend that's real. On Earth, they collected compressed carbon deposits from the oldest mountains on the planet. The smallest, because they'd been selling long enough to crumble.”

“Medicinal as well?”

“No. The opposite. It was the Pandora’s Box – that's a myth as old as humans that is pure fiction, except allegorically, of course, and in that respect it's truer than most facts – for our destruction. Anyway, this poison was a primitive form of energy. People went into the mountains to collect it for a pittance, most paying with their lives in some form or another, to give more wealth to men who already had more than they could ever spend. Then we all paid when the planet was sick from it.”

“Uh-huh. And the canary?”

“Oh, sorry. Right. So, in these caves, obviously there are a ton of chemical processes going on and very little ventilation. Including poisonous ones. These little yellow birds, canaries, were more sensitive to poison gasses than humans, so they’d keep birds there. If they stopped singing, the humans knew they’d be dead soon, too.” She stops for a moment. “Anyway, long story for a silly joke.”

“It’s interesting to learn. And so, if I die, you’ll know to leave?”

“Kind of the opposite. If you start feeling the slightest bit off, I’m probably in danger of passing out.”

As we walk on, the tracery in the walls gets wider and brighter, and I realize it’s not roxolite. It’s the roots of plants which bloom out of the roxolite into stunning blossoms and petals of the entire spectrum of color, including colors I’ve never seen before.

“These plants grow in the roxolite.”

“Here,” Taurek says, showing me the opened bag. I collect as many specimens as I can and place them inside. It’s likely that these plants have special properties as well. The vines get thicker, and the walls surrounding the roxolite stores get denser, as if protecting the enchanted mineral.

“In there, I think. It has to be since it’s where everything leads.”

Taurek and I nod grimly, knowing the real work begins here. And we know the loosening of the rocks could create a cave-in.

Walking further, we see a notch where the walls have fallen into rubble. Through a gap toward the ceiling, purple beams as bright as daylight pour through.

Taurek reaches as high as he can to loosen the boulders, but they’re unmoving.

“I have to go up then,” I say.

He opens his mouth to object, but his eyes tell me that he has no grounds. This is what we came for, and this is how we get it.

“Here,” he says, throwing me one end of a rope while holding the other. “Tie it around your waist.”

I do as he says and climb up, grateful for the conditioning the mountains provided in our arduous trek to get here.

I take out my compressed light cutter, and I slowly, carefully, remove the edges of the walls to reach the roxolite.

The passageway opens up into a small low-roofed cavern. The walls shimmer with pure mineral crystals, and growing everywhere is danko reed and glinnery fern. Mycelia pulsates with purple light as it makes its way to a rare fruntilia mushroom. I can’t believe I’m witnessing this.

I wriggle further in, knocking some debris loose as I do.

“Be careful, Zaya. The roof doesn’t look stable.”

“I’ll be careful, I promise.” I have so much reverence for this substance that pulling it out without regard for how I take it feels like sacrilege.

Quickly I start filling my bags with the pure mineral, along with the symbiotic plants that flourish nearby. The stones shine through the neck of the bag even after it’s closed.

I can't imagine how many potential treatments for diseases, both known and undiscovered, hang from the bag in my hands.

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