Ötzi the Iceman’s copper ax, c. 3345 BCE

The tributary, like many to follow, proved nothing as far as finding Tor's mother was concerned. He did find lots of wildlife as the stream soon dwindled as he passed many riblets of spring water emerging from the hillsides that gave it its lifeblood. Hence the wildlife. Where there was water there was always more game.

Tor and his companion, Shin, feasted on the bounty, some partridge and their eggs, while Tsen found the green shoots of reborn grass delightful to eat, sometimes joining other herbivores, like deer, grazing while Tor watched. Wondering what a herd of horses would be like. Wondering if Tsen was lonely. Contentedly grazing with other species, he didn't appear to be.

Within two suns, Tor came to the origin of the stream. It exited from a cliffside after being an underground river that he could not explore because there was no way past the rushing water coming out of that solid rock. He speculated there may be caves within like the ones he had seen earlier, but that was only speculation. It was a big world, and he couldn't explore all of it. Only that within safe reach. He had seen a single injury result in death. No more breaking bones like he did earlier.

Arriving back at the Rine, Tor continued  his journey for two more suns until he came upon another tributary. It was early morning and he saw smoke rising from the small stream that looked like he could easily wade across. He had seen this sometimes before, especially in the morning when the water was warmer than the air. It looked like smoke, but wasn't, it didn't have that strong burned wood smell. More like steam rising from a boiling pot. But this was different. It smelled.

Upon deciding just to wade across rather than follow this, rather small, river he smelled something that was different. And the water didn't look quite right. Nothing green was growing in it. And he didn't see any fish swimming in and out. The smell was rather pungent and familiar. Maybe he had smelled it around campfires, but he couldn't exactly place it. Rotten eggs? He tested the water with his hand and was glad that he did, because he had to withdraw it very quickly or it would have burned. The water was hot, very hot, and that's why steam was rising from it.

He hadn't noticed before, but the flood had torn apart and strewn about some logs that probably had spanned the water so that people could cross without getting burned. Even with Tsen, Tor was not inclined to try to move those logs back into place. And, although he had originally not decided to follow this tributary because it was so small, he opted for following it until they all could leap across the hot water and resume the journey.

As they followed the hot water upstream, they came upon various bubbling springs of scalding water feeding the stream, lined with multicolored layers of growth like Tor had never seen before.

There were reds, greens, and blues. But most prominent was a kind of yellow that gave off the strong pungent smell. Tor did not know its name but he had smelled and seen it in his journeys. Sulfur that he smelled in yellow egg yolks. Something he found intriguing but of no use except perhaps, medicine. He thought, That's where I've seen it.  In the elders pouches of medicines. Mystery solved.

Faintly, up ahead, Tor could hear noise--pounding. It came and went, bouncing off the cliffs he could see ahead, and there was the faint smell of smoke in the air. But it wasn't woodsmoke. It didn't have that sweetness associated with different kinds of wood. It was much harsher. He was intrigued what it was.

The trio proceeded up stream with caution. Shin growling his discontent as they moved closer and the unfamiliar smells and sounds grew greater. Tor wanted to be as quiet as possible, even with Tsen making more noise walking than he alone. His hooves scraping over rocks on the trail. "Quiet, boy. Quiet now… Let's not alarm whoever it is."

Around a slight bend, the trees opened up into an area where there were some shelters and smoke rising from two fires. But there was only one gray hair in sight. And he was busy pounding on a piece of shiny stone with a stone hammer creating something like Tor had never seen before. They walked right up to him before the intent old man even noticed. And then, when he looked up, was not surprised.

"Hello, I am Tor. Please forgive me barging into your camp."

The old man looked intently at him with glazed over grayed eyes and said, "I felt the heavy footsteps of your animal for some time. And, I heard the slight sounds of your dog. You sound like a young man I once knew. Forgive my eyesight, it is much deteriorated with age. I am Glu, but others know me as the Copper Man."

"I am looking for my mother. Wondering if she ever passed this way?" 

"That is new to me. No women come here. Most are coming for the copper. Many cycles ago, one who sounded just like you came and we traded for copper. That's why you sound so familiar."

"Copper? I don't know what copper is. You must be mistaken."

"My memory of that young man is still strong and the more you talk the more I am reminded of him. I made him an ax and instructed him how to keep the copper on its tip sharp and not degraded. Have you ever seen that ax?

"I haven't, and don't know what you're talking about."

"Nevermind, come to think of it, you have a heavier sound and demeanor than he had. And it was long enough ago that he could have been your grandfather. Did you know your grandfather?"

"Only my father's father for a short while before he died. And my mother, Nila, the one I'm looking for, told me about her father, Ötzi, but he lived very far away."

"Yes, this young man had come from very far seeking copper. I was fortunate to find the copper here as a young man and learn from an elder how to remove it from the rock, melt it down, and then shape it by pounding into many useful things. Perhaps you would like to trade for some. Learn how to make it?"

"Perhaps I would, but I have nothing to trade."

"Oh yes, you do. You have youth and strength. My wife and I are old and I am nearly blind. We can use a young man around here if you're willing to stay a while, I can trade your labor for some of the things that I have made with copper."

Glu held up the shining piece he was working on to the light of the sun. It sparkled amazingly in front of Tor's eyes. He had never seen anything of that color or reflection except his face in calm water. It was magic. Magic of the gods.

"We really need the help. Everyone here dies young. My son died just this last dark winter. First they go angry, upset and become useless. And then, they become listless, and die from lack of food, water or exercise. Only the gods know." He sighed a tired sigh.

"My wife, Loa, is cooking gruel for our evening meal. You're welcome to join us. I could use some meat, it's been a while." He grinned, showing one tooth awkwardly left in his gaping smile. "She chews it for me, for I have lost my teeth."

"I can contribute to that. I have a partridge I caught on the trail and some pork left from the last boar I killed. Tomorrow, I will hunt for more for you."

Glu smiled again. "That's wonderful." He put down his tools and rose painfully, slowly to his feet. "Follow me. Let me introduce you to my wife and see if we can get some of that meat cooking so that I can swallow it."

Tor stayed for a moon. He helped Loa gather spring greens, wild onions, herbs and mushrooms for some dishes he had not tasted before. And he went hunting in the mornings and evenings. Putting up a store of smoked and dried meat that would last the couple for more than a year. But it was the fresh meat that they savored. Especially the snared rabbit because it was so soft that Glu found that he could eat it without having it boiled to nothing or pre-chewed by Loa.

During the hours between, Glu gave Tor lessons in copper smithing. "Come with me," He announced after Tor brought a young red deer for Loa to butcher and had taken his bath in a pool next to the camp that provided amazing warmth and cleansing like Tor had never felt before. "Eases our aches and pains." His host had declared rightly.

Tor dutifully followed carrying a heavy granite ax as his host and now, mentor, followed a well-worn path some distance to the cliffs that overshadowed the camp. They arrived at a spot where bands of different colored rock were clearly visible on the eroded cliffside.

Finding a black, shiny band of. Rock, Glu took a swing with his ax and knocked a piece of the rather soft material from the band and picked it up. He turned to Tor and held it up to him for his examination.

"This is coal. It is the god's magic that enables me to melt copper from the rock it is trapped in. Coal burns much hotter than wood. But it is hard to get burning. I will show you…" He threw it aside and waved his hand as if to illustrate his magic. "You must gather much of this coal for me if I am going to continue smithing. It is just too hard for me now." He sighed.

"I will gather all that you need."

"There's another thing that I need to show you. Follow me."

This time they walked a great distance along the eroding cliff face until they came to a place where makeshift wooden scaffolding climbed halfway up the cliff side.

Winded by the long walk and his weak lungs, Glu announced hoarsely, "This is where they found the copper, my ancestors. But they are all dead. There is something in this profession that kills us."

Realizing that he was drifting from what he needed to say, Glu reached down and picked up a pebble like no pebble that Tor had ever seen. It was normal dark rock, but veined with a glowing green. And when Glu rubbed it against his tunic, hard, and raised it up again for Tor to see, in a small spot where he had rubbed, the shiny, orange beauty of copper appeared. Tor was amazed!

"You will have to climb high on that scaffolding to find the veins of copper in the rock. You may have to add additional scaffolding to reach higher or broader to where the best stone is. And then, you will have to break it off… Much harder to do than with the coal. But you will not have to get as much." His dead gray eyes seemed to sparkle and the wrinkles in his cheeks stretch into a broad smile as Glu anticipated what Tor could do for him.

Without further instruction, Tor climbed up past many hammered out veins that had petered out. Finally, halfway up the rock face, he could see other veins. Some within reach and some that were not. Taking the granite hammer, he pounded away at one vein, knocking off of few pieces that fell far below to where Glu waited.

There was more than one place where pounding the rock away had created a hole in the cliff that he could crawl into. Some went far enough back to where the light dimmed. He would need a torch to explore those or the veins of green they may have in them.

Eventually, Tor grew tired and in need of water that he had carried with him from sweating in the sun and hammering so hard. He descended to find that Glu was overwhelmed with emotion.

"You are a gift from the gods! He exclaimed.

In the following time Tor set to work on these tasks that his host and mentor had charged him with. He spent the mornings mining coal and copper. Eventually providing Glu with a pile of coal as tall as Tsen and twice his length by sewing together two bags from old skins across the horse's back that he filled with equal amounts of the black fire, making the task far easier than carrying a single bag on his own back.

Tor also used Tsen to carry copper ore from that distant cliffside with the same bags. Glu could not believe his ingenuity or the horse's capability. Every day, he prayed to the gods that the boy would not leave.

With his strenuous activity being done in the mornings and a need for a lunch to refuel his body from all that work, Tor indulged in Loa's good cooking and then joined Glu in the shade of a huge tree over the hot hearth where he operated bellows with his feet and watched as Glu taught him the finer points of melting down copper from ore and then pounding it into the many useful shapes it could be made into. Simply amazing.

Copyright 2021 © Ronald W. Hull

3/26/21