The Chocolate Mine

When Freya Chocolate and Iona Dale came round to visit Beverley, I overheard something above the happy chatter that piqued my curiosity. I actively began eavesdropping - naughty of me, you may think, but I needed to know whether or not I'd misheard.

"Uncle Spelunker is funny," said Freya.

"How so?" asked Beverley.

"He does funny voices. He uses them to tell funny stories or sing funny songs."

"What sort of voices?"

"High ones, low ones - sometimes he mimics people. Famous people mainly, but he's taken off my dad too."

Iona chuckled. "I'd like to hear that."

Freya nodded, saying, "I can ask him, but he'll be leaving later today. He wants to catch the canal boat so that he can reach his camp before dark."

"Back at the chocolate mine?" asked Beverley. 

"Yes. He's wants to dig out some more wispachoc tomorrow before he's collected by the sea cats."

There it was. I hadn't misheard. Spelunker Chocolate was a chocolate miner.

I'd heard of chocolate mines but I didn't think they were serious things. I'd put them in the same category as lemonade rivers and sherbert snow. With young Freya clearly being serious about her uncle, I thought I should re-evaluate. Maybe Spelunker was teasing his niece. Or maybe... I could go to Frasier's place and check out Freya's funny uncle. Investigate the truth of the tale.

Wow. I was turning into Darcy Fielding.

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Teri was pleased to see me. "Hello, Jackson! You've not been round for months. Social or business?"

"Hi Teri. Yes, I've been remiss in my socialising lately. I've not had a chat with Frasier since the Melting. Is he about?"

"You've timed it well," she said. "Frazy is taking a break with his cousin Spelunker after taking a delivery. You haven't have met Spel, have you?"

"No. Freya mentioned that her uncle was visiting. Are you sure I won't be intruding?"

"Don't be silly, Jackson. Go on through to the back room."

Introductions were made and we settled down to chat. 

Spelunker was a humorous chap and when he told a couple of anecdotes he did adopt the occasional changes of voice pitch to add colour to his tales. I was deciding how best to ask about chocolate mining but there was no need; the conversation moved in that direction. I took the opportunity to declare my ignorance of the subject.

"It is unusual," said Spelunker. "The mine is probably unique, but who knows?"

I smiled. "I find it incredible that one can dig rocks of chocolate out of the ground. I thought it was made from cacao beans. Do the two chocolates taste similar?"

Frasier laughed. "You're under a misapprehension, Jack. They aren't rocks. Tell him, Spel."

Spelunker Chocolate wriggled to get comfortable before commencing his explanation.

"First, you should know that we only became aware of the mine between ten and fifteen years ago. Prior to that we only saw it as a convenient cave for storage."

"We?"

"Ah. I'll explain. The cacao beans were cargo brought by the sea cats' boats. I'd accompany them and we'd unload the sacks. The thing was - timing of our arrival wasn't fully predictable. We couldn't expect the sea cats to hang about for the cargo to be collected. We addressed this by placing the sacks of beans in the cave, safe from the elements. I could then go and get help to continue transportation."

"Makes sense," I said.

"It does. But something happened after one delivery. I wasn't present that time. Reportedly it was as if the beans had started to grow in the sacks. Some sacks split and the beans fell out, adhering to the rocks. It was a bit of a mess. The story goes that cargo collectors came, cleared the mess and retrieved all the beans - as they thought - and completed their job as normal."

Frasier joined in with the tale. "The beans were a little larger than usual but otherwise no different to those from prior deliveries."

"No one thought anything about it," said Spelunker, "until the next time we came to use the cave a few weeks later. It was full of large blocks of chocolate, effectively akin to processed milk chocolate, fused to the floor and walls of the cave. It was as if they had grown there."

I frowned. "Grown there? How?"

"We didn't know back then. We had some makeshift tools and we cut away some of the blocks so that we could take them away for testing. They dislodged from the rock cleanly. That's when we heard it."

"What?"

"A gentle whispering noise. A bit scary at the time, but then we found out the source of the noise. It was where we'd cut away the blocks of chocolate. The rocks were acquiring a thin brown coating. Similar to lichen on rocks, but accumulating much quicker. The coating was chocolate. It was growing back, and in the initial stages it was making the whispering noise."

"That's where the term wispachoc came from," added Frasier.

"That's right. And when it was confirmed that the cave was producing perfectly edible chocolate, we agreed to mine it, managing it properly. It wasn't just the front of the cave either. It extended further back than we usually go. A lot of wispachoc to administer."

I thought I'd better confirm that I wasn't the victim of a prank. I had hardly begun to air my doubts when Frasier preempted me. "It's not a joke, Jack."

"Really? How do you explain it then?"

"We couldn't," said Spelunker. "That's why we brought in an expert."

Frasier nodded at me as Spelunker continued. "He examined the cave thoroughly, poking about here and there, making measurements, taking notes. When he reported back he advised erecting a barrier at the back of the cave. He showed us where best to do that, writing a list of the materials to use

"He explained that there was a deep, narrow well at rear of the cavern, saying that it appeared to be a conduit for wild energies. He suspected that there must have been a particularly large surge for it to reach the cave. Apparently he considered it very unusual for it to do that.

"The barrier, assembled to his instructions, would provide protection if the energies should ever reappear." 

"These wild energies affected the cacao beans?" I asked.

"That was his conclusion. He commented that, in his experience, mountains in Sylvania tend to exhibit more unusual occurrences than flatlands. Mysterious energies are but one part."

I thought of the minerals that the Polaris family used for creating their coolsalt. I thought of Tara finding unusual plants in the snowfield mountain plateaus. I thought of the speed tunnels that began beneath the mountains. And I recalled a recent visit from Felixor from the Mist Cat tribe and his talk of wild energies. The very term Spelunker said this expert had used.

"Are you okay, Jack?" said Frasier, jerking me out of my thoughts.

"Yes. Sorry, Fraze. Chocolate mines, eh? It's an unusual story."

"All true," said Spelunker. "and that's why I periodically visit the chocolate mine to effectively harvest the wispachoc. It will form a substantial cargo that I can load onto the sea cats' ship ready for export. And some goes to cousin Frasier, of course." 

 

"It is impressive," said Frasier. "I went there once and Spel let me dig some chocolate out."

I stared at them, and they laughed.

"I know, Jack," said Frasier. "It's a weird world."

I had to agree. But a chocolate mine was a nice kind of weird!

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