And Such Are Stones

5. The Sky Is No Limit

Baug didn't really want to leave again, but it was their way of life. The breeding cycle came around, and the Vans came home. As soon as the breeding cycle was over, the Vans left again.

He really cared for his Bis. She had silky brown fur all over her face and a cute little muzzle that she would tickle him with when they were together. Her name was Shaa. She was the only Bis that even made him want to breed. Her smell ... was a heady musk that filled a room and made it difficult for him to think about anything else. None of the rest of the females could even turn his nose.

The birds were leaving again, though. They would only have two flights out this time. He might be able to wait for the second lift, but there would not be another one after that. All of the Vans would be in the camp for the rest of the summer. It worked out pretty well for most of them, but Baug was a little more sensitive than most, and he felt the pangs of loneliness when he had to leave for the season.

He was about four and a half feet tall and strong, but all of the Diggers were strong. They were a lot stronger than the Humans they worked with. They always had more stamina in the dig, too. There was no way that Humans were going to be able to keep up in a dig with Diggers.  It just wasn't happening.

Baug could smell the ore in the soil and rock and direct his crew to the best place to extract it. He wasn't crew chief, that was always up to the Humans, but the rest of the Diggers looked to him. Even when the crew chief told them to go in a certain direction, they would still look to him.

He could smell crystals and ores long before the rest of them could lock on to the smell. He could tell them how long, how deep, and how wide a lode was, many feet before they had even found it. They all relied on him to get the team moving in the best direction possible.

There were the other stones, too... the ones that made his nose tingle and his skin feel warm. He didn't tell anyone about these stones, but they never asked him. He brought one out once, and none of the other Diggers could even smell it, so he put it down a crack in the earth. Stones that other Diggers couldn't smell were something that he didn't want lying around. Stones like that meant magic, and Diggers didn't like being around magic.

Every now and then, a different crew would come in. These guys weren't Diggers, but they would look through all the scraps, go down all the tunnels, and look through what the Diggers were saving. They never took anything, but they had some strange characters who would put their heads close to the ore as if they were smelling for something. Baug knew what they were looking for, but he never mentioned it.

Shaa was sending the yearling pups to the day camp. The older Vans that didn't breed anymore and the Bis that didn't have mates would watch them and teach them how to do Digger stuff. She slapped the last one on the bottom on its way out of the entrance and turned back to Baug.

"So, you gone off some more," she said. "We be here."

Baug had a slightly different relationship with his Bis than any other Digger he knew. The rest of them were always fighting, even when they were in the breeding cycle. It was a wonder that they stopped fighting long enough to even make the new pups. Some of them had scratches and bruises that weren't from working, so maybe they didn't stop fighting even then. It was none of Baug's business.

His Bis was his business. Shaa said, "You come back in," she said with her hands on her hips. "You come back in, and I show you why you like me so much."

Baug looked back to see if anybody else was paying attention. Nobody was even close to them. He still had some time ... there would be another flight tomorrow anyway. It was difficult for him to hide his arousal in his bibs as he followed her back into the den. Maybe it wasn't just her smell after all ... it was everything about her.