Bones

Technically speaking, Bersaglio wasn't actually Ness' grandmother. She was the old lady that owned the other half of the island. But Bersaglio had become close friends with Ness' parents years ago, and had watched the young Kalon grow up. Ness loved her surrogate grandmother as closely as she loved her own family, so when the little Kalon was invited over to Bersaglio's orchard for the day, she happily obliged.

Ness carried her backpack down the dirt path, her pace quickening the closer to Bersaglio's house that she got. When she arrived, Ness didn't even bother knocking on the door. She ran straight past the house and into the sprawling apple orchard, knowing that she was more likely to find Bersaglio there. Her hunch was correct, and she found the older Kalon sitting under a tree.

"Nana Bersaglio! I made it!" Ness called, grinning as Bersaglio turned and gave her a smile.

"Ah! Glad you could make it," Bersaglio said as she pushed herself to her feet. "We have something very important to take care of today."

"What is it?!" Ness asked, rocking back and forth excitedly.

"Bones! Bones, my dear," Bersaglio replied happily. "Today we are going to excavate some bones."

Ness' excitement only grew at the explanation, but then her brow furrowed.

"I didn't bring anything to dig with," she said with a frown.

"You can borrow some of my tools," Bersaglio assured her. "Come on!"

Down to the beach the two went, eventually finding themselves facing the cliff that separated the beach from the more grassy area of the island. Sure enough, Ness could see something that looked a lot different than the rest of the rock.

"Oh wow; is that a big fossil?" Ness asked, pointing. Bersaglio nodded.

"I've been trying to free it from the rock for days, but you have to be so delicate with these things," she explained, the frustration obvious on her face. "That's why I was hoping you could help me. With the two of us working, we can probably make some good progress today."

"Let's do it!" Ness said happily, dropping her bag into the soft sand of the beach and trotting happily over to the fossil. The thing was massive, easily larger than both Ness and Bersaglio combined. Ness eagerly took the small brush that Bersaglio handed her.

"You need to do your best to brush all the bones clean so I know how to dig around them," Bersaglio instructed, and Ness nodded seriously before getting to work.

The two worked together for hours, and Ness was having a blast. She felt very important as she cleaned the bones, and as they excavated the creature, Bersaglio was able to begin to identify it and tell Ness a myriad of facts and scientific theories. Ness' head buzzed with words that she didn't know how to spell. She was so distracted that only Bersaglio noticed when the clouds rolled in.

"We'd better finish for the day," Bersaglio called to Ness. "Let's get this covered against the rain."

Ness hopped down from where she had balanced herself on the rock and followed Bersaglio over to a tarp.

"I've been fastening this over the fossil when the weather gets bad," Bersaglio explained. "I can do it myself if you need a break, dear."

"I can still help!" Ness promised. "Does it just connect to those pins you set up?"

"That's right. Let's get to it!"

The wind picked up quickly, violently tugging the tarp around. Ness struggled to hold on, little knuckles turning white as she did her best to keep a grip on it. They walked it over to the fossil and Ness secured it to the lowest peg. Then the wind picked up further and the tarp was torn from Ness' grasp. Ness was knocked over from the force of it, falling heavily onto her back in the sand. She sat up quickly, getting ready to help again, but instead was amazed at Bersaglio tackling the entire tarp by herself.

Bersaglio moved faster than the erratic movements of the tarp, as if somehow in all of her wisdom she had learned to predict the movements. Her own aging bones flexed with a surprising youth as she easily managed to hook up the tarp. She wasn't even breaking a sweat when she returned to where Ness was sitting, extending a hand to help the little Kalon to her feet.

"Excellent work," Bersaglio said with a grin. "Come now; let's go and make ourselves some tea while we wait out the storm."

"Ok!" Ness' response came quickly. She retrieved her bag and ran to catch up, throwing back one last glance at the rocky cliff face before walking away. How cool it was to witness something older than she could even imagine.