Chapter 6: Frostdodons
The Trux and Tools are gathering ore from the ore station during a massive snowstorm. "Brrr! I hate it when we get these snowstorms!" Waldo groaned, freezing in the cold air. "I can't even remember the last time we had a snowstorm in the crater." Revvit said. "Oh, I remember. It was so cold, my mouth was frozen shut for a whole month!" Dozer said. "Speaking of cold, the ground's freezing fast. It'll get harder to gather ore until the snowstorm clears up." Ty said. "Well, let's get back to the garage before we all freeze!" Dozer exclaimed.
They made it back to the garage in record time and started chowing down. "Good thing we got this ore in time. I don't think I would've lasted another second in that cold." Dozer said. "It'll get even worse once the storm lets up." Xee said. "Xee is right. The ground will freeze up and be as hard as the ground in Snowblazer's land." Revvit said. "And that'll be even harder for me to find ore." Ty said. "I'd rather worry about the ore we have right now. Who knows how long it'll last?" Skya said. Ty yawned. "I suggest we worry about that in the morning. I gotta get some sleep." He said. "Good call, dude." Ton-Ton said, falling asleep immediately.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the night, a herd of unknown Trux came up to the edge of the crater. One of them made a trumpet sound and led the others into the crater.
The next morning, the Trux woke up, shaking off the cold feeling from their metal bodies. "It's a good thing I wore my horn warmers. Can't have my horns freeze off in the night." Dozer said. "Let's get some fresh ore from the ore station." Ty said. The Trux exited the garage. "Wait a minute. Something's different here." Skya said, noticing something. "What's different?" Ty said. "The ground looks like it's been disturbed." Skya said. Revvit hopped off Ty and inspected the ground. "These tracks are fresh. They must've been drove through here last night." He said. "Any idea what kind of Trux left them?" Ty asked. "I'm afraid not, Ty. These tracks are of a kind I've never seen. But I do know where they're going." Revvit said. "Well then, let's follow them." Ty said. "I was afraid he was gonna say that." Click-Clack said.
The Trux followed the tracks out to a sector of the Flat Irons. "These tracks lead all the way out here." Revvit said. "There! I think I see something!" Skya called. They stopped when the Trux came into view. They resembled Mastodons. They were blowing the snow from the ground with their big hose-like trunks. "What are those things?" Dozer asked. "Don't know, dude. Never seen them before." Ton-Ton said. "You ever see anything like those in your travels, Xee?" Revvit asked. "Nope. Never seen anything like those things before." Xee said. "I-I-I know what those are." Click-Clack said. Everyone turned to him. "Click-Clack? You know what they are?" Ace asked. "Th-Th-They're called Frostodons. It's their time of season around here." Click-Clack said. "How do you know about them, Click-Clack?" Revvit asked. "I've watched them from the Ravine." Click-Clack said.
[Flashback]
"I was as young as Revvit when he started exploring. I was scavenging for ore when I had my first contact with them."
Click-Clack was using one of his sockets to dig for ore. Just then, he felt the ground shake. He turned and saw a Frostodon herd rolling in. He ducked down behind a rock and watched the Frostodons stop.
"Frostodons use their trunks to blow snow off the ground and expose winterized ore. They then store the ore in their special compartments to keep them winterized."
The Frostodons blew the snow from the ground with their trunks, exposing white ore. One Frostodon picked it up with its trunk, opened a compartment over its left tread and placed it in.
[Flashback End]
"Dude, I would love to have a compartment like that. Keep my ore nice and chewy." Ton-Ton said. "I'm with Ton-Ton. That does sound very handy." Dozer agreed. "Uh, I'm afraid that's not all. Frostodons are very territorial. When they stop somewhere to find ore, they never leave until season's end. Not even D-Structs could scare them off last time they were here." Click-Clack said. "They must be pretty tough to be able to stand up to D-Structs." Skya said. "Tough. But also, quite stubborn." Click-Clack said. "Sounds like my kind of Trux. Let's go meet them." Ty said.
The Frostodons were blowing snow from the ground, trying to find winterized ore. "Hey!" Ty called. The Frostodons turned to see the Trux approaching them. They started to trumpet and got into a defensive position. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's okay. I'm Ty." Ty introduced. The Frostodons widened their eyes at that name. "I do believe they've heard of you judging by the looks on their faces." Revvit said. "So, which one of you is the leader?" Ty asked. A bigger Frostodon drove forth to meet Ty face to face. "I lead this herd. I am called Fourze." The Frostodon spoke. "Oh! You speak!" Ty said in surprise. "We watch and we learn. Speech come easily. But still so much we don't know or understand." Fourze said. "Well, we'd be welcome to show you." Ty offered.
The Trux brought Fourze to the garage. Fourze took the time to look around the place. "Very nice. 'Tis everything Trux could ever need." He said with admiration. "If you want, you and your herd are welcome to stay if you get tired of searching for ore." Ty offered. "I thank you for the offer. But this season will not last long. Once the winter leaves, we Frostodons must follow." Fourze said. "But we got so much ore out here in the crater. It would take ages before you might find anymore out there." Revvit said. Fourze started to think on that.
Just then, Sky saw something in a distance. "Ty! Looks like there's another blizzard coming in. And it's a whole lot bigger." She said. "I must alert my heard." Fourze said. "No time. It's coming way too fast." Skya said. "But my herd!" Fourze started to say. "We can help them once the blizzard blows over. Right now, we have to take cover in the garage." Ty said. Fourze felt unsure about leaving his herd, but he knew he couldn't stay in the storm. He nodded and followed the Trux into the garage. Ty and Dozer shut the door just as the blizzard hit.
As the blizzard blew, the Trux and Tools sat down to eat some of the ore they managed to retrieve from the ore station. "Hey, the guest isn't eating." Dozer said, noticing Fourze wasn't eating his ore. "What's wrong, Fourze? You're not eating." Ty said. "Sorry. I never eat unwinterized ore before." Fourze said. "It's okay. It's really good." Ty said. "Yeah, dude. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it." Ton-Ton said, tossing another piece of ore in his mouth. Fourze looked at his ore, picked up a piece with his trunk and put it in his mouth. As he started chewing it, he started liking the taste. "That's actually pretty good." He said, eating another piece.
Just as soon as the blizzard finally blew over, the Trux exited the garage, only to see a bunch of snow all over the ground. It was enough to cover up an entire herd of Ankylodumps, Dozerotops and other Trux of their size. "Look at all this snow! It'll take all winter to doze all this!" Dozer exclaimed. "Not to worry. I can clear this. When it comes to looking for my herd, nothing stops me." Fourze said. He readied his trunk and blew pressured air, blowing the snow away from the garage. "You best follow on my path if you wanna help." He said, continuing to blow away the snow.
The Trux followed Fourze to where they left his herd. "Well, this is where we left the herd." Revvit said. "I don't see any Frostodons other than Fourze out here." Dozer said. "So, if they're not here, where did they go?" Ton-Ton asked. "I know how to find them." Fourze said. He raised his trunk and trumpeted as loud as he could get. "OW! That hurts my ears more than when Click-Clack frightened off those Gearwigs!" Dozer said. Just then, there was a return trumpet. "There's my herd. They're over there." Fourze said, driving towards the source of the sound. "Uh, dude, what was that?" Ton-Ton asked. "They send trumpet calls to each other when they get separated. Fascinating." Revvit said. "I didn't see that when I was watching them." Click-Clack said.
Fourze followed the sound towards a caved-in cave. There was a muffled trumpet sound from the other side. "Oh boy. This is not good. That snow is too thick for even a single Frostodon to blow away." Revvit said as he and the other Trux and Tools joined Fourze. "Well, what do we do now?" Waldo asked. "I could ramp it." Ton-Ton said. "I could bash it with my battering ram." Skya said. "I could hammer in." Dozer said. "Or I could drill it." Dil said. Revvit spun his bits for a minute. "What if we try something to melt the snow?" Revvit suggested. "Like a fire?" Ty asked. "Yes, but we concentrate the heat to focus on the snow blocking the cave." Revvit said, sketching the design on a rock. "But how are we gonna fuel this thing?" Dozer asked. "What about heating rocks with the lava at the deep hole we dug with the Drillasaurs?" Ty suggested. "Perfect! The lava is hot enough to heat the rocks to last long enough to melt the snow." Revvit said. "Alright then. Let's Trux it up!" Ty said. "Trux it up?" Fourze asked in confusion. "It means we're building." Dozer said. "Oh." Fourze said, getting it.
Ty set down a pile of rocks. Dozer dozed them to the proper spot. The Tools started setting them up. Skya gently stacked the medium ones on top of the big ones. She then set up some metal sheets. Revvit and Click-Clack screwed the sheets into the rocks. Skya held down a bowl of rocks down into the lava pit. Once the rocks were hot enough, Ton-Ton helped Skya gently set them inside the hole they left in the structure.
With their new furnace done, they pushed it towards the cave. "Alright. Fourze, we'll need your trunk to heat up the rocks." Revvit said. "Huh? You want me to blow on the rocks?" Fourze asked. "Yes. The more you breathe on them, the hotter the rocks will be to melt the snow." Ty said. "I- I don't know. We Frostodons have very strong air pressure when it comes to blowing. It's why we blow so much snow away to find winterized ore. If I blow on the rocks, I might accidently put out the fire." Fourze said. "Fourze, don't you remember when you tried unwinterized ore? You don't know about it until you try something." Click-Clack said. "Click-Clack's right. Everyone's always on my back to try new things, and I've tried all those new things. And because of those new things, I'm a better Tool than I was in the ravine." Waldo said. "Right. We've all tried new things we've never done before and that's made us a better team than before." Ty said.
Fourze thought about it and decided to try it. He drove in front of the furnace, took a breath and gently blew on the rocks. The rocks started glowing brighter, progressing more heat. Fourze continued to gently blow on the rocks until they were hot enough. "Hey, I did it!" He cheered. "Great! We knew you could do it!" Ty said. "Now let's get this furnace in front of the cave and free your herd." Revvit said. The Trux gently pushed the furnace in front of the cave. The heat started to melt the snow. "It's working!" Revvit exclaimed. Just as the snow was melted enough, the Frostodons pushed through the rest, trumpeting in freedom. "And here I thought they couldn't get any louder." Dozer said. "Yeah, get the earmuffs." Skya agreed.
Afterwards, the Frostodons gathered at the garage with the Trux. "We wish you thanks for helping us." Fourze said. "It was our pleasure." Revvit said. "It's what we do." Ty said. "Looks like the seasons passing. You guys will have to get going soon." Skya said. "Actually, even though we like to travel with the winter, we kinda like it here. So, I've decided that we'll be staying in the crater." Fourze said. "Well, we've got no problem with that. Welcome to the crater." Ty said. "Thank you, Ty. We'll be around when you need us." Fourze said, driving away with his herd.
"Well, looks like things are gonna get more and more interesting every day." Ty said. "I know, dude. I can't wait!" Ton-Ton said, going off a ramp. "Can't believe I'm gonna say this, but I actually can't wait for what's next." Dozer said. "Really? Cause you were always the one who's wanting to doze first and ask questions later, Dozer." Skya said. "Well, we've been through a lot this past year. I guess I'm still growing up." Dozer said. "We're all growing up a bit every day." Revvit said. "And it's all for a better future." Ty said.
