On a typical morning in Košice, when the sun was shining and a pleasant breeze was blowing, Kaško was sitting with his friends, Maxík and Majka, on the train. The landscape of Haravara was all interspersed with rails and roads. When you want to travel on it, you may choose any place and mode of transport. Our travellers chose the train and travelled to Nižná Myšľa. Kaško wanted to show his friends where his first house stood several thousand years ago. They looked out the window. Suddenly Kaško took off his favourite hat and his eyes lit up like fireflies.
"You see, there's a housing estate on the left called Nad Jazerom, you can go there any time to relax and go skiing on the water. On the other side, over that hill, there's a big meadow and a field. That's where we used to go mammoth hunting," he smiled mischievously.
"Mammoths?" shouted the children.
"Sure thing," Kaško was surprised by their question. "Around Čaňa, there lived the best mammoths in all the Haravara country. I liked them best on a good cinnamon roll, hummm," Kaško daydreamed.
They got off the train and after a short while they arrived at a huge meadow where there were several wooden houses with thatched roofs. Kaško searched all his pockets and took out a leather cap from one of them, which he put on his head. It looked downright frightening.
"So, you used to live here?" Maxík asked.
"We used to go for mushrooms and herbs here, where this small playground is – that was already behind the fence of our ancient village," Kaško pointed out with a twinkle in his eyes.
"That little house behind the fence and the bridge, the one with the furnace, that's mine. When I lived here, there was a corral all around, lots of houses, skilled craftsmen. You wouldn't believe it."
The children ran across the meadow, past a hole in the ground where some skeletons lay, over a wooden bridge and a wall. In front of them stood a small wooden house.
"Here we had skins that we slept on. And this is where Aunt Huhu used to put her jewellery," Kaško continued reminiscing about his childhood.
"Jewellery? Prehistoric people had jewellery?" Majka wondered.
"Of course, and they were certainly nicer than the ones you wear today. Gold and silver. If you go up the hill towards the village, there's a wonderful museum in the old monastery, and there are some things in the Košice Museum."
He began to whisper: "The third necklace from the right is my mom's, notice that one," he winked at his friends.
"And around here, somewhere, my friend, little Bubu, buried his toys. Wait!"
Kaško looked around, Maxík immediately knew what to do. He stood by the door and watched to see if anyone was coming. Kaško, meanwhile, dove underground. After a while, he dug himself and the little skin out. He unwrapped it.
Majka and Maxík just whispered: "This is beautiful!"
"It's a little cart on wheels. To this day, archaeologists argue whether it was a toy or a ritual cart. Do you want to know what it was?"
Kaško leaned over to Maxík and Majka and whispered in their ears.
If you kids want to know this secret too, you must find the trolley in the museum and listen. Kaško will surely be there to whisper it to you. And if he doesn't, then find Uncle Laco, he knows everything about Myšľa. Uncle Laco has been searching for prehistoric treasures in the ground here for more than 30 years.
While Kaško was whispering in the children's ears, he heard some strange squeaking.
"What was that?"
"My tummy," Maxík was embarrassed, "I'm hungry enough."
"Sorry, I completely forgot. Come on, we're going to roast some bread, a sausage, and some good onions."
"But first we have to make a fire."
"Do you have matches?" Kaško asked his friends.
"Kaško, we are children, why would we have matches?"
"Okay, let's try it our way."
Kaško began to search all the pockets of his trousers and vest. From one of them, he took out a small piece of wood and from another a twig. He began to rub the wooden mallet against the small twig.
"That's the way the fire used to be lit around here. When it didn't go like that, we waited for a storm."
"To the storm? But it's sunny today," the children remarked.
"Oh, great." Kaško muttered, looking up at the sky.
Maxík investigated his full backpack.
"All I have here is a book, an apple, and a magnifying glass."
"A magnifying glass? Let's try and use it."
As soon as the magnifying glass was pulled out, the sun clouded over, and it started to rain heavily. The children and Kaško ran to hide under the nearest roof, but they still got very wet. The unpleasant feeling was alleviated by the arrival of Uncle Laco.
"Don't you want to toast with us archaeologists?" Uncle Laco said in a strong but pleasant voice.
"We should dry off. Look, the sun is coming out."
And indeed, the sun showed up again. Wet hair and t-shirts soon dried and hungry tummies also came into their own as the archaeologists shared their snacks with the children.
"Are you planning another walk? There's Slánsky Hrad castle not far from here," advised Uncle Laco, "you'll go around that volcano over there."
"Volcano?" shouted the children.
"Well, all this around... see? That's what volcanoes used to be like."
The children looked with bated breath at the hills around them.
"Also, the hill on which Slanec Castle stands."
"So, we're going for a volcano walk!" Kaško decided. they said goodbye to Laco and ran to the train, which brought them to the castle.
"Look, there it is!" cried the enthusiastic Maxík.
"And there's a volcano! Let's go," Kaško pointed.
"Can you imagine walking on dangerous lava now?"
When they came up to the castle, exceptionally there were no tourists.
"Come on, let's have some fun," whispered Kaško, "I just love this!"
"You recognize this place?" Maxík and Majka wondered
"Of course. I had a friend here about 700 years ago. Miki Drugeth was his name. When I wanted to scare him, I flew at him through this window. You see it? On that tower."
"That must have been a big tower once," the children looked on in admiration.
"Well, it wasn't exactly huge. But it's even bigger across here, look. Can you guess what it's called?"
"Giant Tower, Brutal Tower," Maxík and Majka guessed.
"Don't worry."
"I'm not worried," Maxík was almost offended.
"Nooo, that was the name of the tower. Don't worry," Kaško laughed.
"Well, that's a strange name for a tower," the children speculated.
"When Miki was a small child and looking down... See that beautiful view? There is Abov and on the other side is Zemplín. When Miki was looking out of the window, he was a bit afraid of the height. Look, there's a rock on the hill opposite where the eagles used to live. They hunted near the castle at night and Miki was a bit afraid of them," Kaško explained.
"He was only protected by this tower. It was as if it was telling him – don't worry."
"It must have been great here," the kids sighed.
"It was," Kaško was daydreaming again.
"Too bad there's no canopy to hide from the sun."
"There is no canopy, but there is forest all around. This is the best hiding place from the sun. And not far from here, see, in that forest opposite the castle, there's also Lake Izra. It's a beautiful place," Kaško pointed towards the forest and began to wiggle his nose quickly.
"Can you feel it?"
"Someone's roasting something somewhere," the children shouted.
And really. While they were talking, some tourists came in and started roasting.
Kaško, Maxík and Majka joined us. Finally, it was their turn to eat their sausages and Maxík could whistle on the whistle he had brought with him.
