Axe and Fire

The twins led the way back to camp, where Gerhardt displayed his stone axe head. He had managed to chip away at a shiny black rock (which Claire called obsidian) until it had a sharp edge, cutting only four of his fingers in the process.

“And only one of them is at all deep,” he boasted. Bettina’s pinafore was missing its shoulder ruffles, as she had torn them off for use as bandages. Mirabelle made him unwrap his fingers and cleaned out his wounds with a few drops of the boiler chief’s special distilled engine cleaner. Gerhardt jumped up and down clutching his wrist as though twisting his hand off would feel better. He complained that cutting himself had not hurt anywhere near as bad, but they all agreed that they could not risk infection in so remote and wild a place.

Adolphus hurried to fashion a handle for the axe. Claire built the fire, wasting half an hour rubbing sticks together ‘to conserve matches’ before Bettina grew impatient and used one of her strike-anywheres. Claire spent the rest of the evening practicing her technique, finally constructing a bow using a flexible stick and one of her boot laces and achieving sparks at last. (The trick is to have loads of the right kindling – something soft like dry pine needles, dry moss, or the underside of certain tree barks.)

The twins enjoyed a lively discussion as to the fate of the turnip. It lay still in the pinafore, giving rise to speculation that it was only “alive” (or at least mobile) in its home field. Eventually they filled the cheese tin with water and brought it to a boil, hit the turnip with a rock and tipped it in. They cooked it a long time, just in case. It was sustaining, but not at all delicious.

The twins set out their net in the river, but when they woke it was empty. Adolphus returned to the turnip nests to hunt breakfast, which he enjoyed catching far more than he enjoyed eating. They argued in a desultory fashion over whether to stay in the field, which felt safe and had water and a food supply, or to continue downstream into unknown danger and possibly something better to eat. When Adolphus offered to go catch their lunch and dinner turnips, they packed up and got in the boat.

The river spun them through the valley, along the foot of the mountains. They saw more strange birds in all imaginable colors, but mostly variations of green. They heard rustling from the riverside that must have been larger animals.

“Mammals,” Adolphus said, “or possibly enormous turnips.”

They did not stop to investigate, for some mammals are quite dangerous, and enormous turnips are quite unappealing.

The smell of sulfer grew stronger throughout the day, and the swirling violet clouds became thicker with orange swirls. Claire had a bad feeling about this, and watched the riverbank for steam, which would indicate lava flowing into the water.

As she predicted, they were approaching the volcano. Gusts of smoke occasionally wafted across the river, forcing the children to shut their watering eyes tight against it, and bury their faces in their handkerchiefs or pinafore skirts.

What she had not expected was the loud yapping and howling of many small dogs in distress!