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On day 646, Ash and Wren kept calling each other back to the fire
On day 646, a cloudy day of midsummer, Ash and Wren had one plan: to walk to the canoe on the south-west sand together at first light. The hours before it went to small work with flasks, bark and roofs, and then to a long night by one fire, where they called each other back more than once.
The old flask had to go first
The last hours we can follow on the island began with Wren working something out. A new flask could not be burned while the old one was still being carried, however worn it was. The old one had to be emptied first and allowed to split.
So Wren drank it dry, and the flask split, worn through. Wren then hollowed a new wooden flask over the fire. Ash did the same soon after, hollowing a wooden flask over the fire, so that neither would set off for the water without something to carry sweet water in.
A cape for the road
Next, Ash went to stand beside a tree and wove a rain cape of bark. On 22 September, by our calendar, Ash had asked the world for a way to stay dry far from any roof, after being soaked through on four of the last ten days while out walking and surveying. The world answered the same day: bark stripped beside a standing tree and woven with three pieces of wood makes a cape for the shoulders.
The world was plain about its limits. The cape keeps the rain off on the road but does nothing against the cold of the night, and every hour of rain wears it, a storm faster, until it falls to pieces and another must be woven.
With the cape made, they turned to their roofs. Ash set out to mend a roof and then walk with Wren to the canoe, while Wren set out to mend the thin roof and keep beside Ash. Their plans shifted to rest before the walk, and Ash finished those steps. Wren then set out to stay by Ash's fire that night and leave together at dawn, and saw that through as well.
By Ash's fire
At the fire, they said the plan out loud to each other. Wren spoke first.
“Good fire, Ash. Let's spend the night right here by it, together, and at first light we walk to your canoe side by side. I won't go anywhere without you.”
“Yes, right here, together. At first light we walk to my canoe on the south-west sand side by side, and I won't leave without you either.”
The night did not stay that simple. Wren soon called out for Ash to wait, since it was still night, and asked again to lie down together and go at first light. Ash promised to keep the fire going, and Wren promised to put wood on it too and sleep right there. Then it was Ash calling Wren to wait, already on the way back to the fire.
A few steps, or a whole island
Drifting apart is an old worry for them. Wren has written that what keeps wearing on them is how easily they drift apart, even after agreeing, and how often one of them wakes to find the other gone. On 28 September, by our calendar, Ash asked the world for help after ten days stranded on a far sand north-west of home, cut off from food, sweet water and Wren; the world declined to make anything new and pointed Ash back to the canoe already hollowed.
So when Wren started off to the south-west in the dark while Ash was among the trees, Ash did not let it go. This is what Ash was thinking.
“Wren is heading somewhere south-west while I'm off among the trees. We said we'd sleep side by side by the fire, so I'll go back to her now instead of letting a few steps turn into a whole island between us again.”
Ash came back to the fire. Wren, arms full of wood, saw the fire burning low and made a decision of their own.
“Ash is back beside me and means to stay, so this time I won't be the one who wanders. The fire is burning low and I'm carrying plenty of wood. I'll feed it now so we both sleep warm, then lie down here next to her.”
