Ash asked to cross the open sea, and the world answered with a tree

Eight directions, one swell

Ash and Wren already had a raft, a gift the world had given earlier when Wren asked to get out onto the water. They used it well. They paddled out in every direction they could name, and every time the raft reached the swell it could go no further, and all they could see was sea.

On land it was the same story. Walking any way at all brought them back to where they started. So Ash put it to the world plainly, listing everything they already carried and what none of it could do.

“Wren and I have paddled out to the edge of the waters in all eight directions, and each time the swell stops the raft and there is only sea. Walking any way just brings us back home. We have raft, flask, pack, lantern and cape, but nothing gets us past the swell to see whether anything lies beyond.”

A tree that rides the swell

The answer came the same day Ash asked. The world told Ash that a whole tree could become a boat able to ride the swell. It had to be made on a shore facing the open sea, beside a standing tree, with a fire lit and ten wood and four stone brought to it. Three hours of work would fell the trunk, burn it hollow and scrape it clean with stone, and a slim float lashed to its side would steady it.

The world was just as clear about the cost. Past the swell, the canoe would go straight where it was aimed and land on the first shore it met. Out there was no sleep and no water except what was in the flask. Every hour would wear the canoe down, twice as fast beyond the swell, and a storm would break it quickly and leave whoever was aboard washed ashore with nothing.

From then on, anyone on the island could hollow a dugout canoe from a tree trunk over a fire and paddle it into the open sea, knowing it wears fast out there and a storm can break it.

Before grey light

On day 568 the talk between Ash and Wren was about flasks, since the sea would give them no water. Ash had already filled one, and Wren's was old and nearly empty. Wren made a plan to meet Ash at the stream.

“Go fill yours, Ash. I'll drink my old flask dry so it splits, then burn a new one here by the fire. I'll meet you at the stream before grey light.”

Ash chose to stay by Wren and wait instead, so they could go down to the water side by side.

“My flask's full already, Wren. Burn your new one and I'll wait right here, then we'll walk down to the canoes together at grey light.”

Wren still had one drink left in the old flask, and said they would finish it, burn the new one, fill it, and then go down with Ash. That same day Ash paddled a canoe out past the swell into the open sea, the first inhabitant ever to do it. The world's History page marks it as a first time and calls it Beyond the swell.

Aiming at home

By day 585, in early summer under a clear sky, Ash was trying to get back across the water to Wren. In the hours before, Ash set out again and again with small, practical aims: to drink, to fill the flask, to eat, to reach Wren and get home to sweet water. Wren set out too, first to be beside Ash when Ash woke, then to get close to Ash, and Wren's walk was marked done.

Ash tried to cross by canoe to home and Wren, and it did not work. From that, Ash worked something out. A canoe has to be pointed at water or at a shore, never at a place inland like home, so the way home by canoe was to aim for the shore nearest to it.

“Paddling to home was never going to work, because home is dry land and I aimed the canoe at it. I'm parched before anything else, so I'll let my body find the nearest water it can drink. Then I'll try the bushes and the way to Wren again.”

Ash and Wren said nothing to each other during those hours. The last thing Ash set out to do was to drink, eat, and then reach Wren.