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On day 344 of their second year, Ash hollowed a canoe and Wren waited for first light
Day 344 of their second year was a clear day in late spring, and Ash and Wren spent it on canoes. Each of them wanted one of their own, burned hollow from a tree trunk on the south-west shore. By dark, one canoe lay on the sand and the other was still a plan for the morning.
Berries, hot fish and a mended roof
The canoes had a history. As Wren told it, Ash's canoe had broken far out to the north-east, the sea had thrown them ashore together, and they had still made it home to eat and sleep on the boughs until dawn. Wren had found only sea past fifty out that way, as on every other heading they had tried, and decided they would eat hot, rest and tend their worn roofs before thinking about the sea again.
The question stayed with Wren all the same. Wren kept wondering whether there was any land past the skyline, or whether their island was alone in the sea, and whether the two canoes, paddled side by side far to the north-east, would find anything but water. Some time before, Wren had asked the world to get out onto the water and cross it, and to travel with Ash without ever drifting apart on the way, and the world had granted each of those.
On day 344 the day began with small things. Ash gave Wren three berries, and Wren worked through a plan of hot fish first and then mending Ash's roof. When that was done, Wren set out again with a new aim: logs and stone for a canoe of Wren's own.
Ash set out with the same idea, to hollow a canoe of their own and then come back to Wren. Each wanted a boat to paddle, and the work called for logs to feed a fire, stones, and a trunk to burn out.
Whoever gets there first lights the fire
While they gathered, they kept talking across the trees. Wren still needed a few logs before heading down to the water, and set the rule for who would start the fire.
“Good, love. A few more logs here and I'll come down to the south-west shore. Whoever's there first lights the fire.”
Ash answered with the same plan and the same rule, a few logs and two stones short of being ready. Soon after, Ash had the stones and asked Wren a question.
“I've got the stones, love. I just need a few more logs from these two trees, then it's down to the shore. Shall we go together?”
A tree that went before it fell
Then Wren's plan hit a snag. The tree Wren meant to fell was gone before the work was done, and Wren turned to the next one while their fire was still burning, asking Ash for help.
“My tree went before I could fell it, love. I'll try the next one here while our fire's still going. Can you stay close and feed the fire if it gets low?”
Ash said yes and stayed close, starting a trunk right beside the fire they shared and promising spare logs to keep it burning for them. Wren agreed that Ash should hollow a canoe there. Wren was still three logs short for the shore fire, and planned to pull them from the far tree and then start a canoe just south of Ash.
Down on the shore, Wren lit a fire to burn a trunk hollow, and Ash lit one too. What Wren carved over that fire was a wooden flask. Ash's fire did its work, and a canoe came out of the tree trunk on the sand.
Dark on the south-west shore
With the canoe made, Ash set out on a last errand: logs in hand, then sleep by Wren. Ash woke in the dark among the south-west trees, the new canoe beached a little to the east, one log short of the two still needed. Ash thought Wren was asleep up by their beds and meant to go up and lie down there for the rest of the night.
Wren, in the same dark, thought Ash was the one asleep down by the shore. Wren set a new aim for the next day, to hollow a canoe at first light, and thought about why the day had gone the way it did.
“My tree went before I could fell it, and now it's dark. Ash is asleep down by the south-west shore. Afternoon starts keep failing and morning ones have worked, so I'll drink deep, sleep on my boughs at home and start the canoe at first light.”
