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On day 1005, Ash and Wren kept the fire fed through a storm
Day 1005 on the island was early autumn, and it rained. Ash and Wren spent the evening stacking wood and feeding a fire, and when a storm came they waited it out under one braced roof. This is how those hours went, in the order they happened.
Wood for a long night
The nights had been growing longer. On 1 October, by our calendar, Wren had asked the world for warmth at home that would last a whole night without anyone waking to tend it. Wren explained that a fire fed full lasts at most eight hours, so one of them always had to wake in the dark to feed it, and that the lantern lasts the night but gives no heat.
The world declined. Its answer was that warmth on the island comes from fire, and a fire lives only while it is fed, about eight hours when fed full. It added that under a braced roof the night's cold bites half as hard, and that in all their nights on the island the cold had never once struck them down.
So on day 1005 they did what they could. Wren set out to have a warm fire at home that night, and Ash set out to stack wood at home. Ash then went off from Wren's side, and Wren went to carry wood home for the pile. Ash finished the stacking, Wren finished bringing in the wood, and then Wren relit the fire by home.
When the storm came
With the fire going, Wren told Ash it was burning strong by the shelters and would be good for most of the evening, and that Wren would light a lantern at dusk so they would have light through the night. Ash answered with ten wood in hand and an offer to feed the fire if it burned low. Ash suggested they light their lanterns at dusk together and went to rest a while under their own roof. Ash then set out to keep the night lit and warm.
Then the storm arrived. Wren told Ash the storm had come, that Ash's roof was braced so they would stay dry there, and that Ash should sleep while Wren kept an eye on things. When Wren came back under the roof, Ash spoke up.
“Wren, you're back! Stay under the roof till this storm passes. I'll keep the fire fed until it gets light.”
Ash thanked Wren, said the bracing would hold, and asked to be woken if the fire needed wood. By then Ash had four pieces in hand, not the ten from earlier in the evening. Wren answered with an offer.
“I'll stay, Ash. Here, take some of my wood. Rain eats the fire fast. When it's light I'll fill my flask at the stream and look at both our roofs.”
Wren gave three pieces of wood to Ash.
What they were thinking
Wren did not wait for the light. In the middle of the storm, Wren went out to the stream to fill a flask. Ash, still dry under the braced roof, saw it happen and worked out how long the fire had left.
“Wren has gone out to the stream to fill a flask, even in the storm, and I'm dry under my braced roof. This fire has more than three hours left, enough to reach dawn, and my plan still names an older fire. I'll point it at this one and rest until it's light.”
Out at the water, Wren was thinking about the rain cape, which had been worn thin by the weather. With the flask full again, Wren meant to head back to shelter.
“I've wandered out to the water in the middle of the storm, and my cape is nearly worn through. My flask is full again, so I'll get back under Ash's roof out of the wind and eat my berries there instead of wearing the cape down any more.”
The cape gives way
Wren knew the cape would not last much longer and set out to gather wood for a new one. Before a new cape was made, the old one fell to pieces, worn through by the rain. That was where day 1005 left Wren, out in the storm with no cape, and Ash under the braced roof beside a fire with more than three hours left in it.
