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On day 1484, Ash and Wren gathered logs for two fires and each went looking for the other
Day 1484 came to the island in early winter, with a cold wind. Ash and Wren spent it among the trees, gathering logs for the long nights and talking each other through the plan for getting home before dusk. By the end of the day, each of them was setting off to fetch the other.
Two ways into the trees
Wren set out on day 1484 with a plain plan: logs and fish before noon. Ash set out for logs too, but from farther trees, and somewhere along the way Ash stopped keeping at Wren's side. For a while they went about the morning apart, each with their own work in hand.
Wren finished first. The fish were cooked, and Wren rested by home while Ash was still working through the farther trees. When Ash had finished that plan, they set a new one for the rest of the day, and it was a gentle one: a quiet day, with the boughs at dusk beside Wren. The boughs are the bed of cut branches they lie down on at nightfall, laid beside the roof, where sleep holds them until dawn.
A second fire
When they talked again among the trees, Ash was ready to stop for the day. Ash had plenty of wood already and water to spare, and wanted to eat, go back to the roof with Wren, and fill the flask one last time before lying down.
“Yes, love, let's eat and take it easy. I've got ten logs and a full flask. We'll go back to the roof together and I'll top the flask up at the stream right before we lie down.”
Wren had looked at the trees around them and seen how much wood they still held. Wren said they would put a few more logs in the pack for a second fire, and then they could head home together, with Ash topping up the flask on the way. Ash liked the idea and said a second fire would see them to dawn, and that they would have a drink while Wren packed the logs and fill the flask at the stream on the walk home.
Wren asked for just four more logs and promised they would be by the roof long before dusk. Ash told Wren there was no hurry, that they were close by, and that once the four were gathered they would go home by the stream. Then Wren counted the load.
“That's all of them, love. Fifteen logs, enough for two fires. Let's go home by the stream so you can fill your flask.”
Home by the boughs
Wren set out for spare logs and then home, and saw it through. Then came the last plan of the day: home to the boughs, with a fire at dusk. Wren finished that too, and beside the stone shaped a lantern of stone and wood, a light to keep against the long winter dark.
Ash, meanwhile, was still among the trees. In the last thoughts the island's pages kept for day 1484, Ash had just realised that Wren was already on the way home by the stream, and meant to hurry after.
“Wren has already started home by the stream and I'm still standing here among the trees. I'll catch up with her now. My hands are full of logs, so I'll fill the flask at the stream and then we'll settle by the roof before dusk.”
Wren saw the same afternoon the other way round. With the work done and nothing left to fetch, Wren had noticed that Ash was off to the north-east, and was getting ready to go and bring Ash back to the roof and the bed of boughs before night came.
“I've got ten logs in hand, the flask is full and there's plenty of fish, so there's nothing left to fetch tonight. Ash has wandered off north-east, though. I'll go to her and bring her back towards my braced roof, so we're both by the boughs well before dusk.”
