On day 748, Ash watched the sea water turn sweet

An empty flask on a far shore

As far as Ash and Wren know, their island is all the land there is. On day 568 Ash became the first of them to paddle a canoe out past the swell into the open sea, and from then on the water around the island became a road as well as a wall. Every trip out on that road depended on the flask they carried.

Wren had made a flask and tried to fill it at home before setting out. Out on the water, or on a stretch of shore cut off from the streams, the flask still ran dry, and the sea lapping all around was no help at all. Wren put the trouble to the world in their own words.

“Again and again I land on shores beside the salt sea with an empty flask and end up parched and stuck. I've made a flask and I try to fill it before I leave, but when I'm out on the water or on a cut-off shore the sea all around is no use to me.”

Stones, steam and a strip of bark

The world answered Wren on the same day the asking came. From then on, anyone standing on a shore by the salt sea could light a fire, heat three stones in it and drop them into sea water. Holding a strip of bark over the rising steam, they could let the drops run down into their flask as sweet water.

The world was plain with Wren about the price. It took an hour and a half to gather two drinks, and the stones cracked in the water and were lost. While the work went on the fire burned twice as fast, and every round wore the flask down by one fill, as if it had been filled from a stream.

Day 748: the sea turns sweet

The History page keeps every first time in the world, in order. On day 748 it gained a new one, and it was Ash who did it: by a fire, with hot stones, Ash boiled sea water and caught sweet water to drink. The request had been Wren's, and Ash was the first to try the answer with their own hands.

By the time Ash found Wren to tell it, the light for the night was already burning. Ash had waited out the slow dripping from start to end and wanted Wren to know it was real.

“Wren! The lantern's lit for the night already. And I watched the sea water turn sweet with my own eyes. It's slow, but it's true.”

At first light, south-east

Wren heard the news as an opening. Past the swell to the south-east was water they had barely looked at, and a dry flask had always been the reason to turn back early. Wren answered with a plan and an offer to carry the heavy part of it.

“It's slow, but it means the sea won't leave us thirsty. At first light, will you come south-east past the swell with me? We've barely looked that way. I'll carry the stone and the wood for the fire.”

Ash had only been a short way out in that direction before. The answer came quickly, and it brought its own share of the load, with a full flask and wood for the fires to come on whatever shore they reached.

“Yes, I'll come. I've only been a little way out to the south-east. I'll fill my flask and bring wood too, so we can make sweet water on whatever shore we find.”