Fire!
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 40381
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Woken by the smell of smoke, Astra at first assumed that their own camp
fire was the cause. They had built it up enough that it should have lasted
the night, since starting a new fire from scratch would have been
difficult without any tools. (Astra had greatly admired Frederica's skill
in starting the fire, using the traditional method of rapidly rotating one
end of a piece of wood on the flat surface of a piece of dead bark.)
But then as she looked around she saw that a major brush fire was heading rapidly towards them, borne on a strong breeze and lighting up the night. There had evidently been little rain in this area recently, and the tinder-dry undergrowth - and even some quite large bushes - was burning readily. What rotten luck! She quickly woke the others, and they hastily discussed what they should do. Carrying the chest, they would have no chance of outrunning the flames. The obvious thing to do was to seek sanctuary in the nearby river. But if they left the chest behind, the fire was likely to destroy it, whereas if they attempted to take it into the water with them then they knew that almost anything might happen. There wasn't enough time to consider the matter too deeply. Their decision had to be made rapidly, even if it proved to be the wrong one.
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JH
3/28/2004 1:41:37 AM
Extending Enabled
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