The Fireless

Astra and Hesht each gritted their teeth, and used their arms to drag their benumbed legs across the mud and pebbles of the far bank, and into a strand of bushes. They scaped their palms across the ground as they did so, to obliterate any tell-tale handprints in the mud. They burrowed into a small hollow in the underbrush, and flushed a small deer out of the bush. The deer bolted into the water, and swam across the creek. It then took a few steps, and then bedded down, as it was unable to walk further.

The two men advanced toward the strand of bushes. They noticed the hoof prints. Both of the men wore shiny boots whose tops unrolled to the middle of their thighs, and were held in place by garters. The saw hoofprints on the mud, and saw the deer across the river.

One of them said, "Fala, It looks like we caught a deer. If that is all we caught, I will be happy."

"We should just leave it be, Gordie. It will recover in an hour or two."

Fala and Gordie advanced to the water. Gordie knelt down, and frowned. "Still warm. And there is no way of chilling it, eh?"

"Not this much water. I did not think that we would produce this much heat."

Gordie responded, "So do we tell the boss what happened? Maybe it will cool overnight. Once it is cool, then nobody will be the wiser."

Fala said, "No. We need to let him know, even if we think nobody else will find out."

"I don't want to be the one that tells him."

"Fine, I will do it. You can stay here by the ford, until it cools down. Sometimes the dispatch runners use this ford to deliver goods to traders to places like Penham and Pelion. They wisely want to avoid the mill. Warn them off as friendly as you can."

"So what do I tell them? Our secret experiment to create a fireless log ... "

"Shush! Nobody has to know about the fireless. Just tell them that we were trying to test a formula for His Majesty's bath, and that it didn't work, and we are trying to clean this up. Tell them that it tightens up the legs, and makes it tough to walk."

"And if they insist on goin' by the bridge?"

"They won't. They all know that you don't do that. They will take the delay and go around farther east than risk the bridge."

Gordie sighed, and then said, "I don't have much of a choice. I would rather stay here than talk to the boss. He is not going to be happy."

"I am not happy, but we have to make the best of it. Here is the quicksilver stick. Let's see how hot this is."

Fala knelt before the river, and dipped a glass mercury thermometer into the river. The silvery mercury shot up to a point.

"It should be about 10 degrees.* It is now at about 35. Better than it was earlier, when it was steaming at 100 degrees near the bridge. It might take a couple of days to cool down."

"I will encamp on the far side of the ford, where the deer is. These boots should keep me dry, and I should have enough food to last until the river cools down."

"Good luck. I will be back as soon as I can."

And so Fala turned back, and started walking toward the bridge.

Gordie then said to himself, "I will need wood for a fire and a lean- to."

1. There is a better strand of trees across the river. He crosses, and finds wood there. Astra and Hesht have time to escape.
2. The best strand of trees is on this side of the river. He goes to Astra and Hesht's strand of bushes.

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