Fire after Fire - a story for my Summer Giraffe Call
Written to sauergeek's prompt here to my Summer Giraffe Call.
“How long do you think it originally took mankind to discover fire?”
“Shut up, Danijel.”
“Because I’m thinking you’re looking at running longer than primitive men living in a cave.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, Danijel, we are living in a cave. Besides, the whole ‘cave man’ thing was a myth. Made for pretty cartoons, that’s all.”
“You know, considering a forest fire sent us this way…”
“Technically, it wasn’t the forest fire.” Matija looked up from her patient work with flint and steel - or what she had in lieu of that, which was hopefully-flint and a nail. “It was the botched suppression fire. Who let those idiots anywhere near an active blaze, I don’t know.” She leaned down and blew carefully on the tinder. “And if you don’t blow it out again, I’ve got something like a fire. It won’t do very well as a signal, unless it brings an overzealous volunteer fire-fighter down on us…”
“But it’ll cook s’mores.” Danijel sat down, watching the fire carefully. “And, I suppose, boil water.” At Matija’s raised eyebrow, he squirmed. “What? We were heading on a hike. I brought supplies. Besides… you never know when you’re going to get rained on and stuck in camp for a week.”
The look Matija gave him clearly indicated what she thought of that. “You were hoping we’d be out for a couple days.”
“Well, not quite… yeah.” Danijel looked down at his backpack. “It’s a very nice fire?”
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1131181.html. You can comment here or there.
“How long do you think it originally took mankind to discover fire?”
“Shut up, Danijel.”
“Because I’m thinking you’re looking at running longer than primitive men living in a cave.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, Danijel, we are living in a cave. Besides, the whole ‘cave man’ thing was a myth. Made for pretty cartoons, that’s all.”
“You know, considering a forest fire sent us this way…”
“Technically, it wasn’t the forest fire.” Matija looked up from her patient work with flint and steel - or what she had in lieu of that, which was hopefully-flint and a nail. “It was the botched suppression fire. Who let those idiots anywhere near an active blaze, I don’t know.” She leaned down and blew carefully on the tinder. “And if you don’t blow it out again, I’ve got something like a fire. It won’t do very well as a signal, unless it brings an overzealous volunteer fire-fighter down on us…”
“But it’ll cook s’mores.” Danijel sat down, watching the fire carefully. “And, I suppose, boil water.” At Matija’s raised eyebrow, he squirmed. “What? We were heading on a hike. I brought supplies. Besides… you never know when you’re going to get rained on and stuck in camp for a week.”
The look Matija gave him clearly indicated what she thought of that. “You were hoping we’d be out for a couple days.”
“Well, not quite… yeah.” Danijel looked down at his backpack. “It’s a very nice fire?”
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1131181.html. You can comment here or there.