Let's Start a Fire

Thanks to Baby's efforts, the cave was cleaned enough to move into.

Yerin stroked Baby's head as if praising her.

"Once this content's over, big sis will buy you all the snacks you want."

Flick.

"Baby's a girl, right?"

"Yep."

Baby's tail swished left and right as if pleased. Then she climbed onto a suitably sized rock and flopped over on it.

Looks like she got sleepy now that she was full.

What a cushy life for a lizard.

For now, we'd found a decent place to stay.

Now only one thing remained.

Fire.

It was one of the essentials of survival, right alongside water.

It keeps you warm and lets you cook food.

You can boil water to make it safe to drink, and it also helps ward off bugs and wild animals.

It even gives you psychological comfort.

If you look at real survival cases, people often feel overwhelming fear the moment their fire goes out.

In an unfamiliar place, dense darkness can swallow a person's mind whole with fear.

I slowly looked around near the cave entrance.

'Too far inside won't do. But right by the entrance isn't great either.'

Too far inside, and the smoke wouldn't escape properly. That was dangerous.

On the other hand, if I set it right by the entrance, the wind might be strong enough to snuff out a fire we'd worked hard to start.

I tested the ground with a few stomps and picked a suitable spot.

"This should do."

Then I used my hands to push away the fallen leaves and small twigs nearby.

Just in case.

Major wildfires break out around the world all the time, and most of them start from a single tiny spark.

A cigarette butt, for example. Stuff like that.

Places with lots of fallen leaves and grass are even more dangerous.

One little spark could burn down the whole jungle,

and just like that, I could wind up an accidental arsonist.

Before I knew it, Yerin had crouched down beside me and was helping clear away the leaves.

"But why are we clearing this out?"

"Because this is where we're making the fire."

I picked up nearby stones one by one.

I arranged some suitably sized rocks in a circle.

A simple fire pit.

This little ring of stones would hold heat for a long time and keep sparks from spreading.

Yerin watched what I was doing with a fascinated look.

"You really look like some kind of expert."

"I dream of becoming like my brother."

"...."

I stretched and got to my feet.

"Now we need to gather materials."

"But we don't have anything."

"There's a way."

I pointed at a blade of silver grass stuck to Yerin's jacket.

"Could you bring me some of that? As dry as possible. There should be plenty lying on the ground."

"How much?"

"Enough."

"...Okay."

Grumbling all the while, Yerin walked off toward the silver-grass field. There was something oddly satisfying about training her.

I started gathering the small twigs that had fallen beneath the trees around the cave.

You have to build a fire in stages.

First, thin grass.

Next, twigs about as thick as chopsticks.

Finally, properly sized firewood.

Get the order wrong, and the fire will die out in no time.

A little later, Yerin came back carrying an armful of silver grass.

Blades of grass were tangled all through her blond hair.

"Haa... I'm dead tired. And these things sting like crazy."

"I told you. They're sharp enough to cut you."

I took the silver grass from her and started bunching it into a round bundle on the ground.

I left the middle hollow, like a bird's nest.

That center was where the ember would go.

It'd be nice if we had something that would help the ember catch more easily.

Then Yerin's luxury-logo makeup pouch suddenly came to mind.

"Yerin."

"Hm?"

"You have lip balm, right?"

Yerin's eyes went wide. Then, as if an unexpected thought had struck her, the corners of her lips slowly curled up.

"Oh~?"

"...?"

"So Rils is a girl after all, huh? Well, now that you've got yourself a whale oppa, you've got to play up your charms."

She seemed to be getting some very strange idea.

Yerin laughed and lightly smacked my shoulder while I stared at her in disbelief.

"I thought you had zero interest in stuff like this. Hehe. You're kind of cute, you know."

"No, that's not what I—"

"It's fine, it's fine~ I was exactly the same when I was little. I got in huge trouble for sneaking my mom's makeup."

Then she lowered her voice, suddenly looking dead serious.

"But Rils."

"...Yes."

"Do you know what a woman's weapon is?"

"What is it?"

"Beauty. Men turn into idiots the moment they see a pretty girl, you know?"

Yerin gave my face and body a once-over.

"Hmm... For you, Rils, there'd definitely be demand. Plenty of guys go crazy over cute things. Everyone has their own type."

A girl streamer had started giving a life lecture in a cave on a deserted island. Yerin even held up a finger as she spoke.

"And whatever you do, never date a bad boy, okay? Sure, when you're young, that type can seem attractive. But you'll regret it later."

"...."

"And be careful of guys who say they'd pluck the stars out of the sky for you. I've never met a normal person who says stuff like that, got it?"

"...."

"And as for makeup, the really important thing is how you bring out your eyes—"

"Yerin."

In the end, I let out a sigh and cut her off.

"I'm not using it for that."

"Huh?"

"I asked because the oily ingredients can help get a fire going."

"...."

Yerin's expression froze for a moment.

Then, a few seconds later,

her face turning red all the way to the tips of her ears, she shouted,

"Then you should've said so sooner!"

"I only asked if you had lip balm."

"Of course I misunderstood. Here, take it."

It was a tube of lip balm stamped with a logo that looked ridiculously expensive.

I carefully took off the cap.

A sweet scent rose from it.

I dabbed just a tiny bit onto my fingertip and spread a thin layer over the outside of the silver-grass bundle.

Not too much.

I didn't know exactly what was in the lip balm.

If I overdid it and we wound up inhaling toxic smoke, that would be a problem.

If it helped the ember last a little longer with the oil in it, that was enough.

Yerin stared blankly at what my hands were doing, then muttered,

"Does that really help start a fire?"

"Yep. Lip balm makes your lips look shiny, right? That's because it has oily ingredients in it."

I handed the lip balm back to Yerin and stood up.

The materials were basically ready.

Now came the hard part.

Bow drill.

A way of making fire by spinning a stick with a bow.

Much more efficient than a hand drill, where you rub the stick directly with your hands.

I picked up a suitably curved branch.

If it's too straight, it won't flex like a bow,

and if it's too weak, it'll snap right away.

"...This should work."

I pulled the drawstring out of my hoodie.

Sliiide.

The drawstring slid out to one side. I tied one end firmly to the tip of the branch. Then I pulled the other end tight.

If the string is too loose, the spindle will slip. But if it's too tight, it won't wrap around properly.

Just enough to leave a bit of spring.

I flicked the string with my finger.

Ting.

"...Good."

Yerin asked from beside me, sounding impressed.

"It really looks like a bow."

"It's not for shooting arrows, though."

Next was the spindle.

From the pile of dry branches, I picked one a little thicker than my finger.

I roughly stripped off the bark with a sharp stone to smooth the surface, then rubbed both ends against the rock to shape them.

I made the bottom slightly blunt so friction would build up well,

and the top a little pointier so there'd be less friction where it touched the stone.

"The top and bottom are different?"

"Yes. The bottom needs to get hot."

"...Oh. You totally sounded like a college professor just now."

Yerin sounded genuinely impressed.

All that was left was the fireboard.

I chose a wide, dry piece of wood and set it on the ground.

It couldn't be damp inside.

Luckily, there was a dried piece near the cave entrance that looked like a strip of bark.

Using the sharp edge of a rock, I started carving a small notch into it.

Scrape.

"Why are you carving that?"

"It's the socket for the spindle."

I also cut a small V-shaped notch beside it.

The black powder made by the friction would collect there.

As that powder heated up, it'd turn into an ember.

Yerin watched me like she'd forgotten how to breathe. I was pleased that she was slowly getting interested in survival skills. I should recommend a documentary to her soon.

"So fire doesn't just light that easily...."

"Starting a fire is really hard. Anyway, we're ready."

I looped the spindle once around the bowstring.

The string wrapped around the middle of the spindle and held it in place.

I set the bottom end of the spindle into the socket on the fireboard,

and pressed down on the top with a stone of a suitable size to keep it steady.

One hand on the stone.

The other on the bow.

I slowly drew in a breath.

Would this really work?

Honestly, I wasn't sure either.

I knew the method in theory, but this was my first time actually trying it.

"...I'm really doing this now."

"Okay."

Yerin lowered her voice without meaning to.

In the still silence, only the sound of something being ground away filled the cave.

As I moved the bow back and forth, the spindle started to turn.

Slowly at first.

It was important not to let the string twist.

I pressed down firmly so the spindle wouldn't jump out of place,

scrape, scrape.

The sound of wood grinding against wood echoed through the cave.

I slowly increased the speed bit by bit.

Scrape, scrape, scrape.

I put more and more strength into my wrist.

I'd only been using the bow drill for a moment, but my shoulders were already starting to ache.

In documentaries, the experts always made starting fires look ridiculously easy.

I still had a long way to go before I could match those cool older guys.

Little by little, black powder started forming around the socket in the fireboard.

"There's smoke... just a little...."

Yerin whispered.

Thin wisps of smoke were rising from the socket.

But just because smoke had started coming out, and just because my shoulder felt like it was about to fall off, didn't mean I could stop.

I gritted my teeth and moved the bow faster.

Scrape scrape scrape scrape!

The black powder piled up in the V-shaped notch.

The smoke grew thicker and thicker.

My arm was starting to shake.

The heat would fade right away, so the moment I stopped, it would all be over.

"Just a little...! Just a little more...! Hrrrgh...!"

I squeezed out the last of my strength and shoved and pulled the bow faster.

Scrape scrape scrape!

And then.

In the middle of the black powder,

a tiny red dot appeared.

"...Got it!"

A tiny ember flickered in the socket.

Day 2 on the deserted island.

At last, we had fire too.