From Fire to Frost

Thankful for Fish

    Madelynn woke early the next morning. The fire had been reduced to nothing more than the ashes that surrounded it, and everyone seemed soundly asleep as she rose from her bed besides her children. Her ever-faithful dog raised his head and looked at her as she began to move about, thumping his tail against the ground in a greeting. "Stay," she told him, and he lowered his head down and snuggled up against Devin. Then she pulled her fishing reel out of her bag and headed down for the riverbank.

    The river that wound around the town was the same one that eventually meandered it's way to where their homestead had once been. It wasn't the largest that she had ever seen, but it normally had plenty of fish. The problem was that Madelynn didn't know how the forest fire had affected the river or the fish that lived inside it's waters.

    Once she neared the banks of the river, she bound her skirts up around her knees, and took off her boots and socks so that they wouldn't get wet or muddy. Then she began the search for worms or grubs that she could use as bait. She up-ended several wet logs and large rocks until she had a fair amount of insects to use. 

    During her searching, she had come across a long branch that was caught in the reeds. She hacked off the smaller limbs, leaving several stubs along the length of it. Then she used a strip of her skirt to lash the reel onto the branch, and wound the line around the stubs. At the tip of the branch was a fork and she hung the line through this. Several wicked barbed metal hooks were always sheathed inside the reel case and she removed one, stringing the line through it, and spearing a long night crawler.  She cast out into a nice wide deep spot of the river and then sat down on a boulder to wait.

    Laura awoke to the sensation of her baby kicking her in the side. She smiled softly to herself, putting her hand atop the spot and feeling the skin twitch under her palm.

    "Is it the baby?" asked Eldridge, who had always been a light sleeper.

    She smiled and nodded, taking his hand from around her side and placing it directly on top of the spot. She looked up at him and saw a broad smile cross his face as he felt their baby kicking their hands.

"I can't wait to meet our baby," he said, whispering in her ear so as not to wake the others.

    She nodded in agreement, and then her stomach growled fiercely, making her giggle. "Well, if we don't manage to find enough to eat during the trip, our baby is going to be a skinny one," she said. She had meant it in jest, but as usual, her serious-natured husband didn't take it that way. He frowned, and then rose from their bed.

    "You stay here and stay warm," he told her, "and I'm going to go look for food to add to Madelynn's supply.

    Laura was constantly proud of her husband. He had always supplied for them and the pregnancy had added a whole other level of responsibility, but he didn't seem to mind or resent it in the slightest. She knew that he was excited to start their family, for he had said so several times since she gotten pregnant.

    As he disappeared in the direction of the town market, she also found herself feeling grateful for Madelynn's presence in their group. Only Madelynn had the forethought to grab her rifle; and she had grabbed her fishing reel and some tripwires as well. It was because of Madelynn that they might all be able to survive this ordeal. The fact that she was one of the best shots in town was an added bonus, although Laura had to admit to herself that game would probably be scarce for a while. Hopefully there was still fish in the river.

    Slowly, one by one, the group woke from their slumber. They had collectively decided to go ahead and get started looking through the town when Madelynn came walking back toward them. She had two fat trout hooked by the gills and slung over her shoulder.

    Devin was the first to spot her and went running towards her, "Oh Mama! They look so yummy!" he    exclaimed, his eyes big as saucers.

    She smiled and patted his head. "Will you take out the pan and the spatula please?" she asked him. "I need to clean these before we can cook them."

    As they neared the group, there was much acclaim about her fish, but Mrs. Bancroft soon shooed them all away. "We can't eat them till she is done cooking anyways, so we might as well start searching the town for supplies," she told them wisely. So the group divided up into pairs. The two Masons started searching the east end of town.  The Bancrofts began searching the north end, and James and the two children started searching the west end.    

    Meanwhile, Madelynn stoked the fire, added some wood from the nearby ruined hotel, and started creating a good bed of coals to cook the trout over. As the fire was burning down she went off a little ways and started cleaning the trout. She wrapped up the guts in a bit of the oilcloth to use later as bait for her snares. She disposed of the heads and the bones, burying them in the ground.

    Then she threw the fish into the hot pan with a loud sizzle. It didn't take long for the flesh to cook through. The smell must have been permeating the area, because before too long, the survivors came wandering back towards the fire. Most of them were carrying an item or two, which they heaped into a pile before seating themselves on the ground around Madelynn.

    As soon as the fish were done, she pulled the pan from the fire, set it on a rock nearby, and cut the two fish into eight equal pieces. "Give the skins and the tails to Mudd if you don't want them," she instructed, as she handed each person their piece of fish. She looked at her two children, who commonly ate less than the adults, "If you don't eat all your fish, offer it to Mrs. Mason first, then one of the ladies."

    Both children nodded solemnly in agreement. The group ate their fish with excitement, juggling the hot flesh from hand to hand as they ate away pieces of it.  Eldridge and the widow Bancroft ate the skins of their fish, but everyone else tossed the skins and tails to Mudd, who slurped them up with a lot of tail-wagging.

    Devin ate all of his, but Eva filled up quickly, then brought her leftovers to Laura, who accepted them gratefully. With the other's encouragement, she finished off the fish. "That was delicious!" she told Madelynn happily as the others clamored in agreement.

    "I'm sorry there wasn't more - " Madelynn began with a smile.

    "Nonsense!" said Mrs. Bancroft. "Freshly fried fish on the morning after we end up with nothing? What an invigorating treat! I am filled and my energy renewed. What more could we ask for?" said the widow fervently. "I am going to keep looking for more things, and I suggest you all do the same and leave this good woman to her business."    

    Spurred on by the widow, the group divided up into their pairs and continued their search, except for Eva, who stayed behind to help her mother clean up. Once the two of them were finished, they began to search the south end of town. It took most of the day, but by the time the sun was setting, the entire town has been thoroughly combed over for any remaining tools or supplies, and a large pile had formed near their campfire.

    Many corpses had been found mostly burnt throughout the town and any that were human were buried in one area of the town's ruins. However, more than a few of these were animal remains and these were gathered up and brought back to camp where Madelynn salvaged any usable meat that she could. Then the carcasses were brought to a different area and buried.

    That night the party ate well of the salvaged meat, after it had been thoroughly recooked over the fire. Madelynn knew that the meat wouldn't keep forever since it was untreated and the group, in general, decided that it should be consumed before the other foodstuffs. They ate the meat until they were stuffed.

"I think this must be how a bear feels before hibernation," said Laura with a laugh. "It is nice that we can get full because I have a feeling that food might be more scarce later on."  The group became somber at her words for they all had been thinking the same thing.

    Even though their chances of finding game would improve the further from the burn area they got, the closer towards winter they got, the more scarce game would become. Many of the animals would go into hibernation, whereas the larger herds of elk and deer would migrate to lower elevation areas to find food. Plus, if the rivers became frozen, then their chances of finding fish would also grow more slim.

    As the group finished up their dinner, the adults started going through the items in the pile. Despite all of them having a degree of usefulness, some were discarded for weight factors, and others were discarded because of size. In the end, they had gathered another two oilskin pouches which had survived by being buried under the body of a person. They had a hatchet with a metal handle, a pistol and some ammo which had been shut inside a safe, a large knife with a bone handle that had minimal burn damage, two snares, a 10 lb bag of oats and 2 lbs of sugar which had escaped harm under a pile of debris, and a large wool blanket that Eva had found in the middle of the river, snagged on a stump sticking out of the water.

    The best guess that anyone had was that it had gotten caught up in the fierce wind being pushed ahead of the fire. It must have gotten tossed into the river, for its edges were singed and there were a few holes burned into the main body of it. Still, its usefulness could not be understated, so they brought it along as well.

    "I'm surprised the only thing inside that safe was a gun and some ammo," remarked Eldridge to Amelia, who had brought the pistol from where she had found it.

    Amelia shrugged, "Yeah, that does seem kind of weird.  You would think there would have been money or jewelry or something in it as well."

    Dismissing it with a shrug, Madelynn continued looking through the pile. They had also found several lengths of rawhide in the ruins of the tanners hut that had still been going through the drying process, and the fire had barely touched them. They used these to bind up all the other supplies, except the oats and the sugar which were wrapped up in the oilskin beforehand.

    Then the group settled down into their furrows, and after some quiet conversation, began to fall asleep.

"Mama?" Eva said in her flute-like little voice. "Sing the song?" she asked with hope in her eyes.

    "What song is that?" Asked James curiously.

    Madelynn smiled fondly down at her two children, as they crowded together with their heads on her lap. "I have sang this song to help these two fall asleep since they were born," she said. "Last night was the first night I missed, but I don't think they minded too much considering how exhausted we all were."

    She began to sing a lilting French lullaby, first in English, and then in French, her voice carrying the beautiful melody easily. Her lovely soprano voice lifted up over the camp, relaxing the minds and bodies of those around her.

    After the song had ended James sighed. "What a beautiful tune," he said out loud.

    "Indeed," said Amelia, "what a beautiful way to end the evening."

    "Thank you Mama," said Devin and Eva together. They kissed their mother on her cheeks and then burrowed underneath her long jacket.

    The wool blanket had originally been offered to Laura out of consideration for her pregnancy but she refused it with a laugh. "Do you jest?" she had said with a grin. "Since I've gotten pregnant, I can't get cool enough. I feel like an inferno most of the time."

    Her husband had nodded emphatically, "Tis true," he agreed, "She has all the warmth that we might need currently." 

    So the blanket ended up covering the two Bancrofts, who in turn, offered their coats to Mr. Spalding since his coat was just a thin garment made for summer evenings.

    James took the proffered items gratefully,  wrapping one about his shoulders and the other about his legs. Thusly, the entire group fell asleep quite a bit warmer than they had the night before.  When the dawn touched on the horizon the next morning, Eldridge was the first person awake, and he quietly woke the rest of their party. Everybody rose and packed up their provisions quickly, then they were on their way.

    Madelynn led the way. She kept her compass handy in case she needed it, but tracking the course of the sun across the sky was a simple matter. They were headed eastward, towards the rising sun, although they were going to pass by her family's old homestead on the way through. She was sincerely hoping that Penny had returned home, although she didn't expect it.

    Eva and Devin walked beside her; Eva clutching Missy and Devin looking as serious as ever. The rest of the group walked around them; James and Laura were discussing a couple of farms they might come across near to New Haven. Eldridge was as silent as ever, but the two Bancroft's chatted aimlessly about the current French fashion.

    As they topped the eastern ridge, Madelynn stopped and turned to look back over the ruins of New Haven. She watched the grey smoke trailing up from some of the still smoldering skeletal remains of the buildings. Her memories flashed back to the first time she had seen this place.

    They had been traveling uphill for quite some time and finally crested the ridge in the wagon. She had been holding Eva in her arms with Devin at her side, and Jacob had been leading the horses.  At the top they Jacob paused to let the horses breathe and the two of them looked down on the cozy little village of New Haven. Smoke was curling up from the chimneys on that cool spring morning and they could hear the voices of the villagers carried on the breeze as they went about their business.

    Jacob had looked at her, happiness in his eyes and pleasure in his voice. "A quaint little thing, aye Maddie?" he asked her. He had been the only one that ever called her Maddie. She had smiled back at him, a good feeling inside of her for what lay ahead.

    Devin had bounced on the wagon bench, full of energy. "Is that going to be our new home?" he asked, excited.

     "Aye that it 'tis," his father had answered him. Jacob had given a final pat to Penny's neck and then led them down the hill towards the village.

    Madelynn's mind snapped out of her reminiscing. Sadness threatened to overwhelm her, briefly, and she felt scared as well. There were so many uncertainties ahead of them, and so many 'what if's" floating through her head.

    The rest of the party stopped beside her to look back over the valley, their eyes sad and their voices hushed. Widow Bancroft laid a hand on her arm, her eyes full of the same emotions Madelynn was feeling. "I never envisioned that Fate would be putting this path in front of me," she said. "I thought New Haven was my end destination and I would live out my days in that house, watch Amelia marry and give me some grandchildren. What lies ahead is frightening, 'tis true, but together we stand a real chance of surviving until we reach civilization.

    The indomitable strength of a mother took over, and with a nod, Madelynn squared her shoulders and stood tall. "No sense fretting over circumstances beyond our control," she said out loud. "What lies ahead is all that concerns us now." And with that, the group, Madelynn leading the way, strode off down the hill and away from the place they had once called home.

      The group traveled all day, stopping every couple of hours to rest. The children, with their shorter legs, tired more quickly, but then one of the adults who wasn't carrying provisions would hoist them up onto their backs for a time. Unfortunately, the members of the party, in general, were unused to traveling such long distances on foot, and needed to rest more often than Madelynn would have liked.

    They passed through the McDonoghue's burnt up homestead after just a few hours but there was no spunky ginger mare to greet them. So onwards they went. By noon they passed through the Wessex family's farm, but it was as burnt as the rest of the area. It seemed that the Wessex family hadn't had any warning at all and perished in their beds, for no survivors were seen in the farm, but corpses were found under the smoldering remains of the house itself.

    The group took a small reprieve there, long enough to rest their feet and look for more supplies. They did find the burned carcass of a steer however, and Madelynn salvaged the meat and it's horns, and two hooves. She tossed some burnt flesh to Mudd who, ever voracious, devoured the offerings quickly.

"Why the horns?" asked Laura.

    "We don't have enough time to try and tan the stomach or bladder and make a waterskin out of it," Madelynn explained. "But we are in dire need of an extra vessel or two to carry water with. The bucket from my farm is inconvenient and unwieldy.  It might take me a couple days, but I think I can hollow these out and fit the hooves as caps."

    "Oh! That's clever!" exclaimed Amelia, looking impressed. Laura nodded in agreement.

    After Madelynn was finished, the group set out again. They traveled into the evening, stopping three more times to rest. By the time the sun had started to sink behind the trees, the group was weary and their feet were sore. They found themselves against a cliff face that reached skyward a good sixty feet or so and blocked the cool autumn wind that had started to blow.

    Eldridge started building a fire while the group found spots to sleep for the night. Soon enough, flames were dancing merrily above the logs and the salvaged meat was reheating quickly. Each person ate quickly but it was obvious they were exhausted, because no one wasted energy in idle chatter. As soon as they were done, the coals were banked and covered for the night, and everybody settled down to sleep the night.

    As Madelynn finished singing the lullaby to her children, Devin looked at her. "Do we need to worry about bears or wolves or anything?" he asked his mother.

    "It is very unlikely," she reassured him. "Every animal in the area would have fled from the forest fire, which is why we haven't heard anything but the songs of the  birds. It is much quicker for birds to fly over the trees than the animals on land to travel through the forest.

    Once we leave the burned area I will be a bit more cautious, and we will probably have to post guards during the night. But thankfully, we also have Mudd, and his ears are far more capable of picking out trouble than ours. He's probably one of the best assets we have on this trip," she told her son, as she looked down at their fluffy dog. She scratched him behind the ears, much to Mudd's pleasure, who gave her a big dog-smile and nudged her hand with his nose when she stopped.  

    Devin hugged Mudd to him, which pleased Mudd to no end. His tail started thumping and he started licking the boy's face relentlessly with his tongue. Devin giggled and buried his head in the dog's furry shoulder.

"Calm down Mudd," cautioned Madelynn, not wanting her son to get too wound up right before bed. Mudd whined quietly, and then flopped over onto his side, laying next to the small boy. Madelynn tucked her coat around them, then slid under her side of it to sleep on the other side of Eva. Before long, her breathing evened out as sleep claimed her.