The smell came again, and a wave of warm and delightful air. What was happening, what could this mean? She could only stand and stare as the flames came close, licking at the nearby trees. Wonderfully warm. The animals were screaming behind her as she walked over and held her hand to the warmth and light. Then she screamed as well.
Ikemend opened the hanalè door a crack and looked out. Akotolp made a peremptory gesture of command, ordering her to open it wide.
“First you send for me—then you block my way,” the fat scientist said, her jowls waggling at the affront. “Admit me at once.”
“I abase myself,” Ikemend said, ushering Akotolp in, then sealing the entrance behind her. “The males have been quarreling again, it is the weather perhaps. There is an injury…”
“Bring the creature here at once.”
The firmness in her voice and the abrupt movements of her body sent Ikemend scurrying away. She returned almost at once pulling a truculent Esetta* after her.
“This is the one,” she said, pushing the male forward. “Starts fights, causes trouble, got what he deserves.”
Akotolp ignored this as she seized Esetta*’s arm and turned it over to examine it. Her thumbs gave an extra squeeze when she did this and Esetta*, his back turned to the guardian, half-closed one eye in a sultry gesture. Akotolp always enjoyed these visits to the hanalè.
“Scratches, nothing more, antiseptic will take care of this. Males will be males…” She broke off suddenly and raised her head, her nostril flaps opening wide as she sniffed the air.
“That smell—I know that smell,” she said, agitation and worry in the movements of her limbs. She hurried to the outer door and opened it despite Ikemend’s protests. The smell was stronger now, the air filled with it.
“Smoke,” Akotolp called out, worry and concern strongly present. “Smoke comes from one chemical reaction only—fire.”
Esetta* drew back trembling at the strength of Akotolp’s feelings, while Ikemend could only signal stupidity and lack of understanding. The smoke thickened suddenly and a distant crackling could be heard. There was now urgency and the necessity for speed in Akotolp’s command.
“There is a reaction called fire and we could be in danger. Assemble the males at once, quickly, they must be taken from here.”
“I have no orders!” Ikemend wailed.
“I am ordering it. A matter of urgent health—need, threat of death. Bring them all, follow me, to the shore, to the ocean.”
Ikemend did not hesitate, but hurried away at once. Akotolp paced back and forth, worried and concerned, unaware that she still held Esetta*’s trembling arm and dragged the frightened male after her. A gust of wind sent smoke roiling through the open door that started them both coughing.
“We cannot wait,” Akotolp said. “Follow!” she called out loudly, hoping the sound could be understood, then hauled the wailing Esetta* after her.
When Ikemend came back into the corridor, the reluctant males trailing after her, she experienced great satisfaction when she saw that it was empty. She hurried to close and seal the outer door, ordering the males back to their quarters, relieved that there was no longer a conflict of orders. What place could be safer than the hanalè?
A warmth began to penetrate the walls which was most soothing and satisfying. She only felt a pang of fear when the first flames burnt through the entrance.
It was late by then to do anything to save her charges. She died with their pained cries in her ears.
Alpèasak burned. The wind-whipped fire sprang from tree to tree, the leaves of one igniting the leaves of the other. The shrubbery below blazed up, the walls, the floor matting, everything caught fire, everything burned.
For the Yilanè it was an inconceivable disaster, a physical fact that they could not understand. There is no natural fire in a tropical rain forest so they had no knowledge at all of fire. Some of their scientists did, but only as an interesting laboratory phenomenon. But not like this, nothing like this. For here was smoke and flame, burning on all sides. Attractive at first, an enjoyable source of heat, then an inescapable pain. So they died. Burnt, consumed, blackened. The fire swept on.