We huddled shivering in the dark, terrified but back safe on shore. Fifty meters away Walden’s cabin twinkled with soft light, merrily unaware of us.  A bark sounded from inside, and a moment later the door creaked open. Walden’s nimble silhouette craned its neck at us from the doorway, before dashing out to us in bare feet.

“What happened?” said Walden, frowning. “You’re back much later than you should be.”

“Towels,” I gasped, and Walden ushered us inside the cabin before rushing to the closet. We sat in front of the wood stove in the kitchen, towels wrapped around our shivering bodies.  Walden pressed an enormous drumstick of some indeterminate bird in each of our hands.

We were safe, and yet found ourselves in the fog of a dreadful feeling, as if we were somehow too late. The fire’s warmth, pressing against our drenched clothes, touched us with love and deep sadness, like a beautiful woman caressing the face of her terminal husband.

For a while nothing was said.

I keeled over in front of the fire, lying on the hardwood floor, and closed my eyes. I felt as if I could stay there forever. Walden’s fat French Bulldog, like a witch’s familiar, curled up next to me.

I must have drifted off to sleep. After a while, my eyes opened, and I could hear Walden and Romulus discussing the day’s ill-fated events.

“In the shrine we traversed the maze for several hours, passing false turns, before we came to a clearing with five rings of stone, each surrounding a small fire.”

“Ah,” nodded Walden.

“We rushed around, trying to tend to the five different fires. But as soon as we had the fifth one lit, we realized the first had gone out. It was as if they all had to be tended simultaneously.”

“That’s difficult,” nodded Walden sympathetically. “What else did you try?”

“What else could we try? We repeated the same thing over and over. Nothing changed. And with no food on the island whatsoever, we had no choice but to return.”

“Well… so, what did the other guardian say?” Walden asked.

“What other guardian?”

“The Fiveflame,” said Walden. “ You didn’t just pile on a bunch of wood? You tried to talk to her, didn’t you?”

Romulus and I groaned simultaneously, never having realized that the fire was alive, or that we should think to talk to it.

“Oh, you’re awake?” said Walden. “Anyway, you might have wanted to listen to her and what she had to say, instead of rushing around.”

She saw our pained expressions and hastened to comfort us. 

“But hey, it’s no big deal. Nobody gets it right the first time. You need to do what you did: have a difficult first experience and hone in a bit closer the next time. Just keep trying, over and over again. I’ll make you some coffee in the morning and you can get back to it. But for now, it’s my bedtime.”

Romulus took the couch, and I lay on the floor in front of the wood stove, watching the embers dwindle into darkness before falling asleep myself.