Kaiku awoke to a loud snap from the fire, and her eyes nickered open. Asara was there, stirring a small, blackened. pot that hung from an iron tripod over the flames. A pair of coilfish were spitted on a branch and crisping next to it. The sun was high in the sky and the air was muggy and hot. A fresh, earthy smell was all about as damp loam dried from last night's downpour.

'Daygreet, Kaiku,' Asara said, without looking at her. 'I went back to the house this morning and salvaged what I could.' She tossed a bundle of clothes over. 'There was not a great deal left, but the rain put out the blaze before it could devour everything. We have food, clothes and a good amount of money.'

Kaiku raised herself, looking around. They were no longer in the waterlogged clearing. Now they sat in a dip in the land where the soil was sandy and clogged with pebbles, and little grew except a few shrubs. Trees guarded the lip of the depression, casting sharply contrasting shadows against the dazzling light, and the daytime sounds of the forest peeped and chittered all about. Had Asara carried her?

The first thing she noticed was that her bracelet was missing.

'Asara! Grandmother's bracelet! It must have fallen… it…'

'I took it. I left it as an offering to the ipi, in thanks for protecting us.'

'She gave me that bracelet on my eighth harvest!' Kaiku cried. 'I have never taken it off.'

'The point of an offering is that you sacrifice something precious to you,' Asara said levelly. 'The ipi saved our lives. I had nothing I could give, but you did.'