Chapter 9 — Red Flag

The stick broke. Yixing cursed, staring shamefully at his work. Three days had passed since he first washed upon the shores of this distant island. Although their fire had gone out several times before, this was the first time that Xiaohe was not around to rebuild it. The prince got down to his knees, grabbed another stick of wood and tried again. It was imperative that they keep the fire burning if they had any plans of rescue. 

Unlike the two days before, today was sunny and clear. Xiaohe had returned to the Southern tip of the island, where the tide pools were, to see if she could gathered some sea urchins and abalones from them to eat. Yixing was in charge of watching the horizon and watching the fire. 

“C’mon, c’mon,” he whispered, pleading to the piece of soft bark and to the twig he was rubbing against it. 

He threw the stick aside and huffed his breath. Starting fires was not something he was taught at the palace. He learned things like the Classics, political theory, and ethics, not survival tactics. He had seen people start fires before, but he himself never had reason to learn. There were servants in the palace whose job was to start and stoke fires throughout the residence. He had never given thought to the act before. Maybe he simply assumed that the fires had begun on their own. But now, as he was stupidly scraping a stick against a piece of bark, he felt pathetic and useless. 

Twice, Xiaohe has had to save him from a snake. Once, she had to stop him from eating a poisonous plant, and another time, she had to chase away a seagull that had started chasing him for no reason. Yixing looked down at the ashy fire pit — the embers were glowing, teasing him. Wasn’t there anything he could contribute to their survival?

His old stubbornness began to take hold again. He grabbed the stick once more, positioned it on the soft bark. This time, he held the stick between his palms and began to twist the nub of the stick against the soft bark. He had kindling nearby, ready to catch the spark. Yixing pressed his lips tightly together as he continued spinning, spinning, spinning until—

At last! A spark ignited on the bark, and just as it began to catch fire, Yixing threw the dry leaves and moss over it. Then, just as he had seen Xiaohe do, he cupped his hands around his mouth, bent over, and blew into the fire. 

A puff of thick smoke rose up from the pile, and Yixing took this as a sign that it was working. Just for good measure, he heaved in a breath and blew even harder into the pile of moss and leaves. But rather than stoking the fire, his breath blew up the pile of ash and soot in the fire pit, which scattered and landed in her eyes, nose, and mouth.

He jerked away from the  cloud of ash and smoke, coughed and scrambled for fresh air. 

“Damn it!” he shouted, seeing as his second attempt to start a fire had failed yet again, and he probably managed to lodge a handful of ash in his lungs, too. He coughed again, fanning the cloud of ash with his hands. He covered his eyes with his sleeve, trying to air out the smoke and soot. But when everything cleared, that was when his eyes landed on the horizon and he spotted it.

A ship. 

He blinked again and again. The vision did not disappear. It wasn’t an hallucination. It was really there. A ship. Yixing’s eyes widened and his heart stopped.

“Xiao… Xiaohe?” he started muttering. He stood up, eyes still locked on the tiny ship in the distance. At last. Salvation. 

“Xiaohe!” he began to shout. Yixing shot up to his feet and booked it across the sand, heading for the tidal pools. “Xiaohe! There’s a ship! A ship! There’s a ship on the horizon! Hurry!”

His boots kicked up sand as he ran and his fatigued muscles ached in protest, but Yixing kept running until the tidal pools were in view, and he could see Xiaohe bent over with her hands in the water. 

She spotted the prince running toward her some meters away, but the crashing of the waves was drowning out the sound of his voice. Xiaohe lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the sun as she watched him run toward her. There was a frantic, wild look in his eyes that concerned her. Did he run into another snake? Get chased by another seagull? Disturb a nest of hornets? She stood up.

“What’s wrong?” she shouted. “What’s with you?”

“A ship!” he shouted when he was finally close enough. Yixing splashed and disturbed the water as he ran into the tide pools. He grabbed Xiaohe by the wrist and began pulling her.

“What’s wrong?” she demanded again.

“There’s a ship!” Yixing said. “I saw it! It’s over there, it’s going to pass us! The fire’s out! We have to signal it!”

Realization crashed like a wave on Xiaohe as she let herself be pulled along behind the prince. She picked up the pace and they sprinted back to their camping spot. When they rounded the corner of the island, Xiaohe saw it. The ship, it’s red sails a triangular speck on the otherwise empty horizon. And it would be gone soon if they didn’t act fast. 

“Fire!” Xiaohe shouted. “Quick! It’ll pass us!” When they reached the fire pit, Xiaohe got onto her knees, grabbed the soft bark and the stick and hurried began to spin it in her hands. Yixing gathered up the rest of the dry moss and leaves that they had left and pushed it against Xiaohe’s bark and stick to cat