Winter's Farm Burns

Winter Silversmith was tending his sheep on the small island they call home when the sun began to slowly set in the western sky. “But wait”, he said to a nearby lamb, “why are there two sunsets tonight?” The fiery orange ball of light from the sun was sinking down toward the horizon but further south, closer, another red light flickered against the clouds of the dusky sky. It was then that he realized it “FIRE!” he shouted and began running feverishly down the grade to get to the footbridge.

Fires in the Sky

He clumsily tripped on some stones and dove face first into the ground where he was treated with a mouthful of dirt and a badly scraped knee and forearm.

Clamoring to his feet, and ignoring the blood dripping down his arm, he shouted again “FIRE!” louder this time. Just then he saw Joseph, one of the farm hands, running with a bucket of water towards the barn. Joseph tossed the water, from the bucket, onto the side of the barn now completely glowing with flames. The cold water struck the hot wood and instantly hissed into steam.

Manitou's Farm Burns

Winter ran across the bridge, wincing from the pain in his left arm, only to be nearly trampled by the horses as he approached the barn. Joseph had managed to duck through the flames and release the terrified beasts just moments before their hay beds ignited.

“Joseph, quickly, fetch the fire guard. I will see if Sunflower is home by the river”, Winter said.

The flames curled up the sides of the wooden barn and danced on the roof like tiny pixies. All of a sudden a gust of wind picked up the dancers from the thatched roof and tossed them onto the nearby pine trees.

Winter bolted down the path to the riverside home of the crone’s daughter Sunflower Meadow. He pounded his fists against the solid oak door shouting “Fire” over and over to anyone who might be inside. He ran around to the nearest window and peered inside. Winter could tell from the layer of dust and the cobwebs that the dwelling had not been lived in for several months.

As he ran back up to the horse pens he could see the apple orchard was now ablaze. The fire had spread west to the forest and north to the orchard, each standing tall and ready like a neat row of matchsticks.

The Farm Burns

The sound of a bell clanging in the distance told Winter that Joseph had managed to reach the village and alert the nearby authorities of the inferno. The barn, the nearby woods and now the apple orchard were burning. The orangeish red flames roared toward the sky as thick black smoke billowed up to reach the heavens.

“All is lost. All is lost” a nearby villager cried out as the beautiful pastoral estate was quickly lain to waste by the fires. Shouting was heard as a cart and a horde of people armed with buckets of water, shovels and pick axes rose up on the nearby foothills and descended on the farm.

“We must stop it from going north” one shouted to several of the men with axes “fell those trees at once!” A half dozen men ran across the paths to the north side of the orchard and began chopping down trees and shrubs in all directions. Another group quickly formed a line, armed with buckets, down to the creek to the east. Bucket after teeming bucket of ice cold water was passed from hand to hand to be cast at the spewing demon of fire.

The flames tried to crawl along the grasslands, but shovels and strong will kept the fire from spreading to the avenues north of the farm.

Winter ran about with a shovel, that is to say as best he could be limping from his tumble, slamming the steel head down on any flame that dare poke up from the scorched earth. The horses were saved and drawn north across a neighbours’ field but the pigs perished in the barn before Joseph could release them.
It took over an hour of shoveling and an eternity of water buckets passed before the last of the flames were extinguished.

 Many of the villagers held their noses as the smell of burnt pork and droppings filled the air with a putrid stench. When the fire was finally defeated Winter took stock of the damage. The barn, nearby woods, riverside cottage, horse pen and apple orchard were decimated “almost all is indeed lost, he agreed as the one villager had noted. The only items to survive were the footbridge, the ruins to the north and two other stands of pine and poplar.

Thankfully the horses escaped and the sheep were still safely grazing over on the island. “I have lost it all” Winter said to a neighbour standing nearby “the creditors will take the rest I am certain”. The Silversmith Farm that had been in his family for generations was lost.