The Pole Shift

Journey to the Witch

"Frog, Frog?"

Oldshe woke with a snort. She wiped at her face then regarded the grinning Flinders.

"What did you call me?"

"Frog!" He suppressed a giggle, "It's affectionate, like a pet name for a friend. You looked like a little old frog as you slept." Oldshe knew better than to show displeasure, and caught at the passing ocean then splashed her face. When she looked back at Flinders his amusement waited on his lips but she stood and stretched her limbs. The sun was about to rise. The ocean chopped at them. No land could be seen. Oldshe took from her pack a bread made from wild grass seeds. Her sisters had gathered their best for her. she ate with an eye on Flinders who's amusement had disappeared, he looked at her eat with a new expression.

"A taste of that biscuit?"

"None for you, Pretty." Flinders frowned but quickly it passed saying:

"No matter. He pulled at a line and slowly hauled in empty hooks baited with twisted feathers painted cleverly. Both eyes watched with different emotion, Oldshe feeling satisfaction as hook after hook came in bare. Then, a small squid was hauled into the boat and he held it aloft as if a prize. "Ha!" Flinders turned it in the dawn glint and so beautiful was it's changing colours and large eyes that they both looked on in pleasure. Then the squid emptied its ink sack and Flinders jumped back with agility. Even so he was spurted upon. His shirt, made from many materials was splashed black and he dropped the squid. He made sounds of disgust and set about taking his shirt off, quickly he immersed it in the sea and rubbed the stain to no avail. Then he rinsed the shirt in fresh water from a drum.

He was so absorbed that he did not notice Oldshe process the squid. She stripped it of tentacles and pulled off its head. She turned the squid's tubular body inside out then rinsed it. By the time Flinders was released from his ordeal, Oldshe said:

"Here, Pretty.' Handing him strips of clean white calamari.

"Don't call me that, I am filthy." He looked down his shirt and made a clucking noise. Oldshe learned much about the Captain in those moments, and it was her turn to struggle with amusement. Flinders ate then looked to the sun, "What is the next part of the song?"

"At hand-span sun steer away." Oldshe sang the line in the melody she had been taught, her voice pure. Flinders looked at her in what could have been admiration, then he stretched thumb and small finger wide and placed the ancient measurement between sun and horizon. The tip of his small finger was still far from the rising sun.

"Soon." Said Flinders and prepared the boat to face away from dawn. As he did so he snatched glances at Oldshe who kept her eyes averted, knowing full well that a change in relationship had arisen to her benefit. She did not want to mar it with self satisfaction.

"The song is a strange atlas to steer by, it doesn't make sense. For instance my hand is much larger than yours, we would have long set forth if we went by your hand." Oldshe considered and wrestled with the conundrum. Finally she said:

"A Wizard taught Sassafras, there are many things we don't understand." Flinders crossed his fingers and yet another trait was revealed to Oldshe.

"The Wizard in the children's book can be terrible, the witches worse. There was one who controlled an army of flying freaks, monkeys. The freaks visited me in my dreams."

"The children's books aren't to be trusted, they are as much to help a child read than to base our beliefs on."

"We built the smiling face boats from one such book." He touched the planks of the boat in affection, and suddenly Oldshe saw a very young mind.

"Flinders, we are all still children. The Pole Shift destroyed our ancestors world. We would still be eating limpets off rocks if it wasn't for Toorak. Perhaps we would have all died if it wasn't for him. We are children and have no choice but to trust Wizards and Witches and the Gods that have revealed themselves to us." She thought on her own words and felt her stomach thrill, the people could recover lost knowledge, they could build a new world. Suddenly she understood a dreamed of future relied on acts made by those like Flinders and herself. when she looked up the boat had caught a breeze and was travelling merrily. Flinders had lost interest in the conversation and smiled his pleasure at the bulging sail.

"We must have the hounds Flinders, the Witch Woman will hear us and see our need. They were ours." Oldshe did not say it but thought of the words Sassafras had whispered in her ear.

"The Wizard wants something she holds, it is called the Little Lo, a bone carving of a wolf. Take it, I have promised him."

It was Oldshe's turn to cross her fingers, her close set eyes downcast.