Inexplicable Incidents: Day 9

Word Count: 54,047

Summary of Events:

Aline ended up running into the woman most intent on marrying her off while at the butcher's and got into an argument because the woman thought she should be at least planning a wedding, if not married already. Étienne fought in another skirmish that was surprisingly more tough and exhausting than the previous ones had been; in fact, he fell asleep during matins because he was so exhausted. Aline was woken by the smell of smoke and discovered that a part of town very near where she lived was on fire, and she set to helping put out the blaze with Adrien, who helped her haul the kitchen washbasin filled with water . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Adrien guided her as to where to throw the water and the flames hissed and sputtered, but unfortunately seemed largely unaffected by the dousing.

Nonetheless, Aline and Adrien continued fetching washbasins full of water and throwing them at the flames while others continued with their buckets — although with each subsequent load Aline noticed more and more pairs of people hauling washbasins between them, suggesting to her that the idea was catching on.

After a few loads, however, Aline’s arm started to get tired, and she was reluctant to take the basin up again after it’d been filled.

“Here,” Adrien said. “Let’s switch sides.”

Aline agreed and found that she didn’t feel so tired in her other arm, and they took to switching sides after every second load to keep their arms from tiring.

It took a long time before finally it seemed like the flames were really succumbing to the water being thrown at them from washbasins, or being beat onto them by soaked blankets that some people were willing to risk in the effort.

Personally Aline would never have risked a blanket in a firefighting effort, she would’ve been more like the others who used empty grain and flour sacks to beat back the fire, those sorts of things were much more expendable than blankets, especially considering that winter was not all that far off.

The sun was starting to rise in the east when, finally, it seemed the worst of the flames had been defeated and Aline collapsed wearily against Adrien. She had never felt so spent in her life.

“It’s like war,” Adrien said.

Tiredly raising her head off of Adrien’s chest, Aline looked around; the sight was haunting.

Black, burned wood, was in piles everywhere, some parts still resembled houses, while others toward the centre of the of the fire — where orange glows remained, as well as people actively throwing water onto them — was nothing more than ash heaps.

“Did they get out?” Aline asked.

“Who knows,” Adrien replied. “I wouldn’t go looking.”

“Non,” Aline agreed. “I wouldn’t dare.”

“Come, I’ll take you home,” Adrien replied quietly.

Aline turned to look at where the fire was still being fought and suddenly noticed the blackened stone chimney that still stood — as many around them did — where once a wall had been built up alongside it, it was different from all the others, and Aline felt a horror in her.

“La forge,” she whispered.

Adrien turned and looked, he said nothing.

“How did it happen?” Aline asked.

“I don’t know,” Adrien whispered.

“Now the other smiths are going to have to work even harder to make all the weapons we need,” Aline said.

“Come,” Adrien said. “Let’s go.”

Aline let Adrien guide her away, distraught to think that one of the forges had been lost, and that it certainly appeared to have been the epicentre of the fire, suggesting that an accident had happened in the shop that had caused the blaze; she hoped the smith and his family had gotten out, it would be terrible if they had died in the blaze.

Pronunciations:

La forge: lah fahrzh