Edgar was standing against the skyline, binoculars to his eyes when Christine got near to the top of the ridge. She could see the smoke snaking into the sky, and the heat was palpable.

“Fire’s movin’ away. The wind’s blowin’ to the South West. We’ll be fine if we hold tight here. ‘S gonna be a few days, but we have plenty of food besides. It’ll be fine.”

She let her shoulders relax and breathed a sigh of relief. She climbed the last few steps to stand by her uncle and then she saw the horror of it all. Away below them she knew that the trees were roughly one hundred and twenty feet tall and she could see flames that had to be another thirty feet above the trees. If it were not for the wind blowing away the thick black smoke the sky would have been black, but as it was there was an almost completely blue sky for as far as she could see to the north and east.

Edgar was right, the wind was moving the fire away from them, but winds could change. She had no idea how they could escape if it came back their way.