Brian woke up to a weird noise. It sounded like a slithering. He saw a shadow, the shadow of a small animal. In fear, he kicked at the shadow and through his hatchet. The hatchet missed, creating sparks. Then he felt a big, stinging pain. He then saw the animal leave the cave.

Brian looked down at the needles on his leg. It was a porcupine. There were dozens of needles in his leg, and he carefully pulled out each one. Every needle he pulled would bring him searing pain. Some broke off into his hand, but he got them all. Soon, mosquitos were coming back to bite him again, and Brian started crying. He felt sorry for himself. There was no way he could survive in the dark without fire. After he was done crying, he fell back asleep.

Porcupine

In a dream he saw his father and Terry. His dad was trying to say something to Brian, but he could not understand. Terry was looking at a fire pit. There was charcoal in the pit, and Terry hit the charcoal with a steel rod. The fire started. Terry turned and looked at Brian. He smiled.

Brian woke up and looked at his hatchet. He realized it would be the key to fire. He looked at the wall of the cave and hit it as hard as he could with the hatchet. Sparks flew out. He got paper and wood and kept hitting the rock wall. After many tries and several hours, Brian got some paper lit. He moved it to the wood and slowly, very slowly the fire started burning.

sparks

With fire, there would be no mosquitos. There would be no porcupine. Brian smiled. Then he thought about what his father was doing. Then he thought about what his mother was doing. Then she wondered if she was with him.