"How are we going to manage?" Inata asked. "I don't want to walk in circles on a giant disc for an entire year."
"We need to show Golock we're not as stupid as he thinks. The most important thing is to get out of here as quickly as possible, no matter which direction we take. We must move away from the centre at all costs. If the disc completes one rotation every two hours, that means we need to head toward the volcano at one o'clock, then in the opposite direction at two o'clock, then toward the mountain again at three. At one-thirty, we should keep it either on our right or our left, depending on the direction of rotation."
"How are we supposed to know which way we're turning?"
"By eating!" the boy declared, dropping his pack to the ground. "If we stay still, we'll see which way the volcano moves. And if I jump every ten minutes while looking toward that big rock, I'll understand how we're moving through space."
Their food reserves were already seriously depleted. The bread had gone hard, and most of what remained consisted of seeds and dried fruit that eased their hunger on one hand but only increased their thirst on the other.
Melio, meanwhile, seemed to be feasting on the small rodents he easily flushed out from beneath the piles of leaves. A cat is both domestic among humans and wild as soon as it returns to nature. That was the thought crossing Hichy's mind as he watched the little ginger predator. He and his sister had been raised in the comfort of a clearing and a large house. To survive, they had no choice but to draw their resources from the forest, just as Melio did.
On his first jump, Hichy noticed that the volcano was roughly aligned with the rock. Ten minutes later, it had clearly shifted to the left, confirming his hypothesis. They were rotating clockwise without a doubt. An hour later, the two landmarks were completely opposite each other. The twin checked his watch. He now knew exactly which direction to take.
"My flask is completely empty!" Inata pointed out just as they were about to set off again.
"Do you think you could move water with your powers?" her brother asked.
"What do you mean?"
"It's simple. Look around you. What do you see?"
"Trees, some grass, ferns, moss."
"What are plants and trees made of?"
"Between seventy and ninety percent water."
"Exactly! We're afraid of dying of thirst while we're surrounded by water on all sides. If you could extract it the way you extracted the bacteria from my wound, we'd be saved."
Without waiting, Inata sat cross-legged on the ground and closed her eyes. She focused her mind on organic elements composed of one oxygen molecule and two hydrogen molecules.
"Don't forget to take a few minerals and trace elements too. Pure water is indigestible," her brother reminded her. "And don't drain a whole tree. That would kill it."
"I know that, triple idiot. Let me concentrate."
At first, Hichy thought nothing was happening at all. But after a while, a veil of vapour rose all around them. Droplets gathered and formed an increasingly thick mist. As if weightless, large bubbles of water floated around them. Inata opened her mouth and swallowed one in a single gulp. Then, while Hichy uncapped the flasks, she gently guided the water inside the openings to fill them.
"Me next!" the twin shouted, opening his mouth wide.
A ball of water the size of a tennis ball approached him and burst against his face.
"Oh, very funny!"
He was soaked, but the water tasted wonderful. It was even purer than the water from the clearing. They would never go thirsty again this way.
"Now we need to move," Hichy said, wiping his face with his sleeve. "We have water, and we've already wasted enough time."
He checked his watch and leapt above the treetops. After a brief calculation, he indicated the direction to his sister. The cat passed from one pair of arms to the other at each new leap, sometimes trying to escape and bite one of the children.
They walked like that all afternoon, until the sun disappeared behind the horizon in wide circles around them. Their feet were sore, and they were exhausted from the long march. Despite his powers, each of Hichy's jumps required a great deal of energy, and his stomach growled with hunger.
"How's your arm?" Inata asked, removing her shoes to massage her toes.
"My arm? I wasn't even thinking about it. I'll keep a nice scar, but it doesn't hurt at all anymore."
Hichy spread the canvas on the ground to settle down when the first drops of rain began to fall. Melio snuggled into his master's arms.
"That's just our luck!" he exclaimed. "We can either get soaked or be eaten by ants."
"Wait, I might have an idea," his sister said.
She sat down and assumed her Buddha pose to concentrate better. Soon, leaves flew in from all directions and gathered above them to form a protective dome, like a large tent. Their structure was so tight that not a single drop passed through.
"Amazing! You're incredible!" the twin exclaimed.
"Except I have a small problem," his sister replied.
"Not at all. It's perfect like this. You always worry about—"
The pile of leaves collapsed on top of them, sticking to their hair and clothes under the rain.
"They only held in place because of magic," Inata explained. "If I lose focus, everything falls apart."
"They need a structure to lean on. And maybe you could use sap as glue."
"Good idea."
Hichy gathered branches and assembled them into a tipi shape. Meanwhile, his sister formed a small umbrella of leaves above their belongings and the cat. Once the structure was solid enough and the pieces of wood tightly bound together, he added moss to fill the gaps. Then Inata covered everything with a dense layer of leaves, securing it with sap she drew from nearby trunks. Finally, she dried the inside of the shelter as well as her brother's clothes and hair by driving out every molecule of water.
They collapsed inside their leafy tipi, even more exhausted but happy to find a perfectly waterproof refuge. They sealed the entrance through which they had slipped in, isolating themselves from the outside world. Melio lay down at their feet and fell asleep, clearly approving of their new home.
"Golock told us nonsense!" Inata fumed. "As if those two crooked sticks and that sheet could protect us from the rain."
"I think it's part of the test," her brother replied.
"What test?"
"Some kind of trial to see if we're worthy of succeeding our parents."
They lay down after eating a few dried fruits, still far from satisfied. Huddled against each other, lulled by the sound of rain, they fell asleep almost instantly.
"What's wrong, my little Melio?"
The cat had woken in the middle of the night and was scratching at the vegetal wall, hissing. Hichy listened carefully but heard nothing. If an animal was outside, it must be very close, just on the other side of the thin layer of leaves offering them only flimsy protection. Melio darted about frantically, jumping and trying at all costs to get out.
The boy hesitated. The best way to avoid coming face to face with a wild beast was not to stick his head outside. But until he identified the source of his cat's agitation, he would not be able to relax or fall back asleep. He stood there for a long moment, envying his sister's ability to sleep so deeply and carefree.
He parted the branches to make an opening and slipped outside the tipi. The rain had completely stopped, and the silence was total. Stars could be glimpsed here and there, and rays of moonlight pierced through the branches to provide a faint glow. The little ginger cat's nose sniffed the air in search of clues.
That was when Hichy saw it. The animal that had caused so much trouble was a small white rabbit. Its eyes gleamed in the dark, and its fur invited caresses.
"How cute you are! And to think Melio made such a fuss over a tiny, harmless rabbit."
The boy was about to go back to sleep when a second little rabbit, identical to the first, hopped beside it, twitching its tail. It looked at him with the same irresistible expression that made him want to hold it close. Then a third joined them, a fourth, a fifth. Melio darted back inside the tipi for shelter while rabbits kept pouring in from every direction around his master. There were thousands of them—perhaps even millions.
The boy was now surrounded by a white carpet of fur tightening around him. One of the small animals jumped into his arms, soon followed by several of its companions. Though each one was light, the mass piling onto Hichy quickly became oppressive. He fell to the ground, unable to free himself. Their fur was soft. The great coat enveloping him was warm and comfortable.
He began to run out of air as the rabbits continued to heap themselves on top of him. Their attitude was not hostile, and they looked like living plush toys. But even the gentlest embrace can become suffocating. He tried to scream, but when he opened his mouth, a thick tuft of fur blocked the air. His nose was clogged, and he could no longer see anything. He could not move a single limb, pinned on all sides by this mountain of cuddles. Never had he felt such crushing oppression, and he was about to die of suffocation.