Free Loku and the Shark Attack by Deborah Carlyon Page B

to make a fire signalling he was in their territory. All the time he walked he thought only of Nul’s words, ‘You always do the right thing. Responsible Boy!’
    Loku tightened his jaw and swallowed. He looked around. There were not many green leaves because of the long dry season. As he gathered leaves, his cheeks began to burn, and his brother’s words grew louder in his head.
    â€˜You always do the right thing. Responsible Boy!’

    Loku dropped the green leaves he had carefully collected and began to deliberately choose dry leaves. Instead of making the fire close to water as custom had taught him to do, he walked further inland. When the river was out of sight, he made a pile of dry leaves and thin twigs in the grass and took out the broken piece of glass he had found on the beach. Turning the glass in his hand, he waited for the sun to warm up.
    When he finally felt the heat of the morning sun on his skin, Loku knelt and held his piece of glass above the leaves. He ignored the ants crawling over his feet, and waited for the small brown ring of heat to burn the leaves. Soon a thin wisp of smoke appeared. Loku bent down and blew with very slow, controlled breaths.
    Slowly, he fed more leaves to the flame that came. He was pleased with himself when he had a steady fire, and he layered it with dry branches full of crisp, brown leaves.
    The smoke rose, but it did not carry the thickness of a proper smoke signal. Instead, the smoke looked like that of a cooking fire, and the fire was bigger than Loku had expected. He watched it nervously and sighed. He had deliberately made a fire away from the river’s edge and he wondered how he would be able to collect enough water to put it out.
    He heard his brother’s voice echoing in his head again. ‘You always do the right thing. Responsible Boy!’ His cheeks reddened again with anger.
    Okay, thought Loku, I won’t put out the fire! though he silently said to himself, The neighbours have seen the smoke and will put it out soon, anyway. This is what he hoped would happen.
    Suddenly, there was a strong gush of wind, and a rush of thick, hot air blew against him. It lifted up some of the burning leaves, blowing them in different directions. There were small fires catching in different places, and the wind did not stop.
    This is not good, thought Loku. He began pulling up grass and grabbing handfuls of earth to put out the big fire. It was no use. Loku felt a thick wall of heat around him, and he looked up. The surrounding bushes were on fire. The wind had carried burning leaves to the tall dry grass and brittle bushes. The flames moved quickly with the wind. Loku’s little fire had become a raging bush fire, uncontrolled and growing quickly – much too quickly!
    Flames were leaping higher than his head. An orange wall of fire raged through the bush like an angry giant. The forest was ablaze and crackling toward him. He could barely see through the thick smoke closing in on him.
    Loku ran as fast as he could. Then he stopped in his tracks. Trapped! He was surrounded by fire and a huge crackling branch – not far above his head – was about to fall. Raising his arm above his head for protection, he squinted and jumped to his right. Crash! The large branch smashed where he had just been standing. A shower of sparks rained down upon him. Stopping to catch his breath, he realised the smell of singed hair was his own. He zigzagged his way through patches of smoking grass. Then he jumped like never before and went over the last burning bush at the edge of the forest. Tumbling to the ground exhausted, he crawled to the edge of the river and collapsed in a heap on the sand.

Chapter three

    When Loku lifted his head, he was startled by what he saw in the river. A large old turtle with its leathery neck above the water, fixed two solemn eyes upon Loku. His heart sank. The turtle was his tribe’s totem animal. He knew he would be punished