by Bear Grylls
“Now, blow,” Bear said. “Gently.”
Chloe crouched down low and blew the embers towards the palm strips. The red glow spread slowly along them and the smell of burning grew stronger.
Somewhere in the pile there was a loud snap. Even though Chloe couldn’t see any flames yet, the air started to shimmer with heat.
And then it happened. The smoke and heat did their job and suddenly the bundle of dried husk burst into flames.
“We have fire!” Chloe said, sounding so proud of herself. “Are we cooking the crabs now?”
“Almost.” Bear said. “But there’s one more job first, while I build the fire up …”
He pulled out the plastic bottle that Chloe had picked up earlier.
Five minutes later, Chloe was wading out to the rocks that stuck out of the sea. The sand under the water was soft and comfortable between her toes. She had the net bag tied around one arm, and she carried the bottom half of the bottle that Bear had sliced in two with his knife.
The rocks were a little taller than she was and she half-swam, half walked. The waves had died down and the sea just rippled around her.
Chloe pushed the half-bottle into the water and looked through it, as Bear had told her to.
“Wow!” she murmured.
It was like wearing a face-mask to look at a new world. The bottle pushed through the surface and let Chloe see everything below crystal clear.
Above the water, the rocks were bare and dry. Below the water it was completely different. Small fish moved in and out of seaweed that waved gently in the current. A crab spooked and withdrew into a crevice. Sea anemones were like blobs of red jelly that stuck to the rock, their tentacles flowing. And Chloe noticed a cluster of sea urchins – small black balls, covered with spines like razor-sharp needles. Bear had warned her to stay well away from them.
Bear had asked Chloe to look for mussels – grey-blue shells clinging to the rocks. She found a bunch clustered under a ledge, and was about to reach for them, when suddenly she stopped and looked again through her bottle.
“It’s like a whole different world,” she said out loud.
It was – what was the word Bear had used? – an ecosystem. Everything on these rocks was in balance. If one part died, everything would die. The rocks were all they had, so they all had to survive together.
Chloe saw why Bear cared so much about the rubbish floating in the sea. The whole planet was like these rocks. If the balance was upset, then there was nowhere else for everything living here to go.
She stared at it in wonder for a little while longer, before she remembered her job.
Bear had told Chloe only to get a handful of mussels, not to take the lot.
She understood why now. Taking them all would be bad for the ecosystem. So she reached under the water and pulled a few shells loose, put them in the net and started to wade back to the beach.
Suddenly a spear of red-hot agony shot up through her foot. She stumbled. When she tried to put her foot down again she screamed. It hurt more than anything she had ever known.
Her shouts caught Bear’s attention and he came running down to the shore. Chloe blinked back tears of pain as she sat in the shallows and lifted her foot out of the water.
An urchin clung to her like a ball of spiky fire.
Several of its spines were stuck into the sole of her foot and her skin was starting to darken around it.
8
EGGS FOR DINNER
Bear came splashing through the shallows towards Chloe. He saw in a moment what had happened.
“Ow. Sea urchin. That’s going to hurt.”
He lifted Chloe up and carried her back towards the shade at the top of the beach.
“My foot’s going black,” Chloe gasped through gritted teeth. She had to grind them together to stop herself whimpering. It hurt so much.
“Don’t worry. That’s just the sea urchin’s natural dye,” Bear replied. “The spines hurt because they go so far in, so quickly. They’re extremely sharp. But not poisonous.”
Bear set her down beneath the trees, then gently lifted her foot up and studied it.
“The bad thing about urchins is that the spines have hooks at the end, so I can’t just pull them out again without tearing your flesh. But I’m going to do what I can.”
Bear picked up a stick and used it to knock the urchin gently. Chloe heard a couple of faint snapping sounds as the spines broke and the urchin fell to the sand.
“That’ll stop any more going in, but there’s still five or six snapped-off spines stuck in you.”
He made sure Chloe was sat comfortably against the tree trunk and then held her foot carefully.
“The good news is they’re just natural calcium carbonate, like your bones. So your body won’t try to reject them. They’ll just dissolve naturally. The bad news …” He pulled a face. “It’ll take time. Days, probably.”
Chloe groaned as she thought of all the miles of beach they still had to walk, and how much the spines hurt when she put her foot down.
“I can’t sit here for days!” she replied. An idea struck her. “Maybe if you made a crutch out of a piece of wood, I could keep the weight off my foot and sort of hobble along …”
“Yes. Maybe,” Bear said. “But let me treat it properly first.”
Bear got his water bottle and trickled a little fresh, clean water over Chloe’s foot. Then he wrapped a bandage from his backpack gently around it.
“Next step is to see if I can find something antiseptic to prevent infection. And for you, the best way to take your mind off the pain is to keep busy …”
Bear dug a metal pot out of his backpack and set it on the sand. Then he picked a hermit crab out of the net bag and held it out to her.
“We need to cook these before we eat them. Blow gently into the end.”
Puzzled, Chloe pursed her lips and did as Bear said. She blew into the opening in the shell, and a set of spindly, armoured legs started to emerge. As soon as she stopped blowing, the legs pulled back into the shell.
Bear laughed, and blew into the shell himself. The crab started to come out again, and this time Bear kept blowing until Chloe could see its body. It had a puny little body and one big claw.
“They only have room for one claw in there,” Bear said, “and it’s the only bit with enough meat worth eating. Boil them in some seawater, and then you can get them out of the shells.”
He filled up the metal pot with water and placed it on the fire. Then he handed her the knife, sheath first.
“Here. You’re in charge of dinner. Cook the mussels along with the crabs. Any that don’t close up when you tap them, throw them away. We don’t want food poisoning.”
Then he headed over the dunes, while Chloe considered the hermit crabs. She blew again into one of the shells. It wasn’t as easy as Bear had made it look to get them to emerge completely.
As soon as the water boiled she threw the crabs in the pot with the mussels. Then she drained off the water carefully – and once the shells had cooled down she used the knife to lever the cooked meat out of the shell. It took some time to get the hang of it, but she had half a coconut shell full of crabmeat and mussels by the time Bear came back.
“Good work, you!” he exclaimed, before holding up a slab of brown tree bark. “I found a cinnamon tree!”
“Cinnamon?” Chloe exclaimed. “Like, for cooking?”
“Yes,” Bear said. “It’s a natural anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial. So it’ll calm your foot down, and kill off any nasties that got in.”
He took a metal cup from his backpack and began to slice thin shreds of the bark into it. Then he poured some fresh water into the cup, and set it on the fire. Once it had boiled for a bit, he let it cool then washed Chloe’s throbbing foot with it. Then he bandaged it back up. After that he split the urchin open with his knife, and levered out the smelly mess of its guts. Then he scooped out a glistening mass of small pink blobs.
“Urchin eggs t
o go with our meal!”
And the meal wasn’t bad, Chloe decided. The eggs were salty, and the cooked crabs and mussels tasted good. They washed it all down with more coconut milk, which was like dessert.
They sat on either side of the fire. Bear had his back to the beach, and Chloe was leaning against the palm tree, facing the sea.
“We’ll stay put today,” Bear said. “I’ll make you a simple crutch to support your foot and you can get used to using it – but meanwhile, take it easy, and give your foot a chance to heal. I’ll make up a bed for you out of palm leaves to keep you off the sand tonight. Some of the spines might even work themselves out of your skin by tomorrow …”
Chloe tried to be brave. The cinnamon had probably done some good but the fact was her foot still throbbed with pain. And she hadn’t realised just how much the walk had taken out of her. She was going to close her eyes and rest when …
Chloe saw something. She squinted into the sun, then leaned across to see past Bear.
She was right. There was something. There was a dark blob on the sea, maybe half a mile away.
“Bear, there’s a boat!”
9
SMOKE SIGNAL
Bear shot to his feet.
“Quick! The fire.”
“We’ve got a fire,” Chloe replied frantically, and a little confused.
“We need a bigger one. To make smoke to catch the boat’s attention. Lots and lots of it.”
Bear looked around. Then he got his knife out and shinned up the nearest tree, the way he had before. But this time the blade flashed at the roots of the leaves. One by one, palm leaves started to fall down on Chloe.
“Put them on the fire carefully,” Bear called. “Add two or three at a time.”
Chloe fed the leaves into the fire, while Bear continued to cut down more from above. The smoke grew thicker. Chloe quickly had to scoot around to the far side so that it didn’t blow in her face.
She kept on adding leaves and the smoke turned into a thick, grey column that rose high up into the air.
“Perfect.” Bear clambered back down and helped her put more leaves on. “Dead leaves burn hot and fast, but fresh green leaves still have plenty of water in them, so they don’t burn as well.”
“They make smoke instead?” Chloe guessed.
“Exactly. Which these are doing nicely.” Bear leaned back to look up at the smoke. “You carry on here – I’ll see if I can get their attention.”
He ran down to the edge of the water and started waving his arms in a big wide, rhythmical pattern towards the boat.
“Hey!” he shouted at the boat. “Hey!”
Chloe kept her eyes fixed on the boat. It wasn’t big, less than ten metres long. There was a small cabin at one end and she could hear the putt-putt-putt of a little engine. Had anyone on board seen Bear?
It was impossible to tell at this distance.
Chloe held her breath as she stared out to sea. Even the pain in her foot didn’t seem to matter now. Then she remembered she still had her job to do, and quickly went back to putting leaves on the fire.
When she looked up, she blinked. Had she imagined it, or …?
Yes! The boat was turning towards the beach!
They had been seen.
Bear hurried back to her.
“We’ll have to swim out,” he said, “so they don’t run aground.”
Chloe pulled herself to her feet as Bear kicked sand over the fire to put it out, and gathered up their few things. He stuck the polystyrene into his backpack.
“What goes around comes around. Let’s not leave this here. We do something good for the ecosystem and maybe we get rescued in return,” he said with a smile.
Chloe kept her hurt foot off the sand as much as she could, as Bear helped her walk down to the sea. The first waves broke around her knees. After that, she could swim without putting any pressure on her foot at all.
The fishing boat had come to a halt about twenty metres away. Two men stood on deck, waving and shouting encouragement.
As they got further from the beach, the waves got ever stronger.
“Keep going, Chloe,” Bear shouted. “You are doing so well. Never give up!”
Chloe felt the water lift her up and drop her down again, once, twice. Ahead of her the boat suddenly got lifted up by a bigger than usual wave. Then the boat was hidden from view as the wave kept coming at her. Chloe saw the top of it begin to break into foam. She put her head down and held her breath.
The wave broke right on top of her. A roaring mass of bubbles came crashing down onto her head. This time she was prepared for it and kept her body straight as the current battered her body. Then it passed. She lifted her head up. Water streamed down her face and blinded her for a moment.
“Chloe! Almost there. Hold your hand out.”
Chloe felt her hand knock something hard. She stretched out to hang on to the side of the boat with both hands and shook the water out of her eyes.
She was looking straight into Lily’s smiling face.
10
WILDLIFE WELFARE
“Whoops!” Lily said. “I didn’t even see that boat until it was too late!”
“What?”
Chloe looked around.
She was back in the lake at Camp, holding on to the side of the sailing dinghy. No sign of Bear, or fishing boats, or waves. Her foot felt fine. The instructor was calling them over to the shore.
“Come on,” said Lily. “We’d better get going.”
Feeling slightly dazed, Chloe pulled herself into the dinghy.
“Don’t forget your lifejacket,” Lily said. “It must have come undone.”
Chloe reached down to adjust her lifejacket, and felt something digging into her side. The compass was underneath it.
She pulled it out.
For a moment it looked again like there were five directions on the dial, but that must have been the water in her eyes. When she blinked it was back to the normal four.
Lily steered them back to the boathouse while Chloe’s mind still spun. It all seemed so impossible now. But she remembered being on the beach for most of a day, though Lily obviously didn’t think any time had passed at all.
By the time they reached the shore, Chloe had told herself it must have all been a strange kind of daydream.
The sun came out and sparkled off the water. Chloe winced and shaded her eyes with her hand. “At least you’ve got those silly sunglasses!” Lily laughed.
Chloe grabbed the plastic sunglasses tucked into the neck of her t-shirt. She put them on …
Sunglasses?
She snatched them off again and stared at them.
Bright red plastic, slightly clouded with salt stains.
It was the pair she had found on the beach with Bear! She had never seen them before today.
So, the beach had been real after all.
The rest of the sailing session was a blur to Chloe. At the end of it, she honestly couldn’t remember anything they had done. As they put their lifejackets away, her thoughts were still full of her trek along a tropical beach.
“I’m going to head up to the shop,” Lily said, “get something to drink – you coming?”
“Uh – yeah,” Chloe said. “I’ll catch you up.”
There was a bin next to the boathouse surrounded by dropped wrappers and cans. As Lily hurried off, Chloe thought of Bear, and carefully picked up each piece and popped them into the bin. Then she set off back up the path.
She smiled to herself. Bear would be happy, at least, she thought.
At the same time, she heard a boy shouting behind her.
“Hey! No! Cut it out! Cut it out!”
Chloe could hear real fear in his voice. She looked up.
She had seen the boys earlier, skimming stones across the lake. Now a couple of them were laughing and dragging another boy by his arms down to the water. He was struggling to get free.
“Oi! Lads!” an instructor called across to them. “Kno
ck it off!”
The laughing boys reluctantly let go. The boy immediately leapt back from the water and Chloe could see he was upset. He stormed off up the path. The others looked too embarrassed to follow him.
The boy was walking so fast he soon caught Chloe up. He gave her a sideways sort of bashful look.
“Sorry about that. They’re friends, really. I just …” He stopped.
“Hey, it’s fine. I get it. We all have things we’re nervous of, it’s fine,” Chloe said.
He smiled back and they started to walk together.
“I dunno. It’s just water. I kind of freak out. It’s stupid, I guess.” He smiled at her. “I’m Jack, by the way.”
“I’m Chloe.” Before she could say any more, they both heard a faint, high-pitched cheeping.
“What’s that noise?” Jack said.
They were standing under the tree where Chloe had seen the chick that had fallen from its nest. It must be down here somewhere. She knelt and moved the branches aside. There it was. It hadn’t gone far.
“Oh, the poor thing!” Jack said, crouching to look at it.
Chloe looked at Jack and the chick, and remembered how she had told herself before that nothing she could do would make much difference in the big scheme of things.
But since then she had met Bear.
She thought of the turtle and the seal Bear had mentioned.
“We’ve got to help it,” she said.
Then she had a brainwave – Mia had been doing Wildlife Welfare instead of sailing for this afternoon’s activity!
“Jack, do you know any of the Wildlife Welfare leaders?” she asked. “Could you go and find one? I’ll stay here and guard it, and make sure a cat or something doesn’t get it.”
