The girl is in the desert.

Before she buried her belongings, before the Red-rumped Parrots led her to water.

Beside her is the kindling she has gathered. Broombrush. Dwarf Hakea. Desert Banksia cones. She is building a fire, though it is not yet night. Above her, a Waxy Yellow-gum marks the rhythm of the afternoon, its bark-peel not so close as to tempt the fire. Not far from here she found a clutch of Pacific Black Duck eggs in a grass nest. The duck is a common variety and her hunger is fierce today. She only took three eggs. Once the fire has run its cycle, she will cook them in the coals and peel off their pale shells, savouring each act.

The girl takes a match from its box and counts those remaining. Seven, one with a broken stick. No vehicles have passed this way, the clearing too far from their tracks. A fire is safe here, if she keeps the smoke to a minimum, which is easy with such dry fuel.

The match rasps as she runs it along the strike paper and she shivers, cups her hand around the fragile flame. Fire is tenuous and mighty, ally and foe, company when night closes in. As the kindling takes hold, those around her hear the crackle of ignition, smell the discharged smoke, and take heed. They remember when fire came from the sky, struck a Grey Box and consumed it in a whirlwind of flames. When it was first used as a tool, a drill stick twisted onto the shafts of the Austral Grass-tree, carried through the desert by the First Peoples. Wotjobaluk. Jaadwa. Jadawadjali. Wergaia. Jupagulk. The girl is not one of them. Her people came later, much later, but here she is now.

She leans closer and blows into the flames, careful to spare her spit. Her hunger is hollowing, but thirst is the killer. The rest of the day will be devoted to finding enough water, once her belly is full. For now, she must make the desert her home.

The girl crosses her legs, the sand receiving her bare feet. With one hand she feeds the greedy fire. With the other, she runs a finger over the smooth shell of a duckling that will never be born.