Flame used vine to tie them both to the raft by arms, legs, and torso. She tied their paddles beside them. Then she tied her own lower portion, so she could sit up and paddle. "If a wave washes over you, close your eyes and hold your breath," she told them. "It won't cover you long. You may feel as if you're drowning, but you aren't."
The wolves arrived, eagerly slavering. Flame shoved off. The wolves splashed into the water in pursuit, but she knocked their heads with the paddle and they had to quit. The raft was on its way.
So was the storm. First came gusts of wind that shoved the raft farther into the fjord. Then came spatters of rain.
Flame secured her paddle beside her, as it was about to become useless. Then hell broke loose.
The winds turned violent, and big waves formed. The raft careened up a slope and into a trough. It spun about, and sheets of rain obliterated the rest of the world. Flame's eyes stung with the salt despite being tightly closed, and she had to keep spitting out brine. She suppressed the temptation to draw on her magic. This actually was good exercise for her, making do with entirely natural abilities.
The storm seemed to last an eternity as the raft pitched and yawed and the waves splashed frothily across it. But finally it passed, and Flame's more objective time sense told her it had been only about ten minutes. Time enough to wash them out if it was going to.
As the raft settled down, loosened but intact, she sat up, untied her legs, and went to untie the others. Both were spitting out salt water, no longer choking on it. Vila vomited over the edge while Marionette rubbed her rope-burned limbs. Her lovely long hair was now a tangled string. "You were right," she said. "It wasn't fun."
Flame set herself and started paddling. "But we survived."
"We survived," the woman agreed. She fetched her own paddle and started paddling on the other side of the raft. Flame's respect for her grew; she was pulling her weight.
Vila returned to the realm of the living. "Apology for making a mess."
"Accepted!" Flame and Marionette said together, laughing weakly.
They made their way across the fjord and landed safely. "I hate to leave this loyal servant," Flame said, looking at the raft. "But we can't take it with us."
Vila went to the raft, kneeled, and kissed its battered corner. "Bye, friend," she said, and actually shed a tear.
"You both are tired," Flame said. "Should we rest?"
"And get caught by another storm?" Marionette asked. "We have just one challenge to go. Then we can rest."
They glanced at Vila. "Agreement," the child said, though she looked as if she really wanted to rest.
"I am proud to have you in my family," Flame told her. Vila was actually sister, not daughter, but truly family.
They took their paddles as potential clubs—all else had been lost—and marched along the resumed path.
The land soon leveled out and turned dry, becoming a treeless plain.
"Tundra," Marionette said.
"What threat is likely here?"
"Uncertain. There are a number of prospects."
Flame saw something in the distance. "Bear?"
"I was hoping it wouldn't be that. These makeshift clubs won't be effective against a large determined bear.
Too massive, too strong, too well padded."
"We can sharpen them into spears."
"Same objection. We need something else. Soon."
"Fire," Vila said.
"Right again," Flame said. "Gather tinder."
Marionette and Vila scavenged the dry land for the dessicated remains of shrubbery, while Flame found a few sticks and stones. She was in luck; she found the right kind of stone.
They made a little pile of tinder, and Flame bashed two stones together to strike sparks. It wasn't easy, but she had learned the technique in Amazon training. Soon she had a smolder, then a flame.
The bear was closing the distance. It had winded them, and was hungry. It was indeed large, massing more than the three of them combined. It didn't hesitate; it charged in.
She could stop it readily with magic. But she did not.
"Scatter," Flame snapped. "So it has multiple targets."
They did. Meanwhile Flame had a stick in the flame, igniting the tip. It was a serviceable temporary torch.
The bear swerved to follow Marionette, the most luscious prey. It was massive, but was readily outpacing her.
Flame leaped after it, but she was not close enough to catch it before it caught Marionette. So she threw the torch at its flank.
The torch scored, and fur singed. The bear whirled to bite at it—and got the fire in its mouth. It howled.
Flame returned to fetch another torch. The second stick was spindly, but was now burning well. She lifted it and ran at the bear.
The bear smelled the fire and retreated, growling. It had learned respect. Flame pursued it, orienting the torch on its nose. The bear understood the threat. It had had enough. It turned and fled.
They had won the last challenge. All the same, they all took firesticks as they walked on along the path, just in case.
Before long they came to the concluding rendezvous. They were the first to make it, having dispatched their challenges relatively rapidly. But this was not a competition against other people, but a portion of a larger one: to demonstrate just how well naked humans could perform against natural threats.
"Now we can rest," Flame said.
They did so. Flame, as a Glamor, didn't actually need to, but as a theoretically normal man she emulated fatigue.
Marionette was physically tough, but she had had a considerable workout. And Vila threw herself down on the moss and slept. The rendezvous was a thicket of trees with a pleasant glade with a clear spring in the center. It was like a small paradise after the challenges of the wilderness.
Several other families straggled in, looking much the worse for wear. Some were injured, and some were almost terminally weak. But they had made it through.
In the end, seven families made it. That meant that three had lost. It had been a rough test, but a clear majority had survived it. That meant that the human species was more than minimally formidable. Would that dissuade the machines, or merely make them more careful? Flame feared the latter.
They waited for the robot to appear, or the shuttle to convey them to the spaceship and take them home. But there was nothing.
"What is this?" a man demanded. "We did our part. Where are they?"
"They're reneging," another man said. "We should never have trusted them."
Flame stopped herself from using her near future paths seeing. This, too, was a Glamor power.
Marionette stepped to the center and raised her hands for attention. "You know me, I think. I have a suspicion.
The machines set us up with five threats of the man versus nature variety. They did not say that the challenge was limited to those. They may be testing us to see what we do when we appear to have been forgotten or deceived. Do we remain effective, or do we dissolve into chaos? It surely makes a difference in their attitude toward us."
Flame saw several people nodding. They were listening to Marionette because she was a Mistress, a natural leader, but also because she was making sense.
"I believe we should demonstrate that we are resilient in the face of unexpected adversity," Marionette continued.
"We should become a community, organizing for indefinite survival. When they see that we are not collapsing, they will make their next move. My guess is that they will proffer a divisive challenge designed to turn us against each other. We must not fall for it. We must remain civilized, showing them that we hold their ploys in contempt."
The nods became open endorsements. Flame knew Marionette from way back, but was impressed again with this confirmation of her qualities of leadership. She was almost sorry she wasn't her brother Warp; the Mistress was indeed a worthy girlfriend.