They had only given her a day’s worth of food. She’d received general survival skills training for tropical and subtropical regions, but they hadn’t taught her anything specific about the geography or edible flora of this particular island.
Akane had divided the food she was given into three portions, taking care not to eat too much on any day, but she was already at her limit with hunger. No matter how much she rested, once her strength failed it did not come back.
“We heard that you dropped out and went back to Japan.”
“That’s what they told you, huh.”
“Yukari was very upset. She still is. She wanted to apologize to you.”
“What? It was my choice to come here. Yukari has nothing to be sorry about!” Using the roots on either side as handholds, Akane staggered to her feet. She folded her blanket carefully and stashed it in her pack. Then she began to walk across the loamy soil, one step at a time.
“I have to get back…have to get back by midnight.”
“Hoi! Well, if you want a shortcut—”
“No! Don’t tell me!” Akane said sharply. “Don’t help me. If you help me, I won’t pass. Please.”
Matsuri saw the look in Akane’s eyes and fell silent. After a few moments she said, “You’ll be fine, Akane. The weather’s on your side today.”
“Thanks. I’m going to give it one last shot.”
Matsuri scanned their surroundings. Then she pointed up in the sky. “Look! Swallows! Ooh! Look at all of them!”
Akane followed the direction her fingers were pointing. Indeed, something was darting through the air beyond the dense foliage of the trees.
“Those are swallows?”
“Yep. They’re awful good at flying, those swallows.” Matsuri picked up her satchel and stood. “Hoi! I’m going to go gather some more fruit before I head back home.” She walked off into the jungle, disappearing within moments, leaving Akane to ponder what she had said.
If she’s going to gather more fruit, that means she’s probably not headed straight back to base…
Akane was sure the other girl had been trying to tell her something indirectly, but what?
She looked back up at the wheeling swallows.
For some reason, it was a relief to see their familiar sweptback wing shape again. Swallows were common near her home in Japan. When they had first dropped her off in the jungle two days before, Akane had stared wide-eyed at everything, amazed by the rich abundance of life. Her joy hadn’t lasted long.
Akane prided herself on having paid attention during biology class, but for whatever reason, she had never learned much about the tropics. If I’d only studied more, I might know what around here is edible…
Something brushed across the back corner of her mind. The wheeling swallows—swallows wheeled like that when they were catching insects to eat.
Which meant that there were insects up there. Probably a lot of them. Insects tended to swarm most immediately following eclosion—their emergence from a chrysalis, in other words.
Akane pricked up her ears. She could hear it now, a mass thrumming of wings. It was high-pitched. Flies? No, bees. They were most definitely small bees or wasps. She had read something about jungle wasps in a book about parasitic life-forms.
Akane wracked her brains for any shred of memory that might prove helpful.
Then it hit her: fig wasps!
Fig flowers bloomed internally—they were hard to see from the outside. For pollination, fig trees relied on wasps. Her biology teacher had called it a “masterpiece of symbiosis.”
Fig flowers had male flowers, female flowers, and a third kind where wasps laid their eggs. Two wasps would actually mate inside the fruit, in contact with a male flower. Then, with the pollen still attached, the female wasp would fly off in search of an appropriate flower in which to lay her eggs. Since the female flower of the same plant was not shaped well for egg-laying, the wasp would look for a different tree, and pollination was accomplished.
How did I not realize this before now?
She had heard the humming of wasp wings several times already during the last two days and avoided them, fearing a sting. But she had never put two and two together to realize that where there were fig wasps, there were figs!
Akane walked closer to where the swallows danced in the sky. It didn’t take her long to find a fig tree laden with fruit. She pulled off a fig and split it in half. It was perfectly ripe and full of juice. Akane crammed it in her mouth without even peeling off the skin, the sweet juice filling her mouth.
Her eyes watered with tears. She ate three of the figs, one right after the other. The fourth had a wasp inside it. After that, she was a little more careful in choosing her fruit. When she was satisfied, she stopped eating, afraid of a bellyache.
She picked off another ten good-looking figs and stashed them in her pack. The feeling of strength flowing back into her body was palpable. She checked her watch and found it was just after two o’clock.
I might just make it home. I’ve got another ten hours—four until sundown.
Matsuri must have walked from base, she reasoned. And if she can do it, so can I.
Then a troubling thought occurred to her. Had Matsuri helped her find the figs? All she had done was point out the swallows. It certainly hadn’t seemed like a hint at the time. But Matsuri might’ve meant it as one. She had known that where there were swallows, there were figs.
But I was the one who put it all together.
She decided that if she made it back before the deadline, she would tell them what had happened. Even if it disqualifies me, at least I’ll be honest, and that has to count for something.
Akane pulled out her compass and verified her course. She didn’t need a guide. Hints were everywhere if she just looked: the lay of the land, the vegetation, flocks of birds, flowing streams. She wouldn’t miss another clue. Not this close to victory.