Need doesn't match his energy, but gives him a lopsided smile. "There are free-erupting fires out there, too. Fortunately not anywhere near the boardwalks."

She reaches into the coals and fishes out a football-shaped bit of clay.

"I'm making bullets," she says, and doesn't think to specify sling bullets. To Need these are just what bullets are and don't need a clarifying term. Other kinds of bullet came far later. "It's harder to find the right kind of stones here."