Flames: Iron Summary & Analysis

When Charlotte lifts the boat and climbs out, the Esk God wakes to a flash of light across his face. If he hadn’t been so grateful to the girl for keeping him warm, he would’ve pierced her throat. As Charlotte leaves, the Esk God considers going back to sleep, but instead he slithers out and slips into his river. The eels part to make way for him. The names “Rakali” and “water rat” mean nothing to him. He's been around since before even the indigenous humans arrived. His understanding of humans is that they’re “callous” and only swim in the heat; some of them grow “horns their fellow apes could not see”; some of them, like the girl he slept beside last night, return after their ashes are scattered. 

The Esk God paddles onward, feeling pleased that he let Charlotte live. He knows she has a purpose, and he knows Levi and Charlotte’s father, too—he’s someone the Esk God doesn’t want to get in trouble with. He swims upstream to the mountain where his lover, the Cloud God, lives. She’s the source of his rivers, which means his love for her is more fate than choice, and he’s never even seen her—just her ankles and the hem of her dress.

The Esk God swims through a series of rapids with ease. He reaches the wall of the Trevallyn Dam, which is more of an obstacle than the swirling currents. He hates the dam, so he passes through quickly because he knows his rage won’t stop the humans or their industries. On his way through, he nips the screws from a jet ski. Back in the river, he relaxes and swims on, snapping the neck of a trout whose species was introduced by humans. As he travels south, he hopes that today he’ll catch a glimpse of the Cloud God’s face. He notes that the influences of other gods—the Frost God’s dew on the grass beside the river, and the Bark God’s hides that fall from tree trunks into the river—are becoming overwhelmed by the taste and smell of iron.

The Esk God rolls over to see a goshawk descending as if to attack. Seconds before impact, the goshawk sees the Esk God’s white tail and golden belly and, recognizing him as a deity, swerves to avoid him. The Esk God climbs out of the river to sit on a taproot. He sees a yabby—a crustacean—on the opposite bank and dashes toward it. As he bites into its head, he feels the soil moving beneath him and finds that he’s been trapped in a cage by a “male pale ape.”

The Esk God resolves to wait until the man opens the cage to leap out and attack him, but as the man lifts him out, he finds that he’s unable to move. The man laughs, and the Esk God vows to kill him and then go after every one of his “tribe.” Suddenly, the man pierces him with a knife. The Esk God feels himself leaving his body and ebbing upward. He realizes he’s going to see his love, the Cloud God. Just before he sees her, he remembers the dream he had the night before. In the dream, he’d felt warm, and then he rolled over to see that the land and river were covered in walls of blue flames.