Huanchaco

Franz smelled the fire before anyone saw the flames.

"Totora is burning there," he said.

On Huanchaco beach, the caballitos stood close together in the sand. Their long, curved tips reached into the evening sky. A big competition was due to start the next morning. Fishermen from several coastal towns had arrived.

Perusina turned around.

Between two Caballitos, a red dot glowed.

Then it hissed.

Flames shot from the dry reeds.

"Fire!" Perusino shouted.

The wind from the sea caught the sparks and flung them onto the next boats. Within seconds, three Caballitos were burning.

Behind the boats, a dark figure ran away.

"That was intentional!" Perusina exclaimed.

She grabbed an undamaged Caballito and pulled it across the sand. Perusino braced himself against a second. Franz bit into the tether of a third.

"Why are these things so heavy?" he grumbled with a full mouth.

"Because boats rarely have feet!" Perusino gasped.

Fishermen rushed over with buckets. But the wind was faster. A burning Caballito toppled over and rolled down the beach. Directly behind it began the Balsares, the moist fields where the Totora for new boats grew.

"If the fire gets in there, they'll lose the entire harvest!" Perusina cried out.

Perusino pushed an undamaged Caballito into the water.

"What are you going to do?"

"Get something wet!"

He threw himself onto the reed boat and paddled through the first wave. The second broke over him. For a moment, only his hair was visible. Then he reappeared, dragging a large fishing net behind him.

"I got something wet!" he sputtered. "Me!"

Perusina helped him throw the dripping net over a burning boat. The flames disappeared under the heavy fabric.

Franz sniffed the ground. Between the Caballitos, he found dark drops and three different footprints.

"The arsonists ran towards the Balsares!"

He chased after them.

Perusina and Perusino followed him along a narrow path between the Totora ponds. Tall stalks brushed against their faces. Ahead of them, wood cracked.

Three men stood on a jetty. One held a torch. The others pushed a bundle of dry totora to the edge of the field.

"No one from Huanchaco will compete tomorrow," one said.

"You set the boats on fire!" Perusina shouted.

The men spun around.

The man with the torch threw it into the bundle of totora. Flames immediately devoured the dry stalks.

Then the three ran off.

Perusina jumped onto the jetty and pushed the burning bundle into the water with a long pole. Steam billowed up. Perusino pulled the wet net over and threw it over the remaining flames.

Franz pursued the arsonists.

They jumped into a small motorboat. The engine roared. But one of the men hadn't untied the rope. The boat circled the post once and crashed its bow into the jetty.

"Again!" Franz shouted. "That looked funny!"

The man cut the rope. The boat shot off.

Franz jumped onto a Caballito lying at the edge of the Balsar.

"You can't drive that!" Perusino cried.

"I'll find out in a moment!"

Franz pushed off. The Caballito glided into a narrow water channel. He paddled with his front paws, spun in two circles, and then shot forward surprisingly fast.

Perusina and Perusino took a second Caballito. Together, they chased through the canals.

The arsonists' motorboat was faster, but also wider. Before a tight bend, its propellers got stuck in the totora. The engine shrieked. The boat was stuck.

The three men jumped into the shallow water and sank up to their knees in the mud.

By the time the fishermen arrived, the escape was over.

The men were from a neighboring village. Out of anger over an old dispute and fear of losing the competition, they had intended to destroy the Caballitos.

In the morning, enough boats still stood on the beach. Some were charred black, others only singed.

The fishermen decided to hold the competition anyway. Before the start, they placed three new Caballitos in the sand.

"For you," said an old boat builder.

Franz examined his reed boat. "Does this one have a brake?"

"No."

"Good," said Franz. "Then it can't break down, at least."

The first wave lifted the three Caballitos.

Perusina cried, "Go!"

Together, they plunged into the surf.