Why and how the Air Snake had managed to slide into the steam tank was not Ted's first concern. His first concern was smoking it right back out.
"Fill it with fire," he said.
"You're mad," Madorn hissed.
"YOU are Mad. I AM TED. FILL IT. WITH. FIRE."
None of that water business. Air was able to cool water, or to warm it, and push it around. Fire needed air, fire flourished in its presence.
The tank needed to be full of fire to get the Air Snake out.
They were close enough to the shore that they could afford to lose a steam tank.
"Are you disobeying me, Madorn?"
"Right, flame it up, boys!" the scientist yelled, obviously not very pleased.
The embers and the dry splinters of wood being pushed into the steam tank made a strange, rattling sound. Ted thought about rattlesnakes. Perhaps the Air Snake, too, had a jingly thing at the end of its tail that it could use to warn anything scarier than itself.
