Heatstroke isn't exactly fun and and trust me it's pretty easy to get with minimal water and walking in those conditions. Although I do agree that common sense is of more use in that scenario.
"Inappropriate"? Sheesh, I was just talking about what kids can do when they have to, I wasn't comparing tit to tat. I think it's fine the Duchess is considering making the weather warmer. Yes, one does not want to have the kids magically never get frostbite. But the idea a 4 yr old can't walk along makes me think people are considering their own kids or the kids they are familiar with here in modern countries. But all over the world, very young children work in slave labor conditions. When you change the setting to an apocalyptic fiction, you can look further afield for examples of what 4 yr olds are truly capable of. Ghana child slavery Human trafficking in the US The point is not that these cases are similar. The point is 4-5 yr olds can indeed work all day if that is the world they've been born into.
I'm not saying a four year old cannot walk if you misinterpreted me. I merely meant that a four year old wouldn't get very far in a day even if they were walking all day. Especially if they have to climb mountains.
I've never done desert survival, so I don't know what's entailed. I assume they could carry water some how, otherwise it's a recovery operation.
I live in Australia and have done a little bush walking, nothing in the desert but I have had heatstroke and I know it isn't fun or easy to recover from. With no shade and little water, (and warm water doesn't help all that much) it is difficult to recover from. Think of children and animals dying in cars on hot days, people do die from it. I think that if there is shade or water it is common sense for someone to drink water or go to the shade if they feel like they are overheating.
I used to live in New Mexico, which is a much higher altitude desert, and have never had heat stroke by dint of always carrying lots of water whenever we went hiking. OFF TOPIC!! Generally I'd say Duchess that a 12 year old and a 4 year old traveling 200 miles over a mountain range in the dead of winter, with no survival training beyond that learned in a restaurant; does not merely stretch the bounds of credulity, it snaps them. Like a rubber band you were trying to fire at your friends face, that instead hits you right in the eye. You corneas scarred you stumble about the classroom in pain, your flailing arm tears off the teachers blouse and flings it out the window, all while the other children mock you. Just like that.
You can also think about your experiences at that age, and what you feel you would be capable of now, since you're not that much older than your character.
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Lol, I got heatstroke in Finland as a kid -- yeah it sucks! Just take up the atlas and check how freaking north this place is. This is Little Canada. So yeah, if you don't drink enough water and the sun shines hotly enough, don't have to be in Australia, even x) When it comes to crossing the mountains, Jack Asher brings up pretty good points relevant to this particular story (they aren't crossing a desert after all, or going bush walking in Australia), so it might serve Duchess's story to do some PMing with Mr. Asher... I'm quite positive these kids could do this, but it'd take a lot of luck and a long time. When stars are aligned just right, everything's possible. Many true stories strech the limits of believability after all, and in fiction we are given even more leeway. artistic license.
I think if done well it can be believable, as is the case with almost anything in writing. Should be fun to read, too.
