Into the Stone Land by Robert Stanek

mouth. A thick, chalky film covered his lips and tongue. A heavy dried drool stuck to the side of his face. Sometimes when the adults celebrated too much with fermented nectar his father would complain of headaches and throbbing and dizziness. That was how he felt. His head ached and throbbed. The world spun and made him so dizzy he had to sit.
    Sitting, he crushed something wet and slimy that popped under his weight. That was when he noticed the thick carpet of dead suckers and buzzers all around him. Their bodies were bloated, heavy with blood—his blood.
    Vaguely, he recalled the smoot feeding him crushed scatter bush seeds. The seeds were poison, he knew that well enough. The poison in his blood must have killed the suckers and buzzers. But he suspected the seeds had some other property he didn’t understand.
    He groped for his pack. In one of the pockets he found what he was looking for and pulled out a handful of the long, green-blue pods. The seeds inside the pod were plentiful and small, about half as big as the nail on his little finger. He crushed one between his fingers and put it to his nose. The scent was overpowering, beyond horrid.
    As an experiment, he touched his tongue to the crushed seed. Almost immediately the spinning world slowed and the throbbing in his head eased. Taking this as a good sign, he ate the crushed seed. He had scarcely exhaled when the spinning stopped completely and all pain eased. He saw them then—the lines of white fire that shouldn’t exist connecting everything and all. The tethers told him where the hatchlings were, where the yearling and mare were, and more, so much more. The biggest surprise was a thick line leading away from the loch, for it seemingly pointed the way to where he must go next.
    Tugging his pack into place, Tall followed the ribbon of white fire. The hatchlings, the yearling, and the mare followed. He felt and saw them, but with his mind and not with his eyes. It was as if a door opened and he now walked through it into a new, interconnected world.
    And this world that existed behind his eyes spun with thoughts and images. There was one image he couldn’t shake as he made his way from house to house. It was the image of a girl with long, brown hair and a golden flower tucked behind her ear. With smiles in her eyes and lips that were thick and pouty, she was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. She did not know he existed, but he knew her. Her name came to his lips. “Ellie,” he whispered.
    â€œKeene’s gone on, the great fool took the long journey in my stead. However will I live? This guilt… I’m the boy who was supposed to die, not to live. And now I’m supposed to find Ray so he can save our people? Save our people from what? What do I know of anything? I couldn’t even prove myself properly. Choose a companion. One, not twelve. Return to the village a man, failed that. Win your circle, failed that too.”
    â€œWhy her?” Tall thought to himself. Of all the girls in the village, she was the only one who never paid him any attention. So why couldn’t he stop thinking about her? Their only real interaction happened years ago. She’d probably forgotten. But he hadn’t, and knew he never would.
    It was during a bad time. Her mother had journeyed on during the coldest winter anyone could remember. She was numb with loss and she’d go behind her father’s hut, break down, double over as her body racked with sobs. No one, Keene included, seemed to notice, but Tall did. He watched her cry and never said a word, until one day when he could watch no longer.
    Her father was a gatherer, and Keene was off with him that day beyond the cares of the village. Without a mother, Ellie became the family’s caretaker. Her duties of preparing, cooking and cleaning never ended. That day, he expected her to go back to her work. Only she didn’t. She didn’t do anything but sit in the mud