Free Into the Stone Land by Robert Stanek

Each made a splash-down entry, then rolled and smacked a tail against the surface.
    A breakfast of scatter bush seeds was all Tall could bring himself to eat before he started walking. Hazard kept pace with him on his right. Lucky, on his left. He was just about to ask himself where Lady was when the mare made an appearance. She was well ahead, near an outcropping of rock. Tall couldn’t help thinking what a sight they’d make if someone saw them. Then the danger occurred to him. The smoot had talked about outtrader villages. What if he encountered those of the Out instead? The ones who came to theft the wet and kill for trophies. He realized it was a glum thought, but the day was dark, and getting darker.
    The rain began as a downpour and only worsened as the hours passed. Hazard loved this. Lady and Lucky, less so.
    Tall stopped, near what he thought was midday. Sheltered under a big tree to get out of the rain, he ate scatter bush seeds, crushed light and dark root in a shallow rock bowl. He added some wild greens that grew nearby, after seeing Lucky and Lady feed on them. The greens had a white, fleshy root that he thought might be edible, too, and he collected some to sample later.
    Lunch over, he started out. The rains still beat down on everything. That evening, he came upon a stone pathway. It was the first sure sign he was headed in the right direction. Also the first sure sign danger was close. Rather than stop, he decided to keep going. His brood seemed to agree with the decision, as did the heavens, for the rains, which had been slowing, stopped.
    Hazard, who had been beside Tall all afternoon, disappeared into the grasses. Tall didn’t know where the big slither was going, but soon felt the connection between them stretch thin.
    He dug in his pack for a pod. Noting the dwindling number, he split it in half, and poured a few seeds into his mouth. The seeds helped, giving him a keener sense of Hazard and the land.
    The night was dark. If not for the moon that peaked out every now and again, he wouldn’t have been able to keep his way. Not that the stone path was difficult to follow—rather that he opted to walk in the fields alongside it. Somehow, traveling the unknown seemed safer that way. Whether it actually was, that was another matter.
    Hazard wasn’t the only one who wanted space. Lady and Lucky slipped off as well. That left only the hatchlings, sloshing around in the channel, for company.
    Separation made Tall think. All of us can’t stay together, he thought. But since the odds were against them anyway, he managed to ignore the thought.
    Besides, his thoughts were distracted by his latest idea about Ray and the smoot. Ray had always said his path was long. Talking with Ray about his dreams was what inspired Tall to draw pictures of mountains and wizards. No one in his village had even seen either, but Ray described them well enough for Tall to draw. It was a drawing of Ray climbing a mountain with the wizard towering over him that convinced the smoot it was time for Ray to begin his journey. If not for that, Ray would have been the last 12-winter boy to leave the village, and not the first. Was it fair, then, the guilt he felt? Keene’s death might as well have been his own, and yet he had to live, for Keene no longer could.
    But he was too exhausted to give it any more thought. His mind was getting a bit foggy from the seeds, and the warmth at his side told him Lucky had returned. The yearling liked to press his head against Tall’s shoulder. It gave them both a sense of security.
    He realized then how lonely he was feeling. How Lucky’s presence made him feel comfortable. Lucky’s gentle nudging also was guiding him back to the stone path. He didn’t realize this until the stones were under his feet. And being on the path ensured that he crossed the bridge into the village, rather than disappearing into the falling off that surrounded it.

Chapter 8: A