Young Efen wakes up to find his house being eaten. Before long, it will be his turn.
In their mountain fastness, the Shunii despair.
What good is their subtle culture against such a predator?
fantasy story 8,000 words
When summer came again, so did our oppressors. After five years of these annual raids, we should have been expecting them, but we Shunii hope more blindly than most. The ten score burrows of our settlement are a jumbled maze, dug into the slopes of a high gorge. To clamber up and down the steep, narrow streets is the price we pay for an inconspicuous vantage point....
