Last night’s ridgetop camp and the morning’s descent into the vale were now well at his back, as was a good part of a day’s walk farther into the unknown. Too much of the day. He had followed a stream that often pooled and stepped down into small waterfalls and sets of rapids meandering through t...
They dodged shrubs and jumped lichen-spotted rocks that punctuated the thin soil. Neck and neck, they raced down into gullies hosting sprays of summer wildflowers and shallow streams, and startled birds and hares that fed and sheltered as best they could in the windswept landscape. The boys, desp...