Hundreds of stories. Sometimes it was to prevent me from crying and revealing our hiding place in the darkness when the scavengers ranged too near, desperate whispers in my ear that helped keep me silent. More often, at the end of a long day, she told them to satisfy me when there was no food to fill my belly. I clung to her stories, even if they were of a world I didn’t know, a world of sparkling light and towers that reached to the sky, of kings and demigods who flew among the stars—and princesses. Her stories made me richer than a ruler in a great kingdom. Stories were the one thing she gave me that couldn’t be stolen, not even by a scavenger. Once upon a time child, Long, long ago, Seven stars were flung from the sky. One to shake the mountains, One to churn the seas, One to choke the air, And four to test the hearts of men. A thousand knives of light, Grew to an explosive rolling cloud, Like a hungry monster. Only a little princess found grace, A princess just like you.… Ama said the storm lasted for three years.
