Tremors: A Stone Braide Chronicles Story Read Online Free PDF

pods. She blinked through watering eyes, stripped a rawhide lace from the bottom of her leather vest, and tied a haphazard ponytail. There’d be no falling asleep today . . . no chaotic dreams, no visions of the past to blur her resolve.
    Her focus wandered to the beach as she fingered her favorite kapo. The throwing knife acted as a sort of touchstone . . . a feeling of security amid the present chaos.
    Sometimes she felt such anger . . . No matter. Tomorrow on her Birth Remembrance, she would attain the eighteenth year of life and her rights as an adult, which included hunting. Determination swelled in her. Maybe if she could prove her worth. She’d just hang around awhile, and if the opportunity arose . . .
    A smile pulled at the corner of her mouth. A rust-red rabbit lingered near the edge of the tender grass on the high side of the sandy beach. Twice she thought about impaling it, and twice it meandered behind one of the many ancient metal debris fields littering this section of beach. Why take out her anger on a helpless animal? Although it would make a delightful Remembrance meal.
    Still, she wasn’t here to catch rabbits. She hoped to catch a Lander. The odds of an arrival today, after what happened yesterday, were slim to none. Regardless of her father’s refusal to allow her in thehunt, she’d show them all. In her mind it was one last act of defiance before she was shipped off to her death sentence.
    A rustling sounded behind her. She turned to see her younger brother Dane wading through the waving sea of grass. Selah pressed her fingers against her lips and motioned to the nine-year-old. She pointed in the rabbit’s direction. Dane loved following her because she tolerated him, whereas her older brothers badgered and chased him. Selah felt she owed him a huge dose of gratitude. Until he came along, she’d been the youngest and suffered the same indignities.
    Dane grinned as he crept up beside her. “Mother said for you to come home right now!”
    Selah ignored the message and concentrated on distracting Dane from gleaning her original purpose.
    Crouching low, Dane used his stubby little fingers to part the curtain of grass and peeked through.
    “Rabbit!” He squealed and darted forward.
    Selah snatched the back of his leather tunic as his feet launched into empty air. Jerking him back from the abyss, she thudded him to the ground beside her. Fear pounded her chest as she tightened her embrace on him.
    “What were you thinking? You’d better thank Mother for stitching your vest so well it held when I grabbed you.” Selah’s arms shook as she thought about what could have happened. It would have killed her father to lose a son. “Do you realize you could have gotten killed pulling a stunt like that?”
    Dane looked at her wide-eyed, sucked in a huge breath, and scrunched up his eyebrows. “What did I do? I wanted to see the rabbit.”
    Selah reached out and parted the thick wall of grass. “Do you see this? How many times have I told you to tread lightly on this part of the beach?”
    Dane craned his head to look beyond her. His eyes widened as he stared into the deep pit obscured by the grass shield, one of the leftover vestiges of the destroyed city. “I didn’t know that was down there.”
    “That’s okay. You’ll learn.” Selah’s anger faded as she retrieved her dropped kapo and slid it into its pouch. Dane was still too young to be responsible. She was thankful for her fast reflexes.
    “You shouldn’t be catching rabbits,” Dane said. “I’m telling.”
    Selah sighed and attempted to hide a grin. His command of the language always included telling on one of them to their parents.
    Unlike most others in the Borough who ate from their farm stock of cows or wild deer, her father and brothers ate food mostly from the sea. But it was better to let Dane think she was trying to bag rabbits than to have him run home and tell Mother she was stalking Landers.
    “You’re supposed to