Shiny bounced across the desert, clutching to the big bald dog’s back. Each stomp of its enormous, stumpy feet kicked sand up, a cloud billowing behind them as she clung on for dear life. The beast’s grey-pink skin was so slippery she could barely hold on as its awkward gallop carried them across the desert at breakneck speeds.

In the distance, an Elsestorm was brewing. Lightning snapped across the sky. Where two bolts intersected and cut out a window of sky framed within the purple-white light, the desert’s dark blue fell away. It was replaced by flashes of sunset, or aquamarine and full of birds, or the deep white cloud-castles of some unknown land where it still rained.

The Elsestorm was a break in space. A twisting mass of knotted elsewheres that would suck you in and throw you up who knows where.

Shine-Catch used to dream of getting up high and closing her eyes and not opening them again until she was nowhere near here. But most people didn’t survive, because most of the time, you ended up with a bit of you here and a bit of you there.

Ahead was the familiar sight of the goblin-home. A cliffside riddled with little caves, and a bunch of rickety wooden platforms and bridges that stretched between them. She could see the glint of fading light reflecting off a telescope.

They were crowding out to see her as she galloped in on the strangest, fattest dog they’d ever seen. They were cheering.

“See that, baldie? Musta thought she was dead or somethin’ just cuz a big ol bird carried me off.” She said, and tried to hide her beaming grin at the sight of the whole tribe out for her.

As the baldie-dog thundered to a halt and she leapt down, Wild-Eye was coming out to meet her. The old grey bastard was all dressed up in his big cape of hyena skin and his armor made of curving bits of bone carved down into smooth, overlapping plates.

“Girl, you’ve got devil luck.” He said, nodding and snorting to wad up a big ball of spit that splattered the dust.

“An I got devil smarts too.” She was glowing, triumphant under the gaze of the tribe. Her people. “See I rode that damn ol’ bird all the way to a place where there’s so much water you could bury yourself innit, and the grass is green and softer than your bed.”

“I saw a ghost. I spoke to a god. An I tamed this beast to ride me home so I could tell ya aaaalll about it.”

The baldie-dog snorted as she swatted it on the rump. The gaze in its big, wet-dark eyes said not to do that again, and she shifted back uncomfortably from the prospect of getting kicked.

The crowd laughed.

And a freezing wave of indignation bristled up the back of her spine.

She looked up, searching their eyes. Faces she’d known since childhood. People who’d watched her grow. They were all laughing at her, turning their faces away as she gazed back at them, defiant. Her chin stuck up. Her heart hammering in her chest.

She had rode the roc! And the rest, the rest was barely exaggerating. She’d done more than they ever had or ever would!

And they were laughing. Wild-Eye turned his face away, although his weird glass eye still followed her, and he hid his smile behind the back of his hand. Little snickering laughs heaved up, and he snorted again, hitting the ground with another sticky wad of mucus.

“Well? Come on!” She felt the words burst out of her and she jabbed her finger out at the lot of them.

“What?” Wild-Eye croaked, still trying to hold himself back. Still watching her with his one strange eye.

“I’ve got the beast, don’t I? Howya explain that?” Her fist curled, her shoulders rising as the rest of her sunk. It was getting hard to breath through the weight of them looking at her, looking at her like a freak, and her face was burning.

“Eh. Girl. You have devil-luck, and we’re glad to have you back. There’s still some stew in the-”

“I don’t want your damn stew!” She exploded. She’d never been so angry. Always laughed at, always odd and strange and worth gawking at.

It was just. This time they were wrong. They’d always been right before, she’d always been crazy, but this time, this time-

“I ain’t lying! It all happened! And there’s enough water for everyone, and cool grass to lie on, and food we can eat!” It felt like she was drowning in her own anger and shame, and the words just poured out. “Getcha stuff! Come on with me! We don’t have to live like this anymore!”

When she stopped- and took long, heavy moments to suck in air, her whole body shaking- her gaze steadied.

Wild-Eye had both his eyes on her now, and he was angry. Angry like she’d never seen. If she had hot, bright, shamed anger, his was cold and twisted like his crooked hands. He clutched his spear and tilted his nose up. “Girl…”

“Don’t call me that!”

He swatted her across the face, and she stumbled back, landing against the big water-dog’s leg.

“Nobody’s going anywhere with you.” He said, curling the last syllable into a joking little lilt. The crowd hadn’t stopped laughing. They liked the bits where she got hit as much as the bits where she got mad.

She looked up at them. They looked away, tilting their faces, only half-hiding their smiles. They didn’t care if she saw, but pretending to have a little shame made them feel like they were being kind even as they had their fun.

“There’s a Elsestorm coming, girl. Anybody who tries to cross the desert will die. If you really want to take us to this magical little fairyland, maybe we’ll go when the storm lets up.” He was doing the same thing. Being fake-kind. “Come inside. Have some stew. You can tell us what really happened, and we’ll forget this…”

She caught sight of Bug-Eater, lingering near the back of the crowd. His face was blushed up with shame and he was gazing up at the sky.

Shame not because of what they were doing to her, but because she’d provoked them. Shame because his friends would tease him about her soon.

“Well, fuck that.” Her voice was crisp and sharp and almost dignified. She drew herself up. “I ain’t staying. You can sit her and huff yer own farts, I’m getting my stuff and leaving.”

Rage, raw and blinding, carried her like she was weightless. She elbowed through the crowd, pushing them aside, the world blurring as her head got so hot she could barely tell where she was going. Memory, the memory of walking through these caves a thousand times, led her to her own little den.

She grabbed her possessions, dropping them into a leather sack, and grabbed her second best spear. There was nothing else for her here. Just the way the tribe looked down at her, and always would.

Rage was turning to a violent, upsetting kind of sickness in her stomach as she stumbled back through the warrens, towards the main cave.

And came to a halt. Her way was blocked by a ring of the tribe’s warriors, the strongest. Bent-Helm, Twice-Nose. Bug-Eater stood with them, shifting from foot to foot, looking like he was half-sick himself.

Wild-Eye glared down at her.

“Girl.”

“I told you-” Her mouth swung open.

He punched her in the throat this time. The words stopped dead, and she felt like something inside her had collapsed. Pain rocked through her body as she hit her knees, gasping, choking out threads of spit. Seeing them from the legs down, Wild-Eye’s bare feet in her way.

She’d been hit before. But this was the first time he kicked her while she was down, the blow pounding into her gut.

“Girl. You’ll stay here, and to make sure you do-” He gestured, and Bent-Helm grabbed the leather satchel, flicking it up over his shoulder. “For your own good.”

Even now Wild-Eye talked like he was doing her a favor. “Bug-Eaters been talking about you, you know. Said he was going to make you his woman if you hadn’t gotten eaten by the roc. Seeing as you aren’t eaten after all, I’m going to hold him to that. You ain’t anyone’s first choice but I’m sure he’ll get over the embarrassment once you’ve given him a few kids.”

His voice jabbered and jabbered on above her, his voice seeming very distant. She pushed herself onto her knees and one hand.

“Really, if you just stopped doing stupid things, you could live a quiet life.”

She grabbed her spear and stood. The point swung towards his back. “I-” She coughed, blood coming up on her tongue. “I’m challenging you.”

The world froze. The expression on their face was worth it.

“To a duel.” She clarified, in case he didn’t get it.

Wild-Eye snorted, and turned back, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“That’s the last time you laugh at me, you old bag of shit.”

The smile fell off his face as he reached for his knife. The warriors came unfroze as he nodded, and spread into a ring around her. Shiny was burning, her whole body shaking with wild, inescapable rage.