Lonely Oak Chapter 52
The night had been arduous at best. The forefront of the mighty war lay waste to the entire shoreline; but for one small bastion. And as the sun emerged from the layer of low clouds encircling the horizon, its golden light was reflected upon the...
Lonely Oak Chapter 51
It was still gray out. A sheet of clouds covered the sky, colored between violet and blue. It was damply quiet, the only sound the grunting of toads as they lumbered in the wet morning grass. Lyza sleepily walked down the hill. Her brother and she...
Lonely Oak Chapter 50
Ket lay on his sleeping bag with his arms folded behind his head, hands underneath his pillow. His foot tapped against the darkness, to the beat of the drums he heard not too far away. The partyers were much more festive tonight, probably because more...
Lonely Oak Chapter 49
"No! Matthew that's a grease-fire!" The instructor's words were far too late. The children were learning how to cook meat on a bowl-grill. No one was misbehaving or playing around, everyone was very careful. In fact, some were a little too...
Lonely Oak Chapter 47
The ocean receded, cleansing the shoreline of all impurities. All clam-holes, etches, lines, grooves, trudges, footprints, stick-scratches and dune-tracks erased with the ebbing, salt-foaming water. The sand was given a short respite, a moment of what...
Lonely Oak Chapter 45
The splash of sunlight was what roused her. It bathed her lids and made them glow like a red-hot ball of molten metal. She turned over, her slogged brain hoping to evade the terrible bright that threatened her sleep and disturbed her sensitive eyes....
Lonely Oak Chapter 44
At almost ten o'clock, one would think it would be night time. But at the beach, there was no such thing as night; there was only partying, and even though there was a lights-out at the campsites, the beach was afire with, well, fire. Tiki-style...
Lonely Oak Chapter 43
It was nearing sunset; the great fire in the sky an orange more ripe and round than any on the surface of the world. All around it the sky was turned to gold and the clouds turned to coal. Its gilded light swathed the earth, making the shadows long...
Lonely Oak Chapter 42
When Ket's mom suddenly showed up beside them, telling them they were getting a bit far away, they decided to take a break. Back on shore, they found out that they had actually been out for two and a half hours, and once they discovered that it...
Lonely Oak Chapter 41
A spider. Fat the size of a quarter, hanging idly by its silk in the dark, waiting. For what, who could ever know; there was not a way at all for any prey to come within the confines of the tent. It was just there, waiting, possibly for night, when it...
Lonely Oak Chapter 40
Ket was the first to finish changing. But then, that is sort of a given. When it came to getting ready for things, girls were usually slower. He would definitely get yelled at if he said that out loud, but it wasn't a mean thing to say, it was just...
Lonely Oak Chapter 39
The first thing Ket noticed was how thick the air was. As soon as he took his first breath he felt it not swelling in his lungs but saturating them; weighing his diaphragm and turning the exhalation into a laborious task. The sun was the second...