Lord of the Valley (Len's Song, 2022 edition, Snippet 11)

A story fragment from the Dustsong Cycle

(Read Len’s Song, 2022 edition, Snippet 10.)

Several seven-days later—

Countless times, Len had dreamt what it would feel like to crest the final dune betwixt him and the wide, rolling river-valley. He knew the depth of his attachment to his home country. But his memory hadn’t accounted for the sheer scale of the northerly mountains he’d descended all those months ago.

Indeed, it had been over a year since last he’d laid eyes on the peaks. Even in the days afore he met Egwae, Len had spent his whole life roaming the slopes, not beneath them gazing up. From the high places, he hadn’t realized how magnificent the mountains were when viewed from the valley at their feet.

He appreciated the grandeur now. Snow gleamed upon the loftiest summits as if they lit the pathway to the heaven-realm. Mayhap they did, at that. After he’d dwelt so long in the arid wastes, the existence of snow strained belief more than the notion that Len might’ve grown up on the Wright’s threshold.