About Lady Night, an Out of the Woods story

by Syd McGinley
24 pages / 6400 words
Ebook zipped file contains - html, lit, Adobe and Sony optimized pdf, prc, epub

On nights with big moons, Lady Night Boys look for life…

Wild boy Tarin is only telling a fireside story, but, like all his best intentions, it goes awry. He's survived this year's boy hunt, but now he must learn to protect the younger boys. Proud of his new role, he only meant to scare the boys a little bit with his stories of the undead boys from the maw, but now they're coming true. The hunger, cold, and wild dogs can be struggled against, but how will the woodland boys face a Lady Night Boy?

Sample

Something moved in the water, and Tarin became prey-Tarin. If a Lady Night Boy was there, it wouldn't see him if he was like a stone.

"Huh," said Tarin. "Live thing!"

He looked at the dead scaly thing, and back at the water. Another one hung there in the water and then flashed away. "Like bird in air," muttered Tarin. "Boys climb in trees. Boys stand in lake." He chewed his lip. He knew Lady Night Boys didn't live in trees, but water was different. He stuck his toe in. It wasn't like the creek. He splashed his foot a bit and then took it out. The bottom was suckgroundy, not rocky. Wrong, he decided.

He looked at the dead scale-bird and frowned. It stank, but all dead things did. Would the live one be tasty like air birds were?

His hand shot out without his thinking. He toppled. The water was in his nose. Hollering "Waugh!" and "Lady!" made it worse. He flailed and snorted water out as he thrashed through the suckground bank and onto the grass. "Hunter!" said Tarin wrestling the scale-bird in his arms. "Rock!" He banged the creature down hard on the rock and it stopped moving. "Hunter!" repeated Tarin proudly, and flipped his wet rope of hair over his shoulder.

He marched home. He was a protector already! He had new food and could tell the boys that your bones didn't burn if you left the woods in the wrong direction and there were no Lady Night Boys in the lake!