Excerpt: Dreamer

"But for the good of the grove, she must go and collect more memories. She could wander the woods for a while, but I think that her Dreams would benefit from interaction with her own kind. Actually, I think that you would best mature as a result of interaction with your own people," Oak said to me. "Do you not miss them?"
That stunned me. Flashes of Mother, Brother, and Father as I remembered them crossed my mind. The day-to-day work and games were joyful, but memories that I did not reflect on while Dreaming now surfaced as well: the look on Mother's face when I'd begun making my dolls dance with my mind; the time I'd told my Brother his favorite cow would sicken – and then it did; my father telling me to stay put on the sunny rock by the stream, turning his back on me, and walking away for the last time – leaving me alone in the woods. I still didn't understand the why of my family, and now that I was truly awake – that question had done it if the cold hadn't – I wasn't sure I wanted to return to those the Great Ones called my own kind.