A Concise Compendium Of Wonder – Ceridwen Dovey

Should we let you go?’ The question is as pointed as the girl’s spear. Crann and I look at each other, but before we can answer: ‘We can’t trust them.’ ‘They’ll give us away.’ ‘Weak villagers.’ ‘Hungry mouths.’ ‘Anything for a meal.’ ‘They take and take.’ The voices weave another trap around us. ‘We won’t. We promise.’ I sound desperate and small. ‘We could stay,’ says Crann. ‘Learn your ways.’ He’s speaking only to the girl, but everyone falls silent. She leans forward. ‘Are you ready for that?’

Space between them like a taut rope. I can feel him being pulled away, out of reach. I cannot bear to lose anyone else. I scramble to my feet. ‘What about the guild, Crann? My learning?’ He scoffs. ‘You know they’ll never take me. And as for your stars … People like us, Ré, all we get is hunger.’ He shakes his head, and for a moment he looks much older. A grown adult. Realistic. Hard. ‘Crann,’ I say, stepping in front of him. ‘What about our father?’

Crann’s body finally loosens. ‘I know,’ he says. And to the circle: ‘My sister’s right. We are needed at home.’ The girl nods. ‘Will you swear an oath?’ ‘Anything.’ Bud thrusts a bunch of weeds into our hands. ‘You must swear by the forest.’ We clench our fists, and the weeds burn our palms. A stinging plant. We hold ourselves against the pain. Crann does not show it, but I shake and tears run down my cheeks. The boy waits for us to speak.

‘We swear by the forest. We’ll never give you away.’ The Mother gestures with a nod: enough. Ash takes my hand and blows on the redness. Within moments, the pain is gone completely. She touches my palm with a gentle finger, traces the way. ‘Follow the bone road into the woods. Keep the wolves on your left,’ she pulls at my thumb, ‘and stay with the oldest trees.

When you hear water, follow the stream to the pool. Then stone, then bramble.’ She turns my hand over. ‘Head for the sunrise, until you hear the little owl.’ She makes two notes that I know well. ‘Then you’re almost there.’ The burn has faded, searing the map into my skin. ‘We don’t know how to stop them,’ Crann says.

Kaurna Miyurna yaitya yarta-mathanya Wama Tarntanyaku, parnaku yailtya, parnaku tapa puru purruna. Kaurna Miyurna ithu yailtya purruna, yarta kuma puru martinthi, puru warri- apinthi, puru tangka martulayinthi. Pink Shorts Press acknowledges the Traditional Owners and their custodianship of the lands on which we operate. We pay our respects to their Ancestors and their descendants, who continue cultural and spiritual connections to Country.

Copyright © Slingsby, Ceridwen Dovey, Ursula Dubosarsky, Jennifer Mills 2026 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted. This book is copyright. Except for private study, research, criticism or reviews, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher. Material from Non Stop by Tomi Ungerer copyright © 2019 Diogenes Verlag AG Zürich, Switzerland. All rights reserved. Reproduced with kind permission of Diogenes Verlag.

Material from The Word for World Is Forest is reproduced by kind permission of The Ursula K Le Guin Literary Trust. Art by Lorelei Medcalf Brand elements by Akiko Chan Typeset in Herbik (Daniel Veneklaas) and Recollection Text (Vincent Chan and Dominic Hofstede) Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia.

ISBN 978 1 7638 4754 5 (pbk) ISBN 978 1 7638 4755 2 (epub) A recipe for contented contemplation: when the world has fallen dark, take one plump fig, halved and grilled. Slather it in goat’s curd, drizzle over wild honey and devour the whole. Lay on a hill with your hands resting on the smaller hill of your belly, stare up at the night sky, and enjoy the fervent osculation of the stars and your soul.

Contents The Tree of Light – Ceridwen Dovey v The Giant’s Garden – Ursula Dubosarsky 19 The Childhood of the World – Jennifer Mills 35 Director’s Note – Andy Packer 62 The Little Match Girl – Hans Christian Andersen (1846) 65 The Selfish Giant – Oscar Wilde (1888) 68 Hansel and Gretel – Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1857) 73 About the authors 82 I The Tree of Light – Ceridwen Dovey Birds, butterflies, and rats were gone. Grass and leaves had withered.

Flowers had turned into memories. Streets and buildings were deserted. Everyone had gone to the moon.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 09c6eeaab77e3929
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 3,332,016 bytes (3.178 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9781763847545, 9781763847552
• Pages: 140
• Language: English (en)

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• Estimated Reading Time: 114.3 minutes
• Total Words: 22,859
• Total Characters: 123,539
• Average Words per Page: 163.28
• Average Characters per Page: 882.42

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