Here we are with Chapter Four of Shiver on the Sky.
And suddenly, according to some readers, the novel takes a plunge into thoroughly weird territory. Well…yes and no. Thing is, I gave several hints earlier. And somehow there are also readers who manage to get through this bit and then express surprise at some of the later supernatural elements.
Really?
Well, okay. Meanwhile, what can I say? It made sense to me to do it this way at the time. It still does. And other readers seem to have no trouble, so…all us monkeys is weird. Is what I say. Plus, this book is easily my most popular work so far, so I’m not going to worry about it too much.
Oh yeah: if you missed the beginning of this novel, here’s Chapter One. And you may notice I’ve moved the “Send to Kindle” to the top of pages & posts. A little thought may cause you to wonder why the heck I didn’t do that to start with. Beats me too.
On with the show:
Chapter Four
(Sometime—The People)
The People were restless. They were always restless, according to their larger, slower-moving Cousins. But this time they had a difficult choice to make, and had no time to wait for the wisdom of the Cousins.
The schooling Cold Ones were swirling, shifting for position. They were even more bad-tempered than usual, biting at each other, coming closer together.
The People’s memory didn’t go back as far as the Cousins’, but even they knew that when the Cold Ones gathered close in their dominance games it might mean they were about to lash out. All at once. Even the People kept their distance from that sort of threat.
Some of them had found a way to approach the Great Cold One and ask him to intervene, but of course he would not. He never had before, and he probably never would. Even so, some of the People liked playing with him, because he was irritable but had never actually harmed them. So they asked, even though he was not the sort of Cold One that swam in a school. It passed the time, and it was fun.
The People lived in tidal waters, and the Cousins swam out in the Deep. Still, the Cousins sang of greater tides, or Tides, that came and went in spans of time vaster than any the People could comprehend. The People listened to the Cousins, though at times they did not understand what they heard, because it made a good game.
Lately the Cousins had begun Singing that the time had come to repair what had been broken, that the People Above and the People Below would come together again.
The People hadn’t ventured Above into the dry world beyond for so long that they had almost forgotten they could. Many of the People had died Above their shimmering Sky, and the few who had survived had lost the Songs that made it possible to cross. Just recently, though, some of the younger ones among the People had begun to remember their ancient Songs…with the help of the Cousins.
But some of the Cold Ones were Above as well, which none of the People remembered having happened before, though they barely remembered going Above at all, so just maybe it was not a new thing after all. Still, if the People were killed and driven back Below before, possibly without Cold Ones about, what would happen now?
One of the People was already involved in Cold One business, and the rest were afraid. The People shivered in their fear, enjoying the thrill it gave them, and Sang for the Cousins even though they knew events Above would probably unfold before the Cousins could respond.
And they played, of course, defining themselves in their timeless way.
They did that.
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The first chapter of the book can be found here, and if you want to read the whole thing at once you can find buy-now links here.
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